On Don Sanderson and Fighting

I’ve purposely held off editorializing about the death of Don Sanderson and fighting in hockey.  I didn’t want to make any sort of knee-jerk counterarguments to the anti-fighting members of the media in a time of mourning and sensitivity to his family, friends and the hockey community in general.

For those who haven’t followed the story: Don Sanderson played for the senior AAA Whitby Dunlops.  He was in a fight and lost his helmet.  His head hit the ice, and he fell into a coma after a brief period of consciousness.  Sadly, three weeks later, Mr. Sanderson passed away.  His funeral service was yesterday.

From the first day of Mr. Sanderson’s injury, the debate about fighting in hockey, and equipment regulations has heated up in the media, although there has been little to no talk from professional leagues about any rules changes.

Greg Wyshynski, editor of Yahoo!‘s Puck Daddy NHL blog contacted me with some questions regarding the tragedy of Mr. Sanderson, and fighting in general.  I did my best to answer his questions directly, without rant or tangent, as my position about fighting in hockey is obvious.  I’ve included Wyshynski’s questionset below, and you can read his thoughts and the thoughts from his commenters here.