Hockey

Our paradoxical relationship with hockey fights
Tony Patoine
Our paradoxical relationship with hockey fights
Credit: Getty Images

In the wake of Tuesday's thrilling match-up between the Senators and the Canadiens, the debate over hockey brawls is back with a vengeance.

But, to say the least, the debate isn't going very high..

On the one hand, of course, there was the response from the Minister responsible for Sport, Recreation and Outdoors, Isabelle Charest , who invited fans to show their displeasure with the brawling by, among other things, not buying any more tickets.

Ms. Charest is the same minister behind the dissuasive measures banning brawls in the QMJHL since 2023. Unsurprisingly, she reiterated that she “doesn't believe in fighting in hockey”.

On the other hand, in response to Ms. Charest, the mythical “it's all part of the game ” that we've been hearing over and over again on the radio and just about everywhere since last Tuesday was rehashed.

In the same vein, some have even come to the definitive conclusion that “fights are here to stay” in the NHL. A bit like the Earth inexorably continuing its orbit around the sun.

Like an immutable law.

Call it the “essentialist” or “naturalist” thesis. Fighting is part of theessence or very nature of the game!

We're mixing nature and culture here … and that, for the philosophy teacher in me, doesn't deserve a passing grade!

By analogy, it's a bit like saying that milk is part of the essence or nature of coffee, and that there will always be milk in coffee!

Putting milk in coffee may make it taste better to some, but it's not part of its essence as such! It's simply a cultural habit, a choice, that we adopt… or not.

And let's not forget that hockey itself is cultural, like any game, and like any game, the rules can change.

It's all a question of will. And probably money.

Humans are paradoxical creatures!

But like the milk in a good latte, that doesn't stop me from readily recognizing that brawls add a tasty, spectacular element to hockey!

Fights often bring an even more intense and emotional dimension to duels between players and teams.

Although not very edifying on an intellectual level (and not a very good example when you're watching the game with your kids…), I myself rarely sulk at such an occasion!

And I imagine that many of you can relate to what I'm saying!

It's easy to see that human beings aren't just beings of reason, and that they're no strangers to paradox…

I think, I feel, therefore I am!

Take that, Descartes!

I can't be accused of hypocrisy; like many people, I enjoy watching a good fight, especially in an emotional context of rivalry.

As close cousins of chimpanzees, and sharing 98% of their DNA, there's probably aggression in all of us

It's not for nothing that the “vulgar pleasure” felt in watching other humans fight and beat the crap out of each other seems as old as time. Hello, Greeks and Romans!

Even the Old Testament seems to encourage battle and revenge with its law of Talion: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”

There are also brilliant film careers built on this cathartic spectacle of staged violence. Hello, Sylvester and Arnold, valiant heroes of an entire generation!

So, fighting isn't part of the game as such, but aggression does seem to be part of being human… and many people have long understood that you can make money by putting it on show.

Humans are a living paradox, oscillating between nature and culture, reason and unreason, war and peace, love and hate, beauty and ugliness, the life drive and the death drive, fury and calm, desire and constraint, etc. Maybe that's part of the reason why we love hockey so much; few sports are so human when you think about it…

What about hockey?

Strategically speaking, fights and tough guys are part of what we call the “bullying map”. Bullying in all its forms is not strictly forbidden in hockey. It can often modify an opponent's behavior by sowing doubt and even fear. As part of this, fighting can sometimes galvanize the troops and help win games here and there during the season.

Then, on certain occasions, as was the case this week in Quebec City during the preparatory game between the Habs and the Senators, solidarity fights can help to bind a team together even more deeply

So, as the Iroquois thought of lacrosse – another rather rough game – sport can often be seen as “war's little brother”. And war means fighting brothers, but also the risk of violent confrontations and serious injuries..

The myth of vicious blows…It's here, however, that we must address a second myth that also has a hard rind about battles, namely that they have the quasi-magical power to prevent or slow down vicious and/or dangerous blows. I'm not saying that this is 100% false, but let's just say that reality indicates that it's far from being a great truth! For example, wasn't Arber Xhekaj in uniform during Game 4 of the series against the Caps? That didn't stop big Tom Wilson from having a field day on little Alexandre Carrier. Xhekaj never seriously discussed the matter with Wilson afterwards…

Then, this week against Ottawa, even though the Xhekaj brothers and other tough guys were in uniform and everyone knew they were ready for a fight, that didn't stop Hodgson, McEwen, Jenik, Cousins and Sebrango from being tiresome and bitchy around Newhook, Dach and Demidov, until they got taken out of the game.

