The NHL Is Seemingly Cracking Down On Goalie Fights And It’s Making A Big Mistake

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Hockey is the only sport where players are essentially permitted to punch each other in the face to settle their differences, and while there are valid concerns with the role of fighting in the sport, it’s a facet that still has the support of the vast majority of fans.

That’s especially true when it comes to goalie fights, a rare spectacle that is seemingly on the verge of extinction based on how the NHL has approached the matter in recent years.

On Tuesday night, the Ducks and the Blackhawks treated us to a fairly chaotic scene midway through the third period of a game Chicago was leading by a score of 6-2.

After a shoving match broke out after the whistle, a scrum formed behind the net before Anaheim’s Radko Gudas gained the upper hand in a one-sided fight with MacKenzie Entwistle—a brawl Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek attempted to diffuse before Ducks netminder John Gibson decided to get in on the action after leaving his end of the rink.

It looked like Mrazek and Gibson were willing to engage in some good, old-fashioned mutual combat, but sadly, the referees intervened before we got the chance to witness what would’ve been the first goalie fight to unfold in the NHL since Cam Talbot and Mike Smith traded blows on February 1, 2020.

Gibson actually received a game misconduct for crossing the red line in his quest to go toe-to-toe with Mrazek, and while you can’t blame the officials for following the rulebook, you can blame them for being overly cautious when it comes to preventing one of the most electric sights hockey has to offer.

It’s been close to a year since the refs firmly shut down Marc-Andre Fleury’s attempt to give Jordan Binnington the comeuppance NHL fans have been begging to see for years, which was truly a crying shame. There’s no concrete evidence that suggests the league has issued an edict cracking down on that particular type of donnybrook, but based on what unfolded on Tuesday, it’s hard not to wonder if that’s the case.

At the end of the day, the NHL needs all of the help it can get when it comes to attracting new fans.

I’m not saying the league needs to encourage or promote fighting in the hopes of achieving that goal, but actively discouraging fights between goalies who are more than game to engage in the kind of melees players at other positions are permitted to take part in on a pretty regular basis seems like a major unforced error.