By Taylor Arnold

If you are familiar with the sport of hockey, you would know that players can get riled up very fast. In the NHL, banning fighting has been the hot topic and has many people arguing. Walking into the NHL, players are accepting the fact that they are going to get thrown around, checked into the boards, and get into fights. Additionally, in terms of concussions, players consume many blows to the head whether or not they are in fights.

In the 2013-14 season there were 366 games in the NHL with fights in them, averaging out to a mere .38 fights per game. In other words, it was statistically more likely for there not to be a fight than for there to be one at all.

Now, wouldn’t you think that grown men have somewhat of an idea of what they are doing when they drop their gloves for a fight? The answer is yes, they know exactly what they are doing. They know what players are the best fighters, who tries to avoid fighting, and who not to get into it with. Because of this, the choice to fight is not just one of emotion, but of calculation. Looking at a popular player from the Boston Bruins, Brad Marchand, being nicknamed “The Little Ball of Hate” for his fighting, is only 5’9 and 183 pounds. Marchand was nicknamed this because of the NHL playoffs, where Obama came up with it after watching him fight for the win. Marchand is small but he can fight, just like many other players.

But, there are a few unwritten rules:

1) As soon as you and another player drops their gloves, its a fight

2) You can take you helmet off, or you can allow the other player take it off

3) As soon as someone hits the ice the fight it over.

Nowadays, players don’t fight like they used too, back in the 1960-1970s the only reason people fought is to take out the best player of the game, well not anymore. Players fight to protect other teammates; they will push you off their goalie, just so you can’t touch them.

Some people may argue that if high school and college players can’t fight, then why should the NHL be allowed to fight? There really isn’t a set answer other than your own personal opinion but, think of this, high school and college players are representing their school, they are the face of whatever school they attend. They have younger kids and siblings looking up to them, and if they were allowed to fight then its just supporting violence because it is someone they personally know and love.

When two players drop their gloves, they don’t know how the other one is going to react. They don’t know who the first one will be to throw a punch and they don’t know who the first one will to be to go down, but they fight. Players don’t pick the fight that they are going to be in, it just happens.

This is directed to the people that think that fighting should be banned: the threat of a fight is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of safety issues in the NHL. Before they go after fighting, there is a lot more that needs to be addressed.