Boulton Drops Murray, Who’s Statistically OK
Eric Boulton landed a huge right on Douglas Murray, dropping the big Swede to the ice. Murray was fine, skated off and had a smile in the box.
There was one other bought last night. The Red Wings fought again, and Jonathan Ericsson clearly skated off the winner over the always-willing Derek Dorsett. Three teams still have one fighting major: the Canadiens, Islanders and Capitals. I'll take an easy guess that the Isles won't remain on the bottom of the team FM list for long.
Risk of injury “pretty damn low”
There's little reason for me to add commentary to this. Anyone who's been watching fights for years can tell you there are bad incidents from time to time, but that's not where injuries come from. From the National Post:
David Milzman is an emergency medicine physician, professor at Georgetown and Washington Hospital Center and the ER doctor on site at Washington Capitals home games.
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“The fights aren't causing the concussions,” he says in an interview. “I can say that without a doubt.”
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Dr. Milzman's observations are not just limited to anecdotes. He and a group of researchers have been studying NHL fights – literally watching slow-motion replays of every exchange of punches in the league last season – and they believe they have statistical evidence to back up his assertions. They documented 710 fights in 1,239 pre-season and regular-season games, and counted 17 injuries, for a rate of 1.12% per combatant per fight. His top-line conclusion: the risk of injury from a hockey fight is “pretty damn low.”
