A Facebook conversation about hockey fights

KLM:
I have come to a few conclusions watching Penguins Capitals 24/7: 1. NHL encourages fighting (not that I mind, just saying) 2. Crosby looks like a child molester/rapist with a mustache 3. The Penguins have a better coach 4. I hate watching replays of the Caps losing especially when they are highlighting the Penguins 12 game win streak.

Me:
NHL doesn't encourage fighting dude. Look at a game from even 10 years ago and then watch this figure skating we have now.

DM:
The Caps, with that criminal Ovechikin, cannot lose enough games to suit me. If I want to watch a fight, there's the UFC. A hockey game grinds to a halt when there is a fight. It's usually 2 idiots that don't have any business playing the game in the first place, let alone getting paid for it. Rangers 7 - Caps 0. Perfect!

Me:
How long have you watched hockey? When your rangers won the cup you had kocur, kypreos, beukeboom, graves, tikkanen, messier, and jay wells, and mike Keenan was your head coach.

Since I'm sure you don't know who any of them are, they're all tough guys who played mens hockey, not this fairy nonsense you see today. They all fought and played hockey the way it was meant to be played.

DM:
Tough, not dirty.

Me:
Fighting isn't dirty, it's part of the game and has been for over a hundred years. Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Rocket Richard, all those superstars who transcended the sport also took care of business with their fists. Richard was suspended for punching a linesman in the face during a game!

Since you probably aren't aware of who Joey Kocur was, he was one of the top 10 fighters of all time on anyone's lists. One half of the Bruise Brothers, with Probert being the other. etc.

DM:
Still stupid. Fighting absolute stops the flow of the game. Don't care who it is or when it's done. Go to a game and see how everything grinds to a halt.

Me:
I've been going to games for a very long time, and been watching them since I was a kid. It is a part of the game, as I said, and it actually has been proven to increase the intensity of the game in the following minutes. Some Harvard grad students collected research that stated that in the following five minutes after a fight, there are more goals scored, more shots taken, more bodychecks, fewer stoppages in play, and subjectively more intensity and speed.

DM:
I went to 2 games last weekend. One had fight that was just a waste of time. The other was the Rangers v Blue Jackets. No fights. Just 60 minutes of intense hockey. A fantastic game!

And why would I care what somebody @ Harvard thinks?

DM:
Oh yeah. Todd Bertuzzi. That fight ended Steve Moore's career. That criminal should have gone to prison. Fighting should have ended right there.

Me:
Which game had the useless fight?

You can take those non-conference non-rivalry games all day. I don't want 'em. They're boring, and the teams have no business playing each other to begin with. By the way, if the Blue Jackets played exc...iting hockey, they wouldn't be 27th in the league in attendance, filling only 70.5% of their home arena on average, per game.

DM:
Huh? It was a great game! Exciting from start to finish! Only lousy teams and players need a fight to stimulate their game.

DM:
I notice how you didn't comment on Bertuzzi. Goons. Punks. Criminals. Never are they called good hockey players.

KLM:
Last time I make a hockey comment.

Me:
What does Moore/Bertuzzi have to do with fighting? It wasn't a fight! It was a cheap shot from behind, and both players had their gloves on! Get your facts right. If Moore HAD fought Bertuzzi, he would still be playing today. Well, he wouldn't cause he sucked as a player, but he wouldn't have gotten cheap shotted.

Me:
And Bertuzzi was never called a good hockey player? Are you joking?! You obviously started watching hockey very recently. That year, Bertuzzi finished 34th in the league in points, despite being suspended on March 8th. Had he continued ...at his point/game pace without suspension, he would have been 19th in points. The year before, he scored the 5th most points in the league! The year before that, 3rd!

You obviously don't know what you're talking about, so I'll leave you alone.

Me:
Moore was a 4th line grinder, another faceless number in a league that, at the time, had a hundred players just like him.

DM:
Guess you never watched Colorado. Bertuzzi was/is a criminal. You should stick with the UFC.

Me:
What did he do that was criminal? Hit a guy that he was grabbing at the time, while playing a sport that allows physical contact?