Tooth for a tooth: Does fighting serve as a deterrent to greater violence in the modern NHL

Abstract

Fighting has been part of the fabric of the NHL for nearly a century. Recent sharp declines in the frequency of fighting and increased understanding of the long-term consequences of traumatic brain injuries have led many to question whether fighting still has a place in the modern NHL. League commissioner Gary Bettman as recently as 2019 testified before Canadian Parliament that fighting has a deterrent effect, reducing the overall level of violent and dangerous plays within the game. This study empirically examines this claim and tests whether fighting indeed serves as a deterrent to undesirable behaviors in the NHL. I examine data on all regular season penalties from 2010–2019 to determine whether fighting and the threat of fighting is empirically related the level of violence in NHL games. Using a mix of descriptive and quasi-experimental approaches, I find no quantifiable evidence that fighting serves as a deterrent to undesirable violent behaviors in the NHL. To the contrary, I find that teams and players who fight are responsible for a disproportionate amount of the violent penalties that happen across the league. These results have implications for player safety in the many professional—and especially junior—hockey leagues around the world that sanction in-game fighting.

Fighting and Penalty Minutes Associated With Long-term Mortality Among National Hockey League Players, 1967 to 2022

“… 3 , 11 Furthermore, recent studies have refuted the conventional beliefs surrounding the importance of fighting in the NHL. It was recently shown that fighting does not act as a deterrent for lesser infractions, 11 , 37 fighting is negatively associated with fan attendance at present, 3 and fighting does not improve the probability of winning. 9 , 11 With declining rates of fighting and a lack of evidence that fighting promotes attendance, winning, or player safety, it is time that the NHL aligns with other professional sports and eliminates fighting.…”