The Role of The Hockey Tough Guy
Friday, March 23, 2007
Posted by chisel_my_nizzle
As the Flyers Todd Fedoruk fell to the ice on March 21, a similar and uncommon question resounded throughout the NHL. "Is fighting becoming a problem in hockey?"
Before we can get into that, I'll try to give you an idea of the context of the fight previously mentioned. Todd Fedoruk and Colten Orr (who both had stops with the Regina Pats) decide to go at it. Fedoruk who plays on a team already eliminated from the playoffs dropped the gloves with New York's Colten Orr right off the faceoff early in the first frame. After a few exchanged rights, Orr connected with a right that puts Fedoruk to sleep. He was taken off on a stretcher and then later taken to hospital for further analysis. From the outside looking in shedding the mits looked like a bad judgement call on Fedoruks part. He is on a team that is playing for next season and you would think that with his previous injuries he would keep himself out of such a situation. But a fighter in the NHL has a different mindframe. When a fighter is challenged or feels his team needs a boost the consequences of fighting don't enter into the picture until afterwards. This is the thankless role of the NHL tough guy.
Fighting has been, and always will be an important part of the game of hockey. And until there is a serious injury (even death), most likely nothing will be done to change the ruling on fighting. The NHL has had a pretty busy and uncharacteristic week regarding violence and suspensions which has brought up the issue of allowing violence in the game. The problem is that there is a very fine line between fighting and using physical force on an opponent; and overconforming to the norms of the sport and taking the violence too far. Thus in the Chris Simon case a lengthy suspension was expected and handed down but in the Jordin Tootoo case several conflicting oppinions led to an argueable final result. There is no direct guideline for handing down suspensions and delineating what kind of fighting is acceptable and what is not.
The hockey community feels badly for Todd Fedoruk. An event like this is never positive and we hate to see a true warrior go down like that. But on the other end of the stick, should Fedoruk have maybe kept his gloves on and not fought? Todd already has metal plates in his cheekbones and face from previous fights, including a KO at the hands of Wild tough guy Derrick Boogaard. (Another Regina lad, what's up with that?) But as a fighter, you understand your role and will sacrifice everything to fulfill it. Anyway you spin it, at the rate that the NHL is going, the players are getting so much stronger, faster and bigger that inevitably someone is going to get seriously injured in a fight. And that, my friends, will be a black day for the Canadian game