Who are considered the worst fighters in NHL history. Why were these players known for their poor fighting skills. How has fighting in hockey evolved over time.
The Decline of Hockey Fights: A Modern NHL Trend
The landscape of professional hockey has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, particularly when it comes to on-ice fighting. In the 2006-07 NHL season, 31.2% of games featured at least one fighting major. Fast forward to the 2018-19 season, and that number plummeted to fewer than 200 games – a historic low in the modern era.
This dramatic shift has reshaped team dynamics and player roles. Fourth-line enforcers, once a staple of NHL rosters, have largely been replaced by skilled players who can contribute in multiple facets of the game. The days of staged fights and goons patrolling the ice for mere minutes per game are fading into hockey lore.
The New Normal: A Game Without Fights?
Daniel Carcillo, a former NHL player known for his aggressive style and numerous fights, believes this decline in fighting is here to stay. “I believe this is the new normal,” Carcillo stated, adding, “I think the game is better off without fighting, no doubt.” This sentiment reflects a growing consensus among players, coaches, and fans that hockey can thrive without the violent spectacle of on-ice brawls.
The Worst NHL Fighters: A Look at Hockey’s Infamous Brawlers
While fighting was once a central part of hockey culture, not all players excelled in this aspect of the game. Let’s examine some of the NHL’s most notorious “bad” fighters, whose lackluster performances in on-ice altercations left much to be desired.
Jay Caufield: The Reluctant Wrestler
Jay Caufield earned a reputation as an ineffective fighter due to his tendency to avoid throwing punches. Instead of engaging in a proper hockey fight, Caufield often resorted to wrestling his opponents. His habit of falling to the ground when he’d had enough further cemented his status as a poor fighter in the eyes of many hockey fans.
Torrie Robertson: The Cheap Shot Artist
Torrie Robertson’s fighting style was characterized by questionable tactics. He frequently initiated fights with headlocks and only began throwing punches after taking his opponent to the ice. This approach was widely viewed as cheap and unsportsmanlike, earning Robertson a spot among the league’s worst fighters.
Sucker Punches and Dirty Tactics: The Most Hated NHL Fighters
Some NHL players gained notoriety not just for being poor fighters, but for employing tactics that were considered unsportsmanlike or dangerous. These individuals often became some of the most despised players in the league.
Paul Baxter: The Sucker Punch Specialist
Paul Baxter was infamous for his tendency to attack opponents when they were vulnerable or unable to defend themselves. His penchant for sucker punches and attacking downed players made him one of the most reviled figures in NHL history. This reputation was so strong that other players, like Rich Tocchet, would occasionally seek retribution against Baxter for his dirty tactics.
Mismatched Fights and Poor Decision-Making
Some of the worst fighters in NHL history earned their reputations not just for lack of skill, but for poor judgment in choosing their opponents or timing their fights.
Ed Hospodar: The Overconfident Challenger
Ed Hospodar’s place among the worst NHL fighters stems from an infamous incident involving Clark Gilles, one of the toughest players of his era. Hospodar initiated a fight with Gilles after the latter had initially declined. Not only did this violate unwritten rules of hockey fights, but Hospodar’s subsequent inability to hold his own against Gilles further cemented his reputation as a poor fighter.
Unconventional Fighting Techniques in Hockey
While hockey fights have their own set of unwritten rules and expectations, some players gained notoriety for employing unusual or frowned-upon techniques during on-ice altercations.
Craig Berube: The Misguided Martial Artist
Craig Berube’s attempt to incorporate kicking into a hockey fight with Mick Vukota backfired spectacularly. Not only is kicking considered a major violation of fighting etiquette in hockey, but it also proved ineffective for Berube. His ill-advised martial arts approach resulted in a swift and decisive defeat, earning him a place among the league’s worst fighters.
Joe Paterson: The Reluctant Grappler
Joe Paterson’s fighting style was characterized by excessive grappling and a reluctance to throw punches. In a notable bout with Ed Kastelic, Paterson seemed more intent on wrestling than engaging in a traditional hockey fight. This approach frustrated opponents and fans alike, who expected a more straightforward exchange of blows.
The Evolution of Fighting Skills in the NHL
As the role of fighting in hockey has changed over the years, so too have the skills and expectations of players who engage in on-ice altercations. Some players who were once considered tough found themselves outmatched as the level of fighting skill in the league evolved.
Gary Nylund: The Outclassed Enforcer
Gary Nylund was known as one of the tougher players in the NHL during his career, but his fighting skills didn’t always match his reputation. In encounters with more skilled fighters like Joey Kocur, Nylund often resorted to wrestling and grappling rather than exchanging punches. This reluctance to engage in traditional hockey fights diminished his standing as an enforcer.
The Dangers of Overconfidence in Hockey Fights
Some of the worst fighters in NHL history earned their reputations not just for lack of skill, but for a dangerous combination of overconfidence and poor judgment.
Don Jackson: The Persistent Punching Bag
Don Jackson’s place among the league’s worst fighters stems from two critical errors. First, he chose to pick a fight with members of the notoriously tough “Big Bad” Boston Bruins, led by Terry O’Reilly. Second, he continued to fight even after being repeatedly pummeled. Jackson’s weak punches and inability to recognize when he was outmatched made him a frequent target for more skilled fighters.
Brett Lindros: The Overeager Underdog
Brett Lindros, despite his imposing size, often found himself on the losing end of fights, frequently against smaller and younger opponents. While Lindros was eager to drop the gloves, his enthusiasm wasn’t matched by his fighting skills. This combination of eagerness and ineffectiveness earned him a reputation as one of the league’s worst fighters.
The Impact of Fighting on Player Health and Safety
As the NHL continues to evolve, increased attention has been paid to the long-term health consequences of fighting in hockey. This shift in focus has contributed to the decline in fighting and changed perceptions about its role in the sport.
Daniel Carcillo: From Fighter to Health Advocate
Daniel Carcillo’s journey from frequent fighter to outspoken advocate for player health awareness exemplifies the changing attitudes towards fighting in hockey. With 103 career fights under his belt, Carcillo has firsthand experience with the physical toll of on-ice brawls. His transition to promoting player safety highlights the growing recognition of the long-term risks associated with repeated head trauma from fighting.
How has this shift in perspective affected the role of fighting in modern hockey? The decline in fighting majors suggests that teams and players are increasingly prioritizing skill and safety over the traditional enforcer role. This change not only impacts game strategy but also has significant implications for player health and the overall image of the sport.
The Future of Fighting in the NHL
As fighting continues to decline in the NHL, questions arise about its future role in the sport. Will fighting eventually be eliminated entirely from professional hockey? Or will it persist in a diminished, perhaps more spontaneous form?
Adapting to the New Normal
The dramatic reduction in fighting has already reshaped team dynamics and player roles. How are teams adapting to this new reality? Many organizations now prioritize speed, skill, and versatility in their fourth-line players, rather than size and fighting ability. This shift has led to faster, more skilled games and opened up opportunities for different types of players to make an impact at the NHL level.
What implications does this have for player development and scouting? As fighting becomes less prevalent, teams may place greater emphasis on other forms of physical play, such as hard checking and puck battles along the boards. This could lead to a new breed of “tough” players who contribute in ways beyond traditional fighting.
The Role of Rule Changes and Enforcement
How have changes in NHL rules and their enforcement contributed to the decline in fighting? The league has implemented stricter penalties for instigating fights and has cracked down on dangerous hits that often led to retaliatory brawls. These measures, combined with a greater emphasis on player safety, have created an environment where fighting is less frequent and often seen as less necessary.
Will further rule changes be implemented to further discourage or eliminate fighting? Some have suggested automatic game misconducts for fighting or increased suspensions for repeat offenders. As the league continues to prioritize player safety and skill, it’s likely that the conversation around fighting and its place in the sport will evolve.
The Cultural Shift: Fan Perceptions and Media Coverage
The decline of fighting in the NHL isn’t just a matter of rules and player preferences – it also reflects a broader cultural shift in how hockey is perceived and presented.
Changing Fan Expectations
How have fan attitudes towards fighting in hockey evolved over time? While some traditionalists may lament the decrease in on-ice brawls, many fans have come to appreciate the faster, more skilled game that has emerged in its wake. The reduction in fighting has also made the sport more accessible to a wider audience, potentially broadening its appeal.
What role has social media played in shaping perceptions of fighting in hockey? The instant sharing of violent incidents and increased awareness of concussion risks have contributed to changing attitudes among fans and players alike. This shift in public opinion has put pressure on the league to prioritize player safety and skill over traditional notions of toughness.
Media Coverage and Marketing
How has the media’s portrayal of hockey fighting changed in recent years? While fights were once prominently featured in highlight reels and marketing materials, there’s been a noticeable shift towards showcasing skilled plays, dramatic goals, and spectacular saves. This change in focus reflects both the evolving nature of the game and changing societal attitudes towards violence in sports.
What impact has this had on the way hockey is marketed and presented to the public? The NHL and its teams have increasingly emphasized the speed, skill, and excitement of the game, rather than its physical confrontations. This approach aims to attract new fans and position hockey as a modern, dynamic sport.
The Legacy of NHL’s Worst Fighters
As we reflect on the era of frequent hockey fights and the players who gained notoriety for their poor fighting skills, it’s worth considering the lasting impact of this aspect of NHL history.
Lessons Learned from Past Mistakes
What can current and future players learn from the missteps of the NHL’s worst fighters? The examples of players like Jay Caufield, Torrie Robertson, and Paul Baxter serve as cautionary tales about the importance of sportsmanship, proper technique, and knowing one’s limitations. These lessons remain relevant even as fighting becomes less common in the modern game.
How have these infamous fighters contributed to the evolution of hockey? In some ways, the notoriety of these poor fighters has helped shape the current state of the game. Their examples highlighted the need for more skilled players and contributed to the shift away from employing dedicated enforcers.
Preserving Hockey History
As fighting becomes less prevalent in the NHL, how will the era of frequent brawls be remembered? While some may view it nostalgically, others see it as a necessary phase in the sport’s evolution. Preserving the stories of both skilled and unskilled fighters helps provide context for the game’s development and the ongoing discussions about player safety and the role of physicality in hockey.
What role do these stories play in educating new fans about the sport’s history? Understanding the era of frequent fighting and its gradual decline helps new fans appreciate the changes in the game and the reasons behind current rules and strategies. It also provides insight into the ongoing debates about the place of fighting in hockey’s future.
NHL: 10 Worst Fighters in League History | Bleacher Report
0 of 10
Fighting is one of the most exciting parts of the NHL, but nothing’s worse than an awful fight where two guys would rather wrestle than throw some good punches.
If you agree to fight—or act like a goon for an entire game—be prepared to fight. Don’t act surprised when the gloves are dropped.
Let’s look at 10 players who just took the excitement out of fighting and may not even have known how or when to fight someone.
Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins featured columnist for Bleacher Report and was the organization’s on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Boston. Follow him on Twitter for NHL news and analysis. Follow @NicholasGoss35.
1 of 10
Jay Caufield was an awful fighter who rarely tried to throw punches and would rather have just wrestled for a few minutes.
When he had enough, he fell to the ground—just terrible.
2 of 10
Torrie Robertson epitomized hugging/wrestling and only started to fight—in this video at least—after he took his opponent to the ice with a headlock.
Starting to fight when the guy’s on the ice? That’s pretty cheap.
3 of 10
Paul Baxter was one of the bigger sucker punchers in the NHL for quite some time, and he would often attack players when they couldn’t defend themselves or were laying on the ice.
He might even be one of the most hated NHL players ever.
Rich Tocchet was just giving Baxter some of his own medicine in this video.
4 of 10
Ed Hospodar was not a good fighter—as this video shows you—but the worst part is that he picked this fight with New York Islanders bruiser Clark Gilles, who at the time was one of the toughest players in the game.
