No good, start the dance

Clever rip off from Prodigy, right? Well they might have had something else in mind, but I'm referring to fighting in hockey. There's a topic that always stirs up some discussion.

For some reason, somewhere along the history of the sport, fights have emerged as a part of the game. This is mostly in NHL however, other leagues and international play have much less of fighting. Partly due to heavier penalties and partly to the less physical style of play.

It's actually somewhat weird that it's become such integrated part of hockey. There's practically no fighting in other physical team sports. And if you really stop to think about it, it's pretty weird to have guys bashing each others faces, slipping on their skates and wearing all sorts of cumbersome padding to make the act even trickier.

However, it's an everyday comment in the post game articles that someone started a fight when the team was out of focus in the game to lift the spirits. And the fight is even often given the credit on changing the course of the game. Well, attitude and motivation have big impact on the game of otherwise very marginal differences.

Anyway, it seems that most teams have at least one player in their rosters who's expected to drop gloves on request and otherwise stay out of the way in the game of hockey. These guys fight their counterparts on the other teams, and the unwritten code of ethics says that the professional pugilists don't engage the actual hockey players. Sometimes the game gets so heated that the amateurs join the fights between themselves too. Resulting often in minor cuts to face and missing weeks of action with knuckles broken on hits to the helmet or something similarly stupid.

I wonder how these fighters eventually end up on the game? When the kids are playing on the junior games, is there someone taking notes on exceptional aggression and tendency to get into fights? Then with years of training through different levels of hockey, these guys crack it into the NHL and create a career with 1.000 games, 1 goal, 3 assists and 2800 penalty minutes? Or are these the eternal prospects, who just never cash in and are then given the option to stay as the "team mascot" or start thinking about going back to school for another profession?

Anyway, fighting in hockey is a complicated issue. It sure doesn't provide a good example for the young audience on solving matters. On the other hand it does bring a sort of a looming threat of getting ones ass kicked if the game's gentlemanly rules are not obeyed. Maybe it keeps the stick swinging and dirty checking in control, maybe not. My guess is that we'll find out in the coming seasons with some sort of zero tolerance experiment with fighting in NHL. Remains to be seen..

I'll end this post with couple of fellow Finns in the action. These are somewhat odd clips of the topic, but definitely interesting. The first one is Ville Peltonen having a retaliatory fight with the mammoth, Evgeny Artyuchin. This time David pretty much gets bashed by Goliath. Hats off to Ville for the courage though, the guy is some 50kg heavier and a foot taller.

The second one is our own pest Jarkko Ruutu ending the fight with Dion Phaneuf before it begins. Sometimes insult beats injury, big time. Enjoy!