RICHMOND, Va. -- I’m of two minds on the topic of fighting in hockey. Yeah, it’s historically had it’s place within the sport, and it can provide a momentum shift or cathartic release at times… but often, it would seem that the risks involved of serious injury to the league's star players simply make it not worth the trouble to keep around. Should on-ice fisticuffs continue the slide into extinction that they are currently on, I don’t imagine I'll miss them.
An instance like the one portrayed provides an example of why I feel this way. True, in the moment it was exciting and provided an emotional rush, but the broken jaw that Rick DiPietro suffered at the hands of Brent Johnson’s sneaky left hook saw him end up missing over a month of hockey, and led to a bona fide travesty against hockey just nine days later, as the Penguins faced the revenge-minded Islanders in a game that set a record for penalty minutes and resulted in several suspensions and a season ending concussion to Eric Tangradi.
Still, I can’t deny that it was memorable couple of weeks. A decade later, I’m chronicling the events of THIS particular game, and not one of the dozens of wholly forgettable matchups between the teams over same period of time! What say you, Lunatics? Fighting, or no?
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