Sabres and Senators Create Interest For All The Wrong Reasons

Thursday night saw one of the biggest brawls in recent NHL history, when a clean open ice hit caused players from the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators to fight each other for what seems like 2 solid days now.

The media showed all the highlights (if you can call them that) from Thursday night until tonight's "much anticipated" rematch between the two Northeast division clubs. One network, the Score, called it "probably the best game of the season". I propose it wasn't because of the 6-5 shootout final score. Even ESPN, long ignoring hockey in the post-lockout world, covered the brawl fairly early in their SportsCenter broadcast. (As an aside, I know we Canadians spell Centre, well, like that, but the ESPN program is spelt as above.)

All this brawl has led to is a black eye on the league. The post-lockout NHL was designed for skill players, higher scoring games, and highlight-making goals, assists, and saves. At least that's what I thought the new rules were intended to do.

But through all of that, the league kept fighting as a part of the game. The proponents of fighting argue that it is a confidence booster to a team when a player wins a fight, and it is that type of event that can turn a game around. I prefer to believe that a timely goal, big save, or key penalty kill is more effective.

In order to be successful in the U.S. again, the league must market its talent and its game, and they're doing that for the most part. But when the Sabres and Senators fought like this, all it did was prove to the uneducated fan that this game is for the uneducated.

Fighting has no place in team sport, and hockey is the only one that doesn't realize it. Get fighting out of the game for good, and market the game on its laurels.