The only time I watch Ice Hockey is when CNN covers it, so I don’t much of the rules of the sport.
However, I have always wondered why there is so much fighting in Ice Hockey. Players bashing each other up, slamming into the glass, etc.
Is this normal ? Do the rules allow for this ? What’s the penalty ?
Also, I’ve often played Ice Hockey as a computer game, but never understood what a “Power Play” was. Anyone?
Thanks.
I just got my Canadian citizenship on Wednesday, so I should be able to answer this one. I’ll start with the power play first. When a player gets a penalty, he has to sit out (usually for two minutes), and therefore his team is short one player on the ice. So the other team which now has the 5 on 4 (or sometimes 4 on 3) advantage is said to be in a power play. The side with less players is short-handed. Because you have more players its easier to control the puck and score. If the team on the power play does score, the guy in the box gets to come out.
Fighting is something somebody else will need to step in and explain the rationale behind its continued existence in the game. the most obvious explination is “becuase its always been that way.” A hockey fight is different from a fight in other major team sports. The average hockey fight follows its own rules of conduct, with two tough guys facing off and not doing much more than punching and shoving. the other players just pair up and kind of hold on to/grapple with each other. I think the point of this is to prevent the guy you pair up with from joining in the fight. As long as it stays within these bounds the only punishment is an extra-long penalty with most participants getting a 5-minute major penalty. One neat thing about fight penalties is that since they come in pairs they let the teams stay at 5-on-5 instead of playing 4-on-4. Fighting is frowned upon in the playoffs and the penalties are much more harsh.
Checking, the part where players slam into each otherwhile skating, is a normal part of the game. Most of the penalties are actually checking restrictions. There is a whole lot more to hockey than big hits and fights, but if all you watch is the highlights…
You should sit down and watch a few games. Or better yet, go watch Slap Shot. Afterwards, hockey will make a whole lot more sense.
Checking is used to impead the movement of a puck carrier into the attacking zone. In short its to stop the attack. Hockey really is a game of finess. You have to know when and how to check to ensure you do so at the right time. Some of the best players in the game never did hit very much (Wayne Grezkey)
Fighting is there for a reasion. The referees never do catch everything, and the opposing team will can take advantage of that to impead your teammate. A good example of this is Wayne Grezkey. Other teams would check him excessively and also hit him an in effort to throw him off his game. So your team would have someone (Marty McSorley) to protect your star players.
And sometimes someone just needs to be set straight. To do it, ya fight him.
Most penalties in hockey are 2-minute penalties, with the guy in the “sin bin” allowed to come out of the box early should the opposing team score on the power play. (By the way, every team will try to get their power play specialists out on the ice to score while they have the man advantage. If they fail to score, expect to hear complaints about the weakness of their power play. 
) There is a roughing penalty, which is generally handed out when the pushing and shoving is rather more forceful than it needs to be and no other 2-minute penalty (e.g., high-sticking, cross-checking, tripping) adequately describes the action. However, 5-minute fighting penalties must be served IN FULL, so that the team on the power play keeps their 5-on-4 (or 4-on-3) advantage for the entire 5 minutes, regardless of how many times they score.
It’s been a while since I followed hockey closely, so I don’t know how much things have changed. Back in the early to mid-80s, European-style hockey (fast skating, lots of movement up and down the ice, limited hard checking) was just beginning to be pushed by Herb Brooks with the NY Rangers, so the usual North American style of play was still the norm (toss the puck in the corner and let the players scramble along the boards to get possession, resulting in tempers flaring, etc.). It wasn’t all that uncommon for huge fights to blow up during the playoffs or between strong rivals (I’m thinking Rangers-Islanders here), with players leaving the bench to join in. It would take the referee and linesman a few minutes to sort out the penalties once the action was finished, but the penalties typically ran something like:
-For the player who started the fracas: 2 minutes for high-sticking, 2 minutes for roughing, 5 minutes for fighting, and a 10-minute misconduct
-For the player he fought with: 5 minutes for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct
-For the guys on the ice who should have stayed out of things but didn’t: 2 minutes for roughing or 5 minutes for fighting (unless their behavior was truly bad, in which case they also got misconducts); players on the ice who just sort of hang on to each other are not penalized
-For players leaving the bench: 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct plus other applicable penalties if needed
-For the coach, if he was seen egging people on: 2 minute bench penalty to be served by a player of the coach’s choice
Players whose time in the penalty box exceeded the time left in the period would just be sent to the locker room until the next period, at which point they’d come out and serve their time in the box. Of course, if the fight happens in the third period as they so often do, the player is simply gone for the game.
