Maple Leafs GM Warns Against Decline in Hockey Fighting

Brian Burke told ESPN he's wary of the decline in on-ice fighting because of what he sees happening on game nights: "If you want a game where guys can cheap-shot people and not face retribution, I'm not sure that's a healthy evolution," he said. "The speed of the game, I love how the game's evolved in terms of how it's played. But you're seeing where there is no accountability." Burke argues that players, some more than others, are seeing that there's no longer a price to pay for throwing a cheap shot at the opposition, and they're taking advantage of that change. "I wonder about the accountability in our game and the notion that players would stick up for themselves and for each other," Burke said. "I wonder where we're going with it, that's the only lament I have on this. The fear that if we don't have guys looking after each other that the rats will take this game over.

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The Ethos of Fighting in Hockey

Recent reports on brain injury and a lengthy NYT feature on NHL enforcer Derek Boogard are focusing attention on fighting in Hockey. As a supplement, the NYT published an article tracing the origin of fighting in hockey to late 19th century Montreal, where the sport was first played. One theory has it that the first hockey clubs formed around ethnic and religious identities, lending a clannish or gang-like quality to the earliest teams. Thus you had the Victorias (Scottish Protestant), the Montreal Athletic Accociation (English Protestant), the Shamrocks (Irish Catholic), and the National and Montagnards (French Catholic). Researchers found little evidence of fighting between teams that involved punches, but the use of sticks for slashing and clubbing was prevalent. Once fighting was "allowed" in the early twentieth century, incidents of more serious injuries involving sticks declined. In recent years, the last serious case of stick-related violence occurred in 2002, and the NHL averages about one fight for every two games.

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