A question about American & Canadian ice hockey

[gregbrighton]

i was looking at some matches on You Tube. There seems to be so many fights and mass-brawls, it's almost a 'sport' within a sport.

Do players have be good punchers as well as puckers, can someone tell me? i mean, even the commentators sounds as if they should be covering a boxing match...



It could add an extra dimension to football matches if this was encouraged, on and off the field....

 

[Mileoakman]

Thats why I liked watching the Brighton Tigers, nearly every game had a mass brawl at some point. I think the Paisley Pirates were always guaranteed a really good punch up.

 

[Bwian]

As the saying goes "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out".

Most of the 'fights' amount to no damage-very difficult to get any power when both combatants are on skates. Fans love it though.

 

[lasvegan]

Hence the old joke..."I went to see the boxing and a hockey game broke out"..

Oh well....

 

[easynow]

They should just play a game of hockey. What exactly is the point of allowing them to fight? Looks stupid.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Yes they're pretty athletic and yes it must be difficult playing hockey when you're on ice skates. But the simple fact that the scrapping is as popular as it is means it'll always be a bit of a thuggish sport IMHO, with a similar appeal to that UFC or whatever else passes for the modern day equivalent of Victorian bare-knuckle brawling. Bit yobbish really.

 

[dazzer6666]

I had an ice hockey game on my old Sega Megadrive donkeys years ago. If you did a decent clatter of another player into the boards, the game actually went into a punchup mode and you battered each other until one ended up face down on the ice. Great fun.

 

[RexCathedra]

There's less fighting with each passing year. There was an article on the passing of the fourth-line enforcer and the shrinking number of NFL fights recently in Sports Illustrated

 

[Hillian1]

Panto for grown ups, almost as idiotic as wrestling.

 

[Easy 10]

Panto for grown ups, almost as idiotic as wrestling.

Spot on.
The fights are so contrived its pathetic.

 

[gregbrighton]

WWE & Ice Hockey, that would be funny

 

[StonehamPark]

The film 'Goon' is pretty watchable. It follows the story of a knucklehead/golden heart Ice Hockey player in Canada.

 

[ROSM]

Panto for grown ups, almost as idiotic as wrestling.

My one and only visit to an ice hockey game almost ended when one of the players got caught across the throat by a team mate's blade (total accident) and being taken straight to the emergency room having spurted blood all over the rink

Ice needed to be cleaned and remade and game carried on once crowd were informed the player was safe.

It was the buffalo sabres and I think they were playing florida

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Years ago I met a top Canadian Ice Hockey coach and one of his coaching philosophies was: "If we can't beat them in the alley, we'll never beat them on the ice!"

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Bwian and I have tasted the Canadian version first hand. Wayne Gretzky was the boy. The thuggery is a tad tiresome, but for me the puck moves so fast I can't see what the buggering heck is going on . . .

 

[The Bun Elephant]

I take it none of you above have played the game of Ice Hockey other than on a console ? .... You might understand it a bit better if you had - it becomes a part of team plays and moves to unsettle the other team players
And I can from experience tell you that punches landed hurt ..... Try fighting a netminder and feel he's blocker on ya chin

 

[spongy]

Ice hockey is my second sport. I love it. The fighting is normally done by the "enforcers". It's a rough physical game by nature. I've played, it's physically demanding, requires an awful lot of skill, and being tough is certainly an added bonus. Being hit by a stick, or a puck can really ******* hurt! And if you're stupid enough to have your head down and don't see the other 6'5" 16st bloke coming at you then it's goodnight sweetheart.

If you can appreciate skill and enjoy a physical fast game then ice hockey ticks all the boxes.

A lot of people have said to me that it's just Nancy's with body armour but these guys are huge, and can travel at 30mph. If you've got a couple of minutes then check out some of these hits, not all are legal but still.....

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-5xkMNIt-5k]

 

[Rambo]

My wife plays ice hockey, you don't mess with her.

 

[de la zouch]

I am working in canada a fair amount of time at the moment and have seen the Maple leafs on a few occasions ( they are like man ure before they became good I.e. Massive team but shite) However my point is there is a lot of press around the role of the enforcer disappearing from the game as it's outdated and doesn't make sense anymore vs the fast paced nature of the sport it feels like a disappearing art