Senior hockey player dies after on-ice fight

Believe the helmet issue is across the board, isn't it? I know in the Dub a player has to leave the ice immediately if his helmet comes off.

Supposed to be a penalty to play without a mouthguard, too, no?

Look, head injuries are no joke. My own playing days are over because of them.

 

This is a country that arrested Dave Winfield for killing a seagull with a baseball.

 

And yours is a country that let O.J. go free.

 

Hey, we corrected that mistake.

---

What seems important to me, and I've seen no mention of, is the fall to the ice. The way I read it was that the survivor didn't knock the other guy off his feet. If they both lost their balance and fell together, either one could have knocked a head like that. So you charge the guy that survives the fall?

It wasn't the fight the killed him. It was the fall, which the survivor didn't directly lead to.

 

The bloodthirsty fans are everywhere regardless of which side of the 49th. I would submit that fans in a podunk Canadian town are more hockey-smart than an ECHL town where I think the actual hockey is secondary to the fights.

The Europeans don't seem to have the cultural love affair with hockey fights that we do over here. As JR pointed out, there was no fighting in the Olympics and that was prpbably the most entertaining intense hockey I have watched in the past 10 years.

I still think this is a cultural issue perpetuated by the Don Cherry is god crowd who don't want anyone messing with "our game".

 

So did we - we gave Winfield his one and only World Series ring.

 

Speaking to the Canadian issue, I used to go to minor league games for free because all the area high school teams got tickets, and the football players, wrestlers, basketball players all used to try to bum tickets off of us so they could go watch people fight. They couldn't believe this was allowed in a sport, and they loved it, in America. So to say that it's Canada's fault... I don't buy that.

 

That's what I don't get: how as a sport, that buffoon is sainted and Sean Avery gets vilified.

 

Cherry would kill for Avery's sloppy seconds.

 

You're a bloodthirsty bunch, that's for sure!

 

LOL ... every time Phaneuf touched the puck last Saturday, a bunch of Senators fans would yell out 'SLOPPY!'

 

Don Sanderson has been a friend of mine since I covered him in junior hockey nearly four years ago. He's a great kid, willing to do almost anything for his teammates, always taking time to stop and talk and he'll definitely be missed. Because he was always big and strong, protecting teammates has been part of his game and it even got him drafted by the Kitchener Rangers year ago.

We'd heard his fighting would make a name for him, but obviously not like this.

The Sanderson family and most of his friends realize it could have just as easily been Don fighting someone else and that accident could have gone the other way — it will bring no solace given their 21 year old is gone, but their take is that of a tragic accident. (And no, he didn't remove his helmet and yes, that carries an extra suspension or fine in that league).

In terms of fighting in hockey, I don't think you can take it away - especially when you have guys out there wielding weapons in their hands and sometimes that, and other physical play does get a bit rough. It's nice to have some people to hold them to account and that's why so many argue against the instigator.

I hope this incident will give people pause in the future, however. Hopefully, it reduces the instance of "show" fighting in the game (of which this was not), where players aren't going in the heat of battle, but rather dancing around, removing their helmets and making a spectacle. That's blatantly unnecessary.

Hopefully, it gives them pause about removing their helmets or those of others in the fight when they ask about whether it was worth it, especially putting themselves in either player's shoes - I wouldn't want to be the man he fought having to live with that either.

And lastly, hopefully players think before swinging their stick or doing other things that will provoke a fight — and banning fighting outright would only go so far, with these things involved, it's a natural reaction and trying to stop a fight sometimes is more dangerous than letting it continue.

It's just sad that we are missing a bright young man in order to have this reminder.