Should Fighting Be Allowed in Hockey?

"I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out," the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield once joked. [1] In the 2016-2017 National Hockey League (NHL) season, there were 372 fights out of 1,230 games – an average of 0.3 fights per game. [2] Fighting in hockey has been banned nearly everywhere outside of the NHL, including youth games, college play, and the Winter Olympics. [3][4]

Fighting has been part of NHL hockey since the league's formation in 1917 and its 1922 rule about what was then called "fisticuffs" (that's an old-fashioned word for fighting). [5][6] The current NHL rulebook addresses fighting in Rule 46, which defines a fight as at least one player punching or taking a swing at another player repeatedly, or players wrestling in a way that is difficult to break up. Players who fight are sent to the penalty box during the game, and may be subject to additional fines or suspensions. [6][7]

In the early 1960s, there was a fight in about 20% of NHL games. That percentage increased to 100% by the 1980s, when there was an average of one fight every game. [8] In 1992, the NHL introduced an instigator rule adding an extra two minutes in the penalty box for anyone caught starting a fight. [9] Fighting has since decreased: a fight broke out in 30-40% of NHL games from 2000-2012, and every season since 2013 has averaged under 30%. [2]