European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 26, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Some hockey players score goals. Some hockey players fight. Only rarely does a player do both. Through games of feb. 14, 26 nil players had 10 or More majors for fighting. Two teams the Chicago Blackhawk which leads the nil in fighting majors with 89, and Detroit redwings had three players with 10 or More fights. Six others had two. Only one of the 26 players Detroit s Gerard Gallant is a Bona fide offensive threat. Gallant has 10 fighting majors along with 31 goals and 42 assists for 73 Points. Basil Mcrae the nil Leader with 278 penalty minutes is also tops with 21 fighting majors. Mcrae a 6-foot-2, 205-Pound left Wing is the second most productive offensive player of this group with 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 Points in 57 games. Last season Mcrae had 382 penalty minutes and took 32 fighting majors second in the league to Jay Miller of the Boston Bruins. This season Miller who was dealt to los Angeles on Jan. 22, is tied for second with Detroit s Joe Kocur the Philadelphia flyers Jeff Chochrun and the Buffalo sabres Mike Hartman. All have taken 18 fighting majors. The Pittsburgh penguins Are second to the Blackhawk in fighting majors with 87 after leading the nil for most of the season. The penguins Are tops in Overall penalty minutes averaging just under 35 per game. Los Angeles is Low in the league with 32 fights followed by Montreal and Vancouver with 34. Mcrae Miller Philadelphia s Jeff Chochrun los Angeles Marty Mcsorley Chicago s Duane Sutler Edmonton s Kevin Mcclelland and new Jersey defens Eman Ken Paneyko Are among those who dress every night and see steady ice time. Their function is to provide toughness and Protection for their smaller teammates. Playing Tough that s what my Job is said Mcrae who had Only five goals last season and entered the season with 21 in 199 nil contests. My Job is to be an aggressive for checker who tries to get the other team s so called consistent players off their game said Miller who had just two goals before being traded but has four since going to the Kings. Gallant is a special Case a player who gets into a lot of fights but can still score. Gallant scored 34 goals and had 18 majors and 242 penalty minutes last season. Philadelphia coach Paul Holmgren said players who can fight and still contribute in other ways Are vital. Each team has certain Guys who play that Way but Are also Good players he said. Guys like Rick Tocchet Terry Carkner and Jeff Chochrun these Are Guys that we need on the ice. But they Aren t afraid to mix it up if they have  in contrast to players who can contribute in ways other than fighting there Are some skaters whose chief function is to drop their gloves. Pittsburgh s Richard Zemlak and the new York rangers Rudy Poeschel Are two prime examples. Zemlak has dressed for Only 31 games this season. He has no goals no assists and Only three shots on goal but has racked up 14 fighting majors. Last season with Minnesota he had one goal four assists 19 shots on goal and 24 fighting majors along with 11 misconduct. Poeschel has one assist in 33 games. Of his 1cw penalty minutes 80 have come in 16 fights. A typical Poeschel Effort came against Philadelphia recently in which he got into altercations in his first two shifts. It is players like this who get anti fighting proponents like Quebec Nordques coach Jean Perron upset. If the players that play and Are known As Tough Guys can t hold their punches and make some plays they can t stay in the league. If they can to it s a disgrace for the league and should t be allowed Perron said. Brian o Neill the nil s Man in charge of disciplinary action for on ice incidents admitted that a Small group of players is responsible for a disproportionate number of fights. Our figures show that in the first half of the season about 16 players accounted for about 20 percent of the fights he said. We be come to the conclusion that most of the fights Are being started and initiated by a Small number of players but there still were about 300 players actually 283 through the All Star game who had at least one fighting penalty in the first  the use of Sticks As weapons instead of to score goals increases the possibility of serious injury on the ice. In one 1987 playoff matchup  Montreal starting brawling during the pregame warm up. Some players feel the nil has gone in the right direction with harsher penalties for brawls players who join fights As a third Man and High sticking. But Gretzky s vision of a fight free nil is seen As impractical by Many. I think that ending fighting is a lot easier said than done says Chicago s Dave Manson who leads his team in penalty minutes. Fighting has been a part of the game since the first kid picked up a hockey stick. They be tried so Many times to keep the High Sticks Down and that s important. Fighting can sometimes help a team especially when your team is behind and needs a lift. It picks a team up. I Don t think they can Ever take that out of the game no matter what they  o Neill says fighting is an aberration one he does t think can be outlawed. I Don t think no matter what rules you try to bring in you re going to totally ban fighting from the game of hockey said o Neill. It s a game that s played under highly emotional conditions in very close  o Neill said ending fighting in t As easy As it sounds. You just Don t get rid of things. This is a highly emotional game. We play 840 games in our regular schedule and we play a very intense Type of game because of the level of Competition that we have which is probably the Best we be Ever had. Especially when you get divisional play and you have the emotions running High these things Are going to happen. These Are aberrations in our game but just to say you re going to get rid of it today and it s gone tomorrow that s not going to happen. You May Cut Down on the incidents but we re very concerned about the  o Neill said the league has cracked Down on Bench Clearing brawls and secondary fights. The penalties for Bench Clearing brawls Are so severe that we Don t anticipate this Type of conduct taking place because now we re talking about coaches being suspended and they re our first line of defense in controlling these types of activities o Neill said. Pittsburgh coach Gene Ubriaco served a five game suspension when Winger Troy Loney left the Bench to instigate a fight. Loney was suspended for 10 games. Ubriaco was punished for failure to control his players As were Vancouver s Bob Mccammon and then Quebec coach Ron Lapointe last season. O Neill does think there Are things that can be done to keep fights from breaking out. Some suggestions have included widening the ice surfaces to the International Standard of 200-by-100 and moving the goal line a foot or two farther out from the backboards allowing More space to make plays behind the net. We Are the Only sport of the big four sports that allows fighting Buffalo coach Ted Sator said. If we want to get More kids in the game and increase the popularity of it we have to Deal with the fighting  Chicago coach Mike Keenan whose club leads the nil in fighting penalties thinks the use of face masks and Shields will gradually eliminate fighting. I Don t buy the concept that fans look Forward to seeing fights. I think the game is pure enough now where that will All Stop Keenan said. Ziegler is not so sure. There s some Validity that there Are some people who do not watch hockey because they do not like the fights the nil president said. How big an audience it is that we re losing nobody knows. You also talk to some people and they say i like the fights in hockey.1 do they go to the games because of the fights i Don t think that s a big audience  sunday february 26,1989 the stars and stripes Page 17