The Decline Of Fighting: The Drop In Dropping The Gloves - number of fights between hockey players declines - Statistical Data Included

Hockey Digest, Jan, 2001 by John Kreiser

Hockey's powers-that-be insist that fighting shouldn't be legislated out of the game, but on-ice battles are disappearing just the same

IT'S BEEN MORE THAN A DECADE since HOCKEY DIGEST took a two-part look at fighting in the NHL ("Dropping The Gloves," February 1990). At that time, a group of players and executives, including Wayne Gretzky, were voicing support for the abolition of fighting. It didn't happen. Ten years, nine new teams, and a new generation of players later, the push to abolish fighting has all but disappeared--but so have most of the fisticuffs. Much of what's left has become almost irrelevant to the game. What has happened? And what role will fighting have in the NHL of the 21st century?

The hue and cry of a decade ago calling for the abolition of fighting has all but died. But if the past two seasons are any indication, those who campaigned for the elimination of fisticuffs are closer to getting their way--at least numerically.

Fighting in the NHL last season dropped to levels not seen since the mid-1970s. There were just 571 fights in 1999-2000 (559 in which both participants received majors, and another 12 in which only one player received a five-minute penalty for fighting). The last time the NHL had fewer fights than games played was 1976-77, when, like last season, the league averaged just under one fight per two games. Even that's a lot in comparison to the rugged 1950s, when the six teams played each other 14 times and feuds were common, but actual fights were rare--there was one for every five or six games.

Contrast that to 1987-88, the height of the Edmonton Oilers' speed-and-scoring dynasty, when, for the second consecutive season, the NHL averaged slightly more than one fight per game. Ironically, there were more than double the number of fights during the height of Wayne Gretzky's on-ice brilliance than took place during the Philadelphia Flyers' "Broad Street Bullies" days in the 1970s. Throughout the 1990s, it wasn't unusual for players to ring up 20, 25, or even 30 fights in a season. In 1996-97, Florida Panthers defenseman Paul Laus piled up an almost unbelievable 39 fighting majors--that's about one every other game--while playing regularly on defense.

But the number of fights has tapered down during the past couple of seasons. Last season's leader, Los Angeles Kings center Ian Laperriere, had just 21 fighting majors, the lowest total to lead the NHL in a full season in more than two decades. In each of the four preceding seasons, the league leader had 30 or more fights.

The other unusual thing about Laperriere was that he actually plays. Laperriere, a checking center, averaged more than 13 minutes of ice time per game last season. The Colorado Avalanche's Chris Dingman, who fought only one less time than Laperriere, needed a lot less time to get in his licks--he averaged just 6:29 of ice time per night. In fact, of the 14 players who had 14 or more fighting majors last season, just five averaged more than 10 minutes of ice time a game, and only two (Florida's Todd Simpson and the Islanders' Eric Cairns, both defensemen) saw as many as 15 minutes per night.

Despite the contention of Phoenix Coyotes' Louie DeBrusk that "there aren't a lot of one-dimensional players anymore--guys who just go out there and fight," fighting in the NHL has evolved into a break from the game in which two players who have limited skills, but are willing to mix it up, spend a few minutes scrapping before they're herded off to the penalty box and the actual game resumes. Although 40% to 50% of NHL players pick up at least one fighting major in most seasons, 336 (more than 30%) of last season's 1,130 fighting majors were assessed to just 23 players--less than 4% of the total number of players used by NHL teams last season.

"You get into fights with very talented men who are doing it for a living," says Marty McSorley, who was suspended for last season's final 23 games and was tried in a Vancouver court on assault charges just before the season after hitting the Vancouver Canucks' Donald Brashear over the head with his stick in a game last February when Brashear wouldn't fight him.

Ironically, those "talented men" get very little time these days when it matters most--in the Stanley Cup playoffs. While Stanley Cup games in the late 1980s sometimes looked like something out of the World Wrestling Federation's "Smackdown," fisticuffs in the playoffs nowadays are rare--meaning that those who make their living with their fists have had to be able to play or learn to enjoy watching the game from the press box. The New Jersey Devils had all of two fighting majors on their way to the Stanley Cup last spring, and only 14 fights took place in 83 playoff games--about one per every six games. And when teams shorten the bench in the third period, the "designated hitter" usually sits. Among the NHL's busiest fighters, only the Pittsburgh Penguins' Matthew Barnaby had more than nine goals (12) and 20 points (24); among the NHUs Top 15 scorers, only San Jose Sharks' Owen Nolan (three), Detroit Red Wings' Brendan Shanahan (three), and Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick (four) had any fighting majors.