Like it or not, Taylor Hall was just playing hockey the way it is meant to be played.
EDMONTON — It takes more courage every time a guy writes one of these columns to say it, especially with the news that Taylor Hall’s season is now over. But here goes:
I like my hockey when it comes with the odd fight.
You may not, and that’s just fine by me. More often than not — hockeyfights.com has it at 60-40 in favour of games with no fights — you get your game rather than me getting mine.
But it’s not about me. I get into the games for free.
And, no offence, but unless you dig deep and pay the outrageous sums the National Hockey League charges for tickets, it’s not so much about you either.
As long as the people who pay the freight stand and cheer in every NHL rink I go to — and they do — when a fight occurs, I’m going to stand against banning fighting.
Of course, we’re on this topic today because of the foolishness of losing a Calder Trophy candidate like Taylor Hall for the rest of the season because he engaged in his first career fight, and ended up with a high ankle sprain.
He’s gone for eight weeks, and his season is over. Bye, bye Calder.
Is that stupid? Of course, Taylor Hall fighting is stupid.
"We certainly don't want Taylor fighting. That's quite evident," Oilers vice-president Kevin Lowe said. "But if Wayne (Gretzky) can have a couple of fights, if Mario (Lemieux) could have a few fights, if Gordie Howe could fight… Well, Taylor Hall can have a fight."
The sequence of events in Thursday's game in Edmonton was a textbook example of the kind of fighting that causes the least amount of uproar. This was anything but a "staged fight," but more of an over-excited young player running around trying to win en entire hockey game on one shift.
Hall came out of the penalty box, turned defenceman Fedor Tyutin inside out but failed to score. Then he turned back up ice, spotted Matt Calvert with the puck, and took a bit of a high run at him.
Seconds later, Derek Dorsett sidled up and gave Hall a whack. Hall whacked back. They chirped each other. The puck came to hall along the boards and Dorsett gave him a hard body check. Hall decided he'd had enough of this Dorsett character, and dropped his gloves, instigating the fight.
"Players are always going to get hit. Guys are going to make heat-of-the-moment decisions," said Lowe, who - like most NHL execs - sees an endearing quality inside Hall's ill-advised decision. "It shows that Taylor is thinking about more than himself, thinking about the team."
"It's not a great guy when you're that guy who keeps getting rescued," Hall had said after the game. "There's nothing in our contract that says you can't fight, you can't defend yourself."
I don't want to hear from the doctors on fighting in the NHL. It is pretty self-evident that two guys punching each other in the head may result in injury.
And I always laugh at the theory that eliminating the instigator penalty will make the game safer. Like two guys punching each other in the head is smart way to address safety in hockey.
The question is, do we love the game because it is "safe?" Would we love hockey more if you could turn on an NHL game and be guaranteed that there would be no concussions, no fighting, and a star like Hall would never be hurt?
Editor's note: Taylor Hall will have an MRI on his injured ankle on Friday afternoon | Full story
First of all, that's impossible. And second, that's not the game the vast majority of Canadians want to see.
Obviously, Bobby Clarke's ankle-breaking antics back in '72 are an embarrassment to our game. As were the entire '70s, when hockey became so overtly violent, that the game was lost.
Canadians, however, have always liked a player who stands up for himself. And, I believe we're willing to suffer the odd Taylor Hall injury as part of the bargain.
I know this for sure: Maple Leafs Nation was willing to fete their heavyweight of the 90s, Tie Domi, like a 500-goal scorer the night he played his 1,000th game. In fact, in every city the local heavyweight becomes a fan favourite, which seems to evidence that an overwhelming majority of Canadian fans are OK with fighting.
Frankly, I'm not sure why so many people with ties to the game feel a need to constantly suggest change. If you don't like the prototypical Canadian hockey player like Jarome Iginla, who scores, hits, fights, and wears a letter on our Olympic team, that's fine. Pick another favourite.
But don't take that player whom the majority of Canadians prefer, and try to change him on us. I would venture that some of the qualities that drove Taylor Hall to fight Thursday night are the same qualities that make him, in my estimation, a future Olympian as well.
And please, save those analogies about escalations to stick fights, and bench-clearing brawls. Those don't happen in the game anymore and they're not coming back.
Oilers coach Tom Renney -- yes, a member of the hockey establishment - said this of Hall's fight and ensuing injury.
"We drafted character, so you better expect character to show up. And it did," Renney said. "Scraps happen. That's part of the deal."
It's a deal a great majority of the paying hockey fans is happy with. We're not sure, then, why so many people want to change that.