As to why it’s tolerated… well, the original North American style of play was physically aggressive to begin with, with certain players making a career of physical intimidation rather than skill (Dave Schultz of the Flyers back in the mid-70s is a good example). I think that overall tendency has lessened a lot with the influx of European players, who emphasize skating and puck-handling skills above all else.
I went to a fight at Foxwoods once, and a hockey game broke out.
It was once explained to me that as long as the fighting was between only 2 players, there was not likely to be any really extreme damage. Both are on skates, on ice, so can’t get as much oomph behind a punch as a person on a non-slippery surface.
The information in the prior postings regardng hockey rules, powerplays & fights are correct. The main thing not mentioned yet about why fighting is still a part of hockey is that it puts fans in the seats (and money in the bank).
There are varying theories about why fighting is tolerated in the NHL to a much higher degree than in other sports.
One such theory is that if the players didn’t fight with their fists, they would be more likely to seek to hurt each other with their sticks which is far more dangerous. However, you would have a hard time finding any empirical data on this.
Fights are now supposed to be between two players. If a third player joins, that player is automatically given a game misconduct. That also applies to fourth, fifth, etc players to join the fray. If goalies leave their crease and cross the blue line to join in a fray, they are automatically ejected. If any player leaves the bench to join in a fight, that player is given a game misconduct and an automatic suspension of I believe 10 games.
There used to be a lot more fighting in the NHL. But the days of the bench clearing brawl that lasted for 20 minutes with equipment strewn all over the ice is pretty much a thing of the past.
This is the usual case, but it is not out of the question for a player to get pretty badly hurt… a well landed punch by some guy 6’4" and 230 lbs. can occasionally do pretty good damage. Not to mention the chance of falling and hitting your head on the ice. In fact a few years back Tie Domi managed to break Steve Smith leg with a punch (!!?).
As for why it’s allowed… the arguements about “it’s always been this way” and “tradition” carry some weight. The fact that a good proportion of fans (think, $$$) enjoy fighting has quite a bit to do with it. But IMHO the fact that it allows the players to, in some manner, police the game also has a lot of merit. Since the “instigator rule” (whoever is deemed as having started the fight gets an extra penalty) has been in effect, concussions and injuries resulting from high sticks have been on the increase (some argue visor wearing has a lot to do with this too… look up Don Cherry sometime). Take a recent event, Martin Havlat swinging his stick at Mark Recchi’s head… with less stringent fighting penalties, he would have been less likely to have tried something like this in the first place, and if he had done it, someone would have no doubt come along and beat the tar out of him.
As for the bashing around… that’s just good old physical play, and is as much a part of the game as sticks and skates… just like tackling in football.
Hockey is a very frustrating sport. It’s been theorized by those who study the sport that the fact that the game is played at such a high speed in an enclosed area just naturally leads to increased aggression on ice. In addition to fighting, you also have guys slashing each other with sticks, “facewashing”, cheap shots, and the sort. It’s not that ice hockey players are nothing but goons (off the ice, the vast majority of NHL players are actually very nice people; they are involved in a lot of charity work, etc.), but playing a fast sport in such a tightly enclosed area simply leads to frustration and aggression.
Many years ago I remember hearing a ref admitting that if two players seemed to be evenly matched, and unlikely to really hurt each other, they’d let them go at it a little while before breaking it up. His reasoning was that it would tire them out, which might be a better punishment than penalty time, and he’d just “let them get it out of their system”.
I also suspect, as others do, that the already quoted “I went to the fights last night, and a hockey game broke out” joke reflects a lot of the real reason. A decent percentage of the fans expect a few fights, and see it as part of the entertainment.
It should also be noted that no ref or linesman wants to get hit by a stray punch. As long as the two participants are still thowing punches, its not going to get broken up.
I havent seen too many instigators handed out as of late, either when I play, or when I watch on TV. Generally both of the participants want to fight, so this penality is not used a whole lot.
For penalites, there are a few types (I am not a ref, but a player. This is the best I can recall, and what I see from my view on the ice)
Minor: usual cheating type stuff gets ya two minutes. If a goal is scored by the opposing team prior to the end of the two minutes you get to come out.