Picking a fight with someone much tougher than you after they decline, then you can’t even put up a fight…yeah, I’d say Ed Hospodar is a pretty bad fighter.
5 of 10
I’ve never fought in a hockey game, but if I did I would know that kicking is not only an unwritten rule but makes you look stupid.
Craig Berube tries to kick Mick Vukota here, and Berube promptly gets nailed.
Maybe Berube should try to fight like a man instead of treating this bout like a martial arts training exercise.
6 of 10
Joe Paterson is one of the bigger wrestlers to play the game of hockey, and in this bout with Ed Kastelic, Patterson seems to want to wrestle more than fight.
Kastelic wants to go and was definitely eager to fight, but Paterson clenched on to him and wouldn’t let him.
7 of 10
Gary Nylund was one of the tougher guys in the NHL during his career, but he wasn’t that great of a fighter.
He wrestled a lot and didn’t want to battle with guys much better at fighting than him, like Joey Kocur in this video.
8 of 10
Don Jackson does two things wrong in this battle with Stan Jonathan:
First, he picks a fight with the “Big Bad’ Boston Bruins led by Terry O’Reilly, and second, he continues to battle after getting pummeled repeatedly.
When Jackson did actually try to punch, his punches were weak and often didn’t affect the opponent at all.
9 of 10
Shawn Antoski was a decent fighter, but during the later stages of his career he became quite the punching bag.
Antoski liked to grapple on people and prevent real fights from breaking out; he also didn’t throw very good punches.
10 of 10
Brett Lindros was one of the bigger guys in the NHL who just got pounded regularly, often by smaller and younger players.
Lindros liked to fight a lot, and had some good bouts, but he ultimately wasn’t a great fighter.
‘The new normal’ – Why fighting in the NHL has dropped to historic lows
When Daniel Carcillo debuted in the NHL back in 2006-07, the clichés were still intact. The fourth-line goons patrolling the ice for a few minutes per game. The ridiculous and reductive staged brawls for the coliseum crowds. All of those dusty “I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out!” jokes were still grounded in reality: 384 games featured at least one fighting major that season, or 31.
2% of all games.
That NHL doesn’t exist anymore when it comes to fisticuffs. In the 2018-19 season, the NHL had fewer than 200 games with a fighting major, marking the first time in the modern era that the total dipped that low. Today, the fourth-liners are cost-efficient skill players instead of goons, and staged fights are a rarity without those pugilists on the rosters.
In just more than a decade, the league that saw Carcillo amass 324 penalty minutes with 19 regular-season fights as a rookie has seen an incremental decline in fighting in every full season of the past 10. Many are saying there’s no going back.
“I believe this is the new normal,” said Carcillo, who had 103 career bouts and is now a leading voice for player health awareness, “and I think the game is better off without fighting, no doubt.”
The final fighting tallies for the 2018-19 season were new lows across the board for the NHL in the nearly two decades of stats compiled by HockeyFights.com (with the 2018-19 season’s numbers tabulated by ESPN Stats & Information).
Given that the NHL didn’t exactly have a pacifist streak before 2000, it’s safe to assume we’re seeing fighting at its nadir:
In 1,271 regular-season games in 2018-19, there were 224 fights in which at least one player received a fighting major. That’s down from 280 fights in 2017-18. The number of fights in a full season has dropped every season since 2008-09, when there were 734 fights. In 2001-02, that number was 803. From the 2000-01 season to 2009-10, the NHL averaged 669 fights per season.
The rate for 2018-19 was 0.18 fights per game, which marks the first time that the average fights per game has dropped below 0.20. From 2000-01 to 2009-10, there were seven seasons in which the NHL had a fights-per-game average of more than 0.50.
As stated earlier, this was the first time that the NHL had fewer than 200 games with a fighting major. From 2008 to ’12, the NHL averaged 471 games with a fighting major per season.
In 2018-19, 15.
3% of regular-season games had a fight. In 2008-09, that number was 41.4%.Does it seem like we’re seeing fewer brawl-filled games than ever? That perception is reality: Just 24 games last season had more than one fight. That’s down from 41 games in 2017-18, which had been the previous low for the past two decades, at a minimum.
Finally, 245 players engaged in a fight during the 2018-19 season. That’s down from 265 players in 2017-18. This number has been declining since a recent peak of 348 players in 2010-11, which matched the totals from the fight-happy days of 2001-02.
3% of regular-season games had a fight. In 2008-09, that number was 41.4%.Tom Wilson is no stranger to fighting, but he can also make an impact on the score sheet. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Matthew Barnaby was one of those brawlers back in the early aughts. From 1999 to 2002, Barnaby had 59 fights while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Like Carcillo, he doesn’t think fighting is ever going to boomerang back into the zeitgeist for the NHL.
“No, I don’t ever see it reversing,” said Barnaby, who retired in 2007 and is now a cohost of The Instigators on WGR in Buffalo. “It’s the way teams are being built. And having coached junior, it’s not a part of that culture anymore, with all the rules in place.”
Barnaby is correct that there’s a confluence of factors at play. The NHL has changed dramatically since the 2005 lockout, as rule changes pushed the game into an offensive era with an emphasis on skill and skating, pushing out less skilled (and perhaps more fight-inclined) players.
“Assuming the cap system remains intact and the league retains something like the current rules scheme — one that tends to foster a faster brand of hockey — I am fairly confident that fighting will have a relatively marginalized existence in the game long into the future,” said Stu Grimson, one of the most feared brawlers of his era (1988-2002) who is now an NHL Network analyst.
“Roster space is precious today. Managers are seeing the value of having an effective bottom six.
So as managers attempt to populate the deeper parts of their rosters with players who can contribute in meaningful ways, they are probably acquiring players who may not have that [fighting] element in their skill set.”
2 Related
Meanwhile, lower leagues have instituted rules to discourage fighting. The Ontario Hockey League famously followed its “10-fight rule” — in which a player could be suspended for fights above that threshold — by dropping that bar to three fights, with incremental increases on the suspensions. Fights dropped by 48% in the OHL in 2016-17, the season following that change.
“The purpose of that was to eliminate the serial fighter, that one-dimensional player. An unexpected byproduct of the rule was a significant decrease in the overall fighting in our league,” OHL vice president Ted Baker said at the time.
All of this is happening in an era of unprecedented awareness of player safety and health concerns, specifically when it comes to concussions, CTE and the effects of a physical and injurious game on a player’s life well after retirement.
Although there have been skeptics about fighting’s link to the concussion epidemic — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wrote in a 2016 letter to the Committee on Energy and Commerce that “only two percent of video-analyzed concussions resulted from fighting” in the previous season — Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation sees the downward trend as being tied to that awareness.
“As the hockey community continues to appreciate that head impacts can have significant long-term consequences, I would expect the number of fights to continue to decline,” he told ESPN this week. “That said, if the NHL perceives a ratings decline caused by lack of fights, they may push for fighting to make a comeback.”
The NHL declined comment for this story.
Daniel Carcillo had 103 fights during his NHL career. Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images
Nostalgia can be quite the enchantment, and Barnaby said the fist-filled days of yore still have their appeal.
“I loved the era that I played in and miss the rivalries that were formed,” he said.
“There were a lot of afternoon naps that were filled with sweaty palms, but the game has never been better and safer. Some fans are always going to miss the way it was, but I’ll take watching unreal skill over the fights.”
Carcillo agrees.
Fun. Free. Easy. Create or join a league and play ESPN Fantasy Hockey! Sign up for free!
“Rivalries have less importance, and the NHL can no longer actively sell hate and violence and get away with it. I don’t see this trend reversing, and it’s a good thing that young men don’t have to play hockey with a pre-requirement being that you may have to bare-knuckle box,” he said.
Even in its diminished state, a ban on fighting is something for which many continue to advocate. “A fighting ban is still an appropriate goal,” Nowinski said, “but based on the choices they have made, I suspect the NHL would prefer to continue to have the threat of fighting as a way to appeal to a subset of fans.”
In concert with that entertainment value, Grimson believes there is a place for fighting in the modern game from a tactical perspective.
“I continue to believe that fighting in the following context is still one of the more exciting moments you’ll witness in a game,” he said. “If my team is flat or trailing in a game and I go out and get into a scrape with my counterpart on the other side, more often than not, I can turn momentum. From the players on the bench to the coach to the thousands in the stands … that moment can be electrifying because the game will often turn. And no longer are you watching a match where one team is dominating. You usually end up with a closer, more exciting spectacle.
“We don’t see that enough in today’s game, in my estimation. And the two — fast, skilled hockey and physical hockey — are not mutually exclusive.”
Yet in today’s NHL, we’re seeing one increase — for only the second time since 1996, teams averaged more than 3.00 goals per game in 2018-19 — while the other continues its decade-long slide into historic lows.
I think fighting in pro hockey is immature and stupid CMV : changemyview
Okay, I recently started watching hockey since a lot of my friends are huge Blackhawks fans, and I’ve definitely come to respect it as an incredibly difficult sport requiring a lot of athleticism.
I freely admit that I don’t know much about the game (for example, icing was just explained to me last week) but I still can’t get over my gut reaction of “really? get over yourselves” any time two players start fighting. It seems like something thirteen-year-old boys would do when they get butthurt over a missed shot, rather than behavior that a pro athlete with millions of dollars on the line would engage in. Why is it worth it to try and punch some guy in the face, knowing that the other team might get a power play and score because of it? Can’t you control yourself better than that? I’ve heard a lot of justifications for it, but none of them have convinced me.
Some things my friends have said:
–If a player is playing dirty and the ref can’t see, someone needs to teach him a lesson to keep him from doing it all game. (Why can’t someone tell the ref what’s going on? I play rugby [another rough sport] and if someone keeps fouling the captains will ask the ref to please keep an eye on that player so that no one gets seriously injured.
Not to mention, if a hockey player is getting away with his dirty tactics, I highly doubt a short-lived padded boxing match is going to make him stop)
–The fights keep the game interesting! (If you don’t like watching hockey except when people are breaking the rules, why are you watching it at all? Go watch an MMA fight or something. From what I’ve seen of it hockey is just as interesting as any other sport as long as both teams are giving it their all.)
–It’s just hockey culture, people that want to ban fighting want to sanitize the game and make it less violent. (I have no objection to rough hits or shoving as those seem like just part of the game and don’t force everyone to stop and watch you slug it out. Not fighting doesn’t mean you’re playing any less hard.)
CMV? Please? I would really like to be convinced and I’m sure my friends would appreciate it as well so I can stop ranting about this.
Less hockey fights – a threatening future for the NHL’s dirtiest teams
A sensational advancement in ice hockey in recent years is that the fighting graph is declining in NHL because people have disliked violence in a hockey game.
This is the 21st century and audience even die-hard fans want to see an amazing, entertaining faster game rather than a fight on the ice in leagues. But the old fans still want players to put off gloves and make hockey game full of suspense by initiating fights. ‘Fights has a major role in NHL’ argued by Bettman in an interview.
The NHL itself is in confusion about that issue. They want to entertain fans but with fewer injuries and traumas to players. However, the trend is changing automatically and fewer fights are observed in recent years. It is not bad to say that NHL wants a complete disappearance of fights over time with no action being taken up by NHL itself.
It might be expected that the future will favor clean teams and might make a contrast for dirty teams. The reason is that the fighting graph is declining day by day. A tremendous decrease has been seen in fighting on ice in the last ten years. The fighting figure that was 0.52 per contest in the 2010/11 season has now reduced to 0.
18 in the 2018/19 season. Young players like Connor McDavid and Petrik Laine have become conscious about safety and only 250 players are seen dropping gloves to initiate a fight last year.
