Bonk

Many sports "experts" now are wanting to take the fighting out of hockey. The triggering event was the tragic death of an amateur hockey league player in southern Ontario. He died of head injuries resulting from a fight.

The purists maintain a distance of reality in their defense of fighting. One can instantly tell the difference. You see the young man was engaged in a staged fight when he fell hard to the ice. Legally speaking the man's injuries resulted from activities related to fighting. Purists maintain that it was the loss of his helmet and the impact that caused death.

There is a larger issue though. The larger issue is concussions. In a fast game like hockey, concussions occur frequently. New research indicates that concussions should be considered with greater gravity than the past.

The goal of fighting is to knock out the other guy in hockey. The only truly vulnerable body part in hockey is the head. In the distant past, fighting was result of loss of temper. Today most of the fighting in professional hockey is staged or contrived.

My problem is that anything that contributes to the prevalence of concussions beyond that of the numbers that are accidental, should be challenged. Hockey teams maintain one or two goons on their bench. Most goons are only there to fight and lack hockey skill. This type of fight should be quashed in any sport.

How is this to be done. Hockey does have an aggressive edge bordering on fighting. That aspect i part of the game. It makes NHL hockey work effectively in entertainment value. Soccer created the shoot out. Hockey adopted that.

Soccer is a more mature sport both in chronology and practice. It too has a violent aspect. There is little or no padding or protection in footie. Fights occur. But the referee or umpire has access to two type of censure. The primary penalty kicks which occur on accidental and unintentional contact. The second type is the card system.

When a player commits a flagrant foul, the referee may also issue a personal warning to the player with a yellow card or a red card. The latter indicating a flagrant foul which the referee felt was serious. A red means dismissal and a game suspension. Two yellow cards over two games equalled one red. A yellow means the foul was flagrant but not bad enough to get one thrown out of the game.

This card system can be adapted to hockey. The card system lets the aggressive character of the players to function but the referee has the means to suspend flagrant foul repeaters. In the case of hockey there would be two blue cards, equal a yellow, and two yellows equal a red similar to the soccer idea. The cards can be supplemental to the existing penalty structure in hockey.