Idk what to make of this information other than 1988 is the same year that NWA dropped Straight outta compton and had everybody on edge
AvatarSteed
Hear me out, forget the shootout. Have 3 rounds of fights. Best of 3. Whoever wins two rounds gets the extra point.
JustWannaChill82
80s to 2000 was the Real Man’s hockey LOL but honestly it was a fun era for the NHL with Gretzky’s run mixed in with Mario, some Dynasties great goaltending in the 90s and good tough hockey mixed in with some fire wagon hockey from the 80s
Maybe guys decided they didn’t want to get punched in the face every game? Maybe they wanted a night off.
JonTheWizard
Man, we were ANGRY in the late 80’s.
Strong_Bumblebee5495
Hockey in the 80s was essentially a different sport, way more UFC, way less stickhandling through entire teams
SobchakSecurity17
That spike around 2010 is from the PENISLANDERS game
canadachris44
Wish their were more today. One of the greatest parts of the game!
Sad to see its dropped the lowest in 60 years but at least their is a small up tick there
spaceporter
I’d love to see some other leagues overlaid. I feel like the OHL peaked around 5x this and now it’s essentially zero. I can remember games where there were back to back line brawls in the mid-90s.
LoveEffective1349
I grew up in the golden age of hockey.
pickle_milf
the year of the dragon..
johandamenslip
Lets get parabolic boys!
Monkeydad1234
Hmmmm, peaked right in the middle of Probert’s career.
liquidpig
From what I recall it wasn’t that more games had fights, but there were all sorts of all out brawls and bench clearing fights back then.
saggywitchtits
Growing up it seemed like my minor league team fought at least once per game, now it’s a rarity even in the minors.
Sila371
Coincidentally my interest in watching NHL is the exact same graph.
NickL037
Lmao you can see when the broad st bullies were a thing
1ebeholder
What exactly happened in 1988? Why is both an outlier and the time fights started going down?
Bobdonwon
Damn fine research. 🤔
monumentvalley170
Do those bench clearing brawls in the 70’s count as one or 20? Cuz I have a really hard time believing the 80’s beat the 70’s. First man off the bench used to only get a 10 minute misconduct back then. Changed in the early 70’s to an automatic game misconduct I believe. Seemed like bench clearing brawls were almost every night. Then it became more and more severe in its consequences. 1988 was the first year the coach was also penalized. Seems like that made the bigger impact.
Now do “knowledge of what concussions do to people”
Ha_CharadeUAre
We are headed back up on the graph!!!
Mahonneyy123
Bring it back!
KJEveryday
Cocaineeeeeee
Boring_Pace5158
The rise in fighting was a response to the Flyers’ Broad Street Bully teams winning the Cup-let’s forget they had a lot of talented players. Teams went out and got goons, a guy who’s only on the roster because he can fight. We’re now going back to the way it was before the 1970’s, where it’s great if a guy can fight, but it’s more important they can play. Guys who can fight are fighting less, because there are better ways for them to contribute than dropping the gloves.
detroiter1987
I think we are due for a resurgence of the enforcer. Some of these high skill players are getting targeted in todays game. In the 80s, you hit my star and the enforcer would pound you, no questions, no apologies.
Blueishgreeny
Visors?
Greendaydude22
So your telling me we’re heading towards a 20 year upward trend of fighting?
moderngamer6
The league has evolved to be more skill based. That’s why you get kids like bedard with broken jaws after a little contact. It’s faster paced and very entertaining, arguably the best version of hockey but it’s hard to have a bunch of skinny fast kids like mcdavid drop the mits every game without injury. They would rather bury goals and lets shit slide. I don’t blame them.
SorryiLikePlants
I am sure many disagree, but for me personally hockey was a hell of a lot more fun to watch in the 90s-2010s. I still love watching hockey, and i think its great how skilled the league has become, but goddamn if i dont miss heated rivalries, gloves dropping at the opening draw, huge hits.
Again, hockey is still the most entertaining pro sport in my opinion, but it feels like a little something has been lose the last 10 years or so.
swampthing117
Back when Probert owned the ice.
Mission_Cause368
Soooo, watch hockey from 1984-1990?
GrumpGrease
I think the level of fights is great now. They still happen regularly but they don’t dominate the sport.
46 Comments
Idk what to make of this information other than 1988 is the same year that NWA dropped Straight outta compton and had everybody on edge
Hear me out, forget the shootout. Have 3 rounds of fights. Best of 3. Whoever wins two rounds gets the extra point.
