TORONTO – While Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke may be mourning what he says is the looming end of the NHL enforcer, not everyone agrees with his argument that taking them away could lead to more injuries.
Other hockey aficionados say the shift away from gratuitous fighting is a good move for the sport that has been under heavy scrutiny following a year of violent concussions and suicides.
Last Thursday, Burke suggested that removing enforcers from the game could lead to key players getting hurt because the more aggressive players won’t be on the ice to protect their teammates, pointing to Colton Orr’s absence as a key example.
Orr has distinguished himself as the Leafs’ fighter, but his role has become a casualty to the league’s move toward faster, skilled players on all lines.
Burke demoted Orr to the American Hockey League Toronto Marlies once Orr cleared waivers.
“If you want a game where guys can cheap shot people and not face retribution, I’m not sure that’s a healthy evolution,” Burke told reporters.
“When a player the character of Colton Orr can’t contribute in this league, I’m not sure I like where the league is going,” he said.
“To me, it’s a dangerous turn in the game.”
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But hockey experts watching from the stands say Burke’s sentiments aren’t shared by the majority of fans.
If anything, his comments were insensitive and inappropriate in the wake of a tragic year for the sport, said Peter Donnelly, a professor and director at the Centre for Sport Policy Studies at the University of Toronto.
“It’s already a high contact sport. Why are you sanctioning extra violence in that?” Donnelly asked.
He concedes that fighting is still engrained in Canadian hockey culture. “There’s still television programming showing the hit of the night, the fight of the night and celebrating fights and making profits from rough playing hockey,” he said.
“But strict enforcement should be there and there should be real sanctions and a major commission on player safety,” he said.
Player safety has been thrusted into the league’s spotlight after Sidney Crosby lost last season to a severe concussion in January.
Within a few months in summer 2011, three players – Derek Boogard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak – died. Boogard accidentally overdosed on drugs and alcohol while officials say Rypien and Belak committed suicide.
The three men played enforcer roles during their hockey careers.
“The part I don’t think Brian Burke and other people in the NHL understand is the massive negative impact that is happening right now. That people are watching the injuries and perceived violence,” said Bob Stellick, who has worked in the hockey world for the past 30 years.
Stellick was director of business operations for the Leafs for more than a decade and now owns a sports marketing consultancy company.
He says NHL enforcers are now ‘dinosaurs’ within the league and that they offered little to change the game.
“The issue for me is there’s a higher skilled player than Colton Orr who’s playing for the Toronto Marlies right now who can’t make it to the NHL because he’s not tough enough. Those are the guys I feel sorry for,” Stellick said.
Sam McKegney, a Queen’s University professor who has researched masculinity and violence in Canadian hockey culture, says that although he doesn’t agree with Burke’s comments, he believes they were “sincere.”
McKegney, who comes from a hockey family that includes his uncle Tony McKegney, a former NHL player, said fighting won’t phase out of the game for good, though.
“Fights will never be completely eliminated from the sport just like in any other team sport where fighting is banned. Things will occur in the course of a season,” he explained.
“But in this scenario, fighting will actually become, in a way, more meaningful because then it’ll only occur in the absolute heat of passion,” he said.
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