Hockey Thoughts, etc.

Why is Fighting allowed and encouraged in Hockey, while in other Major sports fighting is frowned upon?

"In other sports, you fight, you are done for the rest of the game. In Hockey, you get a few minutes in a box, then are allowed to return to the ice and continue your assualt, on the other player."

My Response:
Fighting has always been part of hockey. Basically the philosophy in hockey is that players police themselves. So essentially when you have one player going around taking cheap shots or acting like an a$$, they are gonna have to answer to a teams enforcer. Players like Terrel Owens, Roger Clemens and well most of the NBA don't really exist in hockey (the closest might be Sean Avery) because when you act in the manner they do, you're gonna have to back it up. It's an old school mentality that I personally appreciate. I have no respect for the prima donna stars who constantly run their mouth (regardless of the sport) or play cheap. They don't know the meaning of honor or sportsmanship!!!

Fighting is allowed but absolutely NOT encouraged. For anyone to say different would be a sure sign of ignorance which judging by some of the answers so far there is plenty of that to go around. Fighting is very much regulated. It is a part of the sport and thus has rules that govern it. When you see a fight in baseball it's an out of control bench brawl. You never see clearing of the benches in hockey. In fact if you leave the bench it's an automatic ejection and likely suspension even if you didn't throw a single punch. Hockey is mono e mono, each man stands up for his own actions, they don't hide behind the flurry of kicks and haymakers of an entire team.

As for your "few minutes in the box and then are allowed to return to the ice and continue your assault" comment, you obviously don't even watch hockey. Rarely does a player ever fight twice, %90 of the time when it's over, it's over. If you instigate again you may be rejected regardless of reason and you'll most certainly put your team down a man which could cost the game.

As for those who like to minimize the game...duh...you can do that with any sport!! Who wants to watch someone take a pointy oval shaped pigskin across a 100yds of grass each Sunday? Who wants to watch someone try to hit a leather ball with a stick over a fence? What's so entertaining about hitting a small dimpled ball with a crooked stick while wearing plad pants? If you want to make any sport sound stupid it's not a difficult task!!!

Look for those of you who don't like hockey, that is fine but please don't go around spreading ignorant views on a topic you obviously know nothing about!