NHL is focusing to ensure the safety of players and cut off brutality and aggressiveness from the league. The modern era is emerging with change and more kids are tempted toward hockey. But the die-hard fans are not in favor to eliminate fights from the league. ‘It is more entertaining to see a hockey game with major professional fights’, said the audience. However, the NHL is focusing to remove staged fights because the only normal flow is needed in-game.
Here comes the main point that if fights get out of NHL completely, it will put the carrier of dirtiest teams into darkness. Batman spoke out in favor of fights and to secure the future of dirties teams by saying: ‘Eliminating fighting would mean eliminating the jobs of the “fighters,” meaning these guys would not have NHL careers’
For the sake of the future of dirtiest teams, there is still needed to have staged fights within limits in the hockey league.
Otherwise, the dirtiest teams must play without fights with a complete change in playing style. The dirty players need to modify their behavior and play with less aggressiveness otherwise new fans will kick out them by disliking violence and ignition of staged fights.
The above statics concluded that fighting is on decrease day by day, but nothing could be suggested by NHL to stop or continue the pattern. But it is a must to say that dirty teams may face a decline in a career in the coming years.
The NHL is looking to a point of no return and decided to put efforts together that may change hockey league trends in coming years that will be liked by supports and opponents of hockey fights.
The conversation around hockey fights in the NHL has shifted
St. Louis Blues centre Brayden Schenn and Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman fight in the first period at Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota, on March 25, 2021.
David Berding/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Fighting’s back.
That’s the story, at least. That fighting was on its way out in the NHL, but has returned because the temporary divisional alignments have turned the regular season into a six-month-long Thanksgiving dinner. If you had to listen to your brother-in-law explain to you how to do your job for that long, you’d punch him, too.
“When you play the same teams over and over again, those things are bound to happen,” Calgary Flame Milan Lucic, one of the real maestros of this art, said recently.
Story continues below advertisement
The numbers don’t bear out the return-to-Thunderdome hypothesis. Fighting is up, but only relative to the most recent seasons. Right now, the NHL is averaging 0.21 fights a game, according to data from HockeyFights.com.
That’s a smidge more than last season (0.18) and the season before (0.19), but less than every other season before that. Far, far less than it was at its height in, say, 2008-09 (0.60).
When people talk about the increase in fighting they use words like “feel” – as in, it “feels” like there’s more fighting.
There isn’t. Not appreciably. So what’s changed?
What’s different is the conversation around fighting. All of a sudden, you can have one without being yelled at.
“When you’re carrying a weapon in a sport where you can equal things up once in a while, I think [fighting] does help the game,” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said the other day, when asked about the increase.
That sounds like a reasonable position to me. Nobody kicked up a fuss when Sutter said it. Had he tried it a few years ago – during the height of the moral panic over fighting – it would’ve been a headline.
As it turns out, this is the rare instance where given enough time and forbearance, everyone got what they wanted.
Story continues below advertisement
After a series of high-profile tragedies, the NHL needed to get rid of the goon. Not just the players who qualified as goons, but the entire concept. No more human tanks on skates. No more guys who maintained good stick discipline because if they took their sticks off the ice, they’d fall over.
The NHL got what it wanted, and in incredibly short order. A few rule tweaks and all of a sudden small and fast became an optimized skillset, rather than a hurdle to overcome.
At the same time, it was clear that players did not want fighting gone altogether. It’s not that anyone said that. It’s that no active players joined the anti-fighting crusade.
Given a million chances to do so – begged by some to do so – the likes of Sidney Crosby refused to go that far. The current generation of NHL stars spoke with their silence.
For a few years, there was a détente between the two camps. Fighting dipped precipitously. Everyone agreed to stop talking about the problem. It’s a remarkably effective way of overcoming problems that works even better nowadays because, a) the maximum attention span of the internet is one week, and, b) no one tries it any more.
After a couple more years, the fighter returned. He didn’t look like the old fighter. The perfected version of this new fighter might be Tom Wilson.
Story continues below advertisement
The Washington Capitals forward has goon-adjacent qualities. He’s enormous. He patrols the ice like a shark – best not to look directly at him. But he can also skate a bit and reliably score 20 goals.
For just a moment there, as many teams scrubbed the aggro out of their rosters, while a few stuck with one or two competent pugilists, the advantage of having a Wilson became enormous.
The Toronto Maple Leafs would be a good example of what happens when you do not have a bonafide intimidator in your lineup. You do all right in the regular season, and get sand kicked in your face in the playoffs.
Not so long ago, the Leafs seemed proud of this hole in their roster. They couldn’t talk up their “speed” and “skill” enough. They were applauded outside the game for their progressive approach to creating a kinder, gentler NHL.
But after they’d had their lunch money stolen a couple of times, they began signing the sort of guy you absolutely do not want to spill beer on in a crowded bar.
The new-look Leafs don’t fight a lot, but they are now staffed in a way that makes fighting possible.
No one wants a goon, but everyone wants a deterrent. That’s the solution the NHL arrived at.
Story continues below advertisement
The result is predictable. If you hire guys, in part, because they are good with their fists, they’re going to use them once in a while. They’re not stupid. They know what side their bread is buttered on.
So for all the talk right now about “frustration,” the professional hockey fight has also returned.
Exhibit A: Thursday’s Blues-Wild game. Just before the opening faceoff, Brayden Schenn and Ryan Hartman had a quick nose-to-nose convo. Their gloves were off as the puck hit the ice. Once the fight was done, a little shoulder pat from Schenn. This amiability continued in the penalty box, as the two appeared to have a good-natured back and forth.
Afterward, Schenn name-checked St. Louis legend Bob Plager, who died in a car accident on Wednesday: “I guess I got five [minutes] for Bobby tonight.
”
This was a textbook tactical fight – a “give the boys a jump” sort of thing – not the result of bad tempers. That is the exact sort of fight the NHL set out to eliminate.
The difference is that the fighters involved aren’t Ivan Drago types. They do this sort of thing occasionally, but not for a living. That’s the new red line of acceptability. As long as you don’t cross it, everyone will go about their business as though nothing’s happening.
Story continues below advertisement
Wisely, the NHL isn’t talking about any of this. It must have known it could never eliminate fighting (whatever that means, because fighting hasn’t been “eliminated” in baseball, either). The best the league could hope for is a socially acceptable equilibrium. All the excitement of a big tilt, minus the human wreckage years later. You can’t do it with rules. You have to trust the players to sort it out themselves. And they have.
Full credit to all involved here. You don’t often see a bottom-up solution in sports any more, but this is one of them.
They have begun to find that balance.
The numbers on fighting haven’t changed much. So maybe that’s what “feels” different.
John Scott ridicules NHL for $5,000 penalty
CLOSE
Autoplay
Show Thumbnails
Show Captions
Last SlideNext Slide
John Scott, a former NHL tough guy, says he used to respect Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson for his on-the-edge physical style.
But Scott said Wilson “crossed the line” Monday night with the “gutless terrible hockey” that precipitated a brawl against the New York Rangers and led to a season-ending injury to star Artemi Panarin.
Scott was even more shocked that Wilson, who has a long history of disciplinary action, received only a $5,000 fine Tuesday from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.
“What on earth is happening with the NHL right now?” Scott said. “(League disciplinarian) George Parros completely dropped the ball, he dropped his drawers, he dropped everything.
My thoughts on the Tom Wilson situation pic.
— John Scott (@johnscott_32) May 4, 2021
twitter.com/GUbNfgV963“It was a joke of a fine. Listen, I love this kind of hockey, I think we all do, but what Tom did, there’s no excuse for that. It’s insane to me that he only got a $5,000 fine.”
The brawl began after Capitals goalie Vitek Vanecek made a save and players began shoving one another. Wilson punched a prone Pavel Buchnevich in the back of the head, the infraction that was cited for the fine, then later body-slammed Panarin to the ice, causing the forward to miss the rest of the game with a lower-body injury.
Tom Wilson punches a prone Pavel Buchnevich to touch off a fracas, then flex in the penalty box (r @DanMyers) pic.twitter.com/6p8B9TVckV
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) May 4, 2021
Wilson received two roughing penalties and a 10-minute misconduct.
“Shame on you, NHL, you should have (done) something to protect Panarin,” said Scott, who has 36 NHL fights and several suspensions to his name during an eight-year NHL career, “and shame on Wilson, you ought to know better.
“
Wilson was suspended for seven games earlier this season for a hit that caused Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo to spend a night in the hospital. During the 2018-19 preseason, he was suspended 20 games, though it was reduced to 14 upon a review by an independent arbitrator, for an illegal hit to the head of St. Louis Blues center Oskar Sundqvist. That marked his fourth suspension in 105 games.
Scott was concerned about the precedent that the NHL was sending to other players by levying only a fine.
“What this means, it’s fair game, baby, in any scrum,” he said, adding, “If you go into a scrum anywhere on the ice and you see a star player, I’m throwing sucker punches, I’m grabbing this guy, I’m twisting ankles, I’m doing whatever I can because the worst thing that’s going to happen to me is a $5,000 (fine) because I don’t see anyone doing more than what Tom Wilson did to Panarin.”
The fine means Wilson will be available to play in Wednesday’s game against the Rangers, and their team is unhappy with the league’s response.
“Anybody in hockey, and certainly everybody in our organization, is very disappointed,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “A line was crossed. (Panarin) didn’t have his helmet on. He was vulnerable and he got hurt. To me, there was an awful lot there to suspend him.”
Autoplay
Show Thumbnails
Show Captions
Last SlideNext Slide
NHL safer with fighting, players say
Montreal’s George Parros and Toronto’s Colton Orr kicked off the 2013-14 NHL season by dropping the gloves twice, but the second time, one man ended up in the penalty box and the other in hospital.
It was opening night in the NHL, and the debate over fighting’s place in the game was already raging.
Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ray Emery fuelled the fire last week when he skated the length of the ice to fight an unwilling combatant in Braden Holtby during a third-period brawl.
Any time fighting is in the spotlight, the conversation moves toward abolishing it at the sport’s highest level.
The discussion could continue for years before it’s gone for good, but some in the hockey world do believe that fighting will eventually become a thing of the past.
The evolution of fighting
- 1922 — NHL institutes rules for fighting, including making it a five-minute major penalty.
- 1936 — Stanley Cup final between Red Wings and Maple Leafs features bench-clearing brawl.
- 1977 — NHL implements “third man in” rule that ejects a player who interjects into a one-on-one fight.
- 1979 — NHL grandfathers wearing of helmets by incoming players.
- 1987 — In effort to prevent large-scale brawls, NHL makes leaving the bench to join an altercation an automatic suspension.
- 1992 — NHL institutes the “instigator” rule, which gives the instigator of a fight an extra two-minute minor penalty and a game misconduct.
- 2005 — NHL adopts rule started in ECHL that includes an ejection fine and suspension for any player who instigates a fight in in the final five minutes of the third period or overtime and a fine for his coach.
- 2013 — NHL grandfathers wearing of visors by all incoming players and those with 25 or fewer games, makes it an extra penalty to remove helmets before a fight.
— The Canadian Press
“It’s a different world today. Things are changing,” said Hall of Fame defenceman Bobby Orr. “That new fan we’re trying to attract, they don’t want violence. … [But] that fear of getting beat up is a great deterrent.”
Fighting’s elimination may not be imminent, even after Parros’s concussion and a societal shift away from the acceptance of line brawls like the Flyers and Washington Capitals engaged in last week. But rock ’em sock ’em hockey isn’t the norm anymore, and it’s becoming increasingly possible to imagine the NHL without fighting.
“Some people would probably like it,” Buffalo Sabres tough guy John Scott said. “It’d be a little more skilled and flowed and probably less hitting and more transition play, probably like games in Europe.
