Former NHLer And Canadian Government Official, Enrico Ciccone, Is Trying To Ban Fighting In Hockey

I am all for the safety and protection of young, developing minds. There is merit to his argument. I don't want kids with scrambled eggs for brains. 

Having said that...hockey fights are awesome

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The NHL is about entertainment. It isn't a combat sport, but it's close. It's the only sport that has fighting baked into it's culture and product. People LOVE fighting. Even the woke hockey twitter crew who publicly deny that they like fighting will have goosebumps and direct their eyes to the scrap whenever it happens. That will never change. I am WAY more concerned about hits from behind, lateral hits, defenseless players being hit, and hits where the principal point of contact is the head. If you asked me if I'd rather take a punch in a fight that I was prepared for or take a shoulder to the chin from a guy who is 6'2 210lbs and his skating at 20mph...give me the punch. The beauty of the punch is that the threat of it also can help curtail the shoulder hits I talked about. I want to make the game safer, and somehow someway the best way to do that is through danger and the threat of violence. Vigilante justice. You remove that, and the rats will take over the game and we will have more instances of star players being targeted. I believe that in my core. Don't start down this path to remove fighting from hockey. Nobody actually wants that.