Tiring vermin like Cousins will almost always find a way to go over the line, while avoiding (or risking) getting the shit kicked out of them afterwards. And do you want to talk about Chara on Pacioretty again? Scheifele on Evans? Despite the more-than-tolerated presence of fights, year after year we see acts that would be liable to civil prosecution, or even imprisonment, if committed in ordinary life. In short, fights or not, there will always be a fair number of dirty tricks in the NHL, at least as long as systematic and biting suspensions of 10-20-40 games, and even up to permanent expulsion from the league, are not regularly applied to offenders and repeat offenders.

I guess the league's finances and those of the players' association like it when players continue to take “justice” into their own hands… The myth that fights and supposed “policemen” prevent dirty tricks pays off..

But where there's culture, there's change

The essence of the contact sport of hockey is to put the puck in the opponent's net and prevent it from entering your own net too often. To this end, the main skills required range from speed and creativity to agility, intelligence, precision, strength and toughness.

Not so different from American football when you think about it. And yet, fighting has never been part of football culture..

So, basically, it's all a matter of social conventions and decisions made by the various leagues and/or levels of government.

Everything depends on the will of the people in charge. Sports and political leaders always have a choice.

For example, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has long had anti-fighting regulations.

Then, in 2023, Minister Isabelle Charest forced the QMJHL's hand following a serious study of over 6,000 players who had played in the NHL since 1967. Among other things, the study showed that the 331 “strongmen” identified by the research died on average 10 years earlier than other players.

[content-ads]Well-known cases

Now, if like the QMJHL and the IIHF, we want to listen to the advice of science and row in the direction of deterrence rather than keeping the gas to the bottom in the direction of ratings, clicks and the sound of nice dollars, we all know that fights are dangerous for the brain, and that the risks of serious injury, even death, are very real.

Paul Byron was never the same player after his concussion suffered during a fight with MacKenzie Weegar in March 2019.

More recently, the case of young Ross Campbell of the Charlottetown Islanders caused quite a stir when his head hit the ice heavily during a fight. He could have been killed, as was the case for Don Sanderson in 2009, a young non-professional who died at the age of 21.

Ironically, George Parros, the Senior Vice President of Player Safety, almost went himself on this sad sequence that pretty much ended his career:

It should have made you think more…

We can also bring to mind the untimely deaths of tough guys like Bob Probert (45), Derek Boogard (28), Jon Kordic (27), Rick Rypien (27), Wade Belak (35)and Chris Simon (52), who all suffered significant physical and psychological problems: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), drug use, sometimes evenoverdosing and suicide..

For a Georges Laraque with his brain intact, there are many who fare, shall we say, much less well..

Waiting for the next dead man, a civilizational process is already underway

In general, there has been a sharp drop in fights since the introduction of the salary cap in the NHL in 2005. The ban on the intentional removal of helmets before or during fights can also be seen as a form of supervision in the interests of “safety”.

Given the scientific data, the efforts of many political and sports decision-makers, and the fact that many parents are choosing other activities for their children because of the violence involved, there is a certain form of civilizational process(read Norbert Elias!) already underway in hockey, which tells me that fighting is not necessarily here to stay, even at NHL level.

Is it conceivable that fighting will still be so ubiquitous 10, 25 or 50 years from now? Today, if something unfortunate were to happen involving the Xhekaj brothers, what would you say? What if it were your son?

So, if it's not done before now, it may be enough for there to be a fatality or very serious injury on the ice as a result of a fight in the NHL – or any other top-level league – for decision-makers to act in the direction of what might be called real progress.

That and, yes Ms. Charest, a little public pressure…

In short, yes, fights are spectacular, yes, they're popular, yes, they add emotion, but who would stop watching their favourite sport if they were banned more strictly?

Isn't that proof that they're not essentially part of the game? My mononcs' in Beauce, adepts of road beer between the legs in the 60s and 70s, didn't stop tripping over the big eight-cylinder tanks after the drink-driving laws were tightened…

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