Bob Probert Autopsy

[Forty_Sixand2]

Straight up, eliminating fighting would destroy the NHL. I definitely see the audience shrinking big time if they do that.

I'm not even worried about them doing it, cause they never will. I'm pretty sure anyone with any sense of marketing could foresee the ratings plummet.

Do you really think some hockey fans would quit watching the sport because they took the occasional extracurricular event out of it??? What real hockey fan watches for the fights, and why?

 

[SLY]

Do you really think some hockey fans would quit watching the sport because they took the occasional extracurricular event out of it??? What real hockey fan watches for the fights, and why?

I do. And it isn't that they watch "for the fights", they watch for the intensity and the play that may lead to fights. You take fights out of the equation, your going to take away a lot of the aggression in the sport. Die hard fans will continue to watch... But so much for going mainstream.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I do. And it isn't that they watch "for the fights", they watch for the intensity and the play that may lead to fights. You take fights out of the equation, your going to take away a lot of the aggression in the sport. Die hard fans will continue to watch... But so much for going mainstream.

Well those fans are cavemen and need to watch something else anyway, in my opinion. The second a dude in the OHL? died after hitting the back of his head on the ice during a fight, it should have been the end of it. I have to go, but as a player who used to fight, that is my stance.

Get rid of fighting, IMO.

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

[YOUTUBE]uOCXfu_mWyY&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

One could make an argument that this fight actually made the Detroit Redwings into winners in 1997.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

Hockey without fighting isn't hockey. When there's a fight every single person in the arena is on their feet. It fires up both teams as well.

 

[elocomotive]

Reading this, and knowing what this disease causes...starts to make me think maybe fighting should be weened out of the sport. *builds barricade in preparation*

I've long said that fighting should be gotten rid of in hockey. It's the only major team sport that has it and it's a little embarrassing in my opinion.

 

[elocomotive]

1. Hockey is one of the few, if only, contact sports that allows you to carry a potential weapon with you.

Lacrosse does - they actually have METAL sticks. They don't have fighting and the players are equipped more properly to prevent damage from head injuries.

Hockey could take note...

 

[Winged_Wheel88]

I've long said that hockey should be gotten rid of in hockey. It's the only major team sport that has it and it's a little embarrassing in my opinion.

You're kinda making the pro-fighting crowd's point.

 

[evolver115]

Hockey without fighting isn't hockey. When there's a fight every single person in the arena is on their feet. It fires up both teams as well.

Did the Olympic Games version of hockey not seem like.... hockey?

 

[elocomotive]

You're kinda making the pro-fighting crowd's point.

LOL! Typo. I obviously meant to put fighting. Nice zing.

 

[elocomotive]

Did the Olympic Games version of hockey not seem like.... hockey?

Or have an increase in injuries?

 

[Comeds]

what if ovi was boarded from behind and he was out for 4-6 weeks....you wouldn't want someone to kick the other guys ass for taking out your star player.......???????????????

I think we all would to some degree. However does that seriously seem to be a deterrent? I've seen players get a beat down after a dirty hit and that doesnt seem to stop them from throwing dirty hits again and again. So while its nice on some level to see some revenge, I am not sure its actually doing anything.

Again, I do not want fighting to be banned but any fan that stops watching hockey if they ban fighting wasn't a very good fan to start with IMO. I would think, and hope, that most people would watch the NHL for the game itself, and I think it could have every bit of the same intensity if fighting was banned that it does now.

 

[Slimpikins]

Keep the fighting. We don't ban drinking because it kills people, we don't ban rock climbing or skydiving. People who choose to participate in these activities know the risks. Besides it's not like hockey players ever have to fight, just look at Steve Ott.

I also don't buy the 'fighting is keeping hockey from becoming mainstream' bs. I do not buy the logic that there are millions of Americans out there who enjoy the sport and are waiting to follow it as soon as the fighting is removed. The people who don't like hockey just don't like the sport and will continue to not like it even if fighting is removed.

In fact I would say there are many more fans that really enjoy the fighting. When Brad Staubitz whooped Jordan Tootoo a couple of years ago he received SEVEN different ovations from the crowd that night, for one fight.

Besides if doing things to make hockey more popular is ok then you have to also be ok with all of the rule changes they have made. Wider nets, more PP's, shootouts? Have to like them because it makes hockey more mainstream...

