When a NHL player is not allowed to fight...

[golfisforfun]

Not sure who saw the Habs v Lightning game on Tuesday night, but here is the recap...

Ryan Malone hit Alexei Emelin slightly from behind into the glass and Emelin was not happy. A few minutes later, Emelin (who is much smaller) hit Malone in the middle of the ice with a HARD check, face to face, and knocked Malone to the ice.

A few minutes later, Malone went psycho, trying to fight Emelin, almost pushing the linesman away to get at him.

Emelin has been told by doctors he can't fight, due to the the steel plate he has in his cheek from a fight back in Russia.

Malone says Emelin has to fight, he has to stand up for himself if heis going to go around making hard hits.

My question is, WHY DOES HE HAVE TO FIGHT?

The scene the other night was risiculous, and if the NHL wants to suspend people, Malone made the NHL look really bad with his antics.

If someone is not allowed to fight because of doctors orders, they probably should not play based on Malon'es opinion.

[nokids]

On a high school math test, Chuck Norris put down "Violence" as every one of the answers. He got an A+ on the test because Chuck Norris solves all his problems with Violence.

[Weazl]

If he is not physically fit enough to fight, he is probably not physically fit enough to play in the NHL as a punch to the face can be equivalent to a hard check into the glass. Doctors should not clear him and he should be out of the NHL IMO. At some point he will get hurt as there is no way he can actively give 100% to the game with such a limitation.

[Big Johnny69]

If he is not physically fit enough to fight, he is probably not physically fit enough to play in the NHL as a punch to the face can be equivalent to a hard check into the glass. Doctors should not clear him and he should be out of the NHL IMO. At some point he will get hurt as there is no way he can actively give 100% to the game with such a limitation.

If this is the case, he should be wearing a full shield or cage. My question is, if Emelin's check was clean, why should he have to fight anyways?

[leafman]

Maybe he's been told not to fight for the safety of the person punching a steel plate?

[DIbit]

The object of the game is to put the puck in the net. It is sad that society wants to see fighting as it is 'entertaining'

[golfisforfun]

I don't think anyone should HAVE to fight and in fact, I see no need for fighting but the current mentality is that if you are going to throw big hits, you will have to fight, which is ridiculous.
I am not a Sens fan at all and really don't like Chris Neil, but the other night he made a very clean, hard hit against the Bruins and everyone knew he would have to fight because of it. He tried to fight Chara, took some punches and it was over, but why did he have to defend his clean hit?

Anyways, Emelin has been told not to fight, be it for his safety of for others, and there are still people who insist he should because he needs to defend himself.

Some hockey fans are really messed up!

[cleek]

my take : Malone hit Emelin from behind , kinda cheap but looked like he held up a bit and did not follow through, but the type of check I don't like seeing. Emelin laid a nice hit on Malone but Malone never handled the puck , it may have glanced off his stick on the dump but he never had possession. I like Emelin he plays a hard nosed game but hammering a guy who did not have control of the puck will usually lead to someone calling you out.
I don't buy the can't fight part because of the cheek plate , a puck or sitck would likley do more damage so if that were the case he should be wearing a full cage for protection against further damage. I think Emelin chose not to fight because he prefers to settle the score with a nice hard hit rather than dropping the mitts.

[nokids]

Some hockey fans are really messed up!

Fan = fanatic = homer = brainwashed = al qaida

[golfisforfun]

@ Cleek...
I agree with most of what you say, and if in fact, Emelin could fight but chose not to, is there anything wrong with that?
Emelin wears a good size visor and who knows if pucks or sticks can cause a lot of damage or not.
I am glad he didn't fight. I think it's great that he hits hard, and yes, his hit was borderline and called interference, but at no point should a player HAVE to fight. If he has done something that needs punishing, the league needs to suspend the player.
It's like the NHL players want to hand out there own punsihment. Imagine if society worked like that and we elmintaed the justice system. Yikes!!!