Taking this out of the game immediately improves it - Retaliatory Fighting

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Sam Hutch
April 10, 2022 (1:29 PM)

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Fighting has always been a part of hockey, particularly in the National Hockey League. Although the days of enforcers and staged fights are long gone, the idea of fighting as a need for self-policing in certain situations is still around. With the way, the NHL officiating is trending (atrociously), I see how fighting in today's game remains a must.

However, this is the kind of thing I can't stand. In a game between the Nashville Predators and the Florida Panthers yesterday, Radko Gudas laid a textbook hit on a Nashville forward as he cut inside the blue line. Immediately following the hit, Preds' forward Luke Kunin dropped his gloves and forced Gudas to fight him. Here's the clip:

This is the fighting the NHL needs to remove. There are a couple of reasons for this:

This hit was as clean as you can get, shoulder to shoulder, no head contact or anything of the like. WHY is there a need to answer the proverbial "bell." Especially because it takes Gudas, a defenseman, out of the game for 5+ minutes.

As I said before, the NHL officiating has been questionable at best this year, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with this hit. No penalty was assessed on the play (rightfully), so I reiterate why Gudas needed to answer Kunun for an everyday hit where he didn't take a penalty. The player in question was not injured during the play.

This isn't the NHL of the mid-'90s or early 2000s, and before you come at me about the "code" or the need for dedicated enforcers again, they wouldn't go after a player for a clean hit. The NHL took staged fighting out of the game.

There needs to be stiffer penalties for players who force their opponents to fight after a clean hit. I'm not just talking about a 2-minute penalty for roughing. There needs to be a significant consequence that rewards players for clean hits, while truly penalizes players for these forced fights.

So my suggestion?

Any player who forces an opponent to fight for a clean hit should be assessed a 4-minute double minor for instigating and a game misconduct. Not only does this punish the team but also punishes the player.

This penalty would only be assessed to a player who instigates a fight after a clean hit, should the hitter receive an infraction for the original hit this would not be an option.