I was chatting yesterday with my buddy Tim Sassone, who covers the Blackhawks for the Daily Herald, and we talked about the Hawks-Canucks fight on Sunday.
By today's standards, it was a brawl. Lots of tussles going on at the same time.
But the reason it created such a huge stir is because hockey today is different. Fighting isn't as commonplace, and there's more talk about eliminating it from the game.
I told Sass that at my very first Hawks game, Jack O'Callahan speared someone from the Rangers and both benches emptied.
He told me he was at that very game.
Brought back some memories.
Hockey also appears to have changed in what happens during the fights. Vancouver's Alex Burrows actually pulled the hair of Duncan Keith.
'''Nothing like that ever happened to me before,'' Keith said. ''I don't think even my little sister did that when we were kids. It's comical that a grown man did that.''
There ARE way less fights in hockey than there used to be. In fact, many teams don't even have a legitimate "enforcer" per se. The closest that the Hawks would have to that would be Ben Eager. Adam Burish often gets into the action, but he's only 189 pounds! He doesn't do much damage and often loses. We still love him for trying however! He's like a modern day Keith Magnuson in that regard.
Moreover, those "enforcers" from the past were mostly "goons" who didn't really have any talent except for their fighting prowess. Perhaps the tougher rules keep teams from paying "enforcing goons" because noone is allowed on the ice off the bench (or else major ramifications in terms of fines and suspensions), no one may clearly instigate, etc. There are no more bench-clearing brawls nor guys like the Hanson brothers (depicted in slapshot) "gracing" the NHL rinks.
It is a much better game from the fighting standpoint and the few fights that happen usually consists of just a couple of Canadian "good 'ole boys" duking it out venting frustrations, but leaving it all on the ice.
Still, pulling hair is right up there with biting. I can't believe he didn't get even a light suspension.
The Hawks had better start playing some serious "playoff hockey" or else they're looking at a "one and done" come playoff time.
Women's hockey definitely involves pulling hair.