Fighting could soon be banned for juniors

CHL commissioner Branch raises issue

Ever since amateur hockey leagues started cracking down on hits to the head more than a decade ago, there was a major disconnect in rule books:

Bodychecks to the head were outlawed and stiff sanctions enacted, but punches to an opponent’s head were tacitly allowed. Sure, fighting was penalized with a five- minute major, but players weren’t tossed from the game and supplemental discipline was the exception rather than the rule.

Amateur hockey organizations have already taken steps to close that loophole and one of major junior hockey’s most influential leaders wants his leagues to follow suit.

Canadian Hockey League commissioner David Branch told the New York Times on Monday that “the appetite is there” to eliminate fighting. Branch wasn’t available on Tuesday to discuss what type of rule changes could be proposed to ban fighting, but told the Times that “the time is certainly right to move forward.”

Hockey Canada already has a blueprint in place to reduce fighting from junior A hockey — one step below major junior. Two years ago, Hockey Canada mandated that in the name of player safety, all instances of fighting would result in a game misconduct.

The rule was in place across the board, from youth leagues to junior A.

“You can have sanctions, you can have radar traps set up on the highway and people will still speed,” Hockey Canada vice- president of hockey development Paul Carson said.

“The reality is what are the deterrents to keep players from engaging in a fight and totally staying away from it in the game?”

The same rule hasn’t yet been adopted in major junior hockey. The three leagues that make up the CHL — the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League — have all taken steps to reduce hits to the head. But those leagues still make a distinction between a bodycheck and a punch.

WHL commissioner Ron Robison believes further study is required before fighting is banned outright.

According to the studies he’s seen, fighting isn’t “a significant factor” when it comes to concussions.

Junior A leagues in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Maritimes — feeder leagues for both the CHL and the U. S. college system — took Hockey Canada’s anti- fighting rules one step further, enacting stiffer penalties including suspensions for players who fight more than once, as part of a two- year pilot project. Ontario didn’t adopt the stricter penalties so its league can act as a control group in the study.

The junior A leagues and Hockey Canada will have data on the effectiveness of the new policy in reducing or eliminating fighting by May, and Carson said once it’s analyzed it could result in further rule changes.

This season Hockey Canada also instituted a zero- tolerance policy on contact to the head. Under the new guidelines, any incidental contact to the head is a two- minute penalty and any contact deemed intentional — no matter how minor — is at least a four- minute infraction.