-
Alan O’Day, R.I.P.
May 20, 2013 | 3 comments
-
Elijah Harper, R.I.P.
May 18, 2013 | 1 comment
-
That’s a Lot of Caca in Caracas
May 16, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Canadian PM: Keystone XL Pipeline “Absolutely Needs To Go Ahead.”
May 16, 2013 | 2 comments
-
Has Obama Done Sufficient Damage Control With The IRS?
May 15, 2013 | 8 comments
The Spectacle Blog
Consumer advocate and perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader is calling upon the NHL to ban fighting.
As the late Rodney Dangerfield put it, “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.”
I suppose Nader will also call upon the NFL to ban tackling, the NBA to ban fouling and the WBC to ban punching.
On the other hand, what was American Airlines thinking in trying to charge Nader $2,680 for an aisle seat? You could say that Nader gave American Airlines a bodycheck.
Big Jav| 2.10.12 @ 12:55PM
You go, Ralph, Baby. I am sure the NHL will listen to what you have to say as much as I listen to your er stuff...HA!
Derek Leaberry| 2.10.12 @ 1:15PM
The NHL has curtailed fighting too much as it is. Sadly, most of NHL fighting is limited to goons. It was better when talented players would drop gloves. Who can't appreciate the old Bobby Orr-Brad Park or Orr-Keith Magnuson fights? Or the 1970 Montreal-Boston melee at Boston Gardens? Or the Dale Hunter-inspired Quebec Nordiques-Montreal Canadiens riot in the mid-80s? Or the Caps Scott Stevens going up against Philadelphia Flyers super-goon Dave Brown? Or the Flyers Ron Hextall racing from his goal to mug Chris Chelios of the Canadiens?
JohnD| 2.10.12 @ 1:59PM
Derek, taking your argument a step further, I think the spate of concussions is due to the lack of enforcers due to not wasting a roster spot on a guy who can only fight. Players now throw vicious hits against skill players (Sydney Crosby?) with no concern about retaliation.
In the good old days, if you took a run at, say, Bobby Clarke, expect to be in a fight with Dave Schultz. Take a shot at Bobby Orr? Say hello to Mr. Stan Jonathan. You get the picture.
BTW, best hockey fighter I ever saw was a guy who palyed for the AHL's Baltimore Skipjacks back in the 1980s-90s, who had a cup of coffee with the Washington Capitals at some point. His name was Bobby Babcock. I saw him beat up Tie Domi when Domi was with the Newmarket Saints. I saw him destroy Rob Ray when Ray was with the Amerks. One night at Baltimore Arena, I saw Babcock beat up the Halfax Citadels - the whole roster of the Halfax Citadels. The guy was a beast, better than Schultz, better than Battleship Kelly, etc
JohnD| 2.10.12 @ 5:06PM
BTW, when I was about 16 years old, I was playing youth hockey and skating up the ice with my head down looking at the puck (big mistake). I got lined up in neutral ice and absolutely SMOKED by an opposing D-man. I think I skated back to the bench looking out the earhole of my helmet. When I took my equipment off in the lockerroom after the game I found two screws missing from my helmet. The next day I went to a store that sold hockey equipment and asked if they had helmet screws. They did, and the guy asked me how I lost them, and I said, I was skating with my head down.
Needless to say, I learned the hard way to keep your head up on the ice.
Warrior | 2.10.12 @ 10:52PM
The spate of concussions is assisted by the speed of the game which was increased by the elimination of the red line and decrease in the size of the neutral zone. Without the two line pass to slow offensive players down, the increased speed has increased the force of collisions. No touch icing would also assist in keeping prone defenseman from taking unecessary hits.
Roger| 2.10.12 @ 3:04PM
I prefer to watch talent,not thugs. Same reason i gave up on the NBA. It became a thug/slowdown game where running was discouraged and physical play ruled.
MarkJ| 2.10.12 @ 3:39PM
I'd pay $1000 to see Ralph Nader tossed onto center ice naked in the middle of a Devils-Flyers game. If he was really spry for his age, he might last all of 15 seconds.
Bob Grant| 2.10.12 @ 4:28PM
With all due respect, I've attended dozens of hockey games in my life and have done just fine not witnessing a "shriveled" Ralf Nader getting roughed up by hockey players. Let's continue that, shall we?
Bob Grant| 2.10.12 @ 3:48PM
Prediction:
Soccer will surpass NHL and the nba within 5 years. The sport is meant for HD television, more so than other sports, and the heavy coverage FOX Soccer provides of Premier League, Champions League, and FA cup games, it's only a matter when, not if, they become the number 3 sport in the country.
As viewership continues to to increase, more and more athletes will choose soccer over football and other sports and American Soccer will continue to improve and get that much closer to the quality of European soccer. If they ever equal Europe vis-a-vis quality, the NFL will be in big trouble.
As far as fighting in hockey, there's really difference between THAT and wrestling or football players fighting with their helmets on. Completely harmless.
WillStevens| 2.10.12 @ 7:05PM
Prediction:
Bob Grant will be saying the same thing in 5, 10, 25 years.
Of course, maybe Obama will mandate the NHL be taken off TV and replaced by soccer because Tim Thomas didn't show up at the White House.
Bob| 2.10.12 @ 9:24PM
Yeah, the NFL, which pulls in 100M viewers for the Super Bowl, will be in trouble.
Herb Tarlek| 2.10.12 @ 9:54PM
You can't play soccer in the snow chucklehead. There will always be an army of kids in Canada & the northern US that grow up playing hockey all winter. Hockey is also a much better spectator sport anyway.
