Playing
How to survive a hockey fight
By Bill Jensen
Jan 3, 2002, 14:54

�BBS

Editor’s Note: At times we offend a few parents of younger readers when we discuss some of the rougher aspects of hockey. This may be one of those instances. This article is not intended to promote hockey violence, but to help prevent it.

You take your position in the slot as your point man drills a shot off the opposing goalie’s glove. You bat at the rebound. Once. Twice. As the goalie traps the puck with his glove against the ice, you whack at it again, this time smacking the back of his glove hand. As you look up your eyes are met by a fistful of Louisville leather.

You try to put on your best mean-guy face, but your smile is disregarded by the burly defenseman coming down on you. You back up to try to skate away, but your back hits the boards. As your opponent’s glove rears back to hit you again, you suddenly say to yourself "I’m in a hockey fight!"

Bob Probert, Dave Schultz, the Hanson Brothers. They all flash through your mind. What do you do?

Put quite bluntly, if someone makes up his mind that he’s going to fight you, you can’t just hold on and hope for the best. You have to punch back. It’s not about pride, it’s not about the respect of your teammates ... it’s about survival.

So, bring on the hate mail. Parents, I hate to add to your workload of schlepping the kids to the rink at 5 a.m. on top of your job by forcing you to write me (and the magazine) a raging letter, but before you turn on your word processor, hear me out. I in no way want to glorify fighting. Fighting is exciting in the pros, but it is silly and sometimes dangerous in the amateur ranks.

This article is meant to prepare a player who is confronted with a fighting situation, not the standard pushing and shoving in front of the net. I’m talking about when an opponent wails on you for shooting the puck after the whistle, or for giving his goalie a love-tap in the crease.

There are a lot of kids out there who try to emulate what they see on TV. And there are a lot of adult rec players out there just mad at the world. Every player should be prepared for any on-ice situation, and like it or not, this does include fighting. Below are a set of hockey fight survival guidelines. If you follow these suggestions, you should do well the next time a scrum becomes imminent.

The first thing you might say is, "I don’t want to get thrown out of the game." But "challenging" doesn’t necessarily mean "fighting" with your opponent. If you are in a fight, you will get kicked out, unless you go on your hands and knees and turtle, which is even more dangerous than fighting because who knows what the guy on top is going to do. During the NHL’s regular season Red Wing-Avalanche fight-fest, Claude Lemieux turtled only to find his head smashed against the board and in need of stitches. You have to stay on your feet. And if you stand, you will get tossed out of the game. So make the best of it and be prepared.

This may seem like a gimme, but the most tiring 30 seconds you will ever spend in any sport is hockey fighting. The mixture of trying to avoid punches, landing punches and keeping your balance on an 1/8-inch blade of steel will get you tired.

You may think, "It’s okay, the referee will break up an amateur fight very quickly." But the one thing you have to worry about is whether a brawl starts all around you, which happens in both adult and youth leagues.

If that happens, the referees are outnumbered and your fight will last as long as you and your opponent want it to. If he or she is in better physical shape than you, your head may quickly become a punching bag.

Make sure your helmet fits snug and use all the straps for the cage or visor. This should be elementary, but a lot of players like to just pop their hockey hat on and go. If your helmet is too loose, or if you are not using all of the cage and chin straps, two things can happen. One, the helmet could fly off, leaving your head unprotected. Two, the helmet can get jostled around and impede your vision. It is very difficult to defend yourself when a cage is flying up in front of your face. Keep all the straps on tight to avoid this situation.

There is nothing stupider than seeing a player drop the gloves before fighting a guy wearing a cage. That guy is a couch potato who watches too much TV. Amateur fighting is a different beast than its NHL counterpart because of the cages and visors players are required to wear. There is no squaring off, no shadow boxing. Amateur fights are like rugby scrums – confusing and exhausting.

If your helmet comes off and you want to level the playing field, use a trick they utilize in Canadian junior hockey. Drop one of your gloves to hold to your opponent’s jersey for leverage, and use your gloved hand to hit your opponent and try to knock his helmet off.

If he read this story and followed it, you won’t be able to, because his helmet and straps are in place. But if he isn’t a loyal Hockey Player reader, you should be able to jar the helmet loose.

After that, the playing field is level again and you can decide whether to drop your other glove and fight like the pros, or give him a good taste of leather.

Another thing, don’t ever take your own helmet off to try to show your bravery before a fight. If you are a young player, you probably have fought on skates before and all it takes is one solid punch from that overgrown 200-pound bantam player who is already shaving to break your cheekbone.

Don’t keep your feet parallel. Pick a side and stick with it. Lead with the right or the left, and don’t face your opponent head on.

After practice, ask your coach if you can work on a balance drill. He may not think its a good idea and tell you to get off the ice, but if you have a few minutes while the Zamboni is getting warmed up, grab a buddy (be sure to tell him what you are doing first, you’re both teammates, eh?) and through pushing and pulling, try to knock the other of his/her feet.

This is 10-year NHL enforcer and current Islander Mick Vukota’s favorite fighting drill. Go in 30-second intervals and try as hard as you can to knock the other player over without punching him. Make sure to keep your knees slightly bent and don’t take your eyes of your opponent. This is a great balance drill, in general.

When Vukota was in the minors, coach Gord Lane, a Stanley Cup-winning defenseman with the New York Islanders, told him during a practice he was getting too cocky. "He told me he wanted to fight me," Vukota recalled. Obviously, Mick didn’t want to fight his coach, so he refused. But Lane was persistent, and kept physically pushing Vukota as his teammates circled around them.

Vukota finally had enough and dropped his stick and gloves. While Mick stood there expecting a punch, his coach took his stick and jabbed it right through Vukota’s stomach and skated off the ice. This lesson stayed with Mick throughout his entire hockey career: Never drop your stick and gloves before your opponent. This is one lesson that can translate from the pros to the amateurs.

If you happen to see the lumber coming down on you, try to either move out of the way or block it with your stick. Some players, even NHL players like Islander defenseman Rich Pilon on Mario Lemieux this past year, just snap, and you have to be wary of this possibility whenever someone is upset at you on the ice.

If you saw the Pilon episode, Lemieux actually blocks a chop from Pilon aimed for his head. Rent the Empire Strikes Back to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

Finally, leave it on the ice. Don’t continue your scrum in the hallway, or parking lot, or by the soda machines. Hockey fights are hockey fights, it’s nothing personal. There are no guns, no knives on the ice, its just two players blowing off steam in the heat of the battle. It’s one player defending his teammates and another defending himself.

In the end, while your gasping for air after ice dancing for 30 seconds, compliment your opponent on a good effort, and go home and tell all your friends how you leveled the guy.

This first appeared in the 09/1997 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2001 Hockey Player® and Hockey Player Magazine®