What comes to your mind when you hear the word “enforcer”? Did you picture a big tough, muscly guy? In the NHL, enforcers are supposed to respond to dirty or violent plays made by the opposing team. They normally respond by dropping the gloves and fighting a member of the opposing team, normally that teams enforcer, or goon. It is an unofficial role in the NHL as enforcers only have skills to help them fight, not to score.
Recently there has been talk to ban fighting in hockey, which I do not agree with, as fighting has been a tradition in hockey since hockey first started in 1922.
There are two main reasons why you should stand up in your seats during a hockey game: someone scored, or there is a fight. My very first hockey game, there was a fight as soon as the puck dropped. I remember after the two players had finished fighting and got assessed penalties, Shawn Thornton became my favorite Bruins. Below is the video of the game I went to, but at that time Shawn Thornton was the Boston Bruins enforcer, as well as Adam McQuaid, who is highlighted in the video below Thornton’s.
Fighting in hockey adds to the entertainment value as well as protection for the younger star players. The enforcers know their role and stick to it well, even if fighting in hockey is slowly dying out. The website Hockey Fights is a great tracker for all things related to fighting in hockey.
In Pop Culture
Enforcers are highlighted in pop culture, such as movies being made surrounding their role. The 2011 sports comedy, Goon, follows an enforcer for a minor league hockey team. Below is the trailer for the movie.
There was also a documentary released in 2016 that highlights the ice hockey enforcer role, it is one of my favorite movies. Below is also a trailer for the movie, it can be found on Netflix as well as other movie streaming sites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKwV36s7bdI
CTE
In recent season, fighting in the NHL have gone down, as the game is now focusing on skill instead of showing toughness. Concussions are also a hot topic in fighting in hockey. Players are skating at each other at more than 30 miles per hour, you can imagine how it must hurt if you were to collide with someone and risk smacking your head against the hard ice. So far, six NHL players have died due to CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. In short, CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes. CTE is a very important issue in sports today, former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, had stage three out of four CTE at the time of his death.
Tragedy
Derek Boogaard was an enforcer for the Minnesota Wild of the NHL until 2011. He died at age 28, due to an accidental drug and alcohol overdose while recovering from a concussion. An examine of his brain showed that he had an advanced form of CTE not typically seen in NHL enforcers. His death followed two other hockey enforcers which sparked the debate over if the enforcer role should even be in the NHL. While the league has taken some steps to address the concussion problem, most recently in banning blindside hits to the head and requiring that players suffering head injuries be examined in a quiet room away from the bench, it is still not convinced that the CTE found in Boogaard and other players posthumously is a direct result of their hockey careers. Since Booogaard’s death, his family have been running a camp for children age 12-18, teaching children how to not get hurt in a fight, as Boogaard, listed at six foot seven, knew how to fight well.
Until Next Time
~RJ
Hybrid Theory Thoughts Blog 