AHL fight sheds light on the other side of fighting

Does fighting have a place in today’s NHL? Whether the answer is yes or no, an AHL player gave them a lesson in fighting sportsmanship.

There are few topics in the NHL and AHL more controversial than fighting. In the olden days, you couldn’t go to a game without seeing the mitts dropped and punches thrown. Nowadays, people say the game has evolved to be more of skill than it’s violent past. The old purists remain that still see fighting as much a part of hockey as face-offs, offside, and booing Gary Bettman at the Stanley Cup Final.

Even with its role diminished, fighting still exists in the NHL. A 2018 ESPN article claimed that NHL fights were at historic lows. Some international competitions, such as the Olympics, and NCAA have banned fighting entirely, threatening suspensions and game misconduct. While watching an NHL game with a fight may seem like a rarer and rarer occurrence, it also seems like something that’s not going away in its entirety anytime soon.

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Have we ever considered the other side of fighting? Such as what happens after the game when a final score has been tallied and the jerseys hang up? Sure, we’ve all heard stories of former on-ice rivals who were at the receiving end of each other’s punches and dirty hits later on becoming teammates, but what about in the more immediate and personal aftermath?

Enter in an AHL contest that happened over the weekend between the Stockton Heat and Bakersfield Condors. They are the AHL affiliates of the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, respectively. That night, a fight broke out between Colby Cave of the Condors and Martin Pospisil of the Heat that ended in an apparent knockout of Pospisil.

Hardly an uncommon sight, and barely newsworthy in its own right. What brought their on ice extracurricular activities to light was a screenshot Pospisil posted on Twitter after the game.

How nice, how sweet, how heartwarming. On ice enemies take a second to watch out for each other. While people lauded Cave for his sportsmanship, one has to wonder, how often of an occurrence is this? If anything, it reaffirms the adage about hockey players that they leave it all on the ice. At the end of the day, they’re just people playing a game that they’re passionate about.

It’s hard to imagine many hockey players who take pride in their brash, tough-guy image going public with the news that they actually care about their opponents, so don’t expect any “I’m sorry bro” messages leaking from Brad Marchand’s iPhone just yet.

What this does is prove a talking point proponents of hockey fights have been using to their defense: that the intent is never to injure. Cave didn’t knock out Pospisil for the sake of some boxing lessons on skates, he was sticking up for himself and his team. When the fight took a turn for the worst, he showed genuine compassion and caring for a fellow player.

Maybe in the bygone era, it was different. After all, checking up to see if you’re alright doesn’t seem like something the Broad Street Bullies of those 1970’s Philadelphia Flyers teams did often. Whether you agree with fighting in the NHL or not, we can all agree that’s the senseless fighting without respect for your opponent has no place.

Not that anyone asked, but my personal feelings on fighting are that if it happens within reason it should be tolerated, and not completely admonished from the game. It’s a part of the fabric of the NHL and professional hockey as a whole. I just hope the players involved have enough basic decency and respect at the end of the night as Cave and Pospisil.