The NHL Enforcer: An Endangered Species

The role of enforcer is incredibly unique to the sport of hockey. In no other team sport is there a specified “goon” whose main job description encompasses doing whatever it takes to defend his teammates. This can range from dropping the gloves and going for blow for blow with an opposing teams enforcer or simply hitting anyone and everyone in sight. It certainly is a special title to hold, but lately fewer and fewer NHL teams are choosing to keep one of these brutes on their roster and instead leaning more toward two-way forwards who can fill in on the fourth line and actually contribute something more than penalty minutes.

The role seems to be diminishing throughout the league and as a fan it is a little upsetting. While I understand the need of depth and being able to consistently roll four competitive lines, enforcers are too much a part of the game watch to disappear.

Fighting is controversial aspect of the NHL and will continue to be. For some fans fighting is a major reason they love the sport. They would argue that it is necessary to protect skilled players, it is tradition and simply part of the game, and of course it is pretty entertaining to watch. Opposing fans would argue that it is not necessary as other team sports do just fine without it and that it is dangerous and hazardous to player safety.

Recently league officials have made it clear that they are concerned about the safety of the players in these fights, specifically addressing when the players fall to the ice when taken down. The latest rule change acknowledges this fear as it does not allow players to remove their helmets before a fight. If they do they will receive an extra two minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct on top of the five minute major for fighting for a total of seven minutes in the box.

This rule makes sense as it reduces the chance of a player injuring his head on a fall, but there is a major loophole that was exposed during the preseason during a fight between New Jersey Devil Krys Barch and New York Islander Brett Gallant. The two tough guys dropped the gloves, came together, and then each of them purposely knocked off the others helmet before landing haymakers to each other’s jaws.

Lastly, it is really ironic that the new video game NHL14 has a new mode called enforcer engine and has really amped up the fights and hitting. It seems to be a bit odd that the league seems to be doing everything they can to combat fighting while the game seems to be promoting it.

The diminishing number of enforcers league-wide in the NHL sparks striking similarities to many other sports right now in that an element of toughness is being taken away. Sports in a way are slowly but surely becoming soft. For example, there are way too many touch fouls in the NBA. It is nearly impossible not to commit a foul when an opposing player is driving the lane.

It is also increasingly challenging to get a big hit on a quarterback or wide receiver in the NFL without getting flagged, fined, or both. In the NFL trash talking is even an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty now called ‘verbal taunting’. It is absurd that a player can’t talk a little trash without getting penalized 15 yards. Big hits, fights, and tough play in the low post are what makes football, hockey, and basketball so exciting, yet it seems as though they are all diminishing because of rule changes and the way referees are currently calling all the games.

 

Does Union Solidarity Decrease Fighting in the NHL?

Rival stars such as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin
flank NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr during the lockout.

Recently, in a collective bargaining course at the ILR School, a labor official familiar with this season’s National Hockey League lockout gave his take on a number of issues. While it was easy to accept most of his opinions on collective bargaining in sports as expert testimony, one prediction would have to be tested by looking at data. The speaker claimed that because of the solidarity developed among players during the work stoppage, the NHL would experience fewer fights this season. He felt that the goodwill exhibited as union brothers off the ice would carry over on the ice. 

The argument seems to stem from the fact that NHL Players Association Director Donald Fehr effectively united workers who are normally paid to compete against each other. The NHLPA leadership effectively pitted players against management rather than against each other. There was actually more dissent among League leadership and owners, who arguably compete for much higher stakes in normal years. But while solidarity is always an important part of union strategy in collective bargaining, could it have unintentionally made players less pugilistic?

Unsurprisingly, the stats do not overwhelmingly support this theory.  According to hockeyfights.com, there have been .50 fights per game since the lockout, up from .44 per game last year. Though the four year period of 2008-2012 shows an average of .54 fights per game, it decreased in each of those years, dropping a total .16 fights per game. It doesn’t appear that the lockout had any immediate effect in reducing fisticuffs between players.  

But this was an unusual season in many regards. The shorter season could make this data less reliable in theory, but more importantly it could have affected how often players drop the gloves. Perhaps, because of the intra-conference schedule (to make scheduling easier, Eastern and Western Conference teams did not play) the familiarity of opponents increased tensions. Or maybe more fights take place closer to the playoffs in normal seasons, and with the entire season taking place in this timeframe, a whole season’s worth of scores got settled in less time. A whole season of post-lockout data might look different.  

Fortunately (actually unfortunately), there is another data set, as the NHL did experience a work stoppage lasting the entire 2004-05 season. In the previous 2003-04 campaign, fights reached a violent .64 per game, with the four year period of 2000-04 seeing nearly .60 fights per game. But with a contentious year of collective bargaining behind them, players engaged in a historically-low fights per game mark of just .38 in 2005-06, and then .40 in 2006-07, before rising to the levels previously described.  



Following the missed 2004-2005 season and subsequent rule changes, fights rose after a dramatic drop off, then trended downward into the most recent lockout. 



Overall, it’s not clear what conclusions can be drawn from this theory. Maybe coaches were aware of a pacifying effect this time, and changed their direction to players accordingly. More likely, there are many variables involved with hockey fights, and the differences in the yearly data are explained by other factors. Still, any time NHL players from different teams are united together, there’s a possibility that it could have an effect when they are inevitably turned against each other. Looking at post-Olympic and post-All-Star Game data may help provide an answer.

One thing is for sure though. Fans that love to see the gloves dropped had little to be disappointed coming out of this lockout. Our guest speaker was stuck on quotes from players like Pittsburgh Penguin Tanner Glass, who said he was “firmly behind what we are doing” in expressing his NHLPA solidarity. Only a few months later Glass would be a little more hostile to union brothers like New York Ranger Aaron Asham, as evidenced below.