What disturbed me the most about this video was watching the Mom at the bottom of the video looking concerned at the beginning, then clapping her hands at the bench clear and tremendous violence to follow....
WTF??? Let the video speak for itself.
tdr
I added this relevant commentary from J_Undisputed --- he makes good points below:
Yeah, this just seems to be an exhibition put on by a bunch of kids trying to look like the guys on TV. There is no message sent except for that of stupidity. The funny thing is.. thinking back. Hockey fights were less of a spectacle and sensationalized before Bettman's PR team started screaming TABOO!!! and league officials started trying to impose their glorified hall monitor power by shaking fingers at players before the gloves even come off. This sounds mean, but I really hope a Ref catches an errant punch and is knocked cold while trying to stick his face in the middle two guys mixing it up. The sooner it happens, the sooner things can get closer to being the way they were and kids like the ones above get to see that fights are a part of hockey and they are done for specific reasons and can notice the way it develops naturally on the ice.... i.e. momentum change, standing up for teammates, sending a message to cheap shotting blind siders, etc.
Then pen is mightier than the sword and the rule book will soon be overflowing with extra rules with no concrete criteria for application and left up to the discretion of refs. Sooner or later the pen fails and you should have a sword handy. And the more effective question before doing something questionable is not "can i get 5 minutes if they see it wrong?" but "Is there someone waiting to punch me in head even if I get it right and is it really worth it?" The answer will always be yes for the guys that live for this game. Whether or not that kind of passion lives in every player on the ice these days is really questionable. With it becoming fashionable for rookie posterboy captains to jump other guys off the faceoff, delivering shots to the groin in team scrums and then being protected by the refs before other guy gets his bearings and starts chucking bombs...it appears the instigator rule only works selectively. Fighting has never become more of a sideshow then now. The only time it made the news before was for full bench clearers and team dustups... or brawls in the stands between players and opposing fans... ah, yesterday...
Yeah, this just seems to be an exhibition put on by a bunch of kids trying to look like the guys on TV. There is no message sent except for that of stupidity. The funny thing is.. thinking back. Hockey fights were less of a spectacle and sensationalized before Bettman's PR team started screaming TABOO!!! and league officials started trying to impose their glorified hall monitor power by shaking fingers at players before the gloves even come off. This sounds mean, but I really hope a Ref catches an errant punch and is knocked cold while trying to stick his face in the middle two guys mixing it up. The sooner it happens, the sooner things can get closer to being the way they were and kids like the ones above get to see that fights are a part of hockey and they are done for specific reasons and can notice the way it develops naturally on the ice.... i.e. momentum change, standing up for teammates, sending a message to cheap shotting blind siders, etc.
ReplyDeleteThen pen is mightier than the sword and the rule book will soon be overflowing with extra rules with no concrete criteria for application and left up to the discretion of refs. Sooner or later the pen fails and you should have a sword handy. And the more effective question before doing something questionable is not "can i get 5 minutes if they see it wrong?" but "Is there someone waiting to punch me in head even if I get it right and is it really worth it?" The answer will always be yes for the guys that live for this game. Whether or not that kind of passion lives in every player on the ice these days is really questionable. With it becoming fashionable for rookie posterboy captains to jump other guys off the faceoff, delivering shots to the groin in team scrums and then being protected by the refs before other guy gets his bearings and starts chucking bombs...it appears the instigator rule only works selectively. Fighting has never become more of a sideshow then now. The only time it made the news before was for full bench clearers and team dustups... or brawls in the stands between players and opposing fans... ah, yesterday...