The summer doldrums of hockey. Propose an NHL rule change.

[shrader]

There’s a big difference between checks and allowing two guys to bare fist punch each other in the face. He’ll even boxers wear gloves. 

[shrader]

It does look like Sakic is the only one. Maybe Don sneaks in. The closest option was Modano if not for his disaster of a final season with Detroit. 

[thewookie1]

47 minutes ago, shrader said:

There’s a big difference between checks and allowing two guys to bare fist punch each other in the face. He’ll even boxers wear gloves. 

It’s more the motive than actuality; you give an inch they’ll take a mile. 
 

Remove fighting due to injury potential then they’ll cage all the masks, then you remove body checking, then actively bring women into the league since there would be no rule differences. 
 

While I doubt this is some kind of overarching plot behind the scenes; I wouldn’t put it past some of the PR and marketing gurus up top. 
 

Secondly, fighting allows for some rage to subside inside a game and unlike JohnC, I’m not at all interested in calling even more penalties and cracking down hard on everything. I don’t want 7 PPs a game purely due to slashes between whistles or ejections left and right. Ideally I want 5v5 hockey with the full 18 skaters every game. 
 

Additionally I see no reason to remove the ability to fight seeing as it rarely occurs. We had 4 I think last year; that’s 1 every 20.5 games. When is the last time we saw a legit brawl? I’m not exactly pro-fighting, I don’t want it every game but I am very much anti-no fighting. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by thewookie1

[Sabres Fan in NS]

1 hour ago, shrader said:

It does look like Sakic is the only one. Maybe Don sneaks in. The closest option was Modano if not for his disaster of a final season with Detroit. 

👀

[Taro T]

15 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

It’s more the motive than actuality; you give an inch they’ll take a mile. 
 

Remove fighting due to injury potential then they’ll cage all the masks, then you remove body checking, then actively bring women into the league since there would be no rule differences. 
 

While I doubt this is some kind of overarching plot behind the scenes; I wouldn’t put it past some of the PR and marketing gurus up top. 
 

Secondly, fighting allows for some rage to subside inside a game and unlike JohnC, I’m not at all interested in calling even more penalties and cracking down hard on everything. I don’t want 7 PPs a game purely due to slashes between whistles or ejections left and right. Ideally I want 5v5 hockey with the full 18 skaters every game. 
 

Additionally I see no reason to remove the ability to fight seeing as it rarely occurs. We had 4 I think last year; that’s 1 every 20.5 games. When is the last time we saw a legit brawl? I’m not exactly pro-fighting, I don’t want it every game but I am very much anti-no fighting. 

Have been more or less with you on this one, but the bolded is a bridge too far.  With the possible exception of maybe someday a female goalie or 2 making it, don't ever see female players making it to the NHL even in an as "contactless" as possible a sport where players are flying around on skates can be made to be.  The most talented women players of all time like Hailey Wickenheiser or Cammi Granato never came close to making it in a men's pro league and can't see a scenario where the next generation's versions of them make it either.  (Would be cool if they could somehow, but just simply don't ever see it happening.)  And for a female goalie to make it, she'd need some absolutely phenomenal reflexes &/or have the female equivalent of Tage Thompson's physique (or likely both).  A rather tall woman of 5'8" - 5'10" would still be significantly smaller than even a guy like Levi that people question (not necessarily here he's not getting questioned, but he does get questioned because of the size) and would leave quite a bit of space on that "top shelf" for the league's snipers to attempt to feast on.

NOBODY is trying to take fighting out of the game to allow people with XX chromosomes to make the show.

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, thewookie1 said:

The only "staged" fights nowadays is when a more gritty player targets a guy who drilled a less physical or now injured teammate. To me that is merely an extension of the heat of the moment. Additionally the occasional fight can energize a team to turn things around.

 

For me the health factor is irrelevant; if you take out fighting due to injury risks then checking isn't far behind and don't tell me I'm using a slippery slope fallacy. Players can literally get hurt from a soft check into the boards. Essentially as soon as you open up the injury box, anything can be made considered problematic. 

 

Obviously, there are physical risks in all pro sports. That doesn't mean that there shouldn't be attempts to limit them. The notion that by eliminating fights there is a slippery slope leading to stop clean checking is absurd. Have you watched college hockey where fighting is not allowed but hard checking is?

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

And you keep harping on the ONE staged fight the Sabres had last year.  If it isn't Stillman's 1st game as a Sabre it probably doesn't happen.  

But, suppose in addition to preventing that one staged fight, your fighting ban finds both (all 3? (ottomh, not sure if he had 2 or 3 last year)) of Krebs fights as the stick swinging incidents that got Mike Ramsey a suspension so many years ago?  You hand wave away that possibility.  Not so sure that is valid expectation.

