NHL Should Keep Fighting Out in Open

A very ugly situation developed after a hockey game last Friday night, and National Hockey League officials are doing their best to see that it never happens again.

Immediately after a game, a coach confronted an official, accused the official of “horse manure officiating,” called the official a “fat pig,” urged the alleged fat pig to “have another doughnut, have another doughnut,” and allegedly pushed the alleged fat pig down on his curly tail.

Nothing wrong with all that, even though it led to a suspension, an injunction and a travesty on ice worked by fill-in officials.

No, the ugly part--other than the unfortunate juxtaposition of horse manure and doughnuts in the coach’s diatribe--was that the confrontation occurred well off the ice, in a tunnel.

Out of sight of the fans.

The 19,000 loyal fans, who paid their money to see some action, missed the best hockey show of the week.

That’s a crime, a waste of a great little tiff. The coach should have been suspended 10 games for failure to involve the fans. Thank goodness for videotape.

However, there should be no fine or suspension for the confrontation or the alleged push of the alleged fat pig official, because that was merely a healthy airing of mutual differences. If you keep that kind of honest emotion bottled up, you’re liable to turn into a mass murderer or something.

The NHL knows this, because hockey, more than any major sport, has its finger on the pulse of the nation’s sports fan.

When sportscaster Greg Gumbel asked NHL President John Ziegler recently if he thought the fighting in hockey should be eliminated, Ziegler said: “It doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is providing a product that people enjoy and want to go see. . . . The measure to me is, are the people going to pay money to go see this entertainment? . . . So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Whereupon Gumbel punched Ziegler in the nose, and broke it.

At least that’s what Gumbel should have done. It would have been terrific for the ratings.

Ziegler is notoriously soft on violence, which in my opinion is preferable to being violent on softness.

And Ziegler is right. Hockey is a wonderful sport, although far too often it is interrupted by guys skating around using their sticks to hit a puck. The only reason the NHL makes the referees toss a puck onto the ice each game is just in case Wayne Gretzky shows up.

Fans like the skating, but they love the fights. Next time you see a photo or news clip of a hockey fight, check out the expressions of the fans in the background. Do they appear to be shocked? Dismayed? Concerned?

Or do the fans look like they’re cheering their favorite mud wrestler?

NHL fans expect action. If the players don’t supply it, the fans will fight one another, although I hate to mention it because some fan will probably read this and disagree and threaten to punch my lights out.

I went to a hockey game at the Forum not long ago. Seven or eight fights broke out on the ice, serious bare-knuckle encounters that would have been front-page news in any other sport, including boxing. I pick up the local papers the next day and the only mention of violence is of a live chicken being tossed onto the ice by a spectator.

This is not a criticism of the hockey writers. I asked Times hockey writer Jerry Crowe, who sees about 79 more regular-season games a year than I do, if there is ever an NHL game with no fights. He said no.

Not all games are bloodbaths, of course. The Boston Bruins-New Jersey Devils game on Sunday, the game worked by fill-in officials after the regular officials refused to work, was fairly clean. Mentioned near the end of one news account of that game was this: “The game got out of hand only once when play was interrupted for 10 minutes in the middle of the second period by a 10-player melee.”

Ten players for 10 minutes, that’s 100 man-minutes of meleeing, which is pretty much the minimum requirement in the NHL.

The substitute officials kept control of this game even though one of them revealed, “The first two periods, I had to use a whistle that came out of a box of Cracker Jack.”

Good thing the prize wasn’t a magnifying glass or a top.

Ziegler was unavailable to comment Sunday or Monday on the officiating fiasco and the continuing controversy over the suspension of New Jersey Coach Jim Schoenfeld. Ziegler was unavailable for anything. Nobody could find him.

Not that it would matter. Hockey isn’t going to change, and this column should not be misconstrued as a knee-jerk call for reform, although I do think the game could be improved by adding figure-8 Zamboni racing between periods.

The NHL is enjoyed by millions of fans, including little kids who run to their local rinks the next day to slash and punch the bejesus out of one another in fond emulation of the big guys.

But no preaching here, fans. Enjoy the rest of the NHL playoffs, while I go out and have another doughnut.