jlilien@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Joel Lilienkamp) (08/30/83)
I think its time to clean up the NHL, eliminate the fighting, and replace it with a fast paced game based on skating, stickhandling, and passing skills. Hockey is my all time favorite sport, although in many places I would be embarrassed to say so. Many hold it in the same respect as professional wrestling and roller derby. I have heard the arguments many times that "The fans want the fighting. They wouldn't come to the games if there wasn't so much fighting. I will concede that SOME fans do have this view. These are the same types that go to auto racing to see crashes and football games to see player carried off on stretchers. But some fans DO like hockey. I for one would consider going to more than one game a season if I though they would play hockey. And there are many people like me. If fighting is the only reason people watch hockey, then why were the 1980 winter Olympics so popular? Fighting certainly wasn't allowed there, and the games drew record audiences, even in the South and the West, where the NHL has had the hardest time with market penetration. My belief is that besides from the nationalistic fervor surrounding those games, they were truly entertaining. After all, people watched long before it was apparant we would beat the Soviet Union. As for how to do it, I think it would have to involve fines, probations, and suspensions. I don't want to make specific recommendations. It's just all too clear that a five minute penalty for fighting is not adequate to deter it. Joel