The American Hockey League, which is the top minor league for the NHL, approved some rules for the upcoming season last week designed to curb fighting, but University of Maine assistant men’s hockey coach Ben Guite, who played in 653 AHL games and 175 NHL games, said the new rules “aren’t going to change things a whole lot.”
“I think what they’re trying to do is eliminate the one-dimensional player,” said Guite, referring to enforcers or goons whose primary job is to provide muscle and fight.
The AHL often adopts rules that are different than the NHL and then the NHL will monitor the success or failure of those rules and can decide whether to adopt them.
The first rule states that players who start a fight prior to, at or immediately following a faceoff will be assessed an automatic game misconduct in addition to other penalties assessed.
Second, during the regular season, any player who receives a 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th fighting major will be suspended for one game after each one.
Third, any player who receives a 14th fighting major will be hit with a two-game suspension and will receive a two-game suspension for any subsequent fighting major.
The NHL doesn’t have any such rules pertaining to fighting.
Guite believes that setting the first suspension at 10 fights is a “pretty low number.”
He also pointed out that the prototypical 1980s or 1990s goon “doesn’t exist any more.”
“If you can’t skate, there’s no room for you in the game any more,” he said.
New York Islanders coach and former University of Maine All-American defenseman Jack Capuano said today’s physical NHL players can all play the game.
“The game has changed the last dozen years. The players are bigger and faster than ever before,” he said. “It’s fast-paced, exciting hockey. It’s the best hockey I’ve seen in a long time.”
Capuano acknowledged that fighting has “always been a part of the game” but feels there is a lot of respect among the players in the league.
“The guys in our league are smart enough to know when [fighting] needs to take place. Every team has players who are physical but that doesn’t necessarily mean they drop the gloves,” added Capuano, who played in 267 AHL games and six NHL contests.
Guite said fighting does have a purpose in the professional game.
“It’s to prevent players from taking liberties,” he explained, referring to cheap shots and nasty stick infractions. “There is still value to having a player who can hold the other team accountable.”
Former University of Maine All-American and current University of Denver coach Jim Montgomery played 451 games in the AHL and 122 in the NHL and agreed the rules are an effort to curb fighting, but was quick to point out that fights have significantly diminished in recent years.
“There were some teams in the NHL that had only 12 fighting majors as a team last year,” he said.
Six teams had 12 or fewer fighting majors in their 82 regular season games and 16 of the 30 teams had 22 or fewer.
“The game is headed that way [away from fighting]. There is a sensitivity in every sport about concussions, head injuries and their long-term trauma,” Montgomery said. “I do think the game has gotten better in that players aren’t taking as many liberties when it comes to hits from behind and hits to the head. The NHL has done a real good job cleaning up the game. Players don’t want to get suspended. It’s a proper evolution.”
Montgomery is glad the AHL is trying to eliminate the “staged fights” but agreed that there is always room for fighting if it is based on “true emotion.”
“When someone tries to run someone from the blind side and he sees it at the last second, he’ll get ticked off and grab the guy [and fight him],” said Montgomery.
He said the AHL is a “developmental league” and noted that the NHL has been “very intelligent in using the AHL” to test new rules.
“Several rules that were tried in the AHL have been adopted by the NHL,” he said.
Montgomery said one issue he will take with the AHL rule changes is that opposing teams will know when a player has nine fighting majors and is one away from a suspension and will try to goad him into the 10th fighting major.