Been Awhile

There is no question that fighting is on the decrease in the NHL.  The goon is almost completely out of the game.  It almost seems strange that the team leading the league in fighting has 31 fights this year.  One player alone would do that 20 years ago.

It's also interesting that the AHL has never seemed to catch wind of the trend.  23 of the 30 teams have at least 31 fights.  Binghamton is at 80.  That's a lot.

Then there was last night.  Hershey and Bridgeport had some problems.

Poulin and Copley are the goalies.  Mayfield for Bridgeport left the penalty box to get involved.  O'Brien left the player bench.  The youtube type videos are interesting.  It wasn't a crazy brawl like ten years ago but the one thing noticeable is the refs had absolutely no control.  It went from minor pushing and shoving to a lot of talking to a complete brawl.