Quote: Written Task:  What are your thoughts on fighting in hockey? It's definitely a lot less common these days, do you think that's a good thing? Do you think it has a place in the game, or that it's overdue to disappear entirely? Maybe you wish it happened more often? In your opinion, what circumstances justify a hockey fight? Specific things? Any time you want for entertainment's sake? Tell me your thoughts! (150+ words)

I think fighting in hockey is a pretty interesting issue. Personally I am not necessarily against fighting, but I can also recognize the safety risk that comes with it. Bare knuckle fighting is already dangerous as it is, when you put guys on sharpened blades on a sheet of rock hard ice it makes it even more so. I hate the idea of someone getting knocked out by a hard right hook and then falling and smashing their head again on the ice. Someone could die from something like that and honestly at this point that's probably what it would take for fighting to be outright banned in hockey. But it also has it's uses in policing the game a bit. Refereeing is wildly inconsistent in hockey and we've seen things get out of hand tons of times when referees don't make the correct calls. Fighting allows the players the ability to take care of things themselves and in a way sort of keeps things from getting out of hand. It's a bit of a deterrent from opponents doing something dirty like running the goal or throwing an illegal check to the head or from behind. And of course, I'm not sure there's anything that gets the crowd going more than a fight does.