It's not allowed in hockey, you get a five minute penalty for it, I dislike
the instigator rule because it sends a message that it's all right to take
cheap shots at people when the refs aren't looking or to make potentially
dangerous plays, but it's not all right to defend yourself or stand up and
tell people to stop it. all that happens when you can't stand up for yourself
or your teammates with even the threat of a beating is that you see more
cheap retalitory shots. Perhaps if the refs called the original infractions
instead of just nailing the retaliator there wouldn't be so much fighting,
perhaps if the ref paid more attention to cheap shots so you didn't have to
stand up for yourself there'd be less fighting, but they're refs so that's
not going to happen.
    As a hockey player and hockey fan I do know that in the leagues where
fighting is not allowed at all, punished with DQs or league expulsion, like
college and more amatuer or rec leagues, there are a lot more cheap shots and
stick work than there were when I played in leagues where the gloves were
dropped, and perhaps that's not the experience of others here, but as a
female who has pretty much always played on all male teams and is
consequently frequently targeted it's my experience that in the league where
I could drop the gloves and stand up for myself without fear of being kicked
out of the league there were less cheap shots on me whether that was because
I earned more respect from competitors by showing I wasn't afraid to stand up
to a guy 13 cms taller who outweighed me by at least 14 kilos or because
there was some concern for their egos if I dropped them in a fight (which I
did quite often). That said, I'm not a big fan of fighting in hockey ,it
slows down the game and I wouldn't mind if it went away, but not because the
leagues mandate it, because players don't feel like it anymore, I don't want
it gone if it's at the expense of my bones and tendons and brain because
someone gets frustrated and takes a slash at the back of my knee or shoves me
from behind into a wall or through an open bench door. And also I've never
played football but I have played lacrosse for many years as well and while
it is somewhat similar to hockey, it's not the same, I've never felt that LaX
was as physical as hockey, and part of that is because of the difference
between running on the ground and skating on ice. skates are faster and
provide so much less stability and balance than shoes, the ice is harder than
the ground of a lax field even with the padding, and ice hockey is played
with in a very confined space. if someone pushes you from behind out of
bounds in LaX you get angry obviously, but you just fall onto the ground, you
don't hit a wall when you weren't expecting it, you don't slide into a wall a
few feet away possibly head first. It is the enclosedness of ice hockey
combined with the speed of people on skates that makes hockey a much more
physical game, you hit and check in football and LaX but you are not being
smashed up against a wall like you are for a good percentage of your ice time
in hockey.
                                                 --JB
(but you never take a 2 handed swing with an aluminun stick at someone's
head)
 
> Perhaps hockey players rather than followers know better the answer to your
>  question.
>  I play at a very amateur level and understand why players sometimes feel
>  compelled to fight,
>  logical or not.  I know that after I get in someone's face for a shove in
>  the back near the
>  boards, it's not likely to happen again.  And it sends a message for
>  everyone else that cheap
>  shots and dangerous plays won't be tolerated.
>
>  >>"I don't know why I did it.  I just wanted to fight him."
>  >>
>  >>- Marty McSorley
>  >>
>  >>Perhaps the idea that allowing hockey players to drop the gloves will
>  prevent
>  >>stick infractions needs to be reexamined.
>  >>
>  >>J. Michael Neal
>  >
>  >Can anyone **rationally** explain to me why fighting is allowed in hockey
>  >when other sports which are just as physical (lacrosse) or even more so
>  >(football) don't?
>  >
>  >I've followed hockey at all levels for 40 years and I still have not
>  >received a logical answer.
 
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