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100% agree. I've been saying this for years. Have stiffer in game penalties and longer suspensions and you don't have this Don Cherry nonsense about the need for enforcers to police the game - which doesn't work. The NHL indefinitely suspended Avery for a sloppy seconds comment and voynov for something he hasn't even been found guilty for, yet the cheap shot that could have ended Seguin's career warranted a couple of games. MaxPac almost being decapitated warranted nothing. Fighting is pointless and serves no purpose. No other league tolerates it, except the Neanderthals running the NHL. And the speed of the game srguement is a stupid one. Players get tackled every friggin play in football. They don't take offense and fight if the tackle was late. Why - it's not tolerated. The consequences are mucho recasting- particularly when you consider it's a 16 game season.

In that case explain where enforcers did anything to prevent, enforce or detract from: - Dino Ciccerelli on Luke Richardson - Jimmy Mann on Paul Gardner - Tiger Williams on Dennis Orchar - Dave Forbes on Henry Boucha - Dan Maloney on Brian Glennie - Wilf Paiement on Dennis Polonich - Dave Brown on Tomas Sandstrom - David Shaw on MARIO LEMIEUX - Ron Hextall on Chris Chelios Not to mention all of the dirty hits in the 70s and 80s? People act like dirty hits suddenly began in the 90s. They didn't. Enforcers never prevented a thing. In actuality, Montreal bringing in John Ferguson Sr. to be the first enforcer led to teams packing their lineups with goons and bruisers, all given the title of "enforcer" to make them sound like they did something that contributed to the game. The job of Dave Schultz wasn't to be an enforcer. It was to ensure that when Bobby Clarke took cheapshots at everyone in the league, nobody would come back at him. Your response to my examples is likely that you can't prevent everything and you're right. You can't. The problem is expecting players to police themselves. It should be up to the officials in the game and NHL management. The suspensions are so soft that nobody cares if they miss a couple games. It's a vacation and a chance to rest injuries they are getting away with playing on. If suspensions were harsh (imagine if David Clarkson got 25 games for his hit on Sergei Gonchar) then the players who keep their elbows high and their sticks in cross check would stop doing it. The first player who loses a whole season due to a suspension would make every other player take notice and think twice. Having players police the game just leads to an arms race in getting the biggest and toughest guy possible.

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See, I actually agree with that part of his rant. All the instigator rule has done is painted targets on the backs of the league stars. The players were safer when they were allowed to police themselves. Cheap shots have gone up because of the league trying to eliminate fighting from the game. The Instigator rule has got to go. When someone takes a cheap shot at your players, it shouldn't be just okay, it should be your duty to beat the shit out of him.