CARLTON PEAK…. I can remember seeing my first hockey fights as a young kid. At the old St. Paul auditorium watching the CHL St. Paul Rangers they were a regular occurrence and thus I thought and was conditioned to think they were all part of “the game”. Then the Rangers left town, the NHL NorthStars arrived and soon we were going out to Bloomington instead of downtown St. Paul. There was fighting in that league too! These skirmishes got a lot of people out of their seats and the crowd by and large cheered on the two gladiators.

Things were different then though. Fights were of a spontaneous nature between two players who were engaged in an intense game. There were only 12 teams with 240 jobs on the line. You had to be able to play the game, and if you could handle yourself with your dukes, that was a bonus for you and your club. Now, with a larger league and expanded rosters there are over 700 spots available. 30 to 60 of those jobs are reserved for guys with low to mid level hockey skills and high level fighting ability. None of these guys will be considered for their countries Olympic clubs.

Time went on and I was immersed in the game and culture. Fighting was an accepted part of the game by a fan base that was a fan base unto itself. Most fans were fans because of a geographical tie to the sport. I don’t think all fans cared for fighting in the game, but there was no overt squawking about it either. There were some occasional outbursts but they were like Carrie Nation opposing the use of alcohol at the turn of the 20th century. Small, loud and ineffective. Nation took to destroying taverns by entering them while swinging an axe wildly. The temperance movement failed. Are there any fans out there who will cure NHL fighting by going out on the rink during a dustup between two 240 lb. players? Don’t bother to answer.

The seventies brought us the ugliness of the Philadelphia Flyers Broad Street Bully teams. This was a team that could play the game, but chose to take the brawling route to gain fame and notoriety. In my eyes they set the game back 20 years, and that they, to this day are celebrated as something great from the games past (by some) says a lot about the games fans. Fighting continued through the eighties and nineties and an evolution of sorts started to occur with one or two roster spots per club starting to be dedicated to players who, by and large were there only for their ability to fight. This led to the era of the “staged fight” whereby two “enforcers” only had to get out on the ice and extend an invite to the other to drop the mitts.

Somewhere along the line it came to be that the simple act of body checking an opponent was grounds to have to fight and so on. The culture of fighting in the game has never really left. Just as amazing to me are all of the old school arguments for fighting to remain in the game. You know, it keeps the other team honest, it protects the elite players, blah, blah and blah. Time has moved forward, the league has 30 clubs, new fans all over the United States, more revenue then ever before, and more popularity then ever. And still has this dark cloud that fighting brings with it.

For me, I grew up around the aura and culture of the game. Even today, if a spontaneous fight occurs in the heat of a really important game, I’ll deal with it. It may even add to the entertainment value of that game. You might say I don’t know any better. (even though I do) But what if you aren’t a current fan and you are trying to decide if you should become one? Does having this aspect in our game bring in new fans? Does it help or hurt that effort to grow the game? What if you have young kids and you are looking at the game as an activity for them?

Last Friday eve in a tilt between the Flyers and the Washington Capitals there were some really ugly skirmishes. The Caps were in the middle of embarrassing the Flyers 7-0. And since the Flyers are one of the 3 worst teams in the league I guess they decided they were going to fight. Perhaps they could come out better then they were on the scoreboard. In the ugliest part of all of it, enter Flyer net minder Ray Emery. He is no stranger to fighting. So he skated the length of the ice to engage the Caps goalie Braden Holtby.

Like most goalies, Holtby is not a fighter. This didn’t stop Emery from grabbing him and striking him at will for a good couple of minutes. There was a referee present who didn’t step in to stop the fight, and the other officials had their hands full with other battles taking place at the same time. Fortunately Holtby did not appear to be hurt. But if you were a person who never saw an NHL game before, what might your impression be of this?   

The visuals of this event were flat out ugly. The game had been decided and there were no apparent reasons for conflict to take place. And beyond that, the way the league rules read at this time there is no recourse to give Emery what he really deserves; a real, real, real long suspension. He got his game penalties and that was that. And what would happen the next time these two teams play and a Caps player decides to run Emery? You would only get a repeat of Friday nights ugliness. And of course stuff like this only gives pause to those media and non-fans alike to bemoan the oddities and violence of our sport all over again.   

Commissioner Bettman; between events like this, the plethora of head shots leading to injury and then suspensions to the offenders I think you have got a crisis on your hands that only you can do something about. It’s time to convene the forward thinking people in the game and come up with solutions. You have done some good things for the game, and now it is time to do more. Doing nothing or succumbing to the old culture won’t stand. Act now and I’ll stand with you all of the way…. PEACE    

Marc Elliott is a free lance sports opinion writer who splits time between his hometown in Illinois and Minnesota.