Update on Fighting in Junior Hockey

Back in September I posted an article that highlighted rule changes by various junior hockey leagues in an effort to reduce fighting.  The OHL, CJHL and USHL were the most progressive while WHL and QMJHL made little to no change in their rules.  Although their seasons are not over yet I thought I would provide a quick snapshot on progress.

Rat PIM Highlights – Update February 18th 2013

We recently celebrated Hockey Day in Canada and Hockey Weekend Across America.  The primetime telecast in Canada on Saturday, February 9^th featured several 3^rd period brawls between Toronto and Montreal.  That game gave me the motivation to update my theory on the correlation of fights per game and Rat PIM.  I thought that I would review a small sample of games involving the top teams in fight majors this season and see how they are doing in their honourable campaign to make the game safer.

Hockey Fights and Concussions / Gospel of Hockey Podcast

I have a couple of short updates in this post.  One has to do with an interesting article I came across that provided interesting data on concussions caused by hockey fights.   The other was a surprise invite to participate in a podcast for the Gospel of Hockey to discuss this blog and my thoughts on fighting in hockey today.

An Alternate View of The Code in Hockey

There were several articles published this week, and quite a few tweets sent, that talked about “The Code” and its place in Hockey.  The incident that prompted this week’s activity was a fight between Raffi Torres and Jamal Mayers.  Many saw the bout as proof that fighting is necessary and that “The Code” was honored by both players.  I saw it as a simple case of revenge and wondered why anyone would see this as positive for the image of the sport.

Hockey Fans Are Tired of Hockey Fights

After watching another pointless hockey fight, one in which Zac Rinaldo stunned B.J. Crombeen and left him dazed on the ice, I spent some time searching Twitter for tweets on hockey fights.  I was impressed that there were numerous comments from fans who wanted to see fighting eliminated from the game.   But I wonder what impact those tweets have without direction.

The Rats Are Taking Over The Game

A little over a year ago there was a press conference where Brian Burke complained that the rats were taking over the game.  At the time there was considerable press coverage that fights per game had declined over the previous year and the pro-fight contingent used Burke’s comments to point how the game featured more cheap shots as a result.  Except the facts show the opposite is true.