The Fight Culture Has To Change (UPDATED)

The role of enforcing has always been a part of the game and the fighting culture of hockey has it's place, but I am beginning to feel that the culture is forgetting when it should be used - and now the fan's need and want for fighting is taking over.  This is a problem with the culture of fighting and hockey.

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...

GOALS, WE GOT EM!!!!

RANGERS BOTTLE LIGHTNING; FLOOD SCOREBOARD AGAIN!

HOLY SH….*deep breath* Hot Damn, Ranger fans. Who’d have thunk it. Fo r the second game in a row, we score over five. This time at the expense of those cabana boys from Tampa Bay.

Now, I’m not a stats guys but even I can’t contain a smile when looking at the numbers. See for yourself with the official recap.

Sixteen different Rangers registering at least one point over 3 periods, punctuated the stunning performance in front of a ecstatic Garden Faithful (and the first meeting between the The Dark Ranger's scribes) hoping to stretch the stomping of Montreal beyond Sunday’s game. The first surreal period started quickly with a Voros taking on the PIM league leader, Konopka in a lively scrap that got the crowd into it quickly and got the ball rolling on a ride that wouldn’t end for 60 min.

In contrast to many games past where seemingly no Ranger wanted to step up, there were several players tonight that all in their own way, put the team on their backs and carried us to victory. With the first goal of the game, Dubinsky would take his first part of the his Gordie Howe Hat-trick. The assists would come from two players that had their own missions. Marian Gaborik getting his first of 4 assists on the night and Vinny Prospal who would continue his Vendetta against the Tampa team that bought him out and cast him aside just months earlier. As the goals rolled forth, each with more surprise, bewildered Blueshirt fans looked skyward toward the jumbotron in amazement as the names exploded with the spontaneity and spectacle of a fireworks display on the Hudson.

The noise came booming over the loud speakers, “RANGERS GOAL, HIS # of the season SCORED BY CHRIS DRURY; ...DAN GIRARDI; …ENVER LISIN; …AARON VOROS; …MARC STAAL; …CHRISTOPHER HIGGINS” . With each name and assist announcement, the faces flashed across the screen, the cheers reached deafening levels and the faith grew and blue hearts swelled with pride. After a second fight with Malone gave Voros less to celebrate and Dubinsky got the better of Halpern to complete his Howe hatter, the minutes would wind down and we clamored for more and when it was all over a deep cleansing breath could be heard across the stands, as we not only survived another game, but we commanded a win for the second time in a row and rather than be surprised at ourselves… the team reaffirmed that its how things should be and further distanced themselves from the fluke accusations after the Montreal game.

So how good were we? Better than good enough. Granted, the wilting Tampa Bay defense may have fallen by the wayside, early… but amazingly as it sounds, this was not a game of goals. This, much like the come back win over the Habs was bout the passion. Good things happen, when this team shows up ready to defend their home and each other. For some, maybe its superstition… Henrik’s white liberty helmet design is 2 for 2 and got its mojo working. I’ll chalk it up to some scoring allowing the King to kick back and little and play more relaxed… even though he’s been stellar even when the scoring was scarce. The point is everyone will find their own reason for the improved play. I’ll take whatever works for each player and keeps it going. Can we stretch this beyond 2 games? I’ll go out a limb and say we can carry this all the way to the Olympic break. We’ve done it before. The challenge is to carry it through the Olympic break and not come back cold. Ok, I maybe getting ahead of myself here (can you blame me? 14 fckin goals in 2 games!!!!) Ok, instead I’ll end this one by jotting down some notes and observations about our winning formula over the past 2 games.

- The passion. – Start early. Take advantage of opportunities to collect yourselves and regroup. Screaming at a player. Screaming back at a coach. Its all constructive criticism, right? Take it and do something with it.
- Don’t be afraid to step out of your role. Handle your business and then don’t be afraid to chip in and handle somebody else's. There are many sides to a hockey player and even more to a New York Ranger. Knowing/Showing only one of them doesn’t make you either.
- The Mystery fighter. First Redden, then Dubinsky...Who makes a stand today on behalf of every player that won't? You can’t win them all and as long as you’re not fighting for yourself, your teammates will never let you feel like you lost em all either. Just ask Voros.
- Guard your goalie. Defenseman is a position but DEFENSE is a responsibility of every player.
- Let the players play. They have to discover who they are before they’ll believe who the coach says they’re not.

LET'S GO RANGERS!

- J_Undisputed

'A Wolf In Wolf's Clothing' Named Brashear

The criticism of Donald Brashear must come to an end.

We know what and who he is and he will serve an important purpose on the Rangers roster this season.

For fans of professional hockey in North America, Donald Brashear is an imposing 6-foot-3, 235-pound forward, one of the sport's most recognizable enforcers, a man whose skating and stick skills have been dwarfed by his ability to pummel opponents with his fists.

For now, he is wearing Blue on Broadway for the next two seasons and is the NYR resident enforcer. Not since before the lockout has the Rangers had a full-fledged fear-factor on the roster; we’ve had years of watching our star players get destroyed without collegial retaliation - let us not forget Jaromir Jagr getting man-handled year-after-year without anyone stepping in to send the right message. Let us not forget that Tom Renney relied on rookie enforcers and the NHL’s new rules to referee the physical misdeeds of the game.

We have watched Colton Orr grow into our enforcer over the last couple of seasons – it has been fun getting to know him, to watch his early Rangers years ‘enforcer-training’ getting his ass kicked to becoming a more confident low-salary-cap-eating player who had his heart in the game first. This past year he became a hard-working, okay-dokey hockey player, but mostly, a solid enforcing fighter. The new coach didn't like his level of play, so he left for free agency. What now Rangers fans?

