There shouldn't be fighting in prospect games
Cam Charron
September 12 2011 10:52AM
The scene: After a hard-fought prospects game at one of the many preseason tournaments sprouting up across North America, a progressive coach brings a player into his office to discuss the fighting major the player earned the night before in the second period of a 5-1 hockey game.
"Oh, hey, it's good to see you showed up. I wanted to call you in here with regards to that fight that you had last night in our prospects game.
Listen, I don't know who told you that the best way to get noticed during these tournaments is to stand up for either yourself or your teammates, but it isn't. Our scouting staff have spend hours watching you and, while we may not have drafted you this past spring, it by no means indicates that we don't know much about you.
We invited you to this camp so that we could test you out in a few game situations under our control and see how you handle them. One of those isn't fighting, trust me. You don't have to prove anything. We know how hard you work already.
Look, you're a good hockey player. I've seen some of your game tape from junior hockey, and there's a lot of good things that you can do, and trust me, we're looking. We know how hard you've worked to make it this far in hockey, and you definitely don't need to prove it to us. Particularly by doing something as dangerous as fighting; I was nearly sick to my stomach last night watching you scrap and I'm relieved that you and the guy on the other team you fought came out unscatched, but let's not toy with fate.
I don't want to connect the dangers of fighting to some of the tragic deaths we've seen over the past two summers because in all those terrible cases there were outside influences factor in, but that doesn't mean that this organization takes them lightly. Hockey is already a fast, dangerous, violent game that can hurt you in many different ways and we don't want to add to that list on dangerous, violent things in this sport, particularly with something that this organization doesn't feel has a tangible impact on the game.
You may think that you're turning the momentum in the game, but, trust me, we've done a bit of research. For all the examples you can find of a player overcoming an opponent in fisticuffs and motivating his team to score a goal and come back to win the hockey game, we can find just as many examples of times it didn't work.
In the end, while I appreciate that you want to show how hard you've worked, I'd feel a lot better if you showed me in other ways. Win puck battles, create scoring chances, or even do something as simple as set up an offensive zone faceoff—really, our coaching staff and video analysts are looking at all these things when we evaluate our players. We want to see you do things on the ice that we think can help us win the hockey game, and we don't want to see you taking part in a sideshow when we don't know the full effects of the toll fighting can take on a player, particularly one so young as yourself."
100% agree. No fighting for prospects!
I think there is nothing to worry about and the Oilers have depth at all positions. Once the defence matures and gets better it will be no surprise our goaltending will all of a sudden be nothing to really worry about. I think we desperately need to a puck moving power power play specialist on the point. Hall and Hopkins look like a future Sakic and Forsberg combination. I see a Stanley Cup in the near future and Hall will be front and centre. Go Oil
That Aleba class was intense for a then 18 yr old Archaeologuy. 1/2 the class dropped before the second semester started and 1/3 of the remaining class failed.
It was unbelievably taxing. But I survived and thrived, so no complaints from me.
You're right that was unfair to Cam and generally a waste of time. Sorry for that Cam I do appriciate the spirit of your work. However: Guys like Cam Abney need to showcase themselves and thats what is going to get them to the show.
Fighting should stay untill it disapears from the NHL. These kids are prospects too and until their is no need for fighters (that day may be comming soon, I'll admit) they need a venue as much as anyone else.
Its part of the game . . . for now at least.
Lots of NHLers don't have their grade 10....and probably wouldn't read this whole letter
Last time I checked - elbowing, highsticking, spearing, holding, etc do not contribute anything to winning hockey games either. If you commit a foul - you are penalized.
A fight is a foul and is subsequently penalized. If you want to change the severity of the penalty, different story.
As others of have posted - there must be a reason enforcers make the NHL, otherwise they wouldn't be getting paid millions of dollars to be there.
Pretty hard to get around that fact.
Except if having one of these "enforcers" playing a few minutes means you can get your skilled guys more icetime...
I know it will never happen, but the game would be much better if you eliminated 2 forward positions on the playing roster. You could still keep the same amount of guys on the active roster (so the NHLPA wouldn't freak out about losing jobs), but there wouldnt be room to dress a Goddard or Gillies if they cant play.
