NHL deals with spike in fights, hits, and suspensions
Posted April 19, 2012 10:08 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Eight days into the post-season, fights, hits and suspensions are way up over last year; analysts and sponsors are wondering what can be done about it.
“You can’t make it up as you go along,” warns Stephen Brunt, a columnist with Sportsnet Magazine.
He feels consistency is the key. “You have to decide whether the playoffs and the regular season are the same thing or whether you change the rules completely the minute the regular season ends.”
“The NHL has been very fluid in the way that it interprets its own rules. You can’t do that and then be surprised that people try to flaunt the rules,” he argues.
Brunt predicts players will continue to test the limits until the league starts laying down the law.
“I think what you’re seeing is teams trying to play it out, kind of playing to the end of the least, saying ‘How far can we go? What can we do to try and take the other team’s best player out of the game?'”
Phoenix Coyote Raffi Torres is being made an example of after his devastating hit on Chicago’s Marian Hossa.
But the added aggression doesn’t seem to hurting ratings; if anything, it’s helping. Among the NHL’s all-important American TV markets, viewing is up 50 per cent over this time last year.
