But the fact is, unlike newspaper betting lines, NCAA office pools, and professional wrestling, fighting in hockey is not for entertainment purposes only. Many casual fans and anti-fighting activists don't understand that there is a method to the madness. Teemu Selanne also missed time that season due to injury, and the team missed the playoffs. In 1998-99, Selanne and Kariya ranked No. 2 and 3 in the scoring race, Grimson was in the top 25 in penalty minutes, and their team finished above .500 and earned a playoff berth.
Opponents can play hard, they can play tough, but they have to play clean.
In a perfect world, referees would catch all the cheap shots and flagrant fouls, and vigilante justice wouldn't be necessary. The stark reality is that they can't possibly catch everything. Even if they did, it might not completely put a halt to foul play. Right or wrong, most coaches would risk having one of their less-talented players take a penalty and a game misconduct to take a run at the other team's star, if it meant knocking the star from the game. A Brief History of Hockey Fighting Fighting on the whole, however, has been in decline since its peak in the mid-eighties, when games averaged over one fight per game.