Milan Lucic is putting up his proverbial dukes to keep fighting in junior hockey.
The Boston Bruins power forward, who was easily as well-known for his fists as for his touch around the net during his two Western Hockey League seasons with the Vancouver Giants, was reacting to CHL president David Branch telling the New York Times this week that the "appetite is there" to effectively end fighting in non-professional leagues as soon as next season.
You could argue that Lucic, 23, is a biased witness for the defence. You could also tag him as an expert on the subject. He had 45 regular-season, playoff and Memorial Cup fights over his 17 and 18-year-old campaigns with Vancouver.
"I'm totally against it," Lucic told The Province on Wednesday. http://www.theprovince.com/news/fighting+junior+hockey+Lucic+says/6231095/story.html#ixzz1nsPWshyP
Shacks Take: This argument used to be cut and dry for me since I think hockey is necessary in hockey to lower the cheap shots and I know from personal experience that it's true. That said, many of the fights in hockey no longer function as a deterrent, they are staged fights between team goons which may be entertaining but don't have any practical purpose in the game. If the people running hockey can figure out how to eliminate the 'staged fight' and allow the fights which serve as a deterrant to cheap shots then we'd be making real sense. My suggestion is to get rid of the instigator and figure out a way to give extra penalties for those fights off the draw with no real meaning. Fighting in hockey will be the subject of next week's Shacks' Take.
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