Brophy on NHL: Time to scrap fighting?

I recall way back in 1992 when Steve Dryden offered me a position at The Hockey News as senior writer. The offer came out of the blue for a reporter who was otherwise quite content covering the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League.

Of course I jumped at the opportunity, but I accepted the position on one condition: “Please don’t ask me to write any anti-fighting stories.”

Dryden, it was well known in the hockey industry, was working feverishly to try to get fighting out of hockey. He abhorred — still does, for that matter — the part of the game that so many others love.

Me? I loved a good scrap. My favourite players were the guys who showed a willingness to drop the gloves; not necessarily the goons, but players who could take a regular shift, help their teams on offence or defence, but didn’t mind the occasional scrap.

Covering the Petes I had the opportunity to see future NHL tough guys such as Kris King and Tie Domi in their hockey infancy. Domi, in fact, might be the greatest example of a guy who lived to fight, but could also play the game. Not a lot of people know that in 1988-89 when the Petes represented the OHL in the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon, Domi scored 10 goals in the playoffs, tied for second on the Petes with Ross Wilson. Mike Ricci led the Petes with 19 goals. The point is, Domi was more than just a simple thug and he developed into a decent NHLer, too.

Fighting in hockey for me has lost its luster. To me there is nothing more boring — or dangerous — than the staged fight. That would be the nonsensical bout between two monster-sized goons who sit at the end of the bench for most of the game just waiting for the tap on the shoulder to go out and try to beat each other’s brains in. The NHL vowed to eliminate those fights, but really hasn’t done much to follow through on that promise.

I’m not sure I’m quite at the point where I believe anybody that fights should be automatically ejected from the game because there are still some fights that are the immediate response to a cheap shot or dangerous play — call it spontaneous combustion. One of the most celebrated fights of the past decade occurred between Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames during the 2003-04 Stanley Cup final. It pitted the best players from both teams in a memorable bare-knuckle battle.

Would the future of the sport have been better served if the Lightning and Flames lost the services of those two for the remainder of the contest? I say no, but not quite as convincingly as I would have back then. If the fight had not taken place it certainly would not have hampered the eventual outcome of the series.

I now find myself wincing when I see two big guys drop their gloves and throw bombs at one another. Maybe it’s my age or maybe it’s the fact players are being badly injured. When athletes the size of Matt Carkner (6-foot-4, 231 pounds) and George Parros (6-foot-5, 222 pounds) start pounding away at one another, you just know nothing good is going to come from the confrontation.

The common refrain way-back when was, nobody gets hurt in a fight. I cannot recall the last time I heard anybody say that. In fact, Colton Orr’s career is in jeopardy. The Toronto Maple Leafs designated fighter, who is paid $1 million a year, suffered a concussion last Jan. 20 in a fight with Parros and did not play the remainder of the season.

Don Sanderson, an enthusiastic and passionate hockey player, died in 2009 at the age of 21 as a result of injuries sustained in a fight while playing for the Whitby Dunlops, a senior level hockey team. Amazingly, his death barely made a ripple in the world of hockey fighting. Many are convinced it is inevitable that an NHL player will die soon under similar circumstances.

This past summer, the hockey world lost three players who were best known for fighting — Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak. Rypien and Belak reportedly took their own lives while Boogaard, who also missed most of last season after suffering a concussion in a fight with Carkner, died of an accidental drug overdose. Some will suggest it is a sad and unfortunate coincidence, but I’m not convinced. The pressure these guys faced daily as NHL fighters is overwhelming.

A few years ago I recommended the NHL eject from games any player who fights and is averaging less than 10 minutes of playing time per game. In other words, if you aren’t good enough to take a regular shift in the NHL, then you don’t deserve the right to fight in the NHL. It would go a long way towards weeding out the players who only stay in the league to fight.

Ultimately, though, I see a day when any player who fights is ejected from the game and to be honest, I am no longer horrified by that prospect.