 

[BOSSMANPC]

I think we all would to some degree. However does that seriously seem to be a deterrent? I've seen players get a beat down after a dirty hit and that doesnt seem to stop them from throwing dirty hits again and again. So while its nice on some level to see some revenge, I am not sure its actually doing anything.

Again, I do not want fighting to be banned but any fan that stops watching hockey if they ban fighting wasn't a very good fan to start with IMO. I would think, and hope, that most people would watch the NHL for the game itself, and I think it could have every bit of the same intensity if fighting was banned that it does now.

I can think of a guy from the swamp nameed C e n t r e * * * That would.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

What does fighiting add to the game? Simple enough question.

I mean football has cheap and dirty shit go uncalled all the time, right. Those guys don't fight it out. Why is hockey any different. Why is it That hockey is the only sport where officials need the players to help enforce the rules. Officials officiate. Players play. Apparently except in hockey.....

 

[Automattic]

Bob Probert loved what he did. He took a big risk doing it. He got paid a great deal of money to take that risk. Bob loved money too. But all the way to his grave, his proudest accomplishment in hockey was protecting Steve Yzerman. He put asses in seats because he had fists of steel and a heart of gold. The guy made me proud. Made the whole damn city proud. Proud because he would fight an entire team to the death just for one of his teammates. I couldn't ever see the sport losing that. It would lose all it's passion. The same passion that got me playing in the first place. And if it wasn't rough, I wouldn't have played.

You think fighting is dangerous? Don't start shit and we won't have no problems. "The code" works just fine. Now if they'd only start suspending chicken shit players for 20 games at a time instead of this pattycake slap on the wrist BS. I can't believe that the KHL has to steal players from the NHL. We should be sending them these douchebags by the truckload.

 

[Comeds]

I also do not think banning fighting would add or subtract any substantial amount of fans to the league

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Lacrosse does - they actually have METAL sticks. They don't have fighting and the players are equipped more properly to prevent damage from head injuries.

Hockey could take note...

what?

you must be talking the outdoor variety played by boat shoe wearing prepster rapists

for boxla ... the identical hockey mentality towards fighting/toughness exists

heres the game 1 score sheet of what is essentially canadas version of the lacrosse stanley cup (2010 Mann Cup)

PETERBOROUGH vs New Westminster - Canadian Lacrosse Association Championships - boxscore | Pointstreak

 

[Slimpikins]

What does fighiting add to the game? Simple enough question.

I mean football has cheap and dirty shit go uncalled all the time, right. Those guys don't fight it out. Why is hockey any different. Why is it That hockey is the only sport where officials need the players to help enforce the rules. Officials officiate. Players play. Apparently except in hockey.....

Football was founded without fighting, hockey wasn't. It has been part of the tradition and the way the game has evolved. I don't want hockey to be football, I want hockey to be hockey.

 

[elocomotive]

Keep the fighting. We don't ban drinking because it kills people, we don't ban rock climbing or skydiving. People who choose to participate in these activities know the risks. Besides it's not like hockey players ever have to fight, just look at Steve Ott.

I also don't buy the 'fighting is keeping hockey from becoming mainstream' bs. I do not buy the logic that there are millions of Americans out there who enjoy the sport and are waiting to follow it as soon as the fighting is removed. The people who don't like hockey just don't like the sport and will continue to not like it even if fighting is removed.

In fact I would say there are many more fans that really enjoy the fighting. When Brad Staubitz whooped Jordan Tootoo a couple of years ago he received SEVEN different ovations from the crowd that night, for one fight.

Besides if doing things to make hockey more popular is ok then you have to also be ok with all of the rule changes they have made. Wider nets, more PP's, shootouts? Have to like them because it makes hockey more mainstream...

I'm failing to see some of the logic here. You are talking about activities that people do every day vs. comparisons to other sports.

I agree with you that hockey is not going to be an overnight sensation b/c of the presence or lack thereof of fighting.

But one doesn't have to agree with every rule or game change to hockey if they also agree with banning fighting. For example, I actually think they should widen the nets slightly proportionate with the increasing size of the goalie pad changes to boost goals, but I don't really like the shootout (after OT) b/c it's an artificially created scenario, even if it might be more popular than a tie.

It's a balance of integrity vs. popularity. Fighting to me is not integral to the game b/c it hasn't always been a part of the game (at least not at the level it has been since the 70s). And while some would say that widening the goal wrecks the game's integrity, I don't think it does b/c its merely a response to the changing technology in goalie equipment (just like in golf they have made courses longer to respond to the improved club technology).