With everyone in the car analyzing goals and assists and the plays that set them up, good penalties and bad, disputed calls, the verbal abuse hurled at opponents, the fights, I learned to love and appreciate the game. A perfect image of our connection to nature, of how play puts us in our place. You can tell that my memories are those of a fan, so I asked the player I know best for his perspective. Ten years ago his parents made him take two years of skating lessons before he was permitted to start, at age, seven, playing organized hockey. My opponents played differently around me because I focused on playing the body.
Hockey is a game of speed and skill.
Body contact is expected, a psychological and a physical factor that is part of the training. Expansion of the major leagues, they hint, reduces the skill level by increasing the number of professional teams and players. Cameras close in on the blood, and the media replay fights as highlights of the game. I believe fights are sometimes necessary to keep order and to keep goons from hurting star players. I don't believe fights are necessary because two hard heads don't like each other on the ice and decide to drop'em.