Double minor: excessive cheating, but not bad enough to warrant a major penality (subjective decision by the ref) Gets ya four minutes of rest. If a goal is scored during the first two minutes, the penality is then reduced to two minutes. If no goal is scored during the first two minutes, but during the second two minutes, the player gets to come out.
Major: Generally given when intent to injure is present, or for careless play that can result in injury (high stick to head, fighting, ect…). It is a five minute penality. The player is required to sit the entire penality, even if the other team scores 10 goals during that 5 minutes.
Misconduct penality: The player is unavailable for 10 minutes, but does not result in a powerplay if given alone (Without a minor, double minor, or major; which is unusual). Generally you’ll see a player get a penality, and a misconduct penality tacked on. If there is a penality a different player on the same team, who was on the ice when the penality was called, must sit the penality in the box. Game misconduct penality gets you kick our of the game.
Delayed penality: If a penality is called on team A, and team B is in possession of the puck at the time, play continues until team A touches the puck. The idea is to not punish team B by stopping play when they have the puck.
Matching penalities: when players on both teams are given penalites, they sit there time, but there is no power play, and the players in the box cannot exit the box until the fist stoppage of play after the penality ends.
Match penality: ejection from the game, and an automatic 5 minute major must be served by another player.
For more specifics: http://www2.nhl.com/hockeyu/rulebook/index.html
On a side note, the NHL rule book does not call it fighting, rather it is refered to as fisticuffs
Does anyone ever watch lacrosse? I think that they have fights just to put people in the seats. When you have such physical play, with such a high probability of getting injured, allowing fighting is a way for the players to police each other, at least it was until the stupid instigator penalty was introduced. As long as they don’t REALLY injure each other, I think that it’s just fine.
There are few sports where such aggressive physical contact is part of the object of the game and even fewer where the physical contact is essentially continuous and where opposing players are constantly in each other’s space. Ice hockey is one of these sports.
But, truthfully this hockey fan couldn’t care less about the fights. In fact, many times I get annoyed when the rythm of a game is interrupted by a couple of guys stopping to duke it out.
As one poster suggests, watching some games (ESPN and ABC) helps to figure out what’s going on. Playoffs are the most intense and begin sometime in April.
It’s the awesome-ist of sports.
That’s usually the case, but players have been seriously hurt. Nick Kyporeos’s career was ended when he suffered a head injury during a fight.
The NHL has fewer fights now than it ever has in the entire history of the league, which I still think is too many.
Wow, so many words and explanations. I thought fights were tolerated because otherwise people wouldn’t want to watch it…
IIRC, the League put a stop to that after a pretty good bench-clearing fight. Punishments include some pretty hefty fines to the players and the teams. I’d look it up, but I don’t have my NHL rulebook handy right now.
Second most favorite moment in hockey: Chris Osgood and another goalie skate to center ice to ‘chat/discuss’ an already in-progress fight. Thirty seconds later, two goalies are pounding the crap out of each other on the red line. [sub]What damn game was that, and why can’t I remember the other team? The Avalanche?[/sub]
First? Marty Brodeur (G) scores a goal on an open net in the playoffs.
Tripler
Devil Worshipper since October 5th, 1982.
It was, indeed, against the Avalanche. Patrick Roy and Chris Osgood went at it. The brawl was already under way, but because everyone was evenly matched up, the goalies stayed in their nets.
Roy was feeling scrappy, so he hollered down the ice to Osgood, suggesting they discuss the brawl at center. Once Roy crossed his blue line, Osgood had no choice but go meet him.
God I miss the days when the Avs/Red Wings games were wars, not just competition.
A quick addition ,A normal stick to the face is a minor penalty, However any stick to the face that draws blood is an automatic double major. Unless it was really violent then it can be a major, or misconduct.
As the for Red-wing Avs thing. Several years ago in the middle of the huge rivalry between the teams a full on ice brawl broke out. Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon went to center ice to fight, and the general consensus was that the 5-9 180 pound Vernon won against the 6’3 220ish Roy. Again in a later game a full ice brawl broke out again, and Roy wanted a rematch. Unfortunatly Vernon had moved on, so He had to have it with Osgood. Two years ago another huge fight broke out, and Dominick Hasek(the new Wings Goalie) went down to start up with Roy, but slipped on a stick, and just fell over slid in and took out Roy’s knees.
Billy Smith was technically the first goalie to ever be credited with a goal, although that was more a matter of his being the last Islander to touch the puck before a hapless Colorado Rockies player stuffed the puck in his own net. Marty Brodeur is the only goalie with two to his credit.