We get one of the scariest of enforcers on the team during free agency, though Rangers' media and bloggers have spent the last three weeks labeling him a criminal, unwilling to accept the signing to our beloved Blueshirts. They have seen this as a bad thing and yearn for the Orr days of past and refuse to accept the ‘free agent Tortorella deterrent’ named Donald Brashear because he’s too brutal.

3 words: Get Over It!

For the redundant background, if you recall during our 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the April 26, 2009 game against Washington, Caps enforcer Brashear was given a 6-game suspension for both a pre-game altercation with NYR enforcer Colton Orr and a very obvious late hit on Rangers center Blair Betts (of which Betts suffered an orbital eye socket fracture as a result of the hit). Not cool.

But all is fair in 'love & war', as this past month Brashear agreed to a free-agent contract with the Blueshirts for two-years at @$1.2 million per year to fill our need of an enforcer after Colton Orr signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs for four years at just over four million dollars.

After the altercation with the Rangers in the previous post season, NYR General Manager Glen Sather was asked why he chose to sign Brashear. He said, "Donald is a great player and we need a guy to fill the tough role. He is a tough guy and the man we need. He certainly will be the man his teammates can go to and I have no doubts in my mind his new teammates will accept him."

This I do not doubt, as for many hockey fans, “the fist” is an essential part of the game. Sean Avery has been an important component of the verbal necessity in the game, and distracted our opponents in a mental and physical fashion --- and in some strange way, he satisfied the fans need for blood & smack-talk (excluding crude non-hockey ex-girlfriend comments) and he won over the fans because his antics helped us to win games. He is our on-ice verbal enforcer. Donald Brashear, on the other hand (the left one specifically) serves the physical necessity in the game and distracts our opponents through fear and force. He is on the ice to protect our key players. He is our on-ice physical villain. He, too, will help us win games. No one can dispute this.

Every New York Rangers fan should expect our first home game against Ottawa to be an 'all-out fist-ballet' between Chris Neil and our very own Donald Brashear, and the Don will win in the eyes of Rangers’ fans everywhere. This has to happen and Donald knows he needs to win over those blood-thirsting 300 & 400 section die-hards. Just as Shanny dropped his gloves to then Washington Caps Brashear to win the hearts of the Garden faithful seasons ago, “The Donald” will find his audience in NYC. Some critics and purists will continue to curse his name and label him, but when it all comes down to it – we know what he is and he is one that we’d rather have on our team than face him with fists flying. This is a guy who has trained with boxing legend Joe Frazier and continues to train with legendary UFC Champion James “Hoss” Skelton.

As Donald Brashear was quoted as saying during this year’s playoffs, "To tell you the truth, I never liked fighting. I always wanted to be the type of player that plays hard, hits, body checks and scores some goals. But that's not what they wanted me to be."

And we wouldn’t want him to be anything other than what he is. Our enforcer.

The Dark Ranger embraces “The Donald” with a platonic, non-threatening bear-hug and welcomes this thug as ‘our thug’. Onward…

tdr

Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Maybe

With training camp approaching and a Stanley Cup vision ahead, let us look back to one of the most unique players on the Blueshirts bench, Colton Orr. Standing at 6 feet, 2 inches and 220 lbs of Ranger, this $525,000 per this season 25-year old enforcer remains an odd force and a loyal hit-man for our Rangers coach Tom Renney.

Give this a read: Colton Orr appeared in 53 games with the Rangers, registering two goals and one assist, along with 126 penalty minutes ... Established career-highs in games played (53), goals (two), points (three), and penalty minutes (126) … Ranked third on the team and tied for 18th in the NHL with 126 penalty minutes

These stats will leave anyone scratching their head, and recently I read someone post a rant on "how in the world could any responsible franchise keep a guy like this on board for a third season straight?"

Let it be known that The Dark Ranger is a fan of Colton Orr! There, I said it.

For better or worse, for 'ass-kicking' or 'ass-kicked' - this guy has heart! He played 2/3 of last season's games and provided protection when needed, even if that required dropping his gloves to Donald Brashear of the Washington Capitals after Jagr received a couple of unnecessary jabs. He is fearless. He will take a beating to make a point. He is a New York Ranger team player.

For your visual enjoyment (if you've gotten this far), I have assembled some of my favorite Colton Orr moments of the last two seasons - some good, some bad. I attended the game when the Rangers played the Philly Flyers March 21, 2007. Fedoruk was knocked out unconscious and had to be carried off the ice in a stretcher; though a scary moment in hockey (and just not good), it cemented Colton Orr's place in seasons to come as a young and upcoming enforcer in the new NHL. The following clips are my own personal celebration of "The Guy That Will Never Be King (but will be really good friends with him)."

Press any link for a video clip and enjoy Colton Orr in action:

here vs. Todd Fedoruk - Flyers (RATED First-rate ass kicking),
here vs. Brashear - Capitals (RATED Complete ass-kicked, but A+ for fighting "the famous left hook"),
here vs. McGrattan - Senators (RATED Win, Orr kicks it)
here vs. Boulton - Thrashers (RATED tie, but Orr advantage)
here vs. Wade Belak - Leafs (RATED Loss, but kudos for fighting a very large man),
here vs. Jason Strudwick - Bruins (RATED Win, for beating up his now teammate),
here vs. Cam Janssen Round 1 - Devils (RATED Tie and note the complete deterioration of Janssen's jersey),
here vs. Cam Janssen Round 2- Devils (RATED Win and Justice).

tdr