“
In European leagues and tournaments regulated by the International Ice Hockey Federation, like the Olympics, fighting is punishable by ejection along with a five-minute major penalty. Going that route in the NHL, and perhaps considering suspensions, would prevent, or at least drastically reduce, ugly incidents related to fisticuffs.
But there’s no guarantee it would make hockey safer. Many players and hockey officials argue that eliminating fighting will lead to a chippier game.
“The fact of the matter is I think this game is safer with fighting in it,” said Brian Burke, the Calgary Flames’ president of hockey operations. “The amount of fighting in the game has been reduced dramatically, and that’s a good thing. It’s not going to go up, but I think it’s a central part of player safety.”
Steps to improve safety
In recent years the NHL has taken steps to improve player safety, mainly related to head shots. Rule 48 made hits to the head illegal, and suspensions increased to serve as a deterrent.
Fighting doesn’t carry the same standard. There were no rules in place to suspend Emery beyond a game misconduct and 29 penalty minutes, even if the league doesn’t support a player landing a dozen punches to an opponent’s head.
But the NHL has taken steps to reduce fighting without banning it. The instigator rule was instituted in 1992 to punish players who clearly initiate fights, leaving the bench to join an altercation carries an automatic 10-game suspension and so-called “staged” fights are becoming less popular.
“I was happy when [staged fighting] was gone because that was just a waste of time, that doesn’t change momentum. People have moved past that,” said Bob Kelly, a member of the Flyers’ “Broad Street Bullies” teams of the 1970s. “Two players collide, get up and want to have a fight, there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever.”
I think there would be a lot more guys running around, a lot more high-sticks, a lot more hits from behind.
– Stars forward Shawn HorcoffThat seems to be the consensus around the league. Current players would have to support rule changes that increase the punishment for fighting, and despite the recent public outcry most are in favour of keeping it. A 2011 NHLPA/CBC poll found that 98 per cent of players were against abolishing fighting.
Sabres captain Steve Ott fears that it would lead to so-called “rat” players taking over the game, while Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators figures there will be more illegal stick work.
“I think there would be a lot more guys running around, a lot more high-sticks, a lot more hits from behind,” Dallas Stars centre Shawn Horcoff said.
Of course there would be fewer injuries from fights, like the concussion Flyers winger Steve Downie suffered in a bout against the Capitals’ Aaron Volpatti.
“Obviously stuff like that will be out of the game if there’s no fighting,” said Jared Boll of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who had the third-most fighting majors in the NHL in 2013.
“But I think you’d see more just by people being dumb on the ice and running around and knowing that they don’t have to face anyone or answer the bell if they do something stupid.”
Not as prevalent
One of the common defences for fighting is that it’s always been part of the game. But whether players and fans like it or not, it’s not nearly as prevalent as it was decades ago, which partially has to do with the salary cap and teams prioritizing speed and skill of pugilism.
Through Tuesday, just 82 of 225 games played this season have included at least one fight, according to HockeyFights.com. There were a total of 30 in 86 playoff games last spring, and seven of those came in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarter-finals between the Canadiens and Senators.
“Basically fighting doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just about basically gone,” Kelly said. “Watching these guys play the game, the Stanley Cup finals have been outstanding. It’s just hard skating, and nobody fights in playoffs anyways.
You get the odd one here or there. To me, it’s pretty well gone as far as anything substantial out there.”
NBC Sports broadcaster Mike Emrick has charted fighting statistics for 25-plus years and estimated that the Flyers had 85 fights in 86 playoff games from 1982 to 1989.
Emrick noted the grandfathering of helmets in 1979 caused the number of fights to decline dramatically in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and the implementation of visors could have the same effect.
“Eventually the knuckles on the helmets just wore guys down and made them less effective as fighters,” Emrick said. “Now that we’ve adopted the face shields for all guys coming in, and we had 73 per cent of the players wearing face shields a year ago, eventually that evolutionary process, I think, will continue to where there won’t be much fighting at all.”
I have played in leagues where they didn’t have fighting, and there is a cheapness to a lot of players, a phoniness that can’t be challenged.
– Predators head coach Barry TrotzBeginning this season, all incoming players and those with 25 or fewer games of NHL experience were forced to wear visors. Previously a player with a visor could be given an extra penalty for initiating a fight, but now it’s a two-minute minor if fighters remove their helmets before a fight.
Commissioner Gary Bettman called it “purely a safety issue because we don’t want players getting hurt needlessly.”
Needless injury?
Even though it was a fall to the ice as opposed to a punch that injured Parros, it could be considered a needless injury. But not everyone believes eliminating fighting will lead to fewer injuries.
“I have played in leagues where they didn’t have fighting, and there is a cheapness to a lot of players, a phoniness that can’t be challenged, if you will,” Nashville Predators coach Barry Trotz said. “It becomes more a hack-and-whack with the sticks and cheap shots to get even.
“
In a world without fighting, Emrick believes more disputes will devolve into stick-swinging, like what Leafs star Phil Kessel did when challenged by Scott during the pre-season. Full face shields, like those mandated by the NCAA, could be the next step in protection, but that’s likely a long way away.
The NHL could look more like the European, college or international game if it outlawed fighting.
“The Olympic program doesn’t allow fighting,” said former NHL referee Bill McCreary, who worked three Olympic Games. “I think when the Olympics take place or you watch the world junior tournament which is under the same umbrella of the IIHF, you have to compliment them for the way their program operates. All North American people that see their players from their favourite teams go and participate at the Olympics can’t talk enough about the quality of the hockey.”
Former Boston Bruins tough guy Terry O’Reilly agrees about the college and international game and doesn’t believe fighting has a future in the NHL.
“Those are two of the best avenues of hockey that you could ever watch,” O’Reilly said on the Murphy’s Hockey Law radio program in February. “Watching Canada play the U.S. for a gold medal, there’s nothing better you could watch and there aren’t any fights.”
Of course the primary argument against that theory is that comparing the NHL over 82 regular-season games to the highest level of international play is apples and oranges.
“You don’t see them over the course of six months, you see them over a course of two weeks,” Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I don’t know how it would be.”
GMs support fighting ban
Many around the NHL don’t want to think about it. Three general managers — Pittsburgh’s Ray Shero, Tampa Bay’s Steve Yzerman and Carolina’s Jim Rutherford — told TSN they would support a ban on fighting, but most of the current generation of managers don’t seem ready for that move.
“When the fighting doesn’t exist, it’s a very physical game and there are times when you have to step up and let the other team know that nobody’s going to take liberties with your best players,” San Jose Sharks GM Doug Wilson said.
“I don’t see fighting going away.”
It might take decades before that appetite is prevalent, perhaps when players who haven’t yet reached the NHL retire and become GMs and the teams they run include those who grew up with a culture that was far less accepting of fighting.
But even if fighting is outlawed, it’s likely impossible to get rid of it altogether.
“My opinion is that I think it’s going to maybe not fade away to nothing but down to extremely isolated incidents,” Emrick said. “In baseball and in basketball if you fight you get tossed out, and if something happened that was so bad, you’d go for the fight and get tossed out to settle the score because you’re in the heat of battle and you’re not going to trust the hierarchy in a board room to make the decision that you want to pay the guy back that did your teammate wrong.”
Boudreau said hockey culture needs that. If Sidney Crosby takes a dirty hit, a Penguins teammate is likely to take action.
Even if it’s illegal, fighting may be the way to settle the score.
“There will still be fighting, there will just be harsher penalties,” said former enforcer Jody Shelley, now a broadcast analyst for the Blue Jackets. “A guy gets mad at a guy and he drops his gloves and they fight and go to the box, OK, maybe they’ll have to sit out a game. But at some point it’s just going to boil over.”
When tensions boil over today, a fight or two usually breaks out. Shelley can’t picture the NHL without that mechanism in place, but Boudreau knows it would be “different.”
Emrick agrees.
“If it were abolished altogether tomorrow, [the NHL] would become radically different, I think, right away,” he said. “There are all of these dynamics that make it a fascinating argument. But until it’s wiped from the books I guess we won’t know.”
90,000 Scandalous fight between the USSR and Canada. The youth fought “wall to wall”, the lights were turned off at the stadium, the referees ran off the ice – December 21, 2020
and in the history of hockey in general.
It’s about the legendary battle in the game between the national teams of the USSR and Canada, which happened in 1987. Neither before nor after the fight in Czechoslovakia at the level of the world championship had such a fierce felling happened.Go!
If you ask any hockey fan on both sides of the ocean, “What is your favorite tournament of the year?” Yes, the matches of the most talented youth on the planet, very many are ready to put above the Olympics and the leagues where their favorite clubs play. One of the reasons is on the surface. This is unpredictability and pure emotion, which adult players sometimes really lack. 34 years ago, Soviet and Canadian guys had too many of these emotions.
Topolcany, Trencin, Nitra and Piestany – these four cities hosted the MFM at the junction of 1986 and 1987. The luck to see the brightest match fell to the Piestans. From the confrontation between the USSR and Canada on the last game day, one could expect a serious tournament intrigue, only now the team of Vladimir Vasiliev in Czechoslovakia frankly failed.
In the first six matches, she was only able to beat the losers from Poland and Switzerland, missing out on any chance to rise above sixth place. In such a situation, ours could be suspected of lack of motivation, but not when opposite the team with a maple leaf on their chest.
“The Canadians, in order to become champions, had to beat us by three goals. Vasiliev invited the great Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov for the pre-match installation. He said: “You can lose the World Cup, but the Canadians must be defeated! They knocked out your eye – put it in place and run after the Canadian, don’t let him shoot at the goal … “ – Soviet national team defender Vadim Musatov recalled.
RIA Novosti
The Canadians knew why they went out on the ice, and confidently walked towards their goal.33 minutes passed and the North American team were leading 4-2 – a three-goal difference seemed to be a very achievable goal. But at this point, Maple Leaves’ plan to win gold medals collapsed.
Fatal was a blow with a stick performed by the Soviet striker Pavel Kostichkin, his colleague Theo Fleury turned out to be the victim. Within seconds, a massacre was taking place on the ice.
Who is to blame for this turn of events? The Canadians believe that the coaching staff of the USSR national team – according to their version, Vasiliev gave the hockey players a direct order to organize a mess on the ice.Ours had their own version – the North Americans, even before the starting throw-in, began to provoke the Soviet players, and the referees indulged them already in the course of the game, missing obvious violations. It seems that the truth, as usual, is somewhere in between, we can only reconsider the fight “wall to wall”. Without exaggeration, great.
This Rubilov’s entourage was what he needed:
- At some point, the organizers made an extraordinary decision to turn off the lights at the stadium – they hoped that this would stop the hot-blooded hockey players. The move didn’t work.
The move didn’t work.- Chief Justice Hans Ronning turned out to be not only a not very strong professional, but also a coward. Instead of trying to stop the carnage, he just fled the site at some point. Appointing a Norwegian for a match of this level was clearly a mistake.
- As a result, everything ended with an early stoppage of the match and the disqualification of both teams. The Finns took the gold medals with them, the Suomi team did not have to fight for them.
The International Ice Hockey Federation has shown that it can be no less tough than the participants in the fight in Piestany.All players of the USSR – Canada match received one and a half year disqualifications, the coaches were suspended for 3 years. Yes, over time, the sentences were reduced to 6 months, but they also looked very strict. Especially considering the stellar line-up of the meeting participants. Theo Fleury, Brendan Shanahan, Pierre Tarjon, Sergey Fedorov, Alexander Mogilny, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vladimir Malakhov are not the MFM, but a real Hockey Hall of Fame.
“The officials did not know what to do. The adults gave up on us, and there were frightened teenagers on the ice who could not put all their thoughts together, ” – complained Shanahan.
“We were young. Very young. Emotions were off the charts. And not everyone could act judiciously, ” – Fedorov supported him.
