NHL Needs Anger Management, Not Sean Avery

When will the NHL crack down on violence? They've been talking about it forever.

The National Hockey League general managers are talking about it right now in their meeting in Naples, Florida. They have proposed a 10-minute misconduct penalty be given to players who engage in staged fights right after a faceoff.

The majority of the league's general managers believe fighting has its place in the sport.

The GMs also discussed making a rule like the new one in the Ontario Hockey League that would force players to keep their helmets on during a fight. The GMs talked about the NHLPA's request for a specific penalty covering blows to the head and decided it wasn't something they want to formally support.

The GMs want to see the instigator rule be more strictly enforced, according to a CP story.

The NHL has a long history of violence, fighting, and brawling, as well as trash-talking. Has the NHL ever sent anyone other than Sean Avery to anger management?

Pat Hickey, writing for the Canwest NewsService, recently reported that the National Hockey League slapped Avery with a six-game suspension for crude comments, but he asked when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the league is going to take a similar tough stance with players who inflict physical violence.

Apparently it is okay to stomp on a player's ankle with your skates, but not okay to talk freely and voice your opinions.

As Ken Campbell of The Hockey News pointed out, the league has never required anger-management assessments in cases of physical violence where it would seem more appropriate.

Todd Bertuzzi's vicious hit on Steve Moore smacked of anger; Avery's words smacked of something else.

Consider that the Philadelphia Flyers' Randy Jones received a two-game suspension last year for a hit from behind that ended the season for Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron.

Fighting in hockey has resurfaced as a hot-button issue in recent weeks because Don Sanderson, an Ontario senior men's league player, died recently after a fight in which his head hit the ice.

Another player suffered a seizure after a fight in the AHL.

Former NHL referee-in-chief Bryan Lewis says fighting in hockey is on the way out but more players are engaging in fights. Fighting majors are up about 24 percent from the same point in 2007-08 and are on pace to approach numbers not seen since before the canceled 2004-05 season, according to USA Today.

Lewis was part of a Violence in Hockey Symposium staged by the Middlesex-London Health Unit, a gathering of hockey officials, coaches, media members, and a former professional player at the London Convention Centre. The symposium, attended by 98 coaches, trainers, and administrators, sought recommendations leading to a decrease in injuries resulting from gratuitous violence on the ice.

The NHL has ended bench-clearing brawls and got rid of the big goons.
Hockey players are like line-backers armed with blades of steel and sticks made of aluminum, Kevlar, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or hard wood.  However, how many brawls have you seen in the NFL?

Violence has been a part of ice hockey since at least the early 1900s. According to Hockey: A People's History, in 1904 alone four players were killed during hockey games from the frequent brawls and violent stickwork.

A new poll suggests a slim majority of Canadians oppose fighting in the NHL. In a recent Harris-Decima survey, 54 percent of respondents said they oppose fighting in the NHL and 40 percent were fine with it.

Opposition was especially strong in Quebec. Sixty-two percent of respondents in that province said they oppose fisticuffs in the league.  Among respondents who follow the NHL closely, 68 percent said fighting should be allowed under the existing system of routine penalties.

More modern examples of violence include brawls, fan involvement, physical abuse of officials, and deliberately injuring opponents. Violent actions, such as kicking, hitting from behind, and prohibited stickwork, are penalized with suspensions or fines.

Fighting, or fisticuffs, is also penalized but is considered by many hockey enthusiasts, particularly in North America, to be quite distinct from stick-swinging or other violent acts. They regard fighting as an entrenched, acceptable, and important part of the game, according to Wikipedia.

Here are some famous incidents:

▪ 1988—Dino Ciccarelli hit Leafs defenceman Luke Richardson with his stick. Charged and convicted of assault, he was sentenced to one day in jail and fined $1,000.

▪ 2000—Marty McSorley of the Boston Bruins hit the Vancouver Canucks' Donald Brashear in the head with his stick in the waning moments of the game, after losing a fight to Brashear earlier in the game. McSorley was convicted of assault with a weapon and given an 18-month conditional discharge.

▪ 2004—After repeated failed attempts at instigating a fight, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks sucker-punched Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche from behind, knocking Moore unconscious.

The pair then fell to the ice with Bertuzzi's weight crushing Moore face-first into the ice, followed by several players from both teams further piling onto the mêlée.

Moore sustained three fractured vertebrae, a grade three concussion, vertebral ligament damage, stretching of the brachial plexus nerves, and facial lacerations.

Bertuzzi was charged by police, and given a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm. His suspension resulted in a loss of $500,000 in pay and the Canucks were fined $250,000.

Bertuzzi was re-instated in 2005; Moore has not played since and made several unsuccessful attempts at civil litigation.

The Montreal Gazette recently reminded the hockey world of Bobby Orr's take on NHL fighting. The Gazette quoted Orr, saying, “Despite what the purists claim, fighting is part of the game of hockey. Believe me, I am not a devoted advocate of the fighting approach, but the feverish pace and strong contact of a hockey game do produce fights. They are inescapable.

"I have won some fights, but I’ve lost a few dandies," Orr said. Many remember the Bruins superstar fighting the notorious Philadelphia Flyers enforcer, Dave "The Hammer" Schultz.