American Hooligans

A recent incident in the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) has prompted the age old debate over the place of fighting in hockey (see the video). It’s the only sport that tolerates fighting as part of the game. Fighting happens in baseball, basketball and football, but its a noteworthy incident that always results in ejections, usually suspensions. In hockey, it’s a five minute penalty.

There is no question about whether pro hockey should allow fighting. Like it or not, it sells tickets and the players are paid and understand it is part of the game. The QMJHL, though, is not a pro league. This is a league of players 16 to 20 who play basically for free. It is one of the major development leagues for the NHL, with many top stars drafted from it, such as Sidney Crosby.

The incident that set this off came from a brawl in a completely lopsided game (final score 11-1) where all the players on the ice fought. What was unusual about it was that the Quebec goalie Jonathan Roy attempted to fight the opposing goalie, who wanted absolutely no part of it. The guy turtled, but Roy kept beating him. Eventually, he stopped, but it took a while and then he got into another fight, flipped off the crowd and was ushered off. He has been suspended, of course.

The reason this made headlines is that Jonathan Roy is the son of Patrick Roy, the famed Montreal Canadiens Hall of Famer, and Patrick is the coach of the Ramparts. What’s more, Patrick Roy allegedly sent his son down the ice to beat the other goalie. The father, like the son, has been suspended.

In light of the incident, the Quebec government has declared it wants to end fighting in amateur hockey and has asked the QMJHL to study it and submit proposals to eliminate fighting for next season. Now, it’s politics.

The question is a practical one and there is a good argument on both sides. For some, it makes no sense that kids - and let’s face it 16 to 20 years old, that’s kids - should be allowed to fight. Some leagues, like the NCAA automatically eject players and it has curbed, if not eliminated fighting. The counter argument is that hockey is a violent sport at high speeds where everyone has a weapon. If you eliminate fighting from the game, players will respond with slashing and other nasty violence that is far more likely to actually injure someone.

I tend to agree that it is silly to condone fighting among kids and would be fine with a rule that ejected anyone involved in a fight from the game at that level, however, today on TSN (ESPN in Canada, basically) former NHL player and GM Mike Milbury - who incidentally is most famous for screwing up the Islander organization as a GM and beating a fan in the crowd with his own shoe as a Bruins tough guy (clip about 10 seconds in, it’s must see) - argued that not only is fighting stupid, it should be banned in junior and players should be suspended upwards of 40 games for a first fight, permanently for a third. That is a big, tough sentence and would definitely eliminate fighting. The question is, would it make the kids safer in that league?

The answer is no. The NHL Players have argued for years that the instigator rule, which gives an extra minor penalty to a player who obviously starts a fight has actually been to blame for some of the harsh incidents in the NHL with regards to stick swinging and other dangerous offenses. Basically, it used to be that if someone hit Gretzky, tough guy Dave Samenko would come in and beat the living snot out of them. Now, Samenko would get an extra penalty, cost his team and eventually suspended after a few instigators. This means players take liberties, avoid fights and the only fights you see now in the NHL are goon on goon.

The flaw is, players will still make late hits. There will be collisions. There will be blow out games. There will be trash talk. There will be slashes. And players are going to want to respond.

I am sure few are dumb enough to do something that might cost them half of a season for a first offense, so what do they do when someone takes a run at their star players? Well, I weigh the pros and cons if I’m that guy. A fight, if you can even get the other guy to go for it, is going to kill my chances at a pro career, basically. Plus, the other guy won’t participate if he’s got a quarter of a brain and he’ll run away, turtle or avoid getting suspended himself. Guess what, now every fight that does happen is going to look exactly like the Jonathan Roy fight!

So what do players do in those situations where they just need revenge? Well, If I get 40 games for a fight and 10 games for smashing him with my stick, I smash him. Bones are broken, maybe, and the guy getting slashed is going to slash back. There you go, QMJHL, you just replaced fights, which are mostly just harmless wrestling matches, with armed combat.

It’s a defeatist argument, I realize. Why do hockey players need to commit violence. Football is violent and they rarely fight, so that is the systemic question the QMJHL and other leagues need to figure out. In principal, something should happen to cut fighting in unpaid leagues of kids, I agree, but this is not the solution. I think fighting is part of the game and should be perserved if only to prevent worse solutions the players might come up with.