In the USSR, the video of the fight was very painful for both the participants and the leaders of domestic sports. Fortunately, they managed to avoid the most extreme measures in the end.
“They made him restricted to travel abroad, was disqualified for a year, and they began to carry him to all sorts of showdowns. I remember that at the Yunost hotel we were scolded by the respected veterans of the USSR national team Tretyak, Mayorov: “We disgraced the Motherland! How could you come to this ?! For this we must drive out of hockey, from the Komsomol! ” I was on the army team.I thought, if not in jail, then in the guardhouse for sure.
Parents in the Vladimir region got scared, they call: “Vadik, where are you? Are you all right?” I couldn’t sleep or eat normally for several days … ” – the same Musatov recounted.
Sport24
Download Sport24 app for iOS
Download Sport24 app for Android
Vladimir Krikunov: “We made silly and childish mistakes”
Dynamo Moscow head coach Vladimir Krikunov:
– We started well and scored both the first and second goals, but made such stupid and childish mistakes that they immediately got into their own goal.With the score 2: 2, they decided to play open hockey against Ak Bars. We immediately received a counterattack and conceded. Then more deletions, and the game was done. We lost big and illiterate in the second period.
– Why was Hietanen sent to the fourth five?
– An experienced one was assigned to young Alanov. Sergeev was placed in the top five, and began to run forward.
Tchaikovsky had been running before, but here …
– How do you like Rashevsky’s play?
– This is the only link that won the micromatch.Very good for the first match.
– Continuing the topic. This is not the first such mistake made by Zaitsev. How to fix it?
– Operation on the brain must be done. This is what they teach in children’s schools. I made such a gift with CSKA, with Sochi. Can he really cut something off in his head?
– What are the reasons for such serial failures when you miss a lot of pucks?
– They are trying to win back quickly. Yes, we missed it, yes, 2: 3. Play strictly further. As Chernomyrdin said: “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.”
– How would you rate Garip’s game? Why was he replaced only after the fifth puck?
– His guilt is not in the goals. Very gross defensive mistakes.
– Are the fights at the end emotions?
– Fights can arise in different ways. Sometimes on the sly. Sometimes you have to turn the game over.
– How does Mironov feel?
– Everything seems to be in order.
– Comment on Kucheryavenko’s exchange.
– No Lindbergh.Pankratov fell ill. Young people play in the fourth link.
– When are you expecting it? Is he on the Injured List?
– He was injured while playing with us. The puck hit the ankle. We are waiting for him tomorrow – and we’ll see.
Ak Bars head coach Dmitry Kvartalnov:
– Good game, we have finished the year. We are happy that we won, now we will have a rest, we have the next game with Dynamo on the 6th. Well done guys, happy new year!
– Nigel Dawes did not go out on the ice after a strong hold, why did you make such a decision?
– He went to the dressing room, the doctor said that he could not continue the game.
– Cormier’s strength moves, like today, can cost a team dearly in the playoffs, don’t you think so?
– I think it was a good hit today, I disagree, the referee knew better. It seemed to me that he played well and correctly. Nobody wants to hurt anyone, this is a game, this is emotion.
– Do you support Dmitry Voronkov, who stood up for his friend?
– It is customary for us in the team, yes, we take these deletions, but you cannot offend us.We stand up for our guys.
Youth Hockey League – Alexey Glushchenko: “I haven’t lost a single fight since childhood!”
We continue our series of great life interviews with our players. The new hero is a 19-year-old force-plan forward, a guy from Donetsk, Aleksey Glushchenko, who is spending his second season in the MHL. About the fight for the playoffs, the annual swimming in the ice hole, football, boxing and business, his favorite number and the football club, events in Ukraine, the most vivid memory and many other things, he told the press service of Wings of the Soviets.
WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO LOSE
– In the first match against the Russian Knights we were able to make a real comeback. Why, as you think, did not succeed in putting the squeeze on?
– In the first game, the starting segment acted timidly. There was nervousness, responsibility crushed, they understood that it was necessary to win. We didn’t play the first one and a half periods, then we conceded three, but it turned out to return to the game. Unfortunately, a stupid mistake in the majority led to this result.
– In the second game – a weak-willed defeat. Why didn’t you manage to compete with Vityaz?
– In the second game, to be honest, the attitude was exactly the same as in the first: to fight only for the victory. We cracked quick goals against our goal, and it is not clear what they were born of. We can say they created it for themselves. And I probably didn’t have enough strength to recoup. Including moral: after the first game we got hooked.
– Nevertheless, at the end of the match they still scored twice.Was the goal not to lose “dry”?
– Firstly, we always play for the fans. We see how many people come, including children and older people – this is very nice. The support of the fans is invaluable, it really matters to us! And, of course, I didn’t want to lose so weakly, they began to take other measures: fight, fight. I think this is what led to the goals.
– You yourself have participated in many skirmishes. Did you want to start a team?
– There was already such a score that there is absolutely nowhere to retreat.I thought about what to do to break the game. I couldn’t score, I had to look for a way to success through another door. Still, we managed to score two goals. But it was necessary to go out and play like that from the first minute. Moreover, the games are play-offs, with a principal rival. At stake is a ticket to the playoffs. That is why from the very beginning it was necessary to show the hockey that we demonstrated in the last 10 minutes. We wanted to go out and show in the second game that we are stronger, but, unfortunately, this did not work out.
DON’T LIKE WHEN I’m sorry
– Your second line looked pretty good the whole match, they even scored, however, with a skate …
– Yes, we had many moments, and dangerous ones. Me, including. The implementation let down: somewhere the puck flew up, somewhere the skill was not enough. There is no one but myself to blame.
– And you are self-critical!
– Why feel sorry for yourself? It is necessary to analyze errors.In fact, I do not like it when someone pities me. Better to say that I am so-so, then I will think and work to prove that they are wrong. I love it when they say directly what and where I did wrong, but I can’t regret it. Even to my mother, I try to tell that everything is fine and there is no need to feel sorry for me. Although mom is, of course, a special person. I do not tell her about my problems: the boy is an adult, he must solve problems himself. Parents are so worried, we are still at a distance.
– What is the team’s attitude towards the matches with the “Captain”?
– First of all, there are still chances for the playoffs.We will fight for the fans, for the emblem on the chest, for ourselves. So that the work that we have done does not go to waste. Of course, we hope that we will get into the playoffs – it’s too early to write us off.
– What gambling qualities do you consider to be the strongest in yourself?
– Power struggle. My job is rough. From the beginning of the season, the coaches said: “It’s not yours to beat.” Although I tried all the same, it was stopped. They said: “Lesha, do not do bullshit, but carry out clearly set tasks, and everything will be fine for you.”This does not mean that you do not need to score. On the contrary, a lot of goals are scored from a nickel, and whoever plays there better will win the match.
– And you score, and beautifully! Your and Mishkin’s puck against Riga made it to the TOP-10 best goals of the week. Have you seen, rejoiced?
– We saw the goal itself, but to be honest, I hear about the top for the first time. We do not follow this, we look only if it comes across. Basically, I watch cuts from the KHL, NHL. MHL – much less often.
THE FIRST GOAL IN THE MHL SCORE THE “CAPTAIN”
– You yourself threw Typhoon more than a month ago, although there are chances in every match, and they are quite dangerous.Why do you think you can’t score?
– In the second half of the season I came out after an injury, and the game did not go well, some incomprehensible deletions began to be missed. To be honest, in half of the cases I did not understand why I was being removed. And I am very dissatisfied with my personal game in the second half of the season. I will try to improve myself!
– In one of your interviews you said that the most memorable moment in the MHL for you is the first puck. Whose gate did you manage to hit?
– I came out after an injury, I couldn’t score five games, but I did it in the game with “Captain”! This was my first goal.Hopefully not the last one! It is with this team that the matches are coming. Probably, then I experienced the most vivid emotions. Although, to be honest, when we lost 0: 3 to the Russian Knights and scored the first goal, the emotions were similar. It seemed that we were just about to win … But when we conceded the fourth goal, of course, my heart was very annoying.
– What are your plans for the next season?
– Now we need to finish this one. While trying to abstract from everything else: sharpened for the end of the season.When we finish, I will decide what to do next, think what will be best for me, see what they offer.
WENT HOCKEY AT 11 YEARS
– You were born in Donetsk, but at the first official hockey tournament you played for the Omsk team. When did you move to the banks of the Irtysh River?
– Yes, I was born in Donetsk, when I was two, I left for Omsk with my family. I started hockey at about 11 years old. Before that, I was engaged in gymnastics, football, swimming.In swimming, I have the 2nd or even 1st adult category. All my childhood I wanted to play hockey, I constantly watched the games, but my parents did not send me there: there were successes both in football and in swimming, and my mother loves swimming very much. It turned out like this: the parents played volleyball, and together with them – the goalkeeping coach of ’99. He said: “Come and see!” Parents said, they say, let him come and try, nothing will work out and come back, otherwise he asks and asks, we will not give, then he will grow up and say: “You shouldn’t have given me away.”Actually, I came and left. Over time, I began to add, and now, I play in the MHL.
– How did you end up in Chelyabinsk?
– At about 13-14 years old, I myself decided to leave for Chelyabinsk. Lived there alone. Good school, there was an opportunity to go to the screening – why not give it a try? Came, they took me. There I finished playing until 17-18 years old for a junior. He joined the MHL, even played for the Polar Bears at some tournaments, but never made it to the main team. Quite a lot of guys, including me, were promised to be offered contracts at the end of the 2016/17 season, but in the end something went wrong.
There was an opportunity to go to the training camp, but I thought it would be better to continue playing in another club. And then just my friend went to see the “Silver Lions”, so I thought that I could send my resume there (statistics, height, weight, etc.). After some time, they called me back, called me, I arrived and, in general, stayed.
CAPTAIN’S ASSISTANT WAS IN TWO CLUBS
– As far as we know, Igor Galygin invited you to Wings?
– Yes.I, Efim and Igor Galygin have been teammates since last season. In the summer we called each other and found out who had any further plans. Igor said that he was in the “Wings” and that there was an opportunity to come here. I was given the number of Andrei Alexandrovich, in fact, they phoned, he said: “Come and see.” I arrived, talked to the coaching staff again, practiced, and they left me. Thank you very much for giving the opportunity to play, believe in me!
In fact, they told me at the last moment that the SKA-Silver Lions club, in which we played, was being disbanded.Before that, there was information that a certain backbone of people would be left: me and Efim as well. That is, we did not even bother about what would happen next. They promised that they would call at such and such numbers and invite them for a medical examination, in the end they called much later and said, they say, guys, I’m sorry, it’s not our fault, but you don’t need to come for a medical examination anymore – look for clubs, we leave only local guys. Immediately after that, in fact, we phoned each other, began to decide what to do next. I had such a good chance to prove myself here: in the city of Moscow, the great club “Wings of the Soviets”.
– In the Silver Lions, as in the Wings, you were the captain’s assistant. Do you feel comfortable in this role?
– Last season turned out to be crumpled: at the very beginning I broke my ankle and missed about one and a half to two months. He came out somewhere closer to winter, was recovering, looking for his game and firing at the very end of the season. But I was an assistant right after I healed the injury. Probably, coaches see some kind of personal, playing qualities. These questions are more worth asking them than me.If you trust, of course, you want to justify this trust.
– What are the “duties” of the assistant captain on the team?
– Coaches cannot always reach out or say something, and the captain and assistants are always with the team. They can try to explain the same thing “in their own language.” Maybe pick up some special words or find other methods.
I SORE ONLY FOR THE DONETSK “MINER”
– Some of your relatives still live in Donetsk.What do they say about the political situation there at the moment?
