When tensions are
high and the fourth line hits the ice, hockey fans know exactly what to expect:
sticks will be abandoned, gloves will be dropped, and it’s time for a fight.
Punches will have to increase their precision this season, though, unless hitting
a helmet with bare knuckles sounds like fun.
An alteration to
the NHL rulebook this season looks to increase player safety by requiring
players to keep their helmets on prior to fighting, and assessing them for a
two-minute minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct if they fail to comply.
The rule, summarized
by NHL.com under the heading Keep
your helmets on, has its sights set not on decreasing instances of
fighting, but instead on lowering concussion risks incurred by fights.
“In a lot of
fights, how they end [is that] one guy goes to the ice. And if a guy’s on top
of him there’s a good chance that he’s going to hit his head,” said Mike
Chambers, hockey writer for the Denver
Post. Chambers has been covering both professional and collegiate hockey
for the Post since 1994, writing
primarily about the Colorado Avalanche and the University of Denver.
He has experience
on the ice as well, having played the sport himself for many years, and he
likes the new rule. “Like the NFL is doing, the NHL is trying to do anything
they can to avoid head injuries. These new rules, I think all of them are good.
But in terms of fighting? I don’t think they’ll ever outlaw fighting. I think there’s a place [for] it [in] the
game,” said Chambers.
Typically when one
thinks of a hockey fight the mental image that pops up is of two guys, gloves
off, circling each other until somebody throws the first punch. Not all fights
happen like that, though. Plenty of altercations just happen in the course of
the action, with no plans or precursory thought.
“My fights are
generally spur of the moment, you know, things get chippy and I end up
fighting,” said Sean Zimmerman, a defenseman for the Denver Cutthroats of the
CHL. Zimmerman’s fights represent the other half of hockey fights that aren’t
necessarily affected by the alteration of rule 46.6, which only prohibits
intentional removal of helmets before a fight.
“When you square off, you’ll both take off your helmets, but I don’t
usually square off like that so my helmet is usually on,” Zimmerman said.
No stranger to the
penalty box, Zimmerman recorded 77 minutes in penalties last season with the
Cutthroats in 61 games, with a career high of 105 minutes in 72 games during
his 2009-2010 season with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. Despite these
impressive stats, he is not the type of player that seeks out a fight,
crediting his numbers instead to his position on the team. “I’m a stay-at-home
defenseman… I’m there to back the team up and play a really physical game,” he
said.
Other players do
plan their fights. NHL enforcers like Cody McLeod of the Colorado Avalanche or
Shawn Thornton of the Boston Bruins fulfill the unofficial role that has been a
staple of hockey teams since the beginning. Tough games will commonly see
players like this come out and start a fight right off the playoff circle to
try and get something going for their team.
Enforcers like McLeod or Thornton
are also the team’s first pick when there’s a score that needs to be settled.
Missed calls, dirty hits, or big hits that leave one team feeling wronged often
result in a fight that serves to level the playing field between the two teams
and leave the problem in the past.
Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers
Hockey has its own
culture, and fighting is a big part of it. Even though there are plenty of
players willing to drop the gloves, with around 300 fighting each season, the goal is almost never to cause
serious injury. With few exceptions, dirty hits and brutal fighting are not
intentional, and members of all clubs hate to see a good man go down.
When Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning was
taken off the ice on a stretcher during a game against the Boston Bruins on
November 11th after breaking his tibia against the goal post,
players from around the NHL reached out to the injured legend with their
condolences. Ryan Whitney, a defenseman for the Floria Panthers, and forward
Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche were a few examples:
Even the Boston Bruins reached out to the injured
player on Twitter, and their fans gave Stamkos a standing ovation as he was taken
off the ice during the game:
Hockey players are unique in the solidarity of their
sport, with many players holding close friendships with players on other teams
and all players respecting each other of respect for the sport which they love.
This unspoken agreement is one of the reasons that Chambers approves of the fighting culture in the NHL, and thinks that it is here to stay. “It offers the players an opportunity to police the game for themselves. I think if there wasn’t fighting, like college hockey, you would have too many players running around taking cheap shots,” he said.
Though there are
some who would say that fighting has no place in sports, the benefits offered
by allowing it are plentiful enough that Chambers doesn’t see it being
eliminated any time soon. “They [the NHL] are willing to accept fighting, but
trying to make it as safe as possible,” he said.
That is where rule
46.6 comes into play. In previous seasons, the rule stated that players would
receive a two-minute minor penalty for beginning a fight with a helmet or
facemask on, requiring that players drop their helmets along with their gloves
and sticks before starting anything.
The new rule 46.6
is a complete flip, telling players instead that they must keep their helmets
on during a fight, and aiming by doing so to minimize concussion risks as a
result of head-to-ice contact during fights. According to the official
NHL rulebook, though, if helmets are removed during the course of a fight,
neither player will be penalized.
As early as
preseason this year, there were already players finding loopholes. In their
rule summary, the NHL made mention of the fight between Krys Barch
of the New Jersey Devils and Brett Gallant of the New York Islanders where the
two players took off each other’s helmets before they fought, clearing
themselves to fight uninhibited the way they were used to and also avoiding
additional penalties for either of them.
