Everybody carries a stick. Not only a natural, human response, fighting in hockey is necessary, purposeful. There is more to it than many think. Etiquette is involved and almost always a strategy. There's a certain logic to its existence.
Hockey is a fast game, one with a lot of body contact and hitting.
Fighting helps control the game. A self-controlling mechanism, fighting is like having an extra referee on the ice. Players are less apt to take cheap shots at opponents knowing that they will eventually have to answer to an enforcer for their actions. The stick shafts are strong, made of aluminum or wood, with blades that are sharp enough to slice skin like a cleaver through a pork chop. Without fighting in hockey, the dark side of stick work would settle disputes and result in more serious injuries than fighting causes, players say.