– My grandmother lives in Donetsk now, my uncle occasionally visits there, because he is my pilot, the commander of the ship. I have not been to Donetsk for a very long time, since 2012. When the Euro took place, I came there, and then the well-known events began.
As such, it was not possible to cross the border: unnecessary problems may arise. My father flew to Donetsk, saw relatives, but without me. However, I think there will still be an opportunity to go home.In general, the city lives on, what we see on TV is not always true. Of course, it is unpleasant that it happened like this. But I believe that God will help and everything will be fine!
Now the situation is constantly changing, but there is no open war. People work, study, rejoice, have fun. Of course they understand what’s going on. In Donetsk, a curfew has been introduced, for example, at 11 o’clock in the evening, no one can go out on the street: neither children nor adults, that is, the city is simply dying out at this time.There are patrols that can pick up a person for identification.
– Have you heard about the scandal that erupted around the Ukrainian selection for Eurovision-2019?
– Yes. Subscribed to Kievstoner on Instagram and saw how negatively he responds about this. I heard an interview with MARUV, in which she says that she loves her country and is ready to represent it. Therefore, to be honest, I do not understand all this. In one word, politics.
– Do you position yourself as a Russian or as a Ukrainian?
– I am Russian, but I come from Donetsk.And it will always be so. As a joke, I like to say that the Donbass spirit lives in me. And even now, one might say, Donetsk is not Ukraine. It is interesting that in general I do not worry about any hockey or football club – I like to watch a beautiful game. The only team I support is Shakhtar Donetsk. Of course, except for the club where I play.
– How are you doing with hockey in Donbass?
– I heard that there is a Ukrainian league, but, of course, at the moment its level is very low.Nevertheless, well done, that even under such circumstances they are trying to develop the sport.
MY FIRST KRAGS HAVE STILL HANGING AT HOUSES
– What city do your parents live in now?
– Parents live in Omsk, but they can come for a couple of days without any problems if I ask or if they themselves get bored. Of course, we see each other infrequently, but, nevertheless, they come.
– As far as we understand, your parents have nothing to do with hockey.Can you give advice on the game?
– My father is a military man, in his youth he was engaged in boxing. Mom is not connected with sports at all, she just likes swimming! In hockey, she still understands little: for example, she does not know the rules. Although, of course, the eye is trained, and by the visual picture he can understand how I play: bad or good. But for mom, I always play well, because it’s mom! She is a very kind person, she always supports me.
But the father understands and understands everything.He is always very unhappy: he expects more from me. My father watches every game, and after every match I call and ask how he is, and he already says: here and there it is good, but here it is bad. Mom also watches all the matches. Sometimes even, it happens, the father can not stand it when the game does not go, leaves, and the mother looks to the end. After the matches with Vityaz they, of course, were upset, they also hoped that we would play better. But we have sorted out the errors – we move on. After all, the main thing in life is to sort out mistakes. I hope that in the games with the “Captain” we will fix them.
– How did you become interested in hockey?
– This happened a long time ago! Dad and I went to a hockey game in Omsk, and I really liked it! I played everywhere: in the yard, at home, but I did not practice professionally. I hammered all the corners of the house, my mother, I remember, constantly cursed about this. I loved the hockey leggings! We have a hockey store next to our home, I often went there and dreamed that I would buy myself leggings, put on and go out into the yard. And for one of my birthdays they gave them to me! These leggings, my first ones, are still hanging in our house.I was then six or seven years old, and I only went to the section at eleven. But he wore them all the time: to the yard, to play, to walk. Regardless of how my future fate will turn out, this is a memory and a pleasant memory!
– Many hockey players cannot answer the question: what if not hockey? Can’t you imagine your life without hockey too?
– I do not have such. I’m a many-sided person. For example, I like some moments in business, I am interested in the field of trade.If we talk about sports, I like football, martial arts. I think I could have tried myself in many ways, and a lot would have worked out.
EDUCATION IS A HOLY
– Where are you studying at the moment?
– Now I am studying in Omsk at SibSUPC in my 3rd year. I graduated from the 10-11th grades as an external student. I wanted to enter the legal department, but I could not pass the history, and I had to go to the customs business. Studied at the commercial correspondence department.After a year of study, I was offered to transfer to the second year of the Siberian State University of Physical Culture on the budget of full-time education. As an athlete, they promised to help, to give some privileges at the close of the session. I agreed, especially since I studied part-time, and she does not give a respite from the army.
At the University of Physical Education, there are many guys and girls in the same position as me, there are opportunities to gain knowledge in a shorter time frame or at a distance. When our season ends, the school season is still underway, so I come home and try to attend couples, talk to teachers, and do some assignments.In general, in our family it is determined that education is a very important component. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. I dream of completing a bachelor’s degree with a coach’s diploma, and going to a master’s degree in a completely different specialty. I would like to try something trade related. Now there is such an opportunity, so it seems to me that this is a great chance to prove yourself somewhere else.
– On the ice you are a hot guy, you like to knock, but in real life?
– No, only on the ice, because this is a game, this is emotions.You have to get everything that sits inside. In life I am more reasonable, I try to talk, find the right approach. But some rigidity is also present in life. It is important not to confuse with cruelty: I am kind and sympathetic, as it seems to me, but at the same time I can be tough.
– As far as we know, sometimes you go to boxing training. Are you putting a blow?
– Yes, but I do it for myself, and not because I want to beat someone. I am a humane person, and we live in the 21st century.All questions must be resolved in words, and only as a last resort can physical strength be used. And so, yes, I like this sport. Since my father himself was engaged in boxing, he taught me from childhood, put a blow. He always said that I should be able to protect myself and my loved one, but I should never start a fight first.
If there is a conflict, first of all you need to try to settle it with words, because the consequences of rash actions can be irreparable.Although on the ice, these skills, of course, help. On the ice – emotions, on the ice sometimes you even want to fight, but in no case I am not positioning myself as a tough guy. First of all, I want to play hockey. Only in egregious situations: a score that does not suit the team at all, another player goes beyond all reasonable limits, I can not restrain myself. And I had only one full-fledged fight this year – with Dynamo St. Petersburg at the beginning of the season. And then I did not really retire for this: only two minutes.
– Seems like you’ve never lost a fight all season?
– Since childhood, I have not lost a single fight!
– But you have never boxed professionally?
– When I lived in Chelyabinsk, I went to the boxing section in parallel with hockey. Evening boxing workouts made it possible to combine. There we trained physics very well and, of course, practiced strikes, set up technique. I went there to improve my physical qualities.
EXPERIMENTS – FOR WEAK
– Your favorite number is 21. What is connected with it?
– It was my very first game number in Omsk. I was still small, and my father chose the number for me. It turned out like this: he came and asked what numbers were left, they transferred him – he chose the 21st, and the 21st number was already recorded in the statement. I don’t know, maybe this is fate? Also, when we chose this number, I was 12 years old, it turns out, as it were, the other way around.I live on 21st Street in Omsk. I even have a list with the number 21 in my passport, now I had to change: if I give an autograph, I write “99”.
– Why did you take the 99th in Wings?
– At the time of my arrival, the 21st was already occupied – I chose the 99th. In fact, I do not believe in all these signs. In any case, I try … Every time I tell myself that a strong person does not yield to the influence of circumstances or will accept. Figuratively speaking, I work for a year, work hard, and then bam, and I got up with my right foot.That’s it, it won’t work, shall we lose? No, of course, you need to believe in yourself and in God, and all these signs are for the weak.
– Do you really have absolutely no signs?
– No, of course, there are some small ones, but every time I try to convince myself that this is all nonsense, and there is no need to believe in it. For example, which side to put on the uniform. Sometimes I even force myself to do the opposite, not the way I used to, and this does not affect. Although sometimes it happens that I “start a riot”, change something, and the game will not work.Nevertheless, I try to convince myself later that this is all stupidity and human prejudice, and the point is completely different!
– Many hockey players say that they play more successfully under a certain number than under others. Do you have a different opinion?
– I do not care! At least play under 1! You need to go out and prove that you are worth something. And it’s not about the room. I do not care! Whatever they give, this is how I will play! But I in no way condemn the other guys, this is everyone’s business.
FOR BAPTISM EVERY YEAR I swim in the hole
– As far as we know, you are a believer, you even plunge into an ice-hole for Epiphany. Do you keep this tradition every year?
– Yes, I am a believer, and for Epiphany I dip into the hole every year since I was eight. Once I even dipped with a broken arm. I remember the first time my father suggested, I thought: “Why not?” I was little then, came in, my arms and legs were taken away, the rescuers who were standing next to me took both hands, dipped them three times and gave them to my father in his arms, because everything was stiff and speechless – a state of shock.But I said that now I will go every year! And every time just before the dive there is a tremor, but still I try to overcome myself. I saw there were little girls, aunts, uncles of different ages. I believe that it hardens both the body and the spirit.
I try to harden myself every morning – it maintains health and helps to properly tune in to the day. If you got up at random, gathered at random, then the day will pass at random. And when he got up, squeezed out, did a press, – on trifles – doused himself with cold water – everything: both the head works in a different way, and the mood is completely different.Of course, there are days when I can be lazy, but then I’m ashamed of it, I try to finish it in the evening.
– Where did you dip this year?
– We were in Vladivostok, and I dipped there. In the sea. It so happened that we played the match, and in the evening I managed to ask Andrei Alexandrovich to leave. Of course, he said to be careful, because, be that as it may, this is water, and even not warm, but let it go.
MY NAME ALWAYS STAY
– You are very fond of giving nicknames to your comrades.Can you remember the funniest thing?
– By the way, when I give someone a nickname, I say that it will definitely take root! First, everyone is offended, and then everything, one might say, becomes a part of them. The funniest thing I came up with when I was in Omsk in the sixth grade. My classmate’s head was like a banana. I gave him the nickname “Banana”. At first he was also indignant, did not like it, but after a while the guys told me that they called him “Banana” in the yard, and the coaches from some section.And then he enters my university! I walk into the classroom and tell him, “Oh, Banana, hello! Long time no see!” We talked. So much time has passed, but the nickname remains!
– In one of the interviews you said that you like to reflect. Do you often regret the actions you have taken?
– I often think about whether I did the right thing in some crucial moment. If the people in whose company I am find themselves in a difficult situation, I try to put myself in their place, think about what choice I would have made.And what to regret? You only need to go forward. Yes, there are moments that make you sad, but there are those that make you happy – this is life. I have long understood that experience only makes us stronger!
– What’s your most vivid memory?
– I came from Omsk to Chelyabinsk, they decided to see me at the tournament of teams of the 98s, that is, older guys. I played for the Polar Bears. When I arrived in Chelyabinsk, I played there for a while, and only then I got to Traktor.The match I’m talking about was just playing against Traktor. (“Polar bears” are the youth team of HC “Traktor” in the MHL, but there are two sports schools in Chelyabinsk: “Traktor” and “Polar bears”.) At that time, they were the champions of Russia, quite a few guys from that team were called up to the national team. We are losing 0: 3, and I score the puck! As a result, we lost 1: 3, but I will never forget those emotions anyway!
MAGIC NUMBERS
Each number has its own unique meaning and can even influence the fate of people connected with it in one way or another.To study these processes, a special science was even invented (and for some, pseudoscience) – numerology.
Numbers, as a rule, are of great importance for a hockey player: each athlete has a game number with which he becomes a single whole for the whole season, and maybe for the whole life. We decided to choose the perfect game number for Alexey Glushchenko. To do this, we studied the values of the existing natural numbers up to 9, identified the key characteristics and invited the athlete to note his characteristic qualities.
According to the results of the experiment, two numbers made up a perfect match for Alexei: 5 and 8.
5 – impulsiveness, resourcefulness, love of freedom.
8 – prudence, high demands on others, an excess of energy.
