Fisticuffs are up around NHL as young toughs try to make their reputations.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published November 18, 2003
The crowd at the MCI Center stood and cheered. Players smacked the boards with their sticks in salute. A day later, everyone wanted to talk about it.
Lightning defenseman Cory Sarich and Capitals defenseman Rick Berry spent about a minute Friday pounding each other's faces with their fists in what was one of the best fights of the NHL season.
Tampa Bay left wing Chris Dingman, signing autographs Saturday at a scheduled appearance, found himself doing some postfight analysis.
"All the people could talk about was what a great fight Sarich had," Dingman said. "They didn't know he could fight like that."
Aficionados of such encounters must be in their glory. Fighting is up this season ... way up.
Entering Monday, 387 fighting majors had been assessed in 256 games. That is 34 percent greater than last season. There were 446 roughing penalties, up 29 percent.
For a sport that has worked hard to reduce on-ice violence, that is notable, though Mike Murphy, league vice president of hockey operations, doesn't see a problem.
"The feel we have for the fights is there is not as much premeditated fighting," he said. "That's okay. It's allowed by our rules. We have passionate players wanting to win and an offshoot is a fight breaks out."
Theories vary.
Murphy said because teams play six division games, one more than last season, intensity already is up. Lightning enforcer Andre Roy said players could be trying to impress general managers who will have serious personnel decisions to make if a work stoppage wipes out next season.
The Predators are cultivating a tougher image and have a league-high 27 fighting majors, four more than last season.
But Jody Shelley may have hit it on the head (no pun intended). The Blue Jackets enforcer said a new wave of young, tough guys entered the league the past few seasons, players such as Carolina's Jesse Boulerice, Buffalo's Andrew Peters, Dallas' Steve Ott and Nashville's Wade Brookbank.
The result: a kind of heavyweight tournament.
"New guys coming in are going to fight to make a reputation," Shelley said. "All these guys played together and knew each other in the AHL."
"For sure," Brookbank said. "There are a few guys in this league who have to establish themselves as tough guys. To do that, you have to go out and fight and go up against the guys who already have proven themselves."
The proven heavyweights will oblige, especially when opponents want to defend a teammate or are simply trying to provide sparks for their teams.
"The new guys in the league always ask the big guys to fight," Oilers enforcer Georges Laraque said. "They gave me a chance and so I give them one, too."
This is not a return to the bad old days of the mid '80s, when the league said it averaged two fighting majors. Last season it was 1.1. This season it is 1.5. And if you use as a base the 354 fighting majors assessed through 256 games in 2001-02, the increase is just 9 percent.
"It hasn't been mayhem," Murphy said. "The refs have done a good job of handling it. We haven't had situations where hockey ops and Colin (Campbell, director of hockey operations) have had to intercede or suspend or fine coaches and players."
The fight between Sarich and Berry, which began during a scrum in front of the Capitals net, was a prime example.
"As you saw, the two participants, they went at it and they broke up and went to the penalty box," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "Just a good, honest toe-to-toe fight."
Dingman said such fights have a place.
"There's a value to keeping guys honest," he said. "If you run around and take liberties on the other team's skill players and you know there's a guy like Laraque or somebody like that who is 250 pounds and wants to rip your head off, it's a deterrent. You have to be accountable for your actions."
Plenty of young players want to make those accounts come due. Roy said Boulerice invariably asks to fight. With the Lightning leading Carolina 3-0 Nov. 1, he obliged.
"It depends on the game," Roy said. "If a guy comes up and I feel it's right, I'll do it. I fought (Toronto's) Tie Domi four or five times in two years in Ottawa. He gave me a chance, so I know how it is."
Murphy said he expects fighting to diminish.
"The games get more important as you get to the finish line," he said. "Players can't afford to get the instigator or double roughing because you're putting your team short-handed. For guys who scrap it has to be spontaneous."
Still, when building a reputation, things aren't always as they seem. Peters, the Sabres' rookie left wing, recalled to the Edmonton Journal picking a fight with Domi during a 2002 preseason game.
"I asked him if I could fight him," Peters said. "After he tried to punch me in the mouth, he said, "Make the league first kid.' "
