Ice Hockey Fights

By Robert Grazian

Ice hockey is unusual in the fact that fighting does not always carry an ejection penalty. In fact, in the United States, the National Hockey League, is unique amongst team sports in that it does not send players off for fighting. To some people, hockey fights are one of the main draws of the game.

This is not to say that the NHL condones violence. There is an unwritten law amongst the players and the officials regarding which aspects of fighting are acceptable and which are not. There are even rulings regarding who can and who cannot join in. You will be ejected from the game if you join a fight whilst sitting on the beach for example. Written rulings regarding hockey fights include the use of weapons. It is not allowed to use any form of weapon during a fight. This means that sticks must immediately be put down. The same applies to gloves. Gloves used in hockey are very hard and could easily cause damage a player if a blow were to be landed whilst wearing one. For this reason, they too must immediately be taken off if you are involved in a fight. If, once the players involved have been separated, the referee calls for an end to the fight, he must be obeyed. Failure to conform to these rulings will incur a penalty for misconduct and could result in a player's suspension for forthcoming games.

These lenient rulings regarding hockey fights are only acceptable in the NHL, the North American Junior Leagues and some North American Professional minor leagues. The fighting is still illegal and is still punishable, but the lenient rulings regarding punishment will mean just a five minute major penalty... "five for fighting". In all other games such as Peewee and College and European Leagues, anyone involved in fights will be ejected from the game. This stricter ruling also applies to all Olympic games and to all women's hockey games.

In the games where hockey fights are more acceptable, especially NHL games, the team may have "enforcers". These are players who will undertake the majority of the fighting. This is often to protect some of the top players and some enforcers are well known purely for their fighting rather than their hockey skills. There does seem to be a code of conduct which is unwritten and exists between players and officials known simply as "the code". This is strictly adhered to and the fighting rarely gets out of control. The fights are nearly always just between the enforcers from each team and they will have agreed with each other whether to fight or not before hand. This means that neither will receive a penalty for being the instigator.

There have been calls to tighten the rulings regarding these fights in the NHL and Junior games but it would seem that the players and administrators are pro fighting. There are many other bodies which are very much anti fighting and it may not be long before hockey fights become punishable in the NHL, Junior League and all professional games as they are in many other leagues.

Robert Grazian is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

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