A brawl to remind us why fights are even still a part of hockey

There are years that go by without a reminder of why fighting is still part of the NHL. And then there are scraps like the one between Miles Wood and Jamie Benn on Wednesday night in Dallas that allow everyone to see why it was part of the game in the first place.

Maybe there will be a time when fighting is no longer part of the sport. Maybe that’s a good thing, with all we know about brain trauma caused by blows to the head and the long-term effects of concussions. It is hard to take a sport seriously when it is trying to be proactive about keeping its players healthy yet still lets them punch each other in the face and head without any more repercussion than both players having to sit out for five minutes of game time.

And the frequency of fights continues to shrink. Per stats provided by hockeyfights.com, in the 2001-02 season, there were 803 fights, averaging 0.65 per game. In all of 2017-18, there were 280 fights, 0.22 per game. Through 98 games of this season, there have only been 19 fights (0.19 per).

A lot goes into these numbers, mostly the fact that the play has become exponentially faster. The traditional enforcer is no longer taking up a roster spot on most teams. The pace of the game has made most of them obsolete, even if they’re only asked to play 4-8 minutes per game. The fact that helmets have to stay on now doesn’t help because what point are you making by breaking your hand while punching an opponent’s helmet or visor? And there are only a handful of players left in the league who have been grandfathered in and are allowed not to wear face shields, mandatory for any player who had fewer than 26 NHL games before the 2013-14 season.

But hockey has always been a game predicated on emotion. The margin between success and failure is so slim that all those cliches about working harder than the other team ring truer in this sport than in others. When there is a 50-50 puck battle in the corner, the winner is likely going to be who wants it more.

Which means it can get chippy. And it can get verbal. And it can get personal.

When it all boils over, you see a player like Wood, a hard-nosed Buffalo kid with 142 games of NHL experience, shoulder-to-shoulder with a player like Benn, a previous Art Ross Trophy winner with a gold medal with Team Canada and 673 NHL games under his belt, and they are jawing before a face-off. The Stars were down 3-0 and Benn was trying to fire his team up. It is clear as day Wood looks at him and tells him to go, well, take a walk.

The puck drops, and they engage. It’s an actual fight born and fueled with emotion. There is no dance, no stupid preamble like the ones that have come to define the staged enforcer-on-enforcer fights. These were two guys who sincerely wanted to punch each other in the face. When was the most recent time you saw two players fighting who got separated by the intensity of the brawl then got back together to keep it going?

It’s not an easy question to decide if fighting still belongs in the game. Most of the time, it’s easy to think it doesn’t. But then a fight like this comes along, and it’s hard not to like it.

Lauding Matheson’s perspective

Speaking of head injuries, a player has not accepted a suspension with more level-headedness than Panthers defenseman Michael Matheson did this past week. He got a two-game ban after what looked like a rather malicious bodyslam of super-talented Canucks youngster Elias Pettersson on Saturday night.

Pettersson, the 19-year-old early frontrunner for the Calder Trophy, suffered a concussion on the play, but was said to be recovering well and could return soon. The injury seemed to bother Matheson, who was clear in saying there was no intent to injure when he smartly spoke to the media — something many other suspended players could learn from.

“After the game and since then, I have been able to watch the clip numerous times and I definitely understand what they saw and why they thought it was worth two games,” Matheson said. “The league is really focusing in on head injuries and protecting their players, which I’m fully on board with and I support 100 percent.”

Pens still mighty

Quick reminder from Sidney Crosby and Co. on Thursday night that the Penguins aren’t about to roll over in pursuit of their third Stanley Cup in the past four years — and fourth in the Crosby Era. As entertaining as the Maple Leafs have been, Pittsburgh shut them out 3-0 in Toronto. It was a nice return to the nets for Matt Murray, a 38-save shutout while playing his first game since suffering another concussion in practice Oct. 8.

The Penguins lost puck-moving defenseman Justin Schultz for four months with a gruesome broken leg, and that’s quite the loss on an already shallow backend. But as we’ve all learned, it’s foolish to count out the Penguins.

The risks we take for journalism

As chronicled by friend of The Backcheck, Joe McDonald of The Athletic, the catwalk (and press box) at The Saddledome in Calgary is absolutely terrifying. One side is mostly for the print press, and then across the ice — and across this wobbling, multi-tiered bridge — is the side for the broadcast teams. A fellow who used to cover the Rangers years back would stand against the back wall during the national anthems and leave as soon as possible. I never blamed him.

Stay tuned …

… to the smoke signals coming from Gary Bettman’s Sixth Avenue office when the league’s overlord finally returns from his deep-thinking weekend to determine how to deal with Tom Wilson’s 20-game suspension. As explained, it’s on the Players’ Association to understand the difference between defending its constituency and defending a single constituent. But if Bettman upholds the suspension and it goes to an arbitrator, let’s just hope Shyam Das is on vacation.

Parting shot

Hard not to get caught up in this video of the Kenyan hockey team coming to Canada and playing with Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Props to the sponsor, Tim Horton’s, for making this happen.