80s to 2000 was the Real Man’s hockey LOL but honestly it was a fun era for the NHL with Gretzky’s run mixed in with Mario, some Dynasties great goaltending in the 90s and good tough hockey mixed in with some fire wagon hockey from the 80s
We used to be a country…
Ahh. The good old days
Oh and thanks to the source for this: https://goinghockey.com/culture/fighting/how-often-do-hockey-players-fight/
Coming next season there are new penalties being installed;
2 min for hurt feelings
5 min major for name calling
The John Kordic years!
Is there a chart that tracks hits per game throughout the years?
Fighting peaked the year Gretzky won his last cup,
I am sure those two are related somehow.
We need more hatred in the league. Not necessarily with fights, but just makes the games so much more entertaining
I feel like this season has been notably more violent than recent seasons, I’d like to see this chart after we’re done this year.
The Flyers/Canadiens pregame brawl was in 1987. That led to major changes in the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/2wZFREUjxX
TIL: Old timey hockey had very little fighting.
The Year of the Fighting Dragon.
Just apply a 20 year lag.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2118631119
Maybe guys decided they didn’t want to get punched in the face every game? Maybe they wanted a night off.
Man, we were ANGRY in the late 80’s.
Hockey in the 80s was essentially a different sport, way more UFC, way less stickhandling through entire teams
That spike around 2010 is from the PENISLANDERS game
Wish their were more today. One of the greatest parts of the game!
Sad to see its dropped the lowest in 60 years but at least their is a small up tick there
I’d love to see some other leagues overlaid. I feel like the OHL peaked around 5x this and now it’s essentially zero. I can remember games where there were back to back line brawls in the mid-90s.
I grew up in the golden age of hockey.
the year of the dragon..
Lets get parabolic boys!
Hmmmm, peaked right in the middle of Probert’s career.
From what I recall it wasn’t that more games had fights, but there were all sorts of all out brawls and bench clearing fights back then.
Growing up it seemed like my minor league team fought at least once per game, now it’s a rarity even in the minors.
Coincidentally my interest in watching NHL is the exact same graph.
Lmao you can see when the broad st bullies were a thing
What exactly happened in 1988? Why is both an outlier and the time fights started going down?
Damn fine research. 🤔
Do those bench clearing brawls in the 70’s count as one or 20? Cuz I have a really hard time believing the 80’s beat the 70’s. First man off the bench used to only get a 10 minute misconduct back then. Changed in the early 70’s to an automatic game misconduct I believe. Seemed like bench clearing brawls were almost every night. Then it became more and more severe in its consequences. 1988 was the first year the coach was also penalized. Seems like that made the bigger impact.
https://youtu.be/PtvM59VoEPA?si=YU7U_uq9mV7QBTXO
Now do “knowledge of what concussions do to people”
We are headed back up on the graph!!!
Bring it back!
Cocaineeeeeee
The rise in fighting was a response to the Flyers’ Broad Street Bully teams winning the Cup-let’s forget they had a lot of talented players. Teams went out and got goons, a guy who’s only on the roster because he can fight. We’re now going back to the way it was before the 1970’s, where it’s great if a guy can fight, but it’s more important they can play. Guys who can fight are fighting less, because there are better ways for them to contribute than dropping the gloves.
I think we are due for a resurgence of the enforcer. Some of these high skill players are getting targeted in todays game. In the 80s, you hit my star and the enforcer would pound you, no questions, no apologies.
Visors?
So your telling me we’re heading towards a 20 year upward trend of fighting?
The league has evolved to be more skill based. That’s why you get kids like bedard with broken jaws after a little contact. It’s faster paced and very entertaining, arguably the best version of hockey but it’s hard to have a bunch of skinny fast kids like mcdavid drop the mits every game without injury. They would rather bury goals and lets shit slide. I don’t blame them.
I am sure many disagree, but for me personally hockey was a hell of a lot more fun to watch in the 90s-2010s. I still love watching hockey, and i think its great how skilled the league has become, but goddamn if i dont miss heated rivalries, gloves dropping at the opening draw, huge hits.
Again, hockey is still the most entertaining pro sport in my opinion, but it feels like a little something has been lose the last 10 years or so.
Back when Probert owned the ice.
Soooo, watch hockey from 1984-1990?
I think the level of fights is great now. They still happen regularly but they don’t dominate the sport.