An Opportunity Lost
There has been remarkably little backlash against the hockey culture in the wake of the tragic death of Don Sanderson. I don’t think the story received much coverage in the United States at all, and while most Canadian hockey writers chimed in on the issue, calls for change did not exactly resound through the media. The Globe has kept the issue alive, but even there, calls to ban fighting in hockey have been whispered, not shouted.
I think this is partly because those who oppose fighting are reluctant to use a tragedy to advance their opinion. It is partly because reporters know that the timing is all wrong. The league is facing significant economic issues and won’t take any action that might depress sales in the short run. Gary Bettman doesn’t have the credibility among fans to lead on the issue. And it is partly because Don Sanderson was not a New York Ranger and fans did not watch him get killed a thousand times in a thousand replays.
The Globe quotes University of Alberta professor Stacy Lorenz, a man who has done extensive research into fighting in hockey:
“Ultimately, [putting fans in the seats] might be the rationale, but no one is really willing to really say that. If ultimately the NHL decides that fighting is entertaining and it’s part of its entertainment package, well, then we could debate it at that level. Instead, there’s this complicated set of rules and this code that has made fighting essential. And I just don’t think it’s persuasive.”
People are prepared to explicitly say that fighting is part of NHL hockey because it is part of the entertainment package. Mike Milbury says it today and Commissioner Clarence Campbell said it under oath more than 30 years ago. At the end of the day, it is also Don Cherry’s argument.
The entire “Its an essential part of hockey” argument was demolished by the international experience decades ago. Even if this was not the case, the idea that players should be responsible for holding each other accountable is absurd on the face of it. That is the role of the officials and the league. Vigilante justice has no place in our society, on or off the ice.
The real argument does come down to the entertainment value of fighting. I’d ban fighting because I don’t particularly find it entertaining. I do like to watch Mathias Ohlund smoke Eric Cole in the open ice. I don’t like to watch Sheldon Souray hit Ohlund in the face with his fist for making a good check.
Fighting is dangerous, it isn’t very entertaining, and allowing it damages the credibility of the officials and the league. The Canucks lead the NHL in fights and the more of them I see, the less of them I like. I’m tired of the fighting and I’m tired of the arguments about fighting.
I expect that I’ll stay tired of it until the NHL has a tragedy that plays a thousand times on CNN. At that point, I think a lot of people – including those in NHL offices – will join me and regret the Don Sanderson tragedy as both an unnecessary death and an opportunity lost.
I think another reason why it didn’t get more coverage (at least in the sense that fights need to be banned) is that it seems that there had to be about a million fights at all levels to produce one tragic death (yeah, my estimate’s way off). It’s tough to point to the anomalous death and say, “I told you so,” while in roughly 100% of fights, nobody dies.
I dunno — I still like fighting on a lot of levels, mostly because I know it is something that I could never really do (I can’t even really skate). People seem willing participants and observers, and that seems enough of a reason for its existence for me.
I do like to watch Mathias Ohlund smoke Eric Cole in the open ice. I don’t like to watch Sheldon Souray hit Ohlund in the face with his fist for making a good check.
I suppose it furthers your argument to bring up one of the worst, most laughable fights, but if we really want to talk about banning fighting, you should bring up the really good fights, ones that people do enjoy. We can’t just ban the regrettable ones (I don’t think).
It’s tough to point to the anomalous death and say, “I told you so,” while in roughly 100% of fights, nobody dies.
It’s not tough to point to that netting above the glass, though.
I dunno — I still like fighting on a lot of levels, mostly because I know it is something that I could never really do (I can’t even really skate). People seem willing participants and observers, and that seems enough of a reason for its existence for me.
I don’t have the skills to train a dog to become aggressive and fight another dog. Dogs that fight seem like willing participants. This argument makes no sense to me. This year, more than any other year, I’ve actually enjoyed watching fights at times. But I also enjoy doing a whole slew of things that are unhealthy, dumb, or just plain wrong. Mere enjoyment is not a justification for conduct.
I do like to watch Mathias Ohlund smoke Eric Cole in the open ice. I don’t like to watch Sheldon Souray hit Ohlund in the face with his fist for making a good check.
So true.
One day, an NHL game will feature two 6-4, 240 pound adults grappling and throwing vicious haymakers at one another, one will get take one to the jaw, lose balance, the other will fall on him, head driven to the ice, and a serious skull fracture and brain injury will result. The events will be replayed countless times on glorious HD, and tons of people, many who have watched a handful of hockey games in their life, will chime in on the horrors/joys of fighting. Fighting will be banned from the NHL. It’s hard to believe some people think this day isn’t coming, whether it’s tomorrow or in 15 years. Whenever it comes, it’s not going to be very pretty. But I hope this day comes sooner rather than later.
What’s going to be great is if this happens in the KHL first (where fights are up and where the linesman have NO idea how the hell to break up a fight) and it will give the almighty, jingoistic North American media more ammo to decry the operating plan of the KHL and proclaim the mightiness of the NHL.
One day, an NHL game will feature two 6-4, 240 pound adults grappling and throwing vicious haymakers at one another, one will get take one to the jaw, lose balance, the other will fall on him, head driven to the ice, and a serious skull fracture and brain injury will result.
Time for tighter helmets, I suppose. I suspect there will probably be a brain injury on the ice in the next fifteen years that has nothing at all to do with a fight.
Incidentally, I don’t really have any issue with dog fighting, either. It’s not my cup of tea, but there are enough dogs on this planet that I won’t raise a fuss.