But the NHL made
the express decision not to intervene. No provisions were added to the rule to
close the loophole, and if the goal of the league was to stop fighting
altogether, one would have been imminent. This comprehensive chart of
fighting statistics since the 2000-2001 season put together by hockeyfights.com
makes it clear that fighting has not gone down, with the projected number of
fights for this season falling right into the average.
Adapted instead for player safety, the new
version of rule 46.6 is trying to take that extra step to avoid the small
number of concussions that do occur as a result of fighting.
Similar to rule 48
implemented a few seasons ago to avoid concussions from blindside hits by
adding penalties to hits which targeted the head, the new helmet rule is doing
its part to skim some concussion risk off of the top of the game.
The risk being
skimmed is a pretty small percentage, but it’s a start. “In hockey, there are so
many more head injuries because of getting hit by the puck or being elbowed or
having a shoulder hit you or something like that, that’s where hockey’s main
head injuries are caused. Not from fighting. [But] there have been instances
where there have been some really serious head injuries, not getting punched by
a guy, but being thrown to the ice after or during a fight and hitting your
head,” said Chambers.
“You’re probably
going to see more concussions from high-speed collisions, like player-to-player
contact,” said Aaron Leu, athletic trainer and associate director of sports
medicine for the University of Denver hockey team. DU’s team has avoided
concussions for the most part over the last several seasons, though
concussion-prone players have come through the university in the past. “We had
one kid that had a big history of concussions, and most of his concussions came
from collisions with another player,” said Leu.
Zimmerman may be a
fighter in his league, but his concussion wouldn’t have been helped by the
existence of rule 46.6 either. “I’ve gotten [one], but it wasn’t from fighting.
I think the biggest risk that you run there is just taking big hits or hits
near the boards,” he said.
And the statistics
back him up. In a study conducted by Laura Donaldson, Mark Asbridge, and
Michael D. Cusimano and reported by Stu Hackel for Sports Illustrated entitled “Bodychecking Rules and Concussions in
Elite Hockey,” only 11 of the 123 concussions they recorded in the three years
of their study were caused by fights.
Those 11
concussions were probably not from the actual fighting, either; it is far more
likely that the post-fight impact with either the ice or the boards was the
culprit.
“If you get hit by
a punch on the side of the head it’s no worse than being punched in the face. I
think it all goes back to they don’t want these guys fighting and falling to
the ice,” said Chambers.
The Visor Dichotomy
Keeping helmets on during
fights may only be mildly inconvenient for some veteran players, but for the
rookies who are required to wear visors it could present a real struggle. The added
visor rule (9.7) in the 2013-2014
Official NHL Rulebook states that any player with less than 25 NHL games in
their career is now required to wear a visor, while players with more are
allowed to choose.
When placed separately
from rule 46.6, requiring visors is all benefits. This PR
Newswire article explains how eye
injuries caused by pucks and high sticks can be avoided with the addition of a
visor, and discusses also the heated debate in the hockey world that served as
a precursor to the addition of the mandatory visor rule.
The
question is this: How safe is it for players to fight with a visor on? While a
helmet will not break under the force of a fist, a visor is much less certain.
In order to avoid the risk of a broken visor sticking pieces of plexiglass into
their face in a fight, players will have to take off their helmet: which
they’re not allowed to do.
How
these two rules are supposed to get along certainly doesn’t make sense at first
glance. With over 75% of NHL players wearing visors, though, it’s sure to be
figured out soon.
While it may not
make much of a difference on the receiving end, the guys throwing the punches
this year will want to be a lot more careful with where they land. With the
addition of a helmet, a punch to the side of the head is going to hurt a lot
more than a face.
“You’re adding
another piece of equipment that doesn’t like to break, doesn’t like to give a
lot, absorbs a lot of pressure but still doesn’t absorb enough to keep things
from getting worse,” said Leu. The extra equipment will protect heads from
concussions, but the rule says nothing about knuckles and hands. “If a [player]
makes a strong, flat contact with enough force on a helmet he’s at risk of
breaking a hand, breaking a finger, or injuring ligaments in the wrist,” Leu
added.
Broken knuckles
and shattered hands aren’t uncommon among enforcers in the NHL, or in any
hockey league that allows fighting. In his 2010 season with the Colorado
Avalanche, defenseman Chris Stewart broke his hand in a fight and was out on
injury for the rest of the season. The fight, which can be watched here, was before rule
46.6 but followed it exactly: neither player removed their helmet before
fighting, though they dropped the gloves and squared off.
It also demonstrated exactly what is
concerning about the new rule, because Stewart’s injury came as a direct result
from punches to the helmet and it set him back considerably in his career. He
played another partial season with the Avalanche, but was traded to the St.
Louis Blues after failing to return to his former ability.
“I don’t really
know if there’s a huge difference between punching the top of the head or
punching the helmet, I think they probably both hurt just as much,” said
Zimmerman. But the top of the head is a much smaller target than a helmet, and
one can only imagine a little easier to avoid.
Hockey is an
inherently violent sport, and to take that out would be to change the entire
culture of the game. By amending rule 46.6 the NHL is doing its part to try and
make it safer and keep the injuries to cuts, bruises, and broken bones instead
of brain damage.
But nobody can
leave a fight without an injury, so which would you rather: broken knuckles or
a concussion?
Take your pick.
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