No arguments at all. The HS rule is dumb. Tanking is prevalent in every sport. The competitive landscape argument is as much the players fault than anything else. You could easily argue that NBA players wield the most power in sports and they've determined who is the best team in the NBA for the last 20+ years. Combine that with basketball being an extremely low variance sport and the better team wins 90+% of the time. No arguments about most of your points, especially the guaranteed contracts. LMAO at the pricing out true fans thing. Every sport has this issue. Sporting events are expensive. Using CFB as a free minor league system is really bad, but there is no argument that can be made that it is "safe" for 18 year olds to be playing a sport where players feel impacts typical of a car crash on every play with opponents 10+ years of physical development on them. As much as I hate Bettman, Manfred has taken over the mantle of worst commissioner in sports. LOL at blaming the NHL for the winter olympics issue. For 20+ years the NHL stopped their season in February for 2 weeks, risking the health of their star players to send its players to a foreign country to be the signature event for the winter olympics. What did they get in return? The IOC refused to pay the cost of the players insurance for those weeks, refused to allow the NHL to use any of the highlights from the tournament, refused to share any of the revenue, and said thanks for the free signature event. All risk no reward is a shit pill to swallow despite the obvious benefits to growing the game. Also, the salary cap is tied to revenue. The NHL has lagged behind the NBA, MLB, and NHL in growth and for that Bettman and the owners deserve a shit ton of blame, but until revenue increases, the cap is right where it should be. Sorry your rangers can't just buy every FA on the market anymore.
Just found a random KHL stream hoping Klim Kostin’s team loses in this game 7 OT so he can come play for the Blues
I’ll stick to the nhl stuff since this is the NHL thread... I think Manfred is worse as well, but I think the NHL owners are the worst. This is the problem. The priority should be growing the game...and your players are advocating for it. They can’t see the forest for the trees. Believe me, I don’t yearn for the early 2000s Rangers. I just think the cap is too low, and it’s too low bc for years the NHL did such a poor job. Look at how long it took to get back on ESPN. Sometimes you might have to take a little hit to be more successful in the long run.
I honestly believe the NHL is in a good place right now. The increased tv viewing opportunities, skill players, speed of the game, fighting coming back, etc. The mid to late 2000s were just brutal for the sport. 2012/2013 didn’t help either
The NHL is in a good spot because they have a great new television rights deal and their audience is small but its’s young and has money. That’s all that matters.
Love having the NHL in the Olympics. But the IOC can get fucked with their shitty deals. Like it was said above the league assumes all the risk and whatever very minimal gain that comes from it ain’t worth it. Who is complaining about the cap being too low and escrow? Was this a PA poll??
I honestly don’t know the correct answer to this but I wonder if players would be more at risk of long term injury if fighting was removed than if it stays, because I have no faith in NHL refs to ever call games by the book. Basically I’m wondering if predatory/retaliatory hits would be more prevalent (and often those are worse because they’re often blindside and players can’t brace themselves) if players couldn’t fight and I’m not sure which is worse.
Fighting is pretty much completely gone on its own. I don't think the Panthers have been in more than a handful of fights this year.
Fighting during the heat of the moment doesn’t bother me. Staged fights and this idea that you have to defend yourself for making a clean hit are what annoy me. I know people want the instigator rule gone but imagine how many more fights there would be off of clean hits without the instigator.
there were much worse hits in basically every generation before this one. In all of those generations fighting was much more prevalent. There’s no evidence fighting deters dirty play. Suspend guys out of existence, that’s how you stop cheap shot artists.
Call the playoffs like the regular season and you won’t have teams in the playoff race trading for guys like Gudbranson.
It becomes two different games. It’s like baseball playing the World Series in shit weather in October. I hate it.
And these are what are pretty much completely gone. Linesman are even being told to break up staged fights right off the faceoff.
If it is I think it’s just because of the schedule. Play the same team a bunch in a short period of time and shenanigans increase.
I wonder what the majority of players think. I wonder what the majority of the guys that did the fighting think. Listen to the Spittin Chiclets podcast, they bring in numerous guests ranging from skill guys to enforcers to grinders to coaches to execs. They all think fighting should remain in the game. I agree with whoever said earlier about jumping a dude for a clean hit. That’s bullshit IMO
Make the instigator a game misconduct (and if in the 3rd period, a one game suspension) and those bullshit fights after a hard but clean hit will diminish greatly, imo.
hockey players as a group are about as dumb as they come and engage in groupthink more than anyone else I can think of. It’s been drilled into their mind from the time they are 6 that fighting is good and necessary
right semantics. No one would say shooting the puck over the glass is banned. Hitting someone over the head with your stick is banned, headshots are banned, fighting is not, it’s part of the game
it’s funny you say that because out of all the major sports players, the nhl players are easily considered as the smartest
I don’t know how it’s obvious when hockey players are programmed to only speak in three word sentences.
that’s what teams ask them to do, would you prefer them saying all these smart things like the nba player who believes that the earth is flat?
Carter Hart was one of numerous players tweeting Stop the Count on Election Night which is just as dumb.
Anyway, it’s a stupid argument. I would say it’s probably equal all around but saying that hockey players are dumb because fighting is part of the game is one of the stupidest things i have ever read.
Back to fighting. It’ll be super cool when the league gets serious about enforcing cross checks. That’s worse than fighting imo.
i agree. And Aaron Hernandez killed multiple people. Prince shembo killed a dog, deshaun Watson ejaculated on 20 plus masseuse
thanks, but i did not like this bullshit. sure fighting is not smart. Saying that nhl players are stupid because of it is incredibly shortsighted. i know it looks bad and I never got excited for a fight, except a few times when I was playing but I don’t really care about it. But what’s the difference between that and a dline punching a ol in the mouth while rushing the qb. Or a nba player putting his elbows up to hit someone in the face. It’s a physical sport, these things will happen. But I agree that the 260 pounder that can’t skate and will try to fight a 210 pounder is not right. I think the nhl did a good job of getting rid of this slowly.
i did not even see the race thing here, what do you want me to say. Those where the examples that came to mind. I could have listed incognito and Ryan leaf