Should fighting be allowed in ice hockey?



Should fighting be allowed in ice hockey?

Introduction

It has been a very interesting ethical question whether or not fighting should be allowed in ice hockey. According to the rules and ethical guidelines, fighting is against the rules at all levels of hockey, from the mere beginning when a person learns to skate, till the highest professional league National Hockey League (NHL). Upon fighting, players often penalize. However, being a good physical sport and having a good level of protection for players, ice hockey must allow some flexibility for the players in this regard. In this essay, I present arguments in favor of the topic.

Discussion

In the 19th century, Ice hockey started its journey as a sport in Canada and got developed there. It is the national game of Canada. Ice hockey in the succeeding years moved from Canada to the lower 48 states. In Canada, the athletes prefer to play ice hockey instead of any other games such as foot ball or basketball. In many states including Michigan, Northern Wisconsin Minnesota, and the north eastern states, players play the ice hockey in a way almost identical to the Canadian.

As with all the other sports, ice hockey considers it illegal and non ethical for the players to fight during the sport. The players are punished and often penalized for their misconduct. The level of hockey which the player is involved in governs the penalties and corresponding rules. Depending upon the seriousness of issue, penalties usually range from a five minutes, to a game ejection and a three game suspension.

For different countries, the rules of the sport are slightly different from each other, for example, Canada just views the fighting as part of the game at all levels. Fighting in North American hockey is a long established tradition at all levels of play.

Hockey is a physical game, and it consists of body checking and other forms of physical play. In the early days of hockey, the rules were not clearly defined. The prevailing opinion was that it is the lack of rules, which encourage players to fight. Therefore, the creation of the blue line or defensive zones at either end of the rink forced players to skate with the puck and minimal passing.

In 1922, the NHL introduced Rule 56 which officially regulated fighting or “fisticuffs” in the NHL rule book. The current rule is Rule 46 which has dropped the word. However, fighting is still considered as fisticuffs in the USA Hockey rule book. This book governs all armature hockeys in the United States.

For the periods 1920s to 1960s, fighting in Ice hockey was rare as compared to today, but the nature of the fights was more brutal. Star players also fought, and enforcers had no professional teams. As the NHL expanded in the period of late 1960s, more players started to get a chance for a roster spot. Also, the emergence of star players resulted in raising the concept ...