Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Enough Fighting

09/26/2013 at 12:32pm EDT

from Dave Lozo of The Score,

I’m like everyone else with human DNA – I absolutely love watching two other humans beat the life out of each other. It’s in all of us to an extent. Those UFC knockout highlight shows are incredible. A roundhouse kick to the jaw of a guy who is out cold on his feet? Brilliant. Milan Lucic and Joel Rechlicz punching each other for a full 60 seconds? I’ll click that link.

But you know what I love even more? Hockey. Man do I enjoy watching talented people saucer pass a puck over and through three sticks for a back-door goal. I enjoy watching a hockey player one-time a rocket under the crossbar. I enjoy a forward undressing a defenseman in a 1-on-1 situation and stashing a backhander through a goalie’s legs. I enjoy a defenseman catching a forward with his head down and cleaning his clock with a shoulder to the chest.

Two things I don’t enjoy are 1) talentless goons stumbling around the ice for 7 minutes a night, seeking out the other goon for a cranium-destroying session, and 2) the idea that the NHL isn’t willing to ban fighting in an effort to at least minimize the opportunities for preventable head injuries.

If the NHL banned fighting and instituted monster fines and suspensions for fighting and reckless hits, the game would instantly be safer and better as players learned to adjust. Despite all the goons in the NHL, all the codes and all the players “policing themselves,” it took rule changes and threats from the league of lengthy suspensions and perhaps a lifetime ban to get Matt Cooke to change his game.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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