Cam Cole: Does fighting still have a place in today’s NHL?
Dropping the gloves: Flames’ boss Burke maintains that fi ghting still has a role in the NHL
As Mr. T used to say on The A Team: “I pity the fool” who believes that because the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers have ( temporarily, it says here) moved their tough guys to a side burner, it means the end of fighting in hockey is near.
Even if NBC analyst and former big, bad Boston Bruins defenceman Mike Milbury now says hockey needs to “grow up” and ban fighting.
Even if, as we suspect, it is Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, who seems to have gone all New Age since his stint as the NHL’s head of player safety, who initiated the demotion of Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, which flies in the face of everything head coach Randy Carlyle believes.
Hockey just isn’t that susceptible to political correctness.
Those nuclear weapons might be out of sight, but they’re not gone; they’re just being stored for the moment in their silos, waiting for the launch order when cap space opens up or the opponent du jour represents a clear and present danger.
Their fists may not be required in the playoffs, but you have to get there first, with at least some of your skill players unmolested.
Sure, the arguments against fighting are obvious: concussions, self- worth issues, postcareer brain disease. The whole laundry list of ills is laid out in John Branch’s brilliant and tragic profile of the late Derek Boogaard in his book Boy On Ice.
But I believe the Calgary Flames’, um, obstreperous president of hockey operations Brian Burke when he says the last time the role of fighting in hockey was raised at a general managers’ meeting, the vote to keep it in the game “at its current level” was 29- 1 in favour.
Burke, who’s been mostly silent since pledging to remain in the background as the chief hockey executive of the Calgary Flames, had no problem Thursday arguing the need for fighting in hockey as a purely practical matter.
Whichever end of the PC spectrum you may favour, what Burke said in a telephone interview from Toronto is pretty much undeniable.
“What cracks me up is, the disarmament treaty is all in the East,” he said. “I don’t understand it, because you get to the ( Los Angeles Kings- New York Rangers) finals, and what is the one thing that leaped out at you? The Rangers were too small.
“In the West … I mean, we’re going into St. Louis tomorrow. Big, ugly team. You play Anaheim, they’ve always been big and ugly, now they’ve added Kesler, who’s not big and ugly but he’s a grumpy, hostile player. Then you go up to San Jose, they’re historically one of the biggest teams in the league … I said this in a speech the other night: size and toughness, they’re not optional in the West.”
The movement to eliminate fighting, Burke says, is coming from outside the game, not inside.
“The amount of fighting has been significantly reduced. That’s a good thing. We don’t have bench- clearing brawls. We don’t have three- hour games,” he said.
“The guy who sits on the end of the bench and plays two minutes … that’s been gone for several years now. Your toughness has to be able to play now.
“But I believe there’s still a role for fighting and I shudder at the idea of the game without it. Because I think we have a rat problem now because of the instigator penalty, and if you take the big dogs off the ice, now it’s overrun with rats.”
The rules, even stiffer suspensions and a vigilant
What are you going to do when you go into Boston Garden? Just tell me, so I can figure this out. Good luck tiptoeing through the tulips there. ” BRIAN BURKE CALGARY FLAMES PRESIDENT OF HOCKEY OPERATIONS
department of player safety have been generally ineffective at reducing the incidence of stupid, provocative hits.
Burke thinks adding Chris Pronger to the NHL’s player safety staff is a great move, “and I bounced him plenty,” Burke said, in his role as the league’s chief sheriff, pre- Colin Campbell.
But the rules have never got rid of rats, and he has little faith in their ability to do so now.
“So the idea that hockey is better without toughness, that’s not even a myth — that’s just wrong. I think our fans want fast, skilled hockey, but they want black- and- blue hockey, too,” he said.
And sometimes, that means fists.
“What are you going to do when you go into Boston Garden? Just tell me, so I can figure this out,” he said. “Good luck tiptoeing through the tulips there. This is still a man’s game.”
As for Milbury, who only a couple of years ago was decrying the “pansification” of the game, Burke is mystified at his good friend’s sudden reversal of ground.
“He’s a guy who played on a tough team, has been a major fighting advocate … I don’t understand a 180 ( degree turnaround) like that. For him to suddenly find religion is baffling.”
Burke isn’t sold on the suggestion that teams will still dress their fighters when facing an opponent that has visible scrappers in the lineup.
“It messes with your tough guys having a part- time role. They resent it,” he said. “And your skill players? They like looking down the bench and seeing the big boys there. There’s no security blanket better than a heavyweight.”
That’s why the Flames, very much against the grain, still play Brian McGrattan, and have now added Deryk Engelland and Brandon Bollig, all tough guys.
“I’ll take some of the blame for the arms race in the West because I think we started it in Anaheim ( in 2007). We won big and ugly, and everyone’s been getting big and ugly ever since,” Burke said.
And the argument that the better teams, since then, have gone away from pure fighters?
“There’s been toughness on every cup team. This is a myth. Even Detroit in their heyday had McCarty, Probert and on and on. George Parros could play for us ( in Anaheim). Shawn Thornton ( of Boston) was more than just a fighter.
“L. A. had Jordan Nolan. Matt Greene will fight …”
So Burke doesn’t believe for a second that his Flames are the last bastion of violent gents.
“My teams have always played like that, but it’s not optional,” Burke said. “This is survival skills.
“You want to play with the big boys in the West, you better be big and ugly.”