- Fighters pay a heavy price%2C and receive a smaller salary
- Some fighting teams succeed%2C while others do not%27t
- Linesmen must intervene to prevent a fight if players remove the opponent’s helmet to circumvent the new rule.
Fighting Questions and Answers:
Q: How often do players get injured while fighting?
A: Often enough to worry.
Montreal Canadiens tough guy George Parros was the standout when he was pulled and found himself face-first on the ice on opening night.
Corey Tropp of the Buffalo Sabers suffered a concussion and broken jaw during a preseason fight. He and Parros are skating again but have yet to play.
Last season, Shawn Thornton of the Boston Bruins suffered a concussion in a fight with Buffalo’s John Scott and missed two games. Eric Selleck of the Florida Panthers missed the game more than a month after a fight with Kevin Westgarth of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Perhaps the biggest concern is the long-term impact of NHL struggles on players after they retire.
Former NHL tough guy Darren McCarty says he suffered numerous hand injuries in fights and had multiple surgeries to fix problems ranging from broken knuckles to collapsed arteries and more. by a severed tendon. He had 136 fights during his NHL career (1993-2009), according to hockeyfights.com. He estimates there will be 50 more fights in the minor leagues and dozens more in junior hockey.
McCarty, 41, says he suffers from arthritis in badly scarred hands and has difficulty with his shoulder, arms, back and neck.
“It all fits together one way or another,” he said. “It’s probably partly from fighting and partly from playing with my body for so many years and throwing my body around recklessly. My hand problems and the scars on my face are from fighting, but I I also know that I threw a lot more punches than I had fights.”
McCarty’s Detroit Red Wings teammate, Bob Probert, was discovered after his death to be suffering from a degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. That was a concern for McCarty.
“What you have to do is become as educated as possible and stay on top of it,” he said.
Knowing the toll fighting or hockey took on his body, McCarty said he wouldn’t have changed anything about his career.
“It’s safe,” he said. “It’s the only way I knew how to play.”
Q: Do fighting teams earn more?
A: It is difficult to draw conclusions. Some succeed; some are not.
Last season, six of the top ten fighting teams did not make the playoffs. In 2011-2012, six out of ten did so.
The Chicago Blackhawks, last season’s Stanley Cup champions, ranked 25th in major contests. The Los Angeles Kings, 2011-2012 champions, ranked 19th, but were known as a big, physically strong team.
The Boston Bruins placed second when they won the Cup in 2011.
General manager Brian Burke built the 2006-07 champion Anaheim Ducks as a big, physical, aggressive team. They’ve had 71 major fights, and no other NHL team has had more than 47 this season.
“We were determined to provide our talented young players with a fear-free environment,” Burke said.
This season, the Sabers lead the NHL with 13 major tournaments and find themselves at the bottom of the standings.
Q: Are there any new rules governing combat?
A: The NHL doesn’t want players to take off their helmets when fighting. An additional two-minute penalty is imposed on those who do so.
If players remove each other’s helmets to circumvent the rule, the linesmen are instructed, if they have time, to intervene immediately and stop the fight before it takes place.
Linesmen have also been told they can impose delay of match penalties or professional fouls on players who resist efforts to stop them from fighting without helmets.
Q: Are the tough guys paid well?
A: Typically, the tough guys are significantly below the average NHL salary. They often work on one or two year contracts and change teams.
Zenon Konopka, 32, of the Minnesota Wild, with his sixth NHL team, makes $925,000, less than half the average salary. Popular tough guy Parros earns $935,000. Colton Orr of the Toronto Maple Leafs, involved in the fight in which Parros was injured, earns $925,000.
Thornton makes $1.2 million, but he’s a special situation because his role involves much more than fighting. The more tasks a player can complete, the more they will be paid.
Some tough ones are in the $600,000 to $700,000 range.
Paul Bissonnette of the Phoenix Coyotes earns $750,000. His popularity is reflected in his over 467,000 Twitter followers.
Q: Who is leading the fights?
A: Thirteen NHL players have accumulated 24.4% of major fights. Luke Gazdic (Edmonton Oilers), Konopka, Cody McCormick (Buffalo), Antoine Roussel (Dallas Stars) and Derek Dorsett (New York Rangers) lead with four each.
Among the NHL’s top 30 scorers, only Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim) and Ryan Kesler (Vancouver Canucks) battled.
