by Nicholas Nikolov

Created on: January 23, 2009   Last Updated: October 07, 2011

On any given NHL game night, thousands upon thousands of seat-filled arena's with the crowds standing off their chairs and on their feet cheering for two-players engaging in a fight. And on most teams in the NHL, many of the players like two noted tough guys Jay Rosehill, 26 and 29-year-old Colton Orr of the Toronto Maple Leafs – Edmonton Oiler winger Zack Stortini – and the list goes on and on of tough guys, risking severe injuries to themselves everytime they are involved in a fight, which is on a regular basis. There are also those players who are not “tough guys,” but do on occasion put-up-their-dukes for their team are huge fan favourites more than the skilled players.

For the past few weeks, fighting has been a hot topic in the NHL, whether it should stay or be removed in the sport fully is still undecided and no one is really that sure to say if it will or won't.

Given that in the 1970s, when fighting in the NHL undergone a revolution of sorts, it was in large part to the Philadelphia Flyers who used hooliganism as a way to win. But, that is what is so enjoyable, that fighting is the riveting and unique allure that attracts a large audience to the game of hockey. Nowadays, to take fighting out of the great Canadian game it would be a travesty towards the sport and the fans alike because it's a tradition and fighting is what separates hockey from other professional sports.

"Tradition is BS in hockey. If tradition meant so much, we'd still have a sixth player, the rover, on the ice. There would be no forward pass. Goalies would not be allowed to go down. There would be no shootouts." Roy MacGregor said, Columnist with Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper and author of many books on hockey.

"If the game is the main feature, fighting is the cartoon of hockey. It's stupid, meaningless, at times dangerous and, sadly, is rewarded rather than punished."

For a long-time now, I have been an advocate of taking fighting out of the game." Ken Campbell, a senior writer and columnist for The Hockey News said "I think it doesn't serve a purpose."

Players involved in fisticuffs obviously understand the severe repercussion that they are putting themselves in a position which may jeopardize their career and might possible receive a critical injury. The NHL reasonably wants to see less stars get hurt, so, why then the league considers the option of disallowing players to block shots because it too causes bodily harm to a player as well,

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