Well, from the point of view of numerology, the best game numbers for Alexei are 58 and 85. Let the hockey player try not to believe in magic and various omens, but who knows, suddenly it works? He promised to think it over!
Press Service of MHK Krylya Sovetov
Is this hockey, wrestling or a dancing bear show?
For the match Avangard – Vityaz
The Kontinental Hockey League can pick up second-rate and mediocre NHL players, for the most part, but this is what they have supplied in large numbers to the hockey world over the two seasons of their existence – a lot of brawls worth placing on YouTube …
This time, in the fight between Vityaz and Vanguard, it took very little time to move from the scuffle on the court to the complete emptying of the players’ benches.
In the video, we can see Jaromir Jagr during a fight, when he, apparently, tried new techniques of Greco-Roman wrestling.
And then we move on to the moment when the situation escalated. Two scuffles occurred, with the last starting after several planned skirmishes immediately after the throw-in. Eventually, the team benches and penalty boxes were emptied.
And if the KHL was worth punishing someone, then the goalkeepers of both teams would be the best.Each player in uniform met in a duel with one of the rivals, and all four goalkeepers seemed to be talking about Jaromir Jagr’s new hairstyle or the failure of the Russian national football team … Yes, perhaps Ray Emery’s influence on the KHL goalkeepers turned out to be insufficient?
As a result, the list of players who received the removal seems endless, and there are many familiar names in it, for example, Alexander Svitov, Anton Babchuk, as well as former tough guys from the minor North American leagues Sugden and Vero, who also participated in that fun.
As for the reaction of officials, the president of Avangard Anatoly Bardin accused the ringleaders from Vityaz … And the president of the KHL, Alexander Medvedev, promised to investigate.
Comments:
NastyNate :
Wow, it’s great to see Jagr’s hair and I just can’t believe he fought!
wingsluver4ever :
What, the goalkeepers didn’t fight ?! It’s funny to watch these four pretend not to notice the scuffle.
Even more amazing was the wrestling match between four participants, which looked like maneuvers during an ice escapade.
ranndino :
All advertising promotion of “Vityaz” is based on fights. In fact, they have no interest in playing hockey, as evidenced by their solid last place in the league, again this season.
PAS :
My God … I liked the goalkeepers the most !!! I think they set dates for their kids’ date!
PensDay_Chatter :
It would be even funnier if all this was filmed on a TV camera, and a couple of Russian commentators went crazy with what was unfolding in front of them.
tim :
Half of the KHL have nothing to do in the league, but the other half needs to play with someone.
schwab :
Hahaha. These goalkeepers impressed me. The rivals hugged each other and just watched their teammates fight.
Wing Nut :
In my opinion, it is amusing – the crowd seemed to be shouting “defend yourself … defend yourself” as the fight continued. And the goalkeepers, it seems, would like to drink some vodka instead of fighting with each other.
And I’m just wondering – does the KHL subsidize the government? I ask because the stadium looks too small and will not provide enough income for the multimillion dollar salaries for which NHL players flee there.
MOSScomeBACK2vikes :
This is just the only reason to watch hockey.
Joe E-Devils onslaught :
Fighting Celebration! Jagr was trying to make a guillotine maneuver! However, this is not a complete cleanup of the player benches if the goalkeepers were not involved too.And I have never seen people fighting two on one in a hockey brawl, what a cowardice.
Sven M :
So, it’s time for someone to teach Fedor [Emelianenko] to skate.
Reppin 4rm Big D to Jrzy :
This is what we’re talking about … if Russia wants to advertise itself as tough guys fighting the USA, then it is the goalkeepers talking team on team in the middle of a fight that deserve, from the Russian point of view, punishment.
Norseman :
Cool, when their benches were empty, they also let the guys out of the penalty boxes. That’s anarchy.
jrh3526 :
It reminds me of bloody rivalries between teams … it’s great to watch, but fights like this, with empty benches, are a thing of the past in the NHL.
habs1rule :
Oh, seven casualties reported, penalty boxes crushed …
NHL_SharksFinatic :
Yes, it was quite exciting.It looks like some players were preparing for the Summer Olympics … forget about MMA, the KHL has to think about wrestling techniques.
Something amused me.
1. Goalkeepers. In my opinion, they looked incredibly funny just by spending time there. There was absolutely no need for them to fight, so they stood, talked about how stupid the teams looked from their point of view, and continued in the same spirit.
2. Completion of fights. After knocking out (or at least trying to knock out) the other guy’s brains, they just hugged each other.And then they on their own suddenly stopped fighting and, as if nothing had happened, rolled away.
Ron L. Detroit Sports Nut! :
Yeah, the crowd of 3849 people got an incredible show in this match!
Adam :
Great. The fans love it, people talk about it. Here’s what we need to do – not use this kind of fighting to stop fighting, but to teach people the meaning of the game in general.
chickenseizure :
Cool! This is better than anything that has happened in the NHL since almost all contact wrestling was banned. It’s sad that Russian hockey is cooler than North American.
Gothica :
Want to keep fans interested, Gary Battman [head of the NHL]? Let the fighters do their job and stop emulating the Finnish League. Things like this can happen once a season, but let them be! You will attract more fans if they can catch glimpses of what happens when two teams that can’t stand each other collide.Like these two.
Caligiuri Fan :
Is this the Russian version of Hanson Brothers?
waldrons @ :
This is the reason that after the attack on the guy, they just rolled to the side and hugged each other: they have respect for each other …
Bettman’s Nightmare :
It is simply impossible for hockey to defend such fights. There is no “code of honor” here.Fortunately, this is the KHL, so no one is watching anyway, but when such fights happen in the NHL, it can be difficult to explain what happened to fools who don’t know anything about the sport.
The Puck Report :
It is great to see the unique North American contribution to the prosperity of overseas hockey.
chris c :
So, Jagr started wrestling or wrestling ???
Allan :
Foolishness reigns today.The fans who paid a lot of money to see the hockey prowess turned out to be more interested in this “hockey waltz”. The only thing missing was the music … Now switch parterres, one to the left, two to the right. Like a good fight? Then change your sport and watch mixed martial arts. They also don’t use clubs.
Lucy :
So this is the whole point of hockey ????? It’s just disgusting. We must remember that the game began on flooded areas on the street, and real men played there, and they did not start such fights as they do today (if they can be called men at all).Just play hockey. And if you want to fight – go into boxers … Go back to real hockey !!!
Derek Speed :
Finally, the Russians have learned to play Canadian hockey, now they have to bring up quality players in the next five years !!!
mysteryacid :
Here’s another reason why the KHL are clowns … Most KHL players are a bunch of “exes”, and they will never become “real”. What else to expect other than weak hockey and a classless brawl.
jasonicus :
Just a clinic … And the KHL still wants to compete with the NHL? How, how, how.
lester :
It seems that neither the players nor the stands needed hockey.
Vincent L :
Wow, it’s good to see that Ray Emery made a positive impact based on his experience with the Senators. Those were the good times when the Sense fought the Sabers and the Flyers.
Cynthia :
Just ridiculous.I would be very angry if I only got this for my money. What a worthless bunch.
Adam B :
How many people were there? About 3.5 thousand? How, then, can a league be profitable given their players’ salaries?
Or just Russian oil barons squandering their fortunes on dancing bears? Wow.
pashux :
Hockey of the old days is ALIVE … in Russia?
onecorsair :
It’s hard for me to say this, but this is an example of how the United States is trying to bring peace and security to the whole world.Nothing works but an increase in violence, and super-patriotic fundamentalists on both sides indulge in it.
Elvis H :
No, it must be some kind of prank, something like special effects … no, Russian players never fight … hahaha (that’s exactly what they said … striking with their clubs behind the judges’ backs). So who are the hockey hooligans now? And Jagr also participated? all these veteran players … how funny, and they also say that this only happens in the NHL … monstrous.
Laurence :
I like it !!! But leave this only in Russia.
matt v :
Wow. What a dirty league.
eagreen3 :
Don Cherry will no longer be able to claim that Europeans are sissies.
Macho :
Yes, seriously, how does the KHL manage to pay the players? Such a stadium will accommodate no more than 4 thousand.I like fights, but this one felt like a sort of exchange of clicks in the final match.
mcguelph01 :
I can’t believe this made the news at all. Mediocre league, where everything is second-rate. CHL is a hundred times cooler as a league than this one. Also make a video with monkeys on ice …
alain smithee71 :
Even Europeans love a good hockey brawl. Further proof that Batman has lost touch with hockey fans.
Nico v :
And I like this type of hockey – “crush them, crush them”, not today’s NHL. True, it’s good that I didn’t pay $ 150 for a ticket to see the 4-minute match.
Funks :
European fools, hockey fights for North Americans. So, we are sure – this is a KHL match ???
Leeanne :
What’s going on with such hockey teams, they are always ready to fight with someone, and these overseas ones don’t even really know how to play hockey.This is really, really, a good example to teach our children, who are starting to play hockey, that it is possible to fight, and then let them get injured.
red rose :
When will these so-called grown men mature? Going in for sports does not mean fighting – you have to show your best qualities … in all sports people become an example for young people … please be responsible …
Cozzy :
I can’t believe I wasted five minutes of my life on this nonsense – the goalkeepers were probably thinking the same thing.
What a mockery – and the NHL was worried that such a league would entice players?
All they want is thugs like Brashear, Orr, Ott and company. So let them get these players, and the real hockey players stay here.
BooBoo :
So what do you call such a “gong show” in Russia?
KHL!
jhoffman27 :
Is it just me alone that it all looks like a production?
I mean a couple of things.
1. The fact that, despite all the brawls, nobody got really powerful blows. 2. The fact that some guys who were randomly paired up suddenly decided to stop fighting, even though there was not even a judge nearby – for no reason. 3. Calmness of the guys who went out on the ice from the team benches or from the penalty benches – they seemed to jump onto the ice just to make the show more impressive. 4. And the goalkeepers seemed to just sit and drink coffee together.
So this all seems fake to me.
richardhayso :
Such a pitiful sight. Players have to pay viewers to watch it.
severinnowicki :
Fighting should be prohibited in all sports. It’s fun, but people can get hurt – especially on hard ice with sharp skates. Teams are ready to endure the current punishment, especially if they think they will lose anyway.And fights break out so easily these days …
walt w :
Yeah … where-where ?? what commands ?? what league ?? damn, who cares about all these exes … anywhere … useless … no one … if you want to see good hockey – go to local courts and watch the children play … they play because they like hockey … and everything you see here is just nowhere no good … anyone involved in this kind of hockey should be ashamed …
David B :
Hockey: A game in which the overall IQ [intelligence] of both teams is lower than the scoreboard.
Trevor :
Who said that only Canadians love hockey fights? NHL executives should check out this video.
ryanfancey :
Hahaha. It would be exciting if any of these dumbheads really knew how to fight. Fights like this happen in the KHL, not the NHL, because nobody wants to get hurt in such stupid fights. Guys can’t punch even to save lives.It looks like it’s all just a play, and both teams ended up rolling around like a bunch of fools. What a mockery. Set Colton Orr and Bugard on them, and they will be able to clean the floors with both teams at once.
Trevor :
Hey, they’re just learning this style of hockey. Give them time and they will learn how to fight. The fans seem to like that.
Shelley G :
The only sane on the ice were the goalkeepers.
Rick B :
So many posts – and no one has accused Canada yet.
Rob :
Jaromir, I miss your NHL game so much. You decided to leave so easily, I just don’t understand … why not spend your entire career in the best league in the world. You could easily finish second on points of all time, so why ???? Tell me why???
sacred_97 :
These guys just don’t know how to fight.They fight like little girls. Teach them how men fight !!!!
hayden_dude1 :
There was not even blood. It’s like wrestling, not fighting …
Rock :
This is a prank, right? It must be a production … look, a couple of punches and both give up … what are the fans doing?
mlisica19 :
This is not hockey. It’s just that the Russian league is trying to make matches more popular … Look at the referees and how they don’t do anything to stop the clashes between players attacking each other.Where is hockey here? One big show, that’s why I hate this. And besides, Russia is showing that it fears how powerful the NHL is becoming, and also demonstrates its desire to always remain an elite league.