That being said, the way the rosters are now - I like the idea of having a 4th line of specialized players (maybe an enforcer, a PK/Faceoff specialist and maybe even a defensively weak PP guy).
The way I see it, with a guy like McIntyre in the line-up on RW that gives more icetime to skilled RW like Hemsky and Eberle.
With TV timeouts, improvements in conditioning, etc - there is no reason why 10 forwards couldn't play during any given game.
People will argue that fewer players means a greater chance of injury, etc. Every team will be in the same baot and teams will still have the same active roster size to replace any player that may become injured or fatigued throughout the season.
As long as there is fighting in the real games, I think that there should be fighting in prospects' camp.
Perhaps we should remove hitting from the game too? Then the fans can see even more of the star players as the injury rate will drop off to next to nothing.
After all, Ive done some research, and there is no evidence that body checking actually helps teams win games.
Just a thought.
These are pre-season games involving a broad cross section of talents among rookies.
Unlike the all star game. Unlike the junior prospects game. These are pre season, exhibition games for ALL noobs.
Exhibition games exhibit talents. Fighting, checking, passing, hitting, face-offs, PK, theses are all skills to exhibit. (Oh and also passing, shooting, scoring, and for most goalies, saving. )
Fighting happens in pre season, regular season, and playoffs.
Let's not kid ourselves, this isn't an all star game.
Jesus, it's like people take a look at the words "There shouldn't be fighting..." and immediately drag out the same lame arguments ("LOL let's ban hitting too" "hockey is a MAN'S game asdf"). I'm sick of these prospect fights, and I appreciated this article.
JOB Opening - Temporary player specialists needed for Temp workload that could lead to more fulltime . Large pay and benefits consumant with use , and may be at more than one venue or team . Some minor league training may be necessary . Are you a team player even if only a temp one ?
@meli
These aren't prospect games however... These kids are already chosen, (for the most part - there are walk ons.). It's a prelude to allocation. Time to show your talents, all of them.
I appreciate the article as well.
It generates opinions and discussion.
They are doing their best, sometimes poorly, at showcasing their skills. Some are proving they are not great skill players.
And, some of these fights are lame. Some are proving they are, and some are proving they are not, bringing other attributes to the table.
These players are fighting for jobs. Literally. Fighting in training camps (that is essentially what this is) are commonplace and have been happening for years and years.
And yes, the bleeding heart gang will look to remove body checking from the game if and when fighting is ever banned from the sport.
Its already happening with the "head shot" rules that have been brought in. Im all for protecting players, and personally I could do without fighting, especially the staged fights, but if you dont think there are those actively considering changing the game then you havent been paying attention.
Wow, I went straight for the comment section after this read. Whats next, no hitting. That hurts more players than fighting. Try to eliminate staged fights, no more. If you can play hockey, fight all you want.
that line of reasoning is ambitious. it takes alot of work to make that jump from fighting in rookie camps to no hitting in NHL, but you've done it and i commmend you for how illogical it is.
when people discuss fighting or headshots they do not, DO NOT (for clarification), say eliminate hitting.
this is not a stretching contest.
@mayorpoop
In the space of a year we have gone from nothing to no headshots under certain conditions, to talk of no headshots period of any kind, to removing fighting from the game.
That is a pretty sizeable shift in philosophy. Its not "stretching" much at all to suggest that taking the ban on further incidents/types of body contact may be on the horizon.
Especially if Crosby has an abbreviated career.
@I am the Liquor
the shift may seem quick and large but to some extent in regards to headshots they are simply enforcing rules already in place.
seeing what we see and knowing what we know is it not at least advisable to talk about things?
i would not suggest remove hitting (headshots yes) from the game but i would be remiss to at least not discuss fighting, equipment, etc.
it is clear to me that cam charron did not say anything in this piece about removing hitting and the insuation that he is...that is a "stretch".
@mayorpoop
Removing hitting from the game is really no more preposturous than what the author is proposing with this article.
Its a knee-jerk reaction to an unfortunate incident that happened a couple of days ago.
@I am the Liquor
i suppose it is simply a point of view. i don't see it that way but i can understand how some want to.