Sadowski: Time to talk tough on fighting

Published March 23, 2007 at midnight

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Twenty-one seconds. That's how long it took for television folks to start putting together hockey highlights for the evening sportscasts.

Yup, the NHL was big news in the U.S. for a change, not that skating skills, electrifying goals or spectacular saves were the cause.

Once again, it was the penchant for violence that got the league more attention than it ever gets in the U.S.

This time, it was the Flyers' Todd Fedoruk lying prone on the ice and being carried off on a stretcher after getting decked by the Rangers' Colton Orr in a fight that began only 21 seconds into the game.

It happened a few days after the Predators' Jordin Tootoo sucker-punched the Stars' Stephane Robidas, knocking him cold, to earn a five-game suspension.

A couple of weeks ago, it was the Islanders' Chris Simon smacking the Rangers' Ryan Hollweg across the face with his stick and getting a minimum of a 25-game penalty.

Now that Todd Bertuzzi made his Red Wings debut Thursday night, guess it's time to pull out the three-year-old footage of his attack against former Avalanche forward Steve Moore, who still hasn't been able to resume his career.

This is one of the NHL's biggest problems, getting so much of its publicity for all the wrong reasons.

While the league long ago enacted rules that have virtually eliminated bench-clearing brawls, fighting has remained as much a part of its game as slap shots and body checks.

But even Colin Campbell, a former player and now the NHL's director of hockey operations, said it's time to seriously discuss the value of fighting.

"Because of the size of our players, where we're at in sports and in life, I think we have to look at it," Campbell told The Canadian Press. "This year, we've had two players carried out on stretchers because of fair, consenting fights that had taken place. It scares you.

"I think we - the players and the (general) managers - have to look at this aspect of the game."

Fedoruk, who was hospitalized overnight, told Philadelphia reporters: "I'm fine now. I'm a little sore, but I remember everything. I looked at (Orr) and he said, 'Let's go.' He knocked me out on the way down, and when I got off the ice, I woke up. I guess I got my bell rung."

Fedoruk had roughed up Rangers star Jaromir Jagr when the teams played last month, so Orr was seeking retribution.

"It was just a fair fight," Orr said. "It was a good fight. He is going to hit you, so you want to hit him. The same thing could've happened to me. It is part of the game."

A similar situation took place in Toronto on Tuesday when the Maple Leafs' Wade Belak, a former Avalanche defenseman, fought the Devils' Cam Janssen, who, in the teams' previous meeting, took out Tomas Kaberle with a blindside hit for which he was suspended three games.

The Belak/Kaberle bout was shown about 47 times Wednesday on TSN's SportsCentre show in Canada, followed by a talk show that featured Belak and three retired NHL tough guys.

"ESPN's huge. I'm right up there with the dog show," Belak said, basking in his newfound fame. "They don't show too many highlights of hockey unless you're clubbing somebody. Well, I guess we were clubbing each other, but it was with our fists instead of our sticks."

Gee, now isn't that a wonderful endorsement for the game?

Maybe if the league cracked down even harder on dirty hits and illegal stick work, those actions would disappear and players wouldn't deem it necessary to do their own policing.

Interestingly, Fedoruk, who is 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, needed major facial surgery in October after he had a fight with the Wild's 6-7, 250-pound Derek Boogaard. Fedoruk has required three such operations in his career and been involved in five fights since removing a protective visor just before the NHL All-Star break.

"The surgeries he's had, he's got basically a titanium face," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren told the Philadelphia Daily News. "He's been a little tentative in his fighting (since the Boogaard bout). It's got to take time, I think."

Not to worry. There will be plenty more incidents like these to keep the NHL from disappearing from the airwaves completely.

Fedorov on the blue line

The Blue Jackets have been using center Sergei Fedorov as a defenseman in recent games because of injuries to the team's blue-line contingent.

Fedorov, 37, played the position at times under former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman and is willing to help there now, but he'd prefer to play center next season.

"I'd like to still score a few goals before the end of my career," he told The Columbus Dispatch.

Fedorov eventually will enter the Hall of Fame. He has 460 goals and helped the Red Wings win three Stanley Cups in a six-year span. Fedorov won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in 1994 when he had 56 goals and 120 points, and he is a two-time winner of the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward.

League concedes error

NHL officials have informed Blues president John Davidson that referees Mick McGeough and Dennis LaRue erred when they ruled against the team on two third-period goals that appeared to be good on video replays.

The on-ice rulings were significant because the Blues dropped a 4-2 decision to the Senators.

"There's a flaw with what went on, so they've got to figure it out and make it better," Davidson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "They acknowledged that a mistake was made, and we accept that. It's very frustrating if it's not acknowledged, but it was."

Blues coach Andy Murray said "there are consequences" when mistakes are made in the NFL, but there was no word on whether the referees were penalized.

Slap shots

• The Gaylord Entertainment Center, the Predators' home arena, has been renamed the Nashville Arena. It's a temporary move to try to promote the city's name nationally to help secure a naming-rights deal.

• Canadiens defenseman Sheldon Souray has scored 17 power-play goals, one short of the league record for a defenseman set by the Islanders' Denis Potvin in 1974-75 and matched by the Canucks' Adrian Aucoin in 1998-99. Souray has 24 goals overall, tops among all defensemen.

At home on the road

• Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis can't be called homers. They have recorded more road-game points than any players in the NHL.

Player Team Road Home Total

Lecavalier Tampa Bay 57 41 98

St. Louis Tampa Bay 54 42 96

Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh 49 59 108

Dany Heatley Ottawa 47 46 93

Marc Savard Boston 46 45 91

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com

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