fights after clean hits
it seems to be a hot button issue in the nhl this year. why after a clean hit, do players react with a fight? just because your teammate had his head down and got fucked by the shoulder of your opponent, does not mean that you have to react by jumping the opposing player. move on and get him with a clean hit later, or cleanly fuck up a different player, or tell your teammate to keep his head up so he won’t look like an ass again. either way you don’t look like you “have your player’s back” if you jump the guy that cleanly hit him, you look like a whiny punk. the nhl has taken steps to combat this, by giving the officials the option of the instigator penalty (2 minutes) and the accompanying 10 minute misconduct. i’m watching the flyers/rangers game and this entire scenario played out, and one of the announcers actually said something insightful, he said something to the effect that if this doesn’t stop then they might as well wear flags on their pants (obviously referring to flag football). i agree, i think it is a stupid trend in the nhl, and it is one of the things that could lead to them banning fighting from the league, at which point i will shudder to see what happens with the physical aspect of the game (i think you’ll see more stick work and boarding), as well as the amount of spectators in nhl arenas as well as at home watching on tv.
