Fighting should be banned in hockey.

You’d have to hold a gun to my head before I ever said that and actually meant it. Seriously, I don’t know where to even start on this one.

If you haven’t heard, the talks of banning fighting in the NHL are more prevalent than ever right now after the death of Don Sanderson. Sanderson was just 21 years old when he tragically died last week from a direct result of a fight in his senior amateur hockey game in Canada.

On December 12th, Sanderson, who played for the Whitby Dunlops, got into a fight with one of his opponents. His helmet fell off during the fight and his head eventually hit the ice, sending him into a coma for the next three weeks before passing away. Sanderson is the first ever reported player to have died directly from a hockey fight and my condolences go out to his family.

But while this occurred in a Major League Senior AAA Hockey Game in Ontario, the NHL, which is the highest level of hockey in the world, is receiving the most criticism and pressure to change their rules and ban fighting.

There is absolutely no way fighting should ever be banned in the NHL. Not only is it part of the game, not only is it tradition, it’s a way for the players to keep the game in check. Fans go to the games to see fights and there are even players in the NHL that only have a job because they are tough enforcers and fighters put out there to protect the guys that make the game so exciting, the most skilled players in the world.

If fighting were taken out of the game, cheap shots would become more abundant. You can’t sit there and tell me that players should just respect each other more and then nothing would ever happen. It’s human nature. We don’t always like everybody and in hockey, there’s a way to deal with that.

In 1996, Claude Lemieux pulled off a move that was called the 10th dirtiest play in NHL history by ESPN’s David Amber. He hit Kris Draper from behind, sending his face into the top of the boards. Draper suffered multiple injuries and had reconstructive surgery on his face. Lemieux’s punishment? He had the complete and utter crap beat out of him by Darren McCarty. Twice.

We fast forward to 2007 and see Chris Neil skate by and knock out Chris Drury on a dirty elbow to the face. What ensued? Only some of the best fights we’ve seen in a while. Neil’s punishment? He was forced to fight immediately following the play. Many more Ottawa Senators paid the price as well as the Buffalo Sabres were out there to send a message, one verbalized by their coach, Lindy Ruff, “Don’t go after our f***ing captain again.”



Without fighting, there is no fear put into players for their actions. You can suspend a guy all you want, but do you really think someone like Chris Simon learned from his multiple offenses and suspensions? Not as much as he would have liked you to think. If fighting were banned, cheap shots would just be returned with more cheap shots. Because honestly, how often can in a game can a player purposely target and punish another player by lining him up and legally lowering a bone crushing hit? Not very. Fighting settles this in an instant.

Now, with all that aside, I would be an idiot to sit here and tell you that nothing should be done. If nothing is done, Don Sanderson died in vain. Yes, this is only the first reported injury due to fighting, but the NHL didn’t do nothing when a fan, Brittanie Cecil, died in Columbus in 2002 when a puck hit her in the head. The NHL put up nets, addressing the issue. I attended a college game at the Palace of Auburn Hills last year, four years after the NHL instituted the net around the rink. Since the Palace isn’t normally home to any hockey team, there are no nets. It was unbelievably scary watching the pucks fly out of the rink.

My point is that while it was an immediate response during the offseason to a tragic incident, it was a good one. The fighting issue is one that needs to be looked at in the offseason. We cannot swiftly move into action and get rid of it right here, right now, because of one incident.

Personally, I agree completely with Pierre McGuire on what to do. Two committees need to be formed during the offseason, one to look at the issue of fighting and another to look at hits to the head. Don Cherry addressed the issue of how tightly helmets are strapped on and that needs to be looked at.

There is even an NHL rule, rule 47.6, which could eventually lead to another death.

“If a player penalized as an instigator of an altercation is wearing a face shield (including a goalkeeper), he shall be assessed an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.”

While this rule is strictly there to make it a fight fair and protect the hands of the fighters, it clearly leaves room open for an incident like Don Sanderson’s to happen again.

The thing is, hockey is a dangerous sport. We can’t start banning everything that can lead to injury or death, or else we would be playing in shoes with a tennis ball using foam sticks. Whatever the NHL does, they need to get the input from every single one of their players. Those are the guys involved in the fights and they play the game. It’s important that they have a say in what is to be done.

Cherry at Sanderson funeral [Canoe Slam! Sports]
Time to ban fighting [Bellevile Intelligencer]