True hockey fans know and accept that fighting – not the gratuitious, do-it-because-you-do-it-every-game style, but the “time to stick up for myself and my teammates” style – is a major part of adult hockey. Many newbies to the sport feel it has no place in the game, all the while enjoying the mugging that is every college basketball rebound and the controlled violence that is every helmet-first football tackle.
Sunday afternoon’s Peoria Rivermen game showed exactly why fighting has been, is and always should be part of the sport’s allure. The three largest sustained moments of crowd excitement yesterday? The three battles. The turning point in the game? The final of the three bouts, when Rivermen winger and Blues prospect Nikolay Lemtyugov dropped his gloves for the first time since coming to North America, and pummeled a Quad City defenseman who had been dogging him and shoving him for an entire shift. 
The result was a huge ovation, a huge turn of emotion, and a wake up call to his teammates (Peoria was trailing 2-0 at the time, and while playing hard, were becoming increasingly frustrated – having scored but 1 goal on Quad City goalie Brent Krahn in over 95 minutes of hockey covering Sunday and the previous night.
Jean Guy Trudel scored just over a minute later, and scored again a couple of minutes after that. When Steve Wagner blasted home a slapper with 1.1 seconds left in the period, the Rivermen went to the locker room up 3-2, thanks in no small part to Lemtyugov’s decision to stand up for himself.
PJ Star writer Dave Eminian correctly awarded Lemtyugov the game’s “Third Star” afterwards, based solely on that momentum-turning, crowd-arousing bout. Several other sports staffers at the paper, good friends of mine, think that fighting should be outlawed. Astute hockey observers know better.
4 responses so far ↓
1
Anon E. Mouse
// Jan 9, 2008 at 6:28 pm
If it is and always has been “part of the game…always” then why isn’t it taught at all levels of the game? Why is it not acceptable in the womens game? Why is it not acceptable at the Midget level? Or Pee Wee? Maybe we should be teaching fighting when we teach checking when a kid is a Squirt. I mean, out on the pond, should I be teaching my 5 year old how to jersey an opponent?
Did you see all those fans watch the Pens/Sabres game outside? There wasn’t a single major penalty called.
…and why is it acceptable only in hockey? Why don’t we have fighting in baseball? Maybe soccer should add fighting.
2
BJ Stone
// Jan 9, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Now you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing. A little hint for you, Mouse, it’s okay to say “I agree” once in awhile. You’ve been a hockey fan for a long time, you know how close you are to it. And as a guy that once held season tickets to the local professional team, you must condone fighting to some extent at that level.
3
bjstone
// Jan 9, 2008 at 7:02 pm
BTW, I fixed it. Is that better? Sheesh.
4
Anon E. Mouse
// Jan 10, 2008 at 11:03 am
Nope – check around – you know where to look.
I quit condoning fighting when I got my little ones.
BTW – just for the sake of argument – adult WOMEN do not allow fighting.
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