"We Need Fighting" - Drew Doughty, The Most Important Man In Hockey
If the game of hockey as we all know and love is ever going to survive, it's going to be because of Drew Doughty leading the charge against all the dorks who are actively trying to ruin it.
That's the one thing I've never understood about all the nerds out there who bitch and complain about fighting in hockey. Uhhhh hey, jackasses, how many times have you actually taken a fist to the skull because a fight was happening on the ice? How does that have any sort of legitimate impact on you? If you don't like it, don't watch it. But how are you going to cry onto your keyboard and try to take fighting out of the game when you're not the one on the ice? Drew Doughty is on the ice. He's been on the ice for 2 Stanley Cup championships, 2 Olympic gold medals, a World Cup of Hockey gold medal, and has won a Norris Trophy. So I feel like he might be a little more qualified to talk about what the game needs and does't need as opposed to someone who just knows how to use a calculator.
It's just what he said. If there's no fighting in hockey, then you have a bunch of meatheads flying around out there trying to take guys' heads off because they don't have to worry about paying the price. If there's no fighting in hockey, then you have a bunch of rats out there sneaking in some cheap shots because nobody is going to use their face as their personal punching bag later. And if there's no fighting in hockey, then guys like Nic Deslauriers doesn't have a chance to try to provide a little spark to the boys when his team is down 2-0 halfway through the game.
Look at that shit. It was beautiful. You had Deslauriers challenging MacDermid. MacDermid happily obliged but went to take off his bucket first. You can't do that, and Deslauriers knew that. So he waited until the ref stepped in to make sure MacDermid kept his helmet on, and now we have a bunch of grown ass men who know exactly what the situation here is. Credit to the boys for chuckin the knucks and credit to the refs for not stepping in too early here to break it up. It was a great scrap that fired up both teams, and both players had a ton of respect for each other.
I just don't understand how anybody can watch that and think there's anything wrong with it. But lucky for us, guys like Drew Doughty are still around and their opinion means a helluva lot more than some jackass on Twitter who still sleeps with a night light.