Scott :
What a ridiculous prank … everything looks like a production, no guy is capable of punching.
Fred :
Hahaha. Everyone fought, and the goalkeepers just stuck there, talking a little to each other.Some of the brawls looked a little silly, but in others, they were cut like that.
crist33l :
I wonder what Don Cherry thinks about this match? 🙂
so and so :
That’s why I don’t watch KHL matches. Sorry sight. I don’t want to support that.
nelson95 :
Surprised that the gangster owners didn’t shoot.
Jay :
If any of the guys wants to look cool and entertain everyone, they can reach the goal by flying out of the game.Here’s a choice, but you shouldn’t do that – just score an incredible goal … there should be no fights.
cometboy :
They should all be kicked out of the game for the rest of their careers, not the season … a bunch of clowns vainly striving to be cool !! go to real life!
JOPS :
Only goalkeepers turned out to be smart players in the whole battle! Many players “fought” without much interest, they just delivered some kind of blows.There was no provocation, no organization, just a couple of guys suddenly began to fight for no reason, then “couples” began to form, as if everyone was looking for a partner, just so as not to be alone.
This is reminiscent of school dances, when no one wants to be the last to stand, when everyone else is dancing, so just grab the first one and dance with him so as not to feel like a loser!
That’s it, guys, all these little sissy brawlers are losers! The only exceptions were the goalkeepers! Well done, they didn’t follow the rest of the sheep! And here’s another, “fans”.If you want to see how guys thrash each other to a coma – then go to boxing, wrestling, fights without rules or to a fight club !!! Why do you support hockey players for not playing hockey ?! If you come to a race and the jockeys suddenly start fighting, you say, “Hey, stop fighting, start racing! I bet my money! ” And if I got to a hockey game where the players started to fight, I would boo them !!! And then I would go out in protest, and, ideally, the whole crowd of fans would follow me.
If we boycotted unnecessary violence in sports, teams would lose money and leagues would be forced to tighten rules. And then, perhaps, we could again look at the game of hockey, and not at the game like “who can turn whom into a vegetable?”
chic :
Hockey is hockey, and fighting is part of the game. But here we saw nothing but a bunch of former players who had a little fun. Hopefully in this league they don’t pay players to play at all, because I wasn’t impressed by that.
jascadoa :
This could go badly for the NHL. There are enough Neanderthals like Don Cherry who are still looking for such things (although, of course, Cherry will turn a blind eye to this situation, since we are talking about Europeans). This kind of thing sells well and can get attention in the States … People love violence. And the NHL is mired in the misconceptions that they can become the leading sport, but they don’t know how to achieve it … and such things can be contagious …
I slam islam :
The funny thing is, none of these “prima donnas” will try to do this in the NHL, but they are so cool in the Russian second-rate league.Very funny to watch. Fortunately, most of these weaklings left the NHL! Almost as useless as the Americans!
archstanton1978 :
Worst playground fight ever!
Becky :
Wow, there are tears in my eyes! Reminds the good old NHL brawls of the 70s !!! Down with Batman !!!
Steve :
I really like good hockey fights, but it’s just a pitiful sight.Is that what they call hockey? Show the game … this is not a show for you.
90,000 Mass brawl at the end of the match “Salavat Yulaev” – “Avangard” outraged Alexander Kozhevnikov
+
A
–
“We are turning hockey into a scuffle”
The score is 3: 1 in the hockey playoff series is not a verdict. This is exactly what Salavat Yulaev will try to prove tomorrow, having such a liability in the confrontation with Avangard.The fifth meeting will be held at a full house in Balashikha, and it is far from the fact that the series will then return to Ufa. Alexander KOZHEVNIKOV, a well-known hockey player in the past, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, shared his opinion on the possible completion of the final in the East with MK.
“Right now, Avangard is a more mobile and skilled team than Salavat Yulaev. Of course, the “hawks” have problems – to take at least not the most stable game of goalkeepers, but I am sure that tomorrow the team will be mobilized from and to, and Bob Hartley will prepare his guys for any development of events.I think Avangard will do their best to finish the series tomorrow, at the home arena. “Salavat”, I think, has hope for one person – for Juhu Metsola. So I estimate the likelihood of completing the series in the fifth game as very high, ”Kozhevnikov said.
Alexander Viktorovich could not ignore the topic of the mass brawl in the last seconds of the last meeting in Ufa: “Many say that the guys got nerves, but what are the nerves three seconds before the end? I understand that when the situation is heating up in the second or third periods, especially if someone hooked someone, they could not stand it, then yes, this is a battle.But when in three seconds – it’s ugly. That doesn’t make hockey look good. I believe that hockey is an art, and we turn it into a scuffle. If you can’t show the game – go to boxing! ”
Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 27945 of April 6, 2019
Newspaper headline:
“We are turning hockey into a scuffle”
90,000 Hockey fights | Blogger moi5kopeek on SPLETNIK.RU 28 July 2014
Fights are a common thing in hockey.Small fights happen all the time. Even women fight …
and children
Coaches sometimes argue very hotly (Patrick Roy makes a row in his debut game as coach of the Colorado Avalanche)
The biggest fight in hockey is considered to be the mass carnage of 1987 at the match between the youth teams of Canada and the USSR, which turned into almost an international scandal. The Canadian national team kept the score and claimed the championship, but it was her player who instigated the fight, hitting the Soviet hockey player.All players participated in the fight, including the benches. The judges unsuccessfully tried to stop the fight, but after half an hour they left the ice and announced the disqualification of both teams, including the coaches.
Hockey is a power, contact sport in which jerks are common. Add to this the excitement, temperament and emotions of the players, which can easily lead to a fight. Hockey players are heating up very quickly and a fight may be the only way to “discharge”. More often the reason for the fight is the emotional state of the hockey player at that time, and not hatred in the opposing team.There are also professional fighters on the ice – tough guys, now they prefer power players.
Conventionally tough guys can be divided into the following types:
1.hunter. The task of such a tough guy is to physically injure the leading forwards of the opposing team. Tough guy goals before the game are set literally by surname.
2.bodyguard (police officer). The task is directly opposite to the task of the hunter, namely, to protect the valuable player from the enemy tough guys.
3. General power team support. This is a versatile player who, at the right time, attacks the players of the opposing team also physically. It is needed in order to “punish” the opponent for a dirty game, to serve as a psychological deterrent for the opponent to start using dirty hockey techniques.
A power hockey player is a player who uses an extremely tough style of play, in other words, acts tough in game moments, and not in fights .Power hockey means throws, tackles under an opponent, intentional collisions or crashes into the opponent, hitting the opponent against the board, etc., which, however, are within the rules of . Tough guy just starts a fight, which in itself is a violation. The goal of a power hockey player is to take the puck away from the player who owns it, or to stop the opposing player in his actions on the field with violent actions (which, however, often leads to serious injuries). In a direct fight, power hockey players also show themselves on a good side, but fistfight is not their goal, and therefore the “silovik” deliberately avoids fights.Power hockey players do not protect or patronize anyone.
now slides:
Kevin Bieksa (no. 3)
Ryan Kesler (no. 17)
Ilya Kovalchuk (No. 17)
Jamie Benn (no. 14)
Alexander Ovechkin (No. 8)
I watched “Evening Urgant” with him, the presenter called Alexander a tough guy, if I were Ovechkin, I would have slapped Ivan with a club, since she was lying next to him))
Evgeny Malkin (No. 71) and Alexander Ovechkin (No. 8). 2008 year.They were then separated, and the media then for a long time exaggerated their “enmity”, which both deny.
Evgeny Malkin (No. 71)
Sidney Crosby (# 87)
Bonus:
How Malkin stands up for Crosby
and vice versa
All the world!
Updated 07/28/14 22:46 :
Forgot to add:
Jonathan Toews (# 19)
Updated 07/28/14 23:36 :
Duncan Keith
with Bieksa
HC Avangard | Avangard forward Evgeny Timkin: “A beautiful goal is better than a spectacular fight”
18-year-old Evgeny Timkin made a lot of noise in last year’s arenas
KHL.It’s no secret that brawls often generate more viewership.
hype than goals. The young forward of Avangard feels himself in this
component of the game, like Ichthyander in the water. He didn’t care about age
opponents and their number. In the November meeting of the past season with
Timkin grappled with Lokomotiv at the same time with Tkachenko, who ran
finish off the puck fixed by the goalkeeper, Semin, who rushed to the rescue
teammate, and Guskov, who tried to drag the raging youth away.
At the recent, September international tournament among youth teams
the grenadier (height 192 cm, weight 93 kg) challenged four players at once
Finnish national team.It is no wonder that after such feats the pupil
Murmansk ice hockey, Alexander Yudin’s compatriot gained a reputation
“Nazarov’s heir”. Eugene himself does not want to be perceived
exclusively as tough guy. “I want to score goals,” he says.
Apparently, this is why he answers questions about fist exploits in monosyllables, with
easy laziness and a certain confusion …
Stupid questions and dirty Finns are pissed off
– Zhen, you weren’t bothered with questions about fights?
– And you there too … No need to talk about poetry, about the soul …
– Okay, then the eternal Hamlet question: to beat or not to beat?
– Depends on the moment.In hockey, different things happen. Sometimes you have to beat. Sometimes it is not necessary.
– As a child, did you have the same philosophical attitude to fighting?
– Anything has happened. Like all boys, he fought. I won more often. Sometimes I got it in the ears. But this is less common.
– Do you dismiss your fists in everyday adult life?
– Of course not. Do I need it? I leave adrenaline on the ice. In all sorts
street showdown never get involved. In general, I am very
calm, balanced person.
– What in life can get mad?
– Well, how can I say … Sometimes stupid questions …
– Does this concern journalists? – Just in case, I took a step back.
– Not necessary. Each person. I don’t like meanness, lies when
the person is slippery as a slug … But, I think, America with its revelations
I have not opened. Most normal people experience similar
feelings for the above.
– Your fight simultaneously with four Finns
has been a hit on the hockey Runet for a long time.Surely not stupid
they brought you questions …
– The Finns played extremely dirty against my partner: first they hit
back, then to the head. You can’t do that. All living people. What if
will you cripple? .. Play is a game, but you need to think about the consequences before
to commit such a dirty trick. I hate this. At least
it’s not masculine. So it fell, and – away we go …
To be or not to be Nazarov-2?
– The first and currently the last Russian
tough guy in the history of the NHL is now the head coach of “Traktor” Andrey
Nazarov.No desire to become the second? Moreover, the clogging “police”
now in the NHL in the price. You can score goals, and your opponent, if anything,
score …
– To be honest, I didn’t think about it … I’m at a loss to answer. I
I have already said many times that I do not want to be highly specialized
tough guy. I can score goals and I want to do it. If the situation says:
“We need to fight” and it will be useful for the team, no questions asked –
as a pioneer: always ready. Fighting on ice is not a simple scuffle.If a
if you want to fill someone’s face, you can go outside, find the first
a dark alley and the side of the first oncoming oncoming traffic and others
body parts. A hockey fight is a way to shake things up, start a team
turn the tide of an unsuccessfully developing match.
– How do you feel about the surplus of the profession in general?
tafgaev: regular concussions, metal plates on the skull
for the majority and other good … Could sacrifice health, so that
devote your life to ice fighting?
– About the iron pieces on my face for the first time I hear, – Timkin sincerely
surprised and briefly fell silent, apparently digesting what he had heard.
