Musketeers community on fighting in hockey: 'We had some guys that could take care of things'

Bob Batcheller remembers the fights. He went to Sioux City Musketeers hockey games as a child in the 1970s, and, in 1988, began a longtime career as a Musketeers referee/linesman. 

"When they first started in the '70s, that first 10 years, there was a lot of fighting. Tons of fighting. Crazy fights, where they'd tear down the boards to get into the penalty box," Batcheller said. 

Officials, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, were fairly permissive of fighting among the players. 

"That fighting, that was a part of the game," he said. "When people bought a ticket to go to the game, there was a pretty good chance there was going to be a fight. At least one. And it was just part of the game."'

Decline in fighting

The last several years have not been kind to hockey fighting. For several reasons, fights are less a part of the sport than they were in decades past (though players do still fight sometimes). This phenomenon has been widely documented in the NHL. 

ESPN reported last summer that fighting in the NHL has dropped to "all-time lows." In 2016, the Chicago Tribune wrote that fighting is "vanishing" from the NHL; the Christian Science Monitor reported in October that hockey fights-per-game have plummeted 70 percent since 2008. 

Gradual rules changes were part of the reason for the decline of hockey fighting -- the USHL (which the Musketeers is part of) has grown stricter in its penalties for instigating a fight. Today helmets must remain on during hockey fights, which, in its own way, discourages fighting. 

"I disagree strongly with not allowing, if two guys are going to square off, you should be able to take your helmet off," said Jesse Monell, who was a forward for the Musketeers between 1992 and 1996. "The last thing you want to do is, hurt another player by having him punch you in the helmet and cut your hand open." 

Musketeers players today are, for the most part, younger than they were in the 1970s, when it was a semi-pro team; the younger players aren't as quick to fight as the older ones were. 

The game play has changed too -- Batcheller described today's hockey as "more of a finesse game," focused on speed, fine skills and so forth, with less emphasis on clobbering an opponent. 

"The game is really making a change away from the physical part. You don't see the fighting anymore," Batcheller said. 

Dave LeGree, a native of Toronto who was a Musketeers goaltender from 1977 to 1979, has a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of hockey from decades ago. He said hockey fighting declined, in part at least, because of the influence of the less-combative Soviet style of the game. 

"The Soviets did not retaliate. In the game when they played Philadelphia in '74, they skated off the ice because it was too rough," said LeGree, who in an interview made use of the phrases "back in the day" and "back in my day." 

"They've taken some of that Soviet game, that we were introduced to in the early '70s, and that's the way the game is played today."  

All of which contributed to a decline in hockey fighting, which was a significant element of the sport dating back to the 19th century. 

"I haven't seen a good fight in a long time," Monell said. 

'A mutual agreement' to fight

Hockey teams have, historically, had "enforcers" (colloquially called "goons") who were in charge of making sure the opposing team didn't do anything out-of-line, which typically meant fighting. LeGree said the Musketeers didn't really have enforcers in his day -- not in the strictest sense, anyway. 

"We had some guys that could take care of things," LeGree said. 

LeGree's explanation for hockey fighting was nuanced -- he stressed that few ever got badly injured, and said there was generally a good reason for fighting: "As soon as the bully's picking on your top player, someone's going to be going after that guy right away." 

"It was just part of the game, no one really got hurt," he said, though he immediately added: "I've seen a few guys get beat up bad. But that was in a bad situation." 

Monell cited all kinds of reasons for hockey fights. 

"We had two or three guys the coach would call upon if things got out of control. Or, you know, they just knew they needed to spark some energy for the team. Or maybe they wanted to spark their own energy because they weren't playing very good," he said. 

"Most fights happen, it's a mutual agreement. It's like, 'Hey, you want to go?'" he added. 

Monell stressed that there was "never a vicious intent, or a personal intent" in hockey fights. Paradoxical though it may seem to an outsider, he said hockey fights were often a catalyst for friendship between players. 

"After the game, they would laugh about it, 'Hey that was a good hit you had on me,'" he said. "Usually, most guys that get in fights become best of friends later on in life. I've seen so many guys not know each other, get in fights, and then they end up longtime friends."