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If fighting is penalized, then its not allowed.
Its not that its allowed in the NHL and the Jr levels, its just more tolerated. If fighting was allowed, it would not be penalized...end of question.
But fighting is gonna exist wherever you have competitive gameplay...no matter what contact sport.
But with hockey in the pro level....fighting didn't necessarily become part of the game, but it did become part of the show.
I was actually watching a small documentary; here is the jist of it.
Back in the day, NHL had a rival league....i can't recall (or even wikipedia or google) which league it was, the IHL or AHL. This league didn't have close to the skill level as the NHL did, so it did what it needed to do to increase their ratings against the NHL. It turned their league into a major gong-show, which was entertaining the fans with heavier hitting and fighting. This lead to the Philadelphia Flyers honing the nickname, "The Broad Street Bullies" and the parody of a film which every hockey knows, "Slapshot" which became the mockery of the goonage of the game. This rival league ended up taking the players from the NHL which offered players bigger contracts than what they were playing for previously.
I guess after everything all said and done....NHL did what they needed to do to keep themselves alive in the american sports market.
Its part of the show...and its not going to go away because of that.
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