Ice hockey is known as a fast-paced sport, with the puck reaching speeds of over 140 kilometres per hour, and the speed of the players can reach as much as 55 kilometres per hour. Not just that, but hockey can have some of the most intense competition of any sport on the planet. The intent of the game is to score a goal by putting a puck in the net. So why is fighting so necessary in a sport that is built for talent, finesse, swiftness and physical fitness? All that fighting does is mar the beauty of the game. During the summer of 2011, known as the most tragic summer for the world of hockey, three NHL enforcers died in a span of four weeks. First was Derek Boogaard, one of the NHL’s top enforcers, who played most of his career for the Minnesota Wild and spent a season with the New York Rangers. Boogaard was a fan favourite in both Minnesota and New York; often, at games, chants of “Boo-gaard, Boo-gaard!” would be heard. Boogaard died from an accidental mix of alcohol and the painkiller oxycodone. Next Rick Rypien, who spent his career with the Winnipeg Jets, was found dead in his home in Coleman, Alberta. He was found to have hanged himself because of depression, and scientists who studied his brain linked the depression to repeated blows to the head. Yet the summer’s tragedies were not over yet, because recently retired Toronto Maple Leafs and Quebec Nordiques player, Wade Belak hanged himself in Toronto on August 31. All three were later found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of encephalopathy that is caused by repeated blows to the head and leads to depression, addiction to drugs, progressive decline of memory and cognition, suicidal behavior, poor impulse control, memory disturbances, behavioural and personality changes, aggressiveness, parkinsonism, and, eventually, if the patient survives long enough, dementia. CTE has also been found in the brains of prominent enforcers Rob Probert, Rick Martin, and Reggie Fleming. Newcomers to Canada or the United States from hockey-playing European countries would be shocked to see the way North American hockey is played, because typically, fighting is not a part of the European game. It is only done during rare, intense moments, about as rare as fighting is in baseball or soccer. Fighting is also banned in Olympic hockey. The reason this is relevant to the debate over fighting in hockey is because supporters of hockey argue that removing fighting in hockey will lead to more illegal hits to the head and slashes; however, in the Olympics, you don’t see players such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, or Steven Stamkos needing an enforcer to protect them, do you? Just because Wayne Gretzky had Dave Semenko on his side – in the 1980’s – doesn’t mean that enforcers have a place in today’s hockey. Times change, and we want them to change for the better. Enforcers are out, skilled players are in. Supporters of fighting will also argue that deaths from CTE are now related to fighting in hockey; however, 98% of concussions and hits to the head in hockey are caused by fighting. Not just that, but on a Canadian U14 team, a boy got into a fight and was hit in the back of the head, had a seizure ten minutes later, and was soon pronounced dead at a Winnipeg hospital. Why must we wait until another tragedy happens to ban fighting? Just as netting was not put over the glass until a woman was killed by a puck that bounced off of the glass and up into the stands, the only thing that will lead NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to change his mind and ban fighting is a direct death caused by fighting in the NHL. Do we want to sit here and wait until yet another person is killed, or do we want to take action now?
Works Cited Cazeneuve, Brian. "Ex-enforcer Stu Grimson's Case for Keeping Fights in Hockey." SI.com. Sports Illustrated, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Cazeneuve, Brian. "Former NHL Enforcer Jim Thomson: My Case against Fighting." SI.com. Sports Illustrated, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Cazeneuve, Brian. "NHL's Day of Reckoning with Fighting Is Surely Coming." SI.com. Sports Illustrated, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Iginla, Jarome. "Jarome Iginla: Hockey Is Better, Safer with Fighting in It." SI.com. Sports Illustrated, n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Kale, Rajendra. "Stop the Violence and Play Hockey." Canadian Medical Association Journal. Canadian Medical Association, 21 Feb. 2012. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Ondrasik, John. "Hockey Fights Excite, Unsettle and Ultimately Prove Costly." SI.com. Sports Illustrated, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015.
