Goon. Enforcer. Tough Guy.
All synonymous with what is plaguing the National Hockey League today. Fighting
has been part of hockey since its creation. Some fans cry out that it is
fighting that needs to be phased out of the game. It’s true; people get hurt
when they fight on sharp metal skates while gliding on ice, all while using
bare knuckles to bash the opponent’s face in. It’s part of the game. There is a
difference between necessary and unnecessary fighting, though. If your team’s
star player takes a cheap shot to the head, you are going to want a big, bad
bruiser to skate up to the perpetrator and make him pay. That’s just the nature
of the game. But there is no need to pay an ugly behemoth solely to injure
other players with elbows and shoulders to the back of the head.
In the
past few years, there have been countless incidents of goons hurting other
players with obvious intent to knock them out of the game. Chicago fans may
remember when, in 2012, Blackhawks’ player Marian Hossa was leveled by
Phoenix’s Raffi Torres on a brutal shot to the head. Bruins fans will never
forget about the 2010 hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke that has all but ended
Marc Savard’s career and has left him with brutal post-concussion syndrome.
This past October, Buffalo forward John Scott delivered a vicious elbow to the
head of Bruins player Loui Eriksson. While Eriksson recovered within a few
weeks, it was the type of hit, and the type of player, the NHL needs to phase
out. After that hit to Eriksson, Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid stepped right
up to fight Scott. That is the type of fighting needed in the NHL. It’s all
about retribution, not fighting for the fun of it.
Scott is a prototypical
goon: six feet, eight inches, and 259 pounds of unskilled hockey player. He has
played in 187 NHL games in his career. He has just one goal and four assists to
show for his eight professional seasons, with his last goal coming in 2009. Some
will point out the Bruins have goons in McQuaid and Shawn Thornton. The
difference between John Scott and players like McQuaid, Thornton, and
Montreal’s resident fighter George Parros is that the latter players are not
paid to hurt other players. Parros protects his guys and only fights in the
event of a cheap shot. McQuaid plays shut down defense in front of Bruins
goalies year round, not to mention he scored the goal that sent the Bruins to
the Stanley Cup Finals last year. Shawn Thornton already has more goals this
season than Scott does in his entire career. These players are productive in
addition to their fighting skills. The NHL needs to cleanse its product of
players like John Scott, but it all starts with the teams. They have to decide
that they would rather spend their money on a solid goalie, or forward who can
kill off a penalty, rather than throw thousands, or even millions of dollars at
men who can barely stand up on the ice just to try and knock out the opponent’s
best player. Bruins head coach Claude Julien personally dislikes the use of
goons in hockey, telling The Boston Globe, “If a guy chooses to be that and a team chooses to have a guy
like that, I don’t know, but I’ll never tell Shawn Thornton to go after Sidney
Crosby or anybody
else that’s a top player in this league. I’ll never do that. So if he does,
it’s on his own. And if he does it on his own, I don’t think personally I’d
accept it.” One thing is for certain, though: There is no place for a
hitman in hockey. (The formatting did not want to work with me…)
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