Why is Fighting allowed and encouraged in Hockey, while in other Major sports fighting is frowned upon?

Question

In other sports, you fight, you are done for the rest of the game. In Hockey, you get a few minutes in a box, then are allowed to return to the ice and continue your assualt, on the other player.

Answer 1

While fighting has always been a part of the North American culture of the game (mostly that means Canadian, though also true with the Americans who have played the game for decades), the fact that it has been almost non-existent in the European game proves that fighting can be kept out of hockey.

It is not encouraged, though it is tolerated within the NHL. Why? Because every time there is a fight (which is far from every game these days) the whole crowd stands up and cheers. This is true whether the game is played in Toronto or Dallas or anywhere in between.

I have to laugh at all the comments that suggest that fighting is necessary otherwise the sport would be boring, "just a bunch of men skating around hitting a puck". Of course, that kind of dismissive description can be applied to any sport: baseball - just a bunch of men standing around swinging at a ball; football - just a bunch of men running around throwing a funny looking ball; basketball - just a bunch of men running around tossing a ball into a net.

What these description leave out for each sport is the skill needed to perform the task. In baseball, the hand-eye co-ordination and physical power needed to pick out a 90 mph fastball and crank it over the left field wall. In football the skill and power needed to evade the covering man, leap in the air and make a one-handed stab at the ball, twist and land, avoid the tackle and run full out for the end zone. In basketball the endurance and strategy needed to run constantly, striving for every inch of court, to set up the slam dunk or the pretty layup or the bullseye three-pointer.

Most demanding of all, the skills (for there are many) needed to skate at 50 mph, cutting wide around a hulking defender with the wingspan of an albatross, cradling a wobbling puck on your stick held in one hand, out from the body to avoid the defender's poke check, and quickly shift to the backhand and pop the puck over the sprawling goaltender.

The problem for many Americans who are not used to the sport is that hockey moves too fast for them. They can't follow the tiny puck at those speeds (thus the infamous Fox 'blue streak' effect) and they don't know the rules. So it just looks like a bunch of guys moving around in meaningless formations to them. Nevermind that the skating, the manipulation of the puck with a stick, the passing, deking, shooting, shot blocking etc. are all extremely demanding skills so alien to their experience that they just cannot appreciate them.

This in no way diminishes the greatness of the sport. Sure, the NHL might fret over all the revenue they could earn if only cities like Los Angeles would become puckheads en masse. But I couldn't care less if the fat cats that run the league make a buck or not. If Americans don't get hockey and can't learn to love it, well that's their loss, not mine or hockey's.

Drop the puck, game on!

Answer 2

It's no more allowed than slashing, hooking, holding, etc. Fighting is a penalty and usually a five-minute major. It's not encouraged anymore. The '70s were 3 decades ago. It's actually discouraged a lot. There are more brawls in baseball now really.

In other sports like soccer there is also no action. So I'll take the odd fight and loads of hits, shots and goals over a rule saying "fight and you're out." Anyway, in the playoffs there are very few fights at all anymore.

In int'l hockey there is virtually none. Plus the rules are fight and you're tossed as Euroweenies like.

Anyway, fights are great. You never see people up booing. they are all on their feet cheering. It's not like the '70s where brawls were in their heyday and it was a joke. Fighting majors are way way down. There are hardly any fights anymore.

By the way, if you have a fight and come back and fight again as you suggest, you get tossed. That's a game misconduct.



Anyway, most fans love the odd scrap so what's it to you.

Answer 3

Fighting has always been part of hockey. Basically the philosophy in hockey is that players police themselves. So essentially when you have one player going around taking cheap shots or acting like an a$$, they are gonna have to answer to a teams enforcer. Players like Terrel Owens, Roger Clemens and well most of the NBA don't really exist in hockey (the closest might be Sean Avery) because when you act in the manner they do, you're gonna have to back it up. It's an old school mentality that I personally appreciate. I have no respect for the prima donna stars who constantly run their mouth (regardless of the sport) or play cheap. They don't know the meaning of honor or sportsmanship!!!

