Argumentative Essay: Fighting In The NHL

Hockey has always been known to be a physical sport; it is full of body checks, hits from behind, sometimes the misuse of the hockey stick, and even fights. Now all off these are deemed acceptable by hockey fans to a certain extent. When a player swings his stick at another player and an injury occurs to the opposing man the instigator can usually expect to be penalized for a short amount of time, maybe even a suspension from the team for a few games. But when does this violent act on the ice become a criminal offence? Does it take for the recipient to break his neck, or maybe even loose his vision for us to take a serious look at what happened and realize that this is not what we are looking to watch when we sit down to watch a game.

It is also perhaps the most important part of the sport. NFL, MLB and NBA are always going to be #1, #2, and #3 in America. One of the few ways hockey players can differentiate themselves from other professional athletes is by the physicality in their game says thesportster.com. (Andrew Maggio) The physical aspect of hockey still needs to be policed. To put it another way, enforcers are a backup regulation system to the referees. It is important to realize the enforcer’s role is to prevent injuries, not cause them. Thesportster.com also states the alternative to allowing fighting in professional hockey is even more vicious than the fighting itself. (Andrew Maggio). The most vulnerable players on the ice are often the goal scorers. As a result, skilled players feel protected and can do their job of scoring goals more effectively when fighting is allowed within reason. Under these circumstances, skilled players have room to move and perform to the best of their ability because their opponents are afraid of the consequence of taking a cheap shot. “The simple reason fighting takes place in the NHL is to create space for the offence” says Darren Pang, a former NHL goaltender, when interviewed for the book: The Code. (Pang) While some may consider fighting in the NHL barbaric, one could argue it has a place on the simple statistical fact that players had less concussions and major

What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of hockey? The Stanley cup? The average amount of goals scored in a game? No, Most people think of fighting. Two people going at it, trying to kill each other while on ice. There is a lot of controversy if this should stay in the game. I think fighting should be allowed in the National Hockey League (NHL). Some of the reason why fighting should be allowed in the National Hockey League are fighting could prevent other injuries.Fighting is also used to protect amazing players that give a team an advantage. It gives other people who are tough a job and a chance in the NHL.

There are similar expressions used like “roughing and slashing”. Canadians love fighting too. Winnings and losing is important in both hockey and cock-fighting. Winners celebrate, losers are depressed. Hockey brings Canadians together.

As population continually increases in the Southern states, the NHL is moving teams into large Southern cities. In an effort to increase profits and popularity, the NHL has increased the number of teams in the league and moved into Southern cities that have never had hockey teams before. The problem is that hockey is not as popular in the South as it is in the North. This expansion in the South has lead to huge monetary losses to Southern teams and very low attendance numbers. The NHL should not have expanded the league into Southern cities and should keep NHL teams farther North.

It is not clear if on-field violent behavior leads to off-field violence. It would be somewhat logical to assume that people who become accustomed to using physical intimidation and violence in sport naturally revert to those behaviors when facing conflict outside of sport. However, sport may not be the cause of violence, but rather a result of the athletes’ upbringing or natural disposition, which led them to choose a violent sport to begin with. Drug and alcohol use should also be noted, since they and not sport may be the cause of violence. Alcohol consumption and binge drinking add to the problem of

However, as with most violent actions, fighting in hockey does not come without its opposition. Many people argue that the sport promotes violence through the use of fighting which can then encourage youths to engage in fighting. And since hockey is the only sports that allows players involved in a fight to return to the game provides a greater argument for disallowing fighting in hockey.

Fighting has been a part of the NHL since 1922 and it has had a huge impact on the game of hockey and the sport wouldn't be the same without it. There are a lot of injuries involved with fighting but if fighting wasn’t in pro hockey then there would probably be a lot more injuries. Some players would be more chippy and run at people and get away with it without facing the consequences for it. Fighting also has a key part in motivating a team if they aren’t playing well.

Of course the biggest reason for the idea of banning fighting in hockey is for player safety and trying to minimize potentially severe injuries. Players of the sport know what their getting into when they take the ice night in and night out. Players take on full responsibility and many believe it needs to be in hockey as it has always been

Pro-Con: No Stopping all contact sport would be a dumb idea because we humans like taking risk from time to time in your life. But we can make such sports safer and have less chance

However, when looking specifically at the economic value that violence is an attribute of the product intentionally promoted by leagues and teams to increase attendance and profits. The underlying assumption is that fans have a taste for violence, and violence attracts larger crowds, larger crowds increase revenue, which, given costs, increases profits. This hypothesis is compatible with the response of successive NHL presidents when the question of violence is raised: that the league is in the "entertainment business" and therefore has to put on a "spectacle." It is also consistent with the act of paying players a premium to fight and the statistical finding that violence and NHL attendance are positively correlated. While it is quite clear that violence was widespread in hockey before and during the early years of the NHL, when it was strictly a Canadian game, as some of the classic NHL brawls have taken place in Canada between Canadian teams, and the largest NHL fan riot occurred in Montreal.

NHL Hockey and Olympic hockey are very different due to each league having their own style of play. In Olympic hockey Fighting is frowned upon, those who fight receive a penalty match, and will be ejected from the game. In the NHL fighting, is what most fans come to watch fighting allowed and after the fight is over all players involved in the scuffle will be penalized and put into the penalty box? The penalty box is where players have to sit after a fight and other behavior infractions for a certain amount of time.

There are about 6.4 knockouts for every 100 fights, which is compared to 4.9 concussions in boxing, 2.2 concussions in hockey and 8.08 concussions in football for every 100

Ice hockey has in the last hundred years evolved to become international. Canada is in jeopardy of losing its six teams. Tradition run deep in all of the cities and also professional hockey teams create thousands of jobs and help out in the communities. Teams in the Canadian market are having trouble keeping their programs in the black because of higher taxes and a weaker Canadian dollar. In order for professional hockey teams in Canada not to relocate to United States, it is necessary for Ottawa to provide tax cuts for them.

“Penalty” calls on the other hand, calls for more serious infractions, like putting the player “in the box”, and creating power plays for example. The 2004–05 lockouts of the NHL (lasting 310 days, this was originally the 88th season of the NHL) changed some rules of the league with the offense. It started with the minor offense: “offside”. The offside pass or two-line pass rule was removed; requiring a stoppage in play if a pass originating from the defensive team was completed on the offensive side of the center line. Reinstating the tag-up offside, this advantage allows an attacking player to get back onside by returning to the neutral zone. Changes to the offside rule were intended to increase overall scoring. Another minor offense is the icing call. A linesman gets stopped in play if a defending player (other than the goalie himself) touches the puck before an attacking player does. As a result, when a team is called on the offense of icing, they are not allowed to make a line change before the following faceoff. Fighting (doesn’t happen often), is called in penalties as well, both players have the duration of five minutes. Usually, a penalized team cannot replace a player that is penalized on the ice shorthanded for the duration of the penalty. But, if the penalties are coincidental, when two players fight for example, both teams remain at full strength. Unlike minor penalties, major penalties must be