Fighting In Hockey

In the National Hockey League (NHL), fighting is a culture that has been a part of the sport for over a century and deserves to be forever glorified due to the excitement it delivers on witnessing fans and players that love to drop the gloves, or also known as fighting. The NHL has been around since 1917, and since then, dropping the gloves has been somewhat inevitable. Though fighting on the streets or in public is frowned upon, it is encouraged during a game of professional ice hockey. Fighting in the NHL is as simple as it sounds. Two players are angry with each other, they look at each other and agree to fight, and off come the gloves. During a fight, each player has the ability to punch, grab, or tackle the other player until one can’t …show more content…
In fact, it is so embedded into the hockey family tree that there is a set rule in the NHL rulebook to regulate fighting. Rule 46.1 in the NHL rulebook states that “A fight shall be deemed to have occurred when at least one player (or goalkeeper) punches or attempts to punch an opponent repeatedly or when two players wrestle in such a manner as to make it difficult for the linesmen to intervene and separate the combatants.” All 30 NHL teams have one player whose job is to rough up opposing teams and intimidate certain players from performing well. These players are called enforcers; their name blatantly shows what they do: enforce physicality. Taking away fighting from the NHL would mean taking away the roles of the enforcer. Technically, fighting is already illegal in the NHL, therefore, there is no benefit in banning something that already penalizes athletes. Every game, anger is built up in a player at least once because of a faulty play, a bad call by the referee, or trash talk from a player on the other team. Fighting is a way to release the anger built up inside them. Fighting acts as a stress reliever, and without it, the amount of dirty hits per game would increase exponentially as players would be desperately looking for ways to take their anger out on the ice. When a player expresses vehement(ardent) emotions using their fists, it …show more content…
Despite the joy and stress relief that fans and players are sated with,, it is cultural and is only one part of many that makes hockey stand out in terms of originality and physicality. Since the beginning of the National Hockey League in 1917, fighting has caught the attention of fans and media and still does to this day. Fighting is an important part of some players’ careers and some even enjoy the ability to drop the gloves with other players, so why try and take away something that makes players want to do their job out of