The Confirmation
Two games, one fight last night.
The official “second favorite team” of hockeyfights.com members, the Anaheim Ducks, were playing, so chances were decent for a throw down.
The Ducks took on the San Jose Sharks last night. Ryane Clowe had a good tussle with Shawn Thornton in the second period.
Clowe won’t rack up any stats outside of PIMs, but he did score the game-winner in the shootout.
Last night’s fight
Ryane Clowe vs Shawn Thornton Apr 4, 2007
Fans like fighting
Hey, they’re figuring it out.
Poll: Majority of hockey fans like fights
The Decima survey found that a huge majority of people who call themselves avid fans – a whopping 76 per cent – oppose eliminating fights from NHL games.
Non-news here, but who doesn’t like survey results?
Francophones were eight per cent more supportive of a fighting ban than anglophones.
Alrighty, but what about the LNAH?
Alberta is the province most opposed to a ban.
I don’t know, I heard you literally have to fight your way across the border of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Little-known fact: I’m one of five Americans that doesn’t have to look up how to spell Saskatchewan. Thank you hockey.
More on fighting
From Michael McCarthy of USA Today: The unwritten rules of NHL’s fight club
But the frontier justice strikes René Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Switzerland, as “Neanderthal” or even “criminal” behavior.
“One of the most cherished events in American sports history is the 1980 ‘Miracle On Ice,’ a game without even a hint of a fight. Did anyone miss fighting in that game?” he says. “Would the American victory had been more emphatic had Mike Eruzione scored a knockout decision over Sergei Makarov and sent him bloodied to the locker room?”
If they knew he was going to win NHL Rookie of the Year at the age of 31, probably.
I love any time someone makes the Olympics comparison. A single-elimination all-star tournament and the long NHL season played by 30 teams. Same thing.
Fighting is strongly penalized at other levels of hockey, from U.S. colleges to international and Olympic tournaments, Fasel points out. He predicts that the NHL would gain two fans for every die-hard it loses by eliminating fights.
But pro hockey fans are a different breed. Many watch the latest scraps on the website hockeyfights.com, which attracted about 800,000 visitors in March. Says site creator David Singer: “Fans like that part of the game. If nobody else is going to feature it, then I am.”
You can almost hear a little NY in there. There were 800k uniques in March along with over 1 million visits and over 7.5 million page views. Maybe it’s just me, or the logo, or you know, people like hockey played with passion.
Let me interrupt those numbers for some Chris Nilan:
“Every bleeding-ass liberal comes out and says how bad our game is. But the hockey fans don’t mind it at all,” he says.
I’ve heard Don Cherry collects royalties any time someone uses the phrase “bleeding-ass liberal” when talking hockey. Just kidding, you know CBC has their hands on the Janet Jackson-button just in case that were to happen.
Sticky situation
Ice Girls want Ranger called for slashing, spitting
During commercial breaks, teams of three Ice Girls clean loose ice known as “snow” in the goal and the blue-painted goaltender’s crease in front of the goal line. But Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist declined to move and used his stick to whack the squeegee Kelli Higgins, 23, was using to push the snow into a pile during the first TV timeout, knocking the butt end of the squeegee stick into her stomach.
…
“All of a sudden, my back got wet,” said Benson, who was wearing a standard outfit of pants and top that leaves the midriff area exposed. “I believe one of the Rangers players who was sitting along the wall spit on my back. It had to be on purpose because I wasn’t directly in front of anyone to spit and not realize I was there.”
Not really much I have to add there. When the Isles played the Capitals about a month ago, Brent Johnson didn’t move either. No slashes involved.
One more read
Huge night
Big night for games. The Eastern Conference playoff race could become much clearer or stay just as muddied as it is now. Either way, lots of important games on tap.
