Laraque: GM Suggestions a ‘Joke’

Georges Laraque, enforcer extraordinaire, called out the NHL GMs, saying their proposed restrictions on fighting are a joke. Let’s look at the proposed restrictions on fighting:

• 10 minute misconducts for ‘staged fights’ that occur right after a faceoff.
• Instigator penalties for starting a fight with a visor, or starting a fight after a clean hit, or both (4 minutes in the both scenario)

The example cited in the article is the Jason Spezza fight with Dion Phaneuf after Phaneuf laid out Dany Heatley. According to the article, Spezza would have received 19 minutes of penalties (2 for instigating with a visor, 2 for instigating with after a clean hit, 5 for fighting, 10 min misconduct). I’m going to respectfully disagree and say that Spezza would have received 9 minutes, as this wasn’t a staged fight after a faceoff.

I’m not 100% in agreement with these new propsed rule changes. Personally, I agree that staged fights should be gone from the game. They really don’t serve a purpose. I also agree with the instigator penalties (just for the visor and for a reaction to a clean hit).

The only issue I have here is that the instigator rule is such a crap rule, and we see more Todd Bertuzzi cheap shots because of the ability to hide behind the rule. If the ref doesn’t see the initial cheap shot, but then calls a 19 minute penalty because of a reaction, it becomes unfair. Players should have the ability to police themselves, but this becomes annoying when, just as an example, Laraques starts a fight with Ryan Callahan because Callahan made a clean hit on Roman Hamrlik. Those fights need to stop. If Callahan made a hard hit on, say Plekanec or Kostitsyn (the good one), then sure, start the fight; protect your star players. The reason why no one ever messed with Gretzky on Edmonton and LA because they had to answer to people like Messier and McSorley.

Laraque goes further and says that this would essentially ‘eliminate the one dimensional player’. Let me be the first to say that Georges, you’re not helping your argument here. This is what the NHL wants, they want the one dimensional, fighting only, tough guys out of the game. Let’s think about this logically, if you eliminate the Georges Laraque’s from the game, someone with more skill takes his place. This leads to more offense and more exciting plays. The league wants the fighters to be more like Messier, tough guys with skill. Sure, Messier is a bit of an extreme example, but you get my point. To provide a more recent example, Brandon Dubinsky is probably the type of fighter the NHL wants. Dubi is skilled, can skate, pass and shoot, and fights when he needs to.

These proposed changes ride a fine line when it comes to eliminating fighting all together, which would be terrible for a sport about to return to ESPN. The NHL has to be careful with this, and make sure that fighting is not eliminated from the game, officially or unofficially. Fighting keeps players in check. That said, fights should occur as part of the emotions of the game, not some staged bout. This isn’t boxing.

Just an FYI, all proposals made by the GMs must be approved by the NHLPA before going into effect.