The issue for me is not whether a fight is staged or not. It's the issue of fighting. I don't believe it is necessary and I consider it to be unsafe for the players. There are plenty of injury risks just in playing the game. I don't see the need for adding a risk of injury by fighting. 

We are travelling on parallel paths that won't cross. That's okay. 

[SwampD]

52 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

It’s more the motive than actuality; you give an inch they’ll take a mile. 
 

Remove fighting due to injury potential then they’ll cage all the masks, then you remove body checking, then actively bring women into the league since there would be no rule differences. 
 

While I doubt this is some kind of overarching plot behind the scenes; I wouldn’t put it past some of the PR and marketing gurus up top. 
 

Secondly, fighting allows for some rage to subside inside a game and unlike JohnC, I’m not at all interested in calling even more penalties and cracking down hard on everything. I don’t want 7 PPs a game purely due to slashes between whistles or ejections left and right. Ideally I want 5v5 hockey with the full 18 skaters every game. 
 

Additionally I see no reason to remove the ability to fight seeing as it rarely occurs. We had 4 I think last year; that’s 1 every 20.5 games. When is the last time we saw a legit brawl? I’m not exactly pro-fighting, I don’t want it every game but I am very much anti-no fighting. 

 

26 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Have been more or less with you on this one, but the bolded is a bridge too far.  With the possible exception of maybe someday a female goalie or 2 making it, don't ever see female players making it to the NHL even in an as "contactless" as possible a sport where players are flying around on skates can be made to be.  The most talented women players of all time like Hailey Wickenheiser or Cammi Granato never came close to making it in a men's pro league and can't see a scenario where the next generation's versions of them make it either.  (Would be cool if they could somehow, but just simply don't ever see it happening.)  And for a female goalie to make it, she'd need some absolutely phenomenal reflexes &/or have the female equivalent of Tage Thompson's physique (or likely both).  A rather tall woman of 5'8" - 5'10" would still be significantly smaller than even a guy like Levi that people question (not necessarily here he's not getting questioned, but he does get questioned because of the size) and would leave quite a bit of space on that "top shelf" for the league's snipers to attempt to feast on.

NOBODY is trying to take fighting out of the game to allow people with XX chromosomes to make the show.

Yep. The slippery slope argument never isn’t lame.

[Weave]

2 hours ago, SwampD said:

 

Yep. The slippery slope argument never isn’t lame.

You can’t spell wookie without woo.

[shrader]

59 minutes ago, Weave said:

You can’t spell wookie without woo.

I’m amazed that @DarthEbriate has never corrected the spelling of that username. 

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, shrader said:

I’m amazed that @DarthEbriate has never corrected the spelling of that username. 

The reason it was misspelled was due to it originally being a character name in Star Wars Galaxies which carried over as my forum tag and I just stuck with it.

5 hours ago, Taro T said:

Have been more or less with you on this one, but the bolded is a bridge too far.  With the possible exception of maybe someday a female goalie or 2 making it, don't ever see female players making it to the NHL even in an as "contactless" as possible a sport where players are flying around on skates can be made to be.  The most talented women players of all time like Hailey Wickenheiser or Cammi Granato never came close to making it in a men's pro league and can't see a scenario where the next generation's versions of them make it either.  (Would be cool if they could somehow, but just simply don't ever see it happening.)  And for a female goalie to make it, she'd need some absolutely phenomenal reflexes &/or have the female equivalent of Tage Thompson's physique (or likely both).  A rather tall woman of 5'8" - 5'10" would still be significantly smaller than even a guy like Levi that people question (not necessarily here he's not getting questioned, but he does get questioned because of the size) and would leave quite a bit of space on that "top shelf" for the league's snipers to attempt to feast on.

NOBODY is trying to take fighting out of the game to allow people with XX chromosomes to make the show.

 Very good movie

 

As for my original point, I know its absurd but I have a very hard time trusting the NHL not to be absurd. Especially after telling us we like the moving ads on the boards and that they are somehow making the game easier to watch. That, and about 15 minutes prior to typing this I literally happened to see something about the new woman's hockey league and it put me in a sour state of mind. (Ticked off they dropped Buffalo's team)

Edited September 26, 2023 by thewookie1

[Drag0nDan]

My rule change?  Shootouts and penalty shots get a timer.  Don't know how long its supposed to take, but they should be able to find a balance.  The boring drift-in move needs to go as its just not hockey and its a massive disadvantage to the goaltender.  

[DarthEbriate]

Shyriiwook is a difficult language to translate. 

[Doohickie]

Yeah, hockey tool.