As in any professional sport, it's always about the money. In addition to your point, there was also this mentioned in the article:
Quote:
|
Brown also believes that NBC’s acquisition of the NHL broadcasting rights in 2006 and Comcast’s subsequent merger with NBC Universal in 2011, which expanded the number of outlets to showcase the league, are other factors.“I think when they took the game to the big stage, that was the best thing that happened to the game. They had all those channels,” Brown said. “They knew they were going to have to reduce fighting to put it out to the masses.”
|
In other words, the networks told the league to clean up their act, hence the measures taken to suppress fighting. I am under no illusion that NHL owners and executives did what they did for any other reasons than these.
Still, regardless of the impetus, it is a welcome change and I hope it stays. I will leave you with an anecdote that has stuck in my brain for many years.
After a while away from the game, partly because I was disgusted with players fighting (and moron fans shouting and pounding on the glass in the background), I tuned in a game to see if I could rekindle my interest. Now, this is no lie or exaggeration:
The announcer had just got done talking about how so-and-so had needed stitches for a mouth injury (whether from play or fight I don't know). Literally minutes later, this guy is in a fight and, sure enough, he takes a fist in the kisser. Blood erupted all over his jersey and onto the ice.
That was it for me and watching professional hockey for quite some time. Only in the past few seasons have I been interested in the sport again.