The 2014/15 SJHL season has seen Bill Chow and company try to abolish fighting in the league by initiating a one-fight rule.
But first off, what exactly is the one-fight rule? Well let's take a look at it, shall we?
Basically if any two players decide that they want to chuck knuckles they'll not only get the usual five minutes for fighting, they'll also be given a game misconduct (ejection) and a chance to watch the rest of the game from the press box (or top row of the seats as is the more common thing for SJHL players).
On the outside the one-fight rule looks like a good idea. Think about it. The rule is basically designed to keep all the goonery and "John Scottsmanship" out of the game, while adding more skill and finesse.
It has also been brought in to decrease the amount of injuries sustained due to fighting, whether it be directly from fists finding face or the after effect of a head bouncing off the ice after the completion of a tilt.
And I guess it does do that, to an extent.
But what it really does, is it increases the amount of Sean Avery-esque cheap shots and stick work the likes of which hasn't been seen since the invention of the rubber puck (although cow and horse droppings are still used occasionally in small town Saskatchewan).
I've taken in my share of SJHL games this year in several SJHL rinks. The increase in the amount of chippy stick work has increased nearly tenfold since the end of the 2014 season.
And that's directly related to the one-fight rule. Because while it does make players think twice about dropping the gloves, it also enables those players that the enforcers used to keep honest to play how they want to play.
And more often than not, the way they want to play is with dirty slashes, the occasional spear, hooking, etc. Basically, stick work.
I've seen that sort of stuff from players on each and every team in the league. I'm not going to go out and name players who are guilty of it, chances are you already know, however, the reason they're allowed to play that way is because of the one fight rule.
So what Bill Chow and the rest of the SJHL executives need to do is sit down and take a long, hard look at this rule.
Because if the main goal of the one-fight rule is to ensure the health of the hockey players by cutting down the amount of fighting, it's kind of successful.
But the amount of players being hacked and slashed game in and game out because the offending player has no one to answer to has also increased, and THAT does not make a player feel safe, knowing they'll have a wannabe lumberjack hacking away at them all game long.
