Mike Chen's Hockey Blog
Entries with the tag: Paul+Kelly
No Steel Cages Here
by Mike Chen on 02/05/09 at 12:26 PM ET
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Kudos to NHLPA head honcho Paul Kelly for acknowledging what a lot of hockey fans were already thinking—that the “staged fights” between each team’s respective goons are getting to the point of silliness and are pretty unnecessary for the game. Whatever your opinion is on fighting, be it pro or con, I think that we can all agree that at least this level of scripted fisticuffs should go the way of the dodo—or at least banished to the wrestling ring. (Donald Brashear vs. Kurt Angle? That might be fun to watch.)
How predictable has it all become? At a recent Sharks/Ducks game, I posted a gameday poll at Battle of California asking readers to guess when Jody Shelley and George Parros would drop the gloves. Not surprisingly, the majority of readers picked the right time range (second half of the first period).
The question, of course, then becomes how do you regulate something like this? There’s a big difference between said Shelley/Parros fight and Vincent Lecavalier trying to stick up for his goalie against the Islanders. I know that, you know that, and everyone watching knows that. But on-ice officiating? How can they create rules that regulate it so that the nonsense fighting is filtered out?
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Tags: Fighting, Paul+Kelly,
