nytimes.com — Dropping the gloves, an accepted part of hockey for generations, has increased in the National Hockey League by 75 percent over the last three years. With few exceptions, every team has at least one player who can fight. Two enforcers battle, often briefly, to defuse the emotion generated by a tight, physical game, or to create some emotion.
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jefflerDec 27, 2008
Except several of the NHL's top fighters are black, and the best overall player who occasionally fights is black...
l0adingDec 27, 2008
haha i read every comment just to see if anyone else noticed that picture. Thank you
dialecticalDec 28, 2008
Good point. Iginla is tough as nails and has the skill and speed to play with anyone. Yet, he is almost universally celebrated as one of the best in the NHL and respected by all the players because he will stick up for himself if needed. Another is George Larocque who has is a very tough player that had some good seasons points wise when he was younger. Iginla is almost a national hero for being as skilled as he is and as tough as he is. A great talent and the vast majority of the hockey fans do not care about his race.
dialecticalDec 28, 2008
You are not putting 2 and 2 together properly. If fighting is sanctioned in the NHL and most of the players are white then how can you even bring race into this? Again, race baiting this issue is a non-starter for hockey fans. We don't care how they look, we just care how well they play the game. I have never, ever heard of anyone from a hockey background celebrate a person's "whiteness" and demeaned another sport because of their race. Fighting is NOT allowed in the NBA, the NFL, MLB, or even rugby leagues. -- "In addition, how does letting them fight it out rectify the problem? What if the assh**e that caused the infraction wins the fight?"You should try hockey sometime. Trust me, it will answer that question in a heartbeat. Again, you don't get hockey if you think there are winners and losers in a hockey fight. There is a reason why they drop the gloves. It's out of respect, and you give the other player the option and opportunity for redemption. Otherwise each and every time one of the two could just skate away. It will be way over your head if you don't play the game. Remember 90 percent of these guys go out and have beers together during the off-season.The true "assh**es" (as you put it) are the idiots who hold onto their stick as a weapon and keep their gloves on when someone challenges them.
cerialthrillerDec 29, 2008
go to a hockey game, there are tons of hot chicks that go to them, im dead serious. a lot of women love hockey. If you go to the stadium where the flyers play they have displays with all the crap people throw onto the ice after hat tricks, the eric lindros ones are all like 50% bras a couple pairs of panties and a few hats. also they have girls in skimpy outfits come out during commercial breaks to get all the shavings off of the ice.
heresy_fnordDec 29, 2008
You are defending Robidas and at the same time you are saying Tootoo should have "dropped the gloves" and fought fair. What you fail to comprehend, is that Robidas DID NOT DROP HIS GLOVES AND HE SNUCK UP BEHIND TOOTOO, WHO MERELY CHECKED A PLAYER. Are you god damned dumb or just too proud to admit that your f**king retard of a player snuck up behind our guy, and got knocked f**k out for doing it?Tootoo checked Modana, fell over as he did it, apparently this is the "stick to the throat" you are talking about, and then your pussy ass player sneaks up behind tootoo and got we he deserved. If you don't like rough stuff, go watch f**k golf you pansy.
dialecticalDec 30, 2008
That's garbage. Lot's of examples of Hockey players acting like idiots with many killing people because of there irresponsible actions:I point you here:<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_MacTavish#Manslaughter_conviction">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_MacTavish#Mansl ...</a>and here:<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dany_Heatley#Atlanta_Thrashers_.282001.E2.80.932004.29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dany_Heatley#Atlanta_ ...</a>and even the "clean cut, Staal brothers"<a class="user" href="http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=87d0433d-75af-4b1c-a772-7a38f7218fc0&amp;k=30110">http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id= ...</a>And please don't make me bring up the drug problems of Kordic, Prohbert or Kevin Stevens (the list is larger than that and even includes Grant Fuhr).Sadly, Canadians hide behind their supposed true international good image and the rest of the country usually ignores this type of behavior because they are blinded by their need to idolize their players. NHL players are not immune to the pitfalls of the rich and high life and the "old days" of hockey players being approachable and well behaved is completely gone, if it ever existed.