Some enjoy the sport of hockey because of the non-stop action. Some enjoy it because of the cold and icy environment. I enjoy Hockey simply because of its aggressive play.

For my 11th birthday, my dad took me to my first hockey game here in Arizona. At the time, I did not watch the sport at all. I suddenly showed an interest when he said, “Hey Alexa, Look!” and I turned my head to see a giant fight going on. 

 Like many others, I find the random brawls in hockey super entertaining. It’s like you look away for two seconds and BAM! They’re all mad at each other, beating one another up. There are faces of toothless men being shoved against the glass, smearing around God knows whose blood. This is why I find the increase of restrictions super annoying. 

Back in the season of 2000, defenseman Marty McSorley struck his opponent Donald Brashear in the head with his stick after getting into a fight. Some even shared the idea that it might have been a racist attempt since Brashear was the only African American on the team at that time. This incident struck a lot of concern in the hockey fighting realm. Ever since the event, less and less fights breakout each season. 

Back in that very NHL season, there were almost 700 fights that took place. Fast forward to the 2019-20 season, only 195 fights took place. There has been a major decrease in hockey fights ever since that on ice incident. Coincidence…I think not. 

That night, Brashear woke up with a Grade-3 concussion, blood streaming out of his nose, and a bruise on his brain. There is no doubt at all that he had encountered extreme assault during that game, but should the overall sport have to suffer from that too?

Marty McSorley is his own person and it was entirely up to him on how he was going to handle the situation. The fights in hockey are all fun and show until you bring out harsh intentions, though he claims that there were none. The assault led to McSorley’s suspension and eventual retirement from the NHL. 

Of course restrictions were bound to take place after the incident. I mean, we have to learn from our mistakes. The problem, however, is that many violations were put on due to people getting offended. 

Author Patrik Jonsson writes,“Hockey at the big-league level remains the only major team sport where fighting doesn’t bring an almost automatic ejection.” Well, this isn’t quite the case anymore.  

We should embrace Hockey for it’s fundamentals, not try to slowly make what makes it different utterly disappear. It’s disgusting what Marty McSorley committed whether it was out of racism or anger, but it isn’t something that everyone else who enjoys the sport to watch or play should have to pay the price for. 

Hey, deciders of how Hockey goes, could you do us all a favor and allow the gloves and penalties to be dropped?