Are you really trying to tell me that you don't think that fighting is a part of the game? Here are some facts. When two players drop their gloves to fight, they can stand there for quite a long time without throwing a punch and the referees will wait along with the rest of the fans for the fight to start, a fight that they could prevent cause the players are skating in circles with their fists up, positioned to fight. Then the fight goes on unstopped until the players either stop or go down to the ice and then the referees step in. This happens almost every night somewhere in the NHL. Hockey teams hire players whose main skill is their willingness to fight and to be "an enforcer" on the ice. Players who fight have to "sit in the corner" for five minutes. Can you imagine if the rule was to have two guys sit in the corner after a fight in a bar? Or course not, but that's a bad comparison too, not as bad as the fencing one, but bad none the less.

The only reason the rule book has the penalties for fighting is so that the NHL can claim to be against the idea. Don't believe it, it's their bread and butter. Without it, they don't put people in the seats during the regular season. Fighting will never be listed in the rulebook as a sanctioned activity because the rulebook is politically correct, it's just not a good picture of reality.


Frank