1) Another game, another player on the ice unconscious. Seems to be happening with alarming regularity. To us at FAUXRUMORS the most troublesome aspect to all these recent incidents is that it will only add fuel to the ant-fighting folks who will use these altercations and resulting injuries to voice their view that hockey needs to abolish fighting
2) Unfortunately to the non hockey fan all these seem to run together, but each is unique. The major U.S media has been hostile against hockey from the outset and with Bettman et.al. super sensitive on how the sport is perceived we are worried that some sort of anti fighting legislation will be discussed in the off season. At the very least any possible easing on the current anti-fighting rules would be VERY unlikely
3) We at FAUXRUMORS have been way out in front on the fighting issue. We join our fellow pro-fighting(Old Time Hockey) bloggers such as: http://twominutesforblogging.blogspot.com/ or http://www.hockeyfansunite.com/ to implore the NHL to NOT listen to inevitable nonsense that fighting is ruining the game. We would advocate that just the opposite is true. That the elimination or reduction of fighting IS ruining the game! We actually believe that more fighting would lessen cheap shots, and enhance the game for the fans. How many folks get up and walk out when there is a fight? Who is the favourite player of most fans? Its usually the team's leading scorer and the team enforcer
4) We feel the elimination entirely of the 'instigator rule' should be item number one this off season. It was the implementation of this anti-fighting rule that escalated the stick and dirty tactics that we are seeing today. The Tuckers/Averys/Holwegs/Neil/Janssons of the NHL would think twice if they had to answer to George Laroque or Donald Brashear every time they cheap shotted the opposing team's star player
5) The Fedoruk incident, as much as we hate to see guys KO'd, should be looked upon as an isolated occurrence. He went up against a player who is a much better fighter(We don't recall seeing Todd ever win a fight!) You drop your gloves you take your chances! No different than Eric Lindros getting concussed by Scott Stevens with a clean shoulder check; Its part of the game. As such should NOT be used as an excuse to additionally curtail fighting. That would be a huge mistake in our opinion.
6) Unfortunately it appears that the NHL powers that be are more concerned with the opinions of folks who hate the game no matter the fighting rules, so we don't expect that folks like Brian Burke to get their way this summer. We may have to be happy with the status quo. These incidents could NOT have occurred at a more inopportune moment. Hopefully(and for the first time in a LONG time!) the NHL will do what is right and ease the instigator rule, and allow the time tested manner to keep cheap shots at a minimum; Good one on one fights!
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9 comments:
1) Haven't read any official word from the NHL, but you know that the ESPN's will be running video of that and try to link it to Simon, Tootoo, etc. Its inevitable.
2) Our position is, who gives a rats ass! Let em' tear into the game for violence then turn a blind eye to the culture of crime that is the NBA
3) True hockey fans know the deal, and Bettman and the owners/GM's had better not further sissify the sport we all know and love to placate a bunch of folks who wouldn't like hockey even if there were ZERO fights!
Olympic hockey doesn't have the issues with TV ratings.
But how can that be when they don't have any fighting????
Secondly, please show me where fans got up and left and or booed during:
The Pacers-Pistons fans brawl.
The Miami-Florida International college football brawl.
The Knicks-Nuggets brawl.
Anyone of the recent Yankees-Red Sox brawls.
Better yet, show me where a brawl/fight broke out at a sporting event and the fans booed.
The problem of course is, you can't. You have to start blathering on about NBA and NFL and thug cluture and the whatnot. Anything you can come up with to avoid having to answer the hard questions.
Just a note, I'll have more to say when i orginize my thoughts on this issue, But the instigator rule was upped from 3 instigator penalties for a suspension to five for next season.
Not completely abolishing, but that's a lot of instigator penalties.
1) Thanks for your input Caps nut, but you may have missed our point here. BTW before we go on; Who is the fan favourite in DC besides AO? If a poll was taken at the Verizon Tuesday night, we'd bet Donald Brashear would win
2) Olympic hockey actually does NOT have particularly great ratings. We'd imagine they would be enhances IF they allowed fighting. Its also a short tournament so its not a fair comparison. We will go out on a limb and say that if 'Olympic style hockey' were to be adopted by the NHL the league would cease to exist!
3) Not sure about your point about fans not booing or leaving during altercations in other sports. Irrelevant to the points we were making, other than the mainstream press/ESPN glosses over those incidents in the NBA/NFL/MLB and does not soly concentrate on the negatives in those sports like it does when covering the NHL
1) Hey B Washington, nice blog. Not certain that the league is 'upping' the number of games that players would be suspended next season. In fact we believe its going the other way; from 5 to 3.
2) We still believe there should be NO suspension at all. There should be NO instigator penalty at all! At least there shouldn't be a suspension. If you assess an additional minor , that's fair, but a suspension is draconian in our opinion and suppress the players ability to police themselves from the dirty tactics/stick work that has mushroomed in the last few years
Here's the column where they posted it. I was slightly off,nothing's official yet, but Brian Burke (he of defensing Todd Bertuzzi's despicable actions with the "He (Moore) was asking for it" excuse) and the rest of the GMs have recommended the rule change to the board of Governers.
And Police Squad lay off a little. I think both changes aren't quite as well documented as you made them out to be. And even if they are faux's profile says he's in Kabul, meaning it would be pretty easy for him to miss those relatively minor changes
1) Thanks B. washington. That 'Police Squad' guy is a blogger imposter/trouble maker anyway.
2) We usually have to delete 2-3 posts/day due to vulgarity, etc.
1. I think Alexander Semin and Olie Kolzig would give Mr. Brashear a serious run for his $$$$$ for #2 behind A.O. Personally, just off the top of my head, Brashear wouldn't even reach the medal stand.
2. Olympic hockey gets better ratings than NHL hockey does and they don't have fighting.
3. Thanks for proving the point and ducking the question! More red herrings doesn't help your cause. 4. For the record we get wall-to-wall coverage of the fights/brawls in the NBA, NFL, and MLB.
1) The olympics are a very special every 4 year tournement full of nationalistic interest. Not a fair comparison, BUT it would be interesting to see if 'olympic style hockey' would have any ratings. We assert fans would quickly fall asleep/change their channel
2) Brashear, despite being a new players this season and 18th on the team in scoring would at LEAST be in the top 3-4 favourite for Caps fans. One can still see Steven Peat jerseys in Verizon. HMMM, wonder why?
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