Fighting is allowed but absolutely NOT encouraged. For anyone to say different would be a sure sign of ignorance which judging by some of the answers so far there is plenty of that to go around. Fighting is very much regulated. It is a part of the sport and thus has rules that govern it. When you see a fight in baseball it's an out of control bench brawl. You never see clearing of the benches in hockey. In fact if you leave the bench it's an automatic ejection and likely suspension even if you didn't throw a single punch. Hockey is mono e mono, each man stands up for his own actions, they don't hide behind the flurry of kicks and haymakers of an entire team.

As for your "few minutes in the box and then are allowed to return to the ice and continue your assault" comment, you obviously don't even watch hockey. Rarely does a player ever fight twice, %90 of the time when it's over, it's over. If you instigate again you may be rejected regardless of reason and you'll most certainly put your team down a man which could cost the game.

As for those who like to minimize the game...duh...you can do that with any sport!! Who wants to watch someone take a pointy oval shaped pigskin across a 100yds of grass each Sunday? Who wants to watch someone try to hit a leather ball with a stick over a fence? What's so entertaining about hitting a small dimpled ball with a crooked stick while wearing plad pants? If you want to make any sport sound stupid it's not a difficult task!!!

Look for those of you who don't like hockey, that is fine but please don't go around spreading ignorant views on a topic you obviously know nothing about!

Answer 4

Hockey is a game of physicality. Fighting has always been apart of the game. wo enforcers will sometimes pick a fight, to increase the morale of their team, or to increase the fans excitement. Fighting in hocky, is purely consential betwen two players. There are even rules in the fight. The referees have to stop the fight after someone falls, and they will also stop the fight when they feel it has gone on long enough. Fighting can be pivotal in the game of hockey. Enforcers use it also to protect their star players, who can abused by players who play dirty. Roughing, is where a player unecessarily roughs up another player, or does not receive an answer to his challenge. The violence is controlled. It is as any sport, as boxing, or MMA.

Answer 5

What fun would it be to watch a bunch of grown men skate around on ice and smack a disc around? The fighting is to keep it interesting and then you can call it a puck because that sounds better than a disc. I am sure if they were out there spinning and dancing on the ice no one would care. Also because tough people play tough sports. Hockey is probably only second to Rugby in being tough

Answer 6

I'll tell ya'.

It started back when hockey was young... early 20th century (goddamn, that makes me feel old). There have been refs since the late 19th century (that's the 1800s for you century-impared folk out there), and when you get bodies flying @ 15-25 mph at each other, fights are gonna start.

Refs tried to break these guys up, guys who had a 15-pound-or-more advantage (due to equipment weight, size, whatever) over refs.

Refs started getting beaten up.

The referee protocol that you see alive and well in the NHL today has been consistent: Let the boys fight until they fall onto the ice, thereby limiting any chance of an injury to the ref.

Answer 7

Bc hockey is different. You have people pushing on your teamates and being rough. You dont have that in other sports. I know football u tackle. But you are supposed to do that. Thats part of the play. Hockey is a temperment sport. You need to stick up for your team. And fighting is the way to do it.

Answer 8

There is a lot of constant physicallity in hockey sometimes players just need a chance to get it out and get their team and crowd going. It's part team unity and part momentum. If they didn't allow fighting all the tension would just build up and someone would get Bertuzzied or McSorleyed.

Answer 9

Hockey needs the extra excitement.
Heck the reason they bring their sticks and a puck to the arena is in case a hockey game breaks out.

Answer 10

Fighting was way down since the new rules elimenated alot of goons. Not all but alot. I am not a big fights guy myself but alot of times you need a guy on your team to fight someone to get your team going. Just watching a fight gets your adrenaline going and the crowd gets intio it. Fighting can completely swing momentum in your teams favor even if you lose the fight.