JimH| 2.11.12 @ 9:08AM
This may be true, but I think it has more to do with the rising proportion of immigrants in the population rather than increased popularity with Americans. To quote Groucho: 'there's my argument, restrict immigration'.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.12 @ 6:41PM
Soccer is boring and futile, like European Union politics.
Hockey is fun.
Le Cracquere| 2.10.12 @ 3:57PM
I grew up in Atlanta a huge Flames fan, and followed the Thrashers while I still lived there, but the game's unwritten mores (including what justified a brawl) were always a little hard for us to follow.
As I remember my grandmother saying once, "Oh look ... that nice young man seems to be helping that other nice young man get his shirt over his head."
Mender| 2.10.12 @ 4:09PM
It's a problem that strikes at the basic idea of liberty: there's pretty good evidence that these kind of fights can cause lasting brain damage, possibly including personality changes, memory loss, blackouts...you name it. And it's not just NHL but boxing and others.
So should it be regulated? It's a tough one, though personally I think yes.
You can read about this here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12.....wanted=all
and here:
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_.....istent-cte
and in a few other places-google boxing personality changes to give you some idea.
Mender| 2.10.12 @ 4:49PM
Aargh! What I was going to say was: do employers have the right to ask their employees to do something with a risk (if small) of this? Do their high salaries matter when considering this?
Martin Owens| 2.10.12 @ 4:35PM
I don't even follow hockey, but I think Nader should be told, plainly and loudly, to go to hell. He's the patron saint of that army of Marxists, greenies and neo-Puritans who are making life more unlivable every day.
If the NHL wants his help they will ask. Until then he should run his own life- assuming he's got one.
RustyG| 2.10.12 @ 5:37PM
I have never considered Hockey a serious sport because of the way it condones its players to stop the game and participate in a little assault. If I did that with the dude sitting next to me I'd get arrested. What an absurd notion that stopping the action to allow for a fist fight is part of an athletic competition.
Roger| 2.10.12 @ 5:41PM
Soccer will never become our sport. We as Americans like offense,the fastbreak in basketball,Drew Bree's throwing for 5000 yards,homeruns etc. We won't put up with 0-0 or 1-1.
tonypal| 2.10.12 @ 5:48PM
Roger, I agree soccer will never break into the upper echelon of sports in the US. However, as someone who has followed Manchester United over in the English premier league for the better part of 25 years, I can tell you that even low scoring games can be tremendously entertaining, if not at times frustrating.
The number of points being scored is relative. It really comes down to the action. In Europe, the English league is played at full throttle, whereas the Italian league can put you to sleep at times. I say scoring is relative because the slowest, dullest sport is often baseball. However, apart from perhaps a late round Stanley Cup playoff game, I can't think of a sport that can produce the level of tension that a postseason baseball game can produce.
I do agree that most people prefer offense and the like. But I disagree on the scoring aspect. Hockey is an all action sport. There is never a dull moment regardless of the score. Soccer can be incredibly tension filled depending on who your watching and the particular competition.
tonypal| 2.10.12 @ 5:41PM
One of the many great things about the NHL and hockey in general is the self policing aspect of the game. One of the reasons you never see showboating or guys showing each other up is the threat of immediate retaliation. With rare exception, the players respect each other and do not see to humiliate their opponents.
Fighting serves a real purpose. When a player "runs" another player, it's up to someone to take a stand and defend their teammate. Especially if the guy who took the pounding is a smaller, skill player. So tough guy A will drop the gloves with tough guy B. In the absence of such an understanding, players would retaliate by hunting down other players during the action. That would result in injury and chaos.
The only people who don't understand this, apart from Ralph Nader, are people who don't really like hockey to begin with. They say silly things like "I'd watch if not for all the fighting." First of all, there really isn't much fighting. Perhaps a few every game and they only last about a minute. You try slugging it out while trying to maintain your balance on the ice. See how long you'll last before you collapse from exhaustion.
Besides, fighting is fun. It's rare that anyone gets hurt because they grab the sleeves of each others uniforms, making it almost impossible to complete a punch. For the most part, the winner is the guy who wrestles the other guy to the ice. All hockey fans understand the fighting and love it.
Occam's Tool| 2.11.12 @ 6:44PM
The danger of violence in hockey is not from the fighting; it's from the checking against the boards---that's where kids can get paralyzed.
Dmitry Aleksandrovich| 2.10.12 @ 5:42PM
Nader should stick to being a "consumer advocate" and spoiler for Democrat party presidential elections. Fighting is a part of hockey and always will be.
Richard Baker| 2.10.12 @ 7:14PM
He must be bored if he's railing against violence in NHL hockey.
Rob| 2.10.12 @ 8:57PM
Maybe the NFL should ban unwelcome touching?
Bob| 2.10.12 @ 9:04PM
But they already have punishments for fighting, in every sport. What is Nader talking about?
JimH| 2.11.12 @ 9:11AM
I was a kid in NY when some Bruins went into the stands at MSG after some fans who had been giving them trouble. As they say in Slap Shot, 'old time hockey'. Where are the Hansons when you need them?
Occam's Tool| 2.11.12 @ 6:44PM
Nader is just an jihadist supporting scumbag.
Paul Busch | 2.12.12 @ 1:30PM
The League of Fans letter has a few errors but the main point is valid. The NHL has a Player Safety department, and states tha they care about the well being of their athletes, yet allow an activity where two players punch each in the head.
I've been watching and playing hockey for almost 50 years and have never agreed with fighting in the game. It's the reason I started a blog - http://itsnotpartofthegame.blogspot.com/. The main argument for fighting is the whole enforcement role but it didn't work in the 70's and 80's, when fighting was at it's peak, and stick swinging and elbowing was rampant. And it doesn't work today.