Keeping the gloves on
Fighting nearly thing of the past in OHL
Barring a bunch of brawls over the final few weeks of the regular season, fighting is going down again in major junior hockey.
Nowhere has the transformation been so dramatic as in Windsor.
When the Spitfires won the 2009 Memorial Cup, they engaged in 110 fights that season, according to stats from fight site www.hockeyfights.com
Last year, they had 15 on the way to the Cup title.
And this year?
They’re at three — fewest in the entire Ontario Hockey League. That used to be a good night’s worth of scraps back in the old Windsor Arena days.
Last year, there were seven teams in the league with at least 20 fights. That’s not going to happen this time around.
The Sudbury Wolves, who are last overall in the standings, lead the OHL with 22 fights, but no one player has more than five. They do already have one more fight than last year’s team total, which is against the norm.
The Soo Greyhounds, far and away the best team in the league this year, are right down near the bottom with five fights.
Their intimidation is based on their talent and puck movement.
You don’t want to try to rough up the Hounds because if they don’t engage and end up on the power play, they might pound you 10-0 on the scoreboard.
Heck, they might beat you that way anyway, even if you’re not in spending all night in the penalty box.
There are a number of reasons why fighting continues its decline, and most of them are due to familiar factors.
First, there have been suspensions in place for individuals that carry on beyond three fights. It’s been that way for a couple of years and players have grown used to the consequences.
There are still some spontaneous battles but there is also no question some of the league’s tougher players pick their spots so they aren’t goaded into needless tilts. That quota has removed a lot of the tactical approach in trying to give a sagging team a boost or to avenge a slighted teammate.
The focus on infusing rosters with skill and speed has also contributed to fewer dropped gloves. The primary goal of junior teams is still to stock the NHL and pro ranks with players — and most fourth lines these days are filled with younger players who use their wheels, not brawn, to establish the forecheck.
Another underrated reason is the work of the league’s linesmen.
I’ve seen more than a few instances this season, in particular, where they have been pro-active in getting between potential combatants to diffuse the situation.
The league has been successful in busting up fights before they start, and that has often led to cooler heads prevailing.
There has been some debate in the scouting rooms the past few months, not just about fighting, but what a decline in physicality means for the OHL as a development league.
The pro game still requires a lot of power and muscle to win puck battles, be effective in the corners and keep puck-carriers on edge with well-timed body contact.
But there has been no correlation established that the OHL will ever suffer in producing talent for the player pool because of the way its style is trending.
There may be less opportunities now for scrapping and to hammer opposing players. But six of the seven NHL players who have recorded at least six fights this season are still graduates of the OHL.
A tough customer is still a tough customer, no matter how many times they fight as teenager.
The overall goal of the OHL is to get its better players to the next level — and to get them there largely in one piece.
The challenge is to do that while making sure they’re still entertaining their fans.
As long as that happens, no one is going to miss the fighting.
The way it’s going, anyway, fighting is not coming back strong anytime soon. rpyette@postmedia.com Twitter.com/RyanatLFPress