The National Hockey League is finally back on our screens, and of course now that the hockey is back, so are the fights.
The official puck drop was on Tuesday night, with the New York Rangers getting proceedings underway with a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. But there were six clashes on Wednesday night, with fisticuffs in two of them.
The ever-physical Max Comtois began scrapping with Will Borgen while Sam Lafferty and Josh Manson dropped the gloves also. But it's come at a sensitive time in American sports, as an injury to NFL star Tua Tagovailoa has sparked debate once more over violence and concussions within sports.
The first official penalised fight of the NHL season came in a clash between Stanley Cup winners Colorado Avalanche and a team very much at the opposite end of their journey, Chicago Blackhawks. The game was all but over, with the heavily favoured Avalanche's leading 5-2 in the third.
But Blackhawks star Lafferty took offence to a boarding hit by Manson of the Avalanche's, after after a decent period of verbal exchanges they decided to have it out. It was a relatively short encounter, as both were stopped when they began wrestling on the ice.
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There were a few more hits exchanged in the later clash between Anaheim Ducks and Seattle Kraken though, with both Comtois and Borgen landing wild and uncontrolled blows. The rules have been changed over the years, meaning that now players have to sit out for a total of five minutes in minor cases, but although that can deter some stars from fighting, the risks remain.
Only one former NHL player has ever died on the ice as a result of violence within the game, as Bill Masterton hit his head hard on the ice in 1968. But the worry remains with the post-career symptoms that some former players are now starting to suffer, with their being a clear correlation between those who fought more, and implications later in life.
The brutal concussion of Tagovailoa in the NFL has sparked debate in America, with the Miami Dolphins quarterback perhaps being on the field when he shouldn't have been at the time of injury. After sustaining a suspected concussion against the Buffalo Bills on September 25, Tagovailoa returned to action just four days later, this time suffering another head injury.
Tagovailoa has now returned to training, although some neurologists even urged the quarterback to retire for the sake of his health. But while attention has been focused on the NFL, people have overlooked the start of the NHL this week.
The NHL remains the only professional league in the world for a non-combat sport that permits fighting, as only game penalties are handed out rather than an instant ejection. In most cases, the fights are limited, and they're broken up much faster than they once were.
However, although helmets are now mandatory, there is still a pressing concern for when these are removed during brawls. Both Lafferty and Manson has their head guards removed before clattering to the ice together, and one bad fall could really implicate things.
Back in 2021, Tom Wilson and Artemi Panarin clashed at Madison Square Garden, and Wilson removed his opponents helmet before slamming him down to the ice. This sparked debate more than any other fight in recent history, as Panarin was inches away from landing head first.
The outrage has since calmed, and once again things have gone back to 'normal' as it's within the interest of tradition and culture in the league. The NFL and the NHL have made major advancements to their league rules and protocols as we find out more about the impact of concussions, but the risk factor still remains.
Of course, the argument still remains that players 'know what they're getting themselves into', but health specialists are still warning those willing enough to brave themselves that we still don't know the extent of the dangers. It's unlikely that this debate will ever go away until one extreme is taken, so there will remain an abundance of noise until then.
Fights in hockey have seen a rapid decline year on year, and it's far from what it used to be at its most physical. But all it takes is once serious incident to open up the discussion again, as we have seen in recent weeks.
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