Here is the TSN panel's initial reaction to the fight:


I feel like I am going to snap. First of all, I admire Darren Dreger's stance on the matter. Good on him. He said that Fedoruk is 'that kind of guy' that goes out there and takes on Orr.
Mike Keenan's opinion is silly really contradicts Dreger. He makes it sound like the coaching staff forced Fedoruk to go out there to tangle, and that maybe Fedoruk shouldn't play at all. I really doubt it. Regardless of whether or not the Flyers are in the playoffs and Fedoruk had his face beat in earlier in the season, you have to think that Fedoruk wanted to take on Orr.
But it's Bob McKenzie's comment that really angers me. He said that 'someday someone is going to get killed, and that all of us that say now that fighting is a part of the game going to have alot of explaining to do.' Are we really going to have to explain anything? Not a chance. If a guy gets a fatal blow to the head one day during a fight, I would hope we'd chalk it up as 'chance', especially if it would happen in the same instance as Fedoruk-Orr. There is no point in making a big deal out of the Orr-Fedoruk tilt. Can we please keep it in perspective? Sure, it looks bad seeing Fedoruk laying on the ice, knocked out and bleeding. It looks even worse seeing him taken off on a stretcher. Aha! That is the worst part isn't it? It's the stretcher that gets the media in a frenzy and scares the shit out of them. And then they make a big deal out of it.
It wasn't that long ago that a stretcher would not have been required for this predicament. They probably would have gave him some smelling salts, woke his ass up, and had 2 teammates escort him off the ice. That wouldn't be so bad would it? It sure wouldn't LOOK as bad. Oh, but the whole concussion thing...we sure are sensitive about that nowadays, huh? We have all these precautions.
Well get over it! Players are going to get hurt in hockey. It's part of the job that they signed up for in the first place. The goons are going to get cut and/or knocked out eventually. It goes with the job.
Then Mike Keenan goes off about how it hurts the game in the U.S.A. because of it's ugliness, (and believe me, there are ALOT of people who feel that way) and that it is difficult to market the game with this stuff going on.....
Well fuck them! If people don't want to see that in hockey, or come to games because of it, then stay the fuck home! Watch soccer, or golf, or a Jimmy Swaggart marathon.
Last time I checked the audience was loving that fight. It's outcome was circumstancial. Let's not change the whole game because one goon gets his head beat in....twice in one season. Maybe Fedoruk should change his profession instead.
McKenzie then mentioned the larger size of the players nowadays and how the blows are more severe. I am not gelling with that concept either, except for the guys like Boogard. Goons in general are not that much bigger. Ironically, Colton Orr is 6'3" and 220 pounds. Fedoruk is 6'2" and 241 pounds! Maybe it should have been Orr laying on the ice.
I wouldn't say goons are that much bigger in general at all. Dave Semenko was 6'3" 215 pounds. Bob Probert was 6'3" 225 pounds. Shawn Cronin was 6'2" 210 pounds. Craig Coxe was 6'4" 220 pounds. You get my point.
As soon as you start bringing the moral code of human rights into the fighting in the NHL and become sensitive to potential injury, you are pretty much asking for fighting to be eliminated all together, or at least that will be the end result. But I get this sickening feeling that fighting in the NHL is going the way of the dinosaur anyway. Colin Campbell is already looking into it and is concerned.
And in a game that is losing alot of it's physicality already with the new rules, that is a god-damned shame. Alot of the essence that is and always has been NHL hockey is going down the toilet.
And the most ironic thing is: if Fedoruk plays again, guaranteed he will tussle with a Derek Boogaard or a Colton Orr once again. Why? Because he WANTS to. So why is this incident even such a big deal? Let it go. Stop being so damned sensitive! Todd Fedoruk isn't sensitive about is he?

Technoranti Tags: Colton Orr Todd Fedoruk Fighting Concussion