Hockey without fighting is like making love without foreplay. There are many reasons to fight during a hockey game. Some reasons are related to game play, such as retaliation, momentum-building, intimidation, deterrence, attempting to draw “reaction penalties”, and protecting star players. There are also some personal reasons such as retribution for past incidents, bad blood between players, and simple job security for enforcers. NHL fights are governed by a complex system of unwritten rules that players, coaches, officials agree upon. This is also known as “the code”. These fights are also a subject to a fighting etiquette. Most of the NHL fights involve designated team fighters that are also known as enforcers, goons, scrappers, and or puglisters. I have a great deal of respect for Eric Godard, current Pens enforcer.
Its not a rare occurrence in the NHL for the enforcers to keep their head down during national anthem. For enforcers that could mean only one thing … getting ready to fight. Here is a video of Eric Godard during American National Anthem in Toronto:
I don’t think it was a coincidence that camera focused on Eric Godard to get this shot. Some fights in NHL are spontaneous, while others are premeditated. Eric Godard, head down, nervous twitching, eyes closed, ready to go, ready to battle, ready to do his part of the game. Sure enough 2 minutes into the game Eric Godard and Colton Ore drop the gloves. Here is a video:
In the beginning of the video you can see Richard Wallin gets kicked out of the faceoff circle. He goes over to Colton Ore to replace him, however, Ore already has a date and kindly declines. Richard is forced to seek another team mates help. Puck drops and so do the gloves. Why are they fighting? They are fighting to ignite a spark, to build game momentum, to excite players and the crowd. They are fighting because its their job as an enforcer. Hockey is a sport and a show business. Its insane that NHL would want to eliminate these kinds of premeditated fights.
Opposed to what some might believe dropping gloves during fights is not an optional thing. The rulebooks of the NHL contain specific rules for fighting. These rules state that at the initiation of a fight, both players must drop their sticks so as not to use them as a weapon. Players must also “drop” or shake off their protective gloves in order to fight bare-knuckled, as the hard leather and plastic of hockey gloves would increase the effect of landed blows. Players must also heed a referee warning to end a fight once the opponents have been separated. Failure to adhere to any of these rules results in an immediate game misconduct penalty and the possibility of fines and suspension from future games.
Besides enforcer, pest is another fun role in NHL thats not to be confused. Pests are generally agitators, a type of player who attempts to annoy, anger, or distract opposing players in order to reduce their effectiveness or cause them to take a penalty. They differ from enforcers in that although they seek to anger their opponents, they do not primarily seek to fight with them. Matt Cooke is a perfect example of a pest. Here he is in action forcing Ore to take a penalty leaving Toronto Maple Leafs sucking-on-their-paw-shorthanded.
Since i was already making videos for this post from the Pens vs Leafs game i decided to add the following videos to the list from the game.
Matt Cooke scores first goal of the game
Sergei Gonchar goal
Craig Adams and Jamal Mayers drop the gloves
Kris Letang gets speared and Billy G to the rescue
Brooks Orpik gets stick to the face
Sid’s first goal
Sid’s second goal
Jordan Staal goal
In the news, “Sergei Gonchar has recovered from a cold that has been lingering since the end of training camp. The ailment left Gonchar tired most of the time. Fortunately, he was able to still produce with one goal and five points in five games. His renewed energy level should be able to raise his ghastly -5 rating. Gonchar also said he and Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero have decided to put off contract talks until after January 1 so that the GM has an idea of what next year’s salary cap will be.” (rotoworld.com)
In some unrelated news, Matt Duchene of Colorado Avalanche is still goalless … 2009 3rd overall draft pick. Not that it matters but what a last name!
Montreal Canadiens forward Georges Laraque has apologized for appearing in an internet commercial that a women’s rights group says sends the wrong message about women. (news.aol.ca)
Ohh yeah almost forgot, Penguins beat the Hurricanes in the shootout goal by Chris Kunitz. LETS GO PENS!
Tags: Eric Godard, Matt Cooke
lol, what a weird commercial
hahaha love the ad…
fighting is not allowed in english ice-hockey, which is why english people don’t even know we play it. is ‘the man’ really trying to ban it? that would be pants.
I think NHL is the only league that allows fights, i know all of the Europe and Olympics ban fighting. NHL is not really trying to ban spontaneous fighting but i heard they want to crack down on premeditated fights.
for what reasons?