Five For Fighting

This blog has dealt largely with books, politics, and books about politics, and that will continue most weeks. Not this one, however. Today’s topic is drawn from another of my passions: sports, in this case hockey.

Last night, I watched the Boston Bruins, one of my favorite teams, lose to the Montreal Canadiens, their archrival, 4-3. My disappointment with the score aside, it was a great game between the two top teams in the Eastern Conference: a few highlight-reel goals, generally solid goaltending from both teams, multiple ties and lead changes.

What prompts this post, however, was an incident near the end of the second period; you can see the whole thing here  starting at around 0:16. Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin cross-checked  (i.e. shoved using his stick) Bruins center Tyler Seguin in the ribs, sending him sprawling to the ice. Normally, this is a two-minute penalty, but neither referee seems to have seen it.

In response, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara skated over to Emelin and challenged him to fight; this was Chara’s first fight of the season,  a fight in which Chara (unsurprisingly, given his size advantage) pummeled Emelin. The referees, naturally, saw this; Emelin and Chara were each assessed five-minute fighting penalties, but Chara also received a two-minute penalty for instigating the fight as well as a ten-minute misconduct. Chara ultimately had to sit out for seventeen minutes — nearly 30% of the game. When the incident occurred, Boston had a 3-2 lead; by the time Chara had finished serving his penalties, the Bruins had given up the game-tying and what would eventually be the game-winning goal.

Hockey treats fighting differently from most other professional sports. Baseball, basketball, and football players would usually be suspended for fighting, but it is accepted as “part of the culture” in hockey — the clock stops if a fight breaks out and the players can return to the ice after serving their five-minute penalties unless, as in this case, other penalty time is added. For this reason, it’s always been one of my dad’s least favorite sports, but it’s never bothered me as viscerally as it bothered him.

The ultimate question, then, is whether Chara was right to stick up for his teammate as he did. It’s not an easily answered question, and I’m not sure I have any answer at all. Does it matter that Chara is the Bruins’ best defenseman? Many teams have a designated “enforcer” whose skills can more easily be replaced. Does it matter that the Canadiens were, it seems likely, able to win in part because of Chara’s absence from the ice? Fights often seem to embolden teams that are getting out-hustled, though. Does it matter that Alexei Emelin’s initial infraction was ignored? Does it matter how badly hurt Seguin was? Ultimately, he didn’t sustain a serious injury, but it certainly seemed like he might have in the immediate aftermath of the play. My answers are no, maybe, maybe, and probably not, but I’m more interested in the basis for such answers, and what implications such reasoning might have for realms outside of hockey. No 600-word blog post is going to answer the question — but that’s what the comments are for!

(For what it’s worth, the rest of the Bruins, including their coach, backed Chara up after the game: http://espn.go.com/boston/nhl/story/_/id/9011737/zdeno-chara-draws-no-ire-boston-bruins-retaliation-penalties.)