I suspect there will probably be a brain injury on the ice in the next fifteen years that has nothing at all to do with a fight.
Which is why vicious hits to the head should be regulated out. (And it’s the league’s job to perform this duty). That said, conduct A that may lead to event X should not necessarily be treated that same way as conducts B-Z that may also lead to event X. There’s a difference between eliminating checking after Travis Roy is paralyzed and eliminating fighting after Boogard kills someone. Well, people get in car accidents all the time sober, we shouldn’t stop people from driving drunk. And so on.
Incidentally, I don’t really have any issue with dog fighting, either. It’s not my cup of tea, but there are enough dogs on this planet that I won’t raise a fuss.
Well, let’s just let MMA fighters fight to the death. There are certainly enough people on this god forsaken planet that they won’t be missed. Actually, this is a poor analogy in that humans beings agreeing to engage in conduct are being deprived of their liberty to a far lesser extent than an animal that is trained/forced to engage in conduct is. Good god, man.
Am I going to be the guy that always brings up dog fighting. Cuz I don’t want to be that guy.
Incidentally, I don’t really have any issue with dog fighting, either.
Or better yet, would you have an issue with my kidnapping your parents/children, confining them, training them to attack, and then forcing them to fight one another until the death while me and my friends placed bets? It has nothing to do with the quantity of dogs on the planet, the only way to justify your position, as I see it, is to say that dogs or animals do not deserve any rights of self-determination (or any rights at all) and humans have the ability to do with them what we please in all contexts and for whatever purpose. And no one wants to say something as awful as that. The idea that the quantity of dogs on the planet has anything to do with it is frighteningly absurd. Either animals have certain rights or they don’t. Same goes for us humans.
Am I going to be the guy that always brings up dog fighting. Cuz I don’t want to be that guy.
D’oh.
Well, I just thinks dogs get off easily in general. The main difference between dogs and cows is that dogs are cute and obedient and cows are tasty when cooked.
Let’s give cows some self-determination, then.
The main difference between dogs and cows is that dogs are cute and obedient and cows are tasty when cooked.
That is a pretty important distinction. Why would you seemingly laugh it off?
Food, entertainment — these are both types of utility to me. If we can justify growing cows to kill them for food, I think we can justify growing dogs to kill them for sport.
I’m not actually sure that we can “justify” either, but so long as humanity seems content going down one path, I don’t see a huge stretch to go down the other. It’s just feel-better-about-ourselves technicalities at that point, IMO.
Apologies, Tom, that this got so off-topic.
It’s worth noting that Don Sanderson was the first on ice death in hockey in Canada since 1972, and only the second in North America since the death of Bill Masterton in 1968. I think it is also worth noting that fighting was already banned in the League in which he was playing – both players were subject to a Game Misconduct. While the Quebec Senior League is a Slapshot type Gong Show, the Ontario Senior League in which Whitby plays makes a conscious effort to play it straight.
To me, this incident is very much about proper equipment — too many guys in the pros and in men’s leagues wear helmets that are too big, with chinstraps dangling down to their chest. Tight helmets are “too hot and uncomfortable”, we are told — ditto for tight chinstraps. Making sure that helmets are fitted properly should be a priority in every league — it has always shocked me that the NHLPA has taken such a laissez-faire attitude towards the safety of their own members on issues like this.
Oh come on. Fighting is like the 100th most dangerous thing a NHL player does in a game. I’d much rather have Sheldon Souray fighting Ohlund than taking a run at him and driving his head against the boards or something.
If player safety is really the main issue here, then you’re gonna have to ban like 50 other things before you ban fighting.
I’d much rather have Sheldon Souray fighting Ohlund than taking a run at him and driving his head against the boards or something.
I think this is a false choice. If Souray did choose to run Ohlund and drive his head into the boards, the refs should penalize him and the league suspend him.
If player safety is really the main issue here, then you’re gonna have to ban like 50 other things before you ban fighting.
Player safety is not the issue even though it creates unecessary danger. I’m confident fighting will eventually be banned after some ugly incident with good video. Even then it will happen not for safety reasons but because the owners think the gratuitous violence is turning more people off the game than on the game.
I don’t like fighting because fights are boring and they interrupt the game. I like hockey better without them. I think the game is better if the players play and the officials police.
I think this is a false choice.
I don’t think it is. Players are going to get their revenge one way or another. If they can’t do it by fighting then they’ll do it in other ways. Steve Moore was repeatedly challenged to fight on the night of the incident. If he’d actually done so then things probably wouldn’t have unfolded they they did.
Compare that with the Nashville game. There were all these threats and bad blood going in, but Burrows ends up fighting whoever it was 3 seconds after a face-off, everybody’s demons are exercised, and the rest of the game goes on without incident.
Like it or not, more fights means less heads driven into the boards, plain and simple. And don’t tell me that the answer is to just suspend/fine players for driving other players’ heads into the boards. The league already does that, but that kind of incident still happerns regularly. Without fighting it would happern a lot more often.
I don’t think it is. Players are going to get their revenge one way or another.
Why is this a given? Most players don’t fight and most players don’t take any revenge.
If they can’t do it by fighting then they’ll do it in other ways. Steve Moore was repeatedly challenged to fight on the night of the incident. If he’d actually done so then things probably wouldn’t have unfolded they they did.
Moore did fight Cooke on the night of the incident. It didn’t change a thing.
Like it or not, more fights means less heads driven into the boards, plain and simple.
Is there more of this kind of stuff in the NCAA or in Junior? Is there more vicious play in an international tournament or in the NHL? I don’t think there is a sciontilla of evidence supporting this position.