Post by John Davidson on Mar 12, 2009 20:33:38 GMT -5
voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalsinsider/2009/03/as_nhl_cracks_down_brashear_co.html
Here's the latest must-read from our good friend Slava Malamud of Sport Express:
The curtailing of the NHL fighting culture proposed by the general managers this week is making news in Russia, too. Sport-Express is running a big story on it in tomorrow's edition, which includes my interview with Caps enforcer Donald Brashear. The interview was done several weeks ago in anticipation of the league's upcoming measures, and, as one might have expected, Brash was not too hot on the idea of tampering with this aspect of the game.
"Accidents happen," Brashear said, "and every time they happen they want to take fighting out of hockey. It is only fighting that they want to eliminate, and it is only in the United States [where you hear it]. Probably, people here take their family values seriously and don't want to expose their kids to violence. They probably should explain to their children that violence in the game is one thing and violence away from the game is another. We in Canada love our families too, but we also like fighting in hockey. People [in Canada] don't kill each other more often because of this."
Brashear, however, seemed to share the GMs' dislike of staged fights.
"The staged fight, one without any reasons for it, is really just violence," Brashear said. "It often happens that someone wants to challenge me but if I don't see any reason to fight him, I won't accept. And that's how it probably should be. But when someone is out there trying to hit as many people as he can in a shift to heat things up, his opponents will send a guy out to get him. That is normal... I would recommend to leave everything as it is. Let the guys do their job. It's always been like this. It's not like someone is trying to poke an opponent with a stick in the throat or intentionally hurt anyone. A fight is a part of the game."
Brashear also remembered that his most painful memory from his fighting days was a knockdown suffered at the hands of Chris Simon in the minors. (The interview, once again, was done well before the Wade Belak fight in Nashville.) When I mentioned that Simon is currently playing in the KHL and seems to enjoy it, Brashear expressed a lot of interest and asked me to tell him more about the Russian league. As his contract is up at the end of this year, he wants to consider this option too and, to tell you the truth, it is not so bad an option.
As a matter of fact, currently there are serious talks about fighting in the KHL as well, except the Russians are going in the opposite direction: they want to lessen the penalties and make fighting more prevalent.
In the KHL -- as in the rest of Europe -- both fighters receive an automatic game misconduct, which doesn't stop the likes of Simon from practicing their trade from time to time. A proposal is out there right now to make fighting punishable with a 10-minute misconduct instead, which, of course, will still keep it a riskier business than in the NHL. However, there are some things that can make Russia a better option for Brashear, Georges Laraque and other members of the NHL's endangered species.
The KHL's long-term goal is to become a major competitor for the NHL -- in talent, quality of play and overall business viability. However, one thing that won't happen in a hurry over in the Mother Country is parity. In Russian hockey, as in most European sports leagues, there are perennial haves and perennial have-nots.
Some teams, like Vityaz Chekhov (where Simon plays) for example, have no designs on capturing the Gagarin Cup at any time in the foreseeable future. But they play in a small, blue-collar town and one way of attracting fans to their games is brawling. Vityaz's head coach, Mike Krushelnyski, though himself not a PIM leader in his NHL days, welcomes this North American aspect of the game. As does Traktor Chelyabink's head coach Andrei "Dirty Naz" Nazarov, the only Russian enforcer in NHL history. Regular-season battles between Traktor and Vityaz this year were as big a fan and media attraction as some of the games between marquee clubs.
So, there are teams in Russia willing to pay top dollar to North American enforcers, especially if they can also play some hockey. Which Brashear still can, by the way. Consider also that in Russia they will actually be able to keep most of that money for themselves, thanks to the 13 percent flat tax, and that they will have to work much less for it, thanks to the shorter season. Somewhere like Chekhov, a player like Brashear can actually be a demi-god to the locals and enjoy front-page exposure in the national press.
What's not to like? I can tell you that Brashear clearly looked very interested.
I don't think anyone has ever thought they'd see the day when a Russian league would out-brawl the NHL. It may be coming.
Here's the latest must-read from our good friend Slava Malamud of Sport Express:
The curtailing of the NHL fighting culture proposed by the general managers this week is making news in Russia, too. Sport-Express is running a big story on it in tomorrow's edition, which includes my interview with Caps enforcer Donald Brashear. The interview was done several weeks ago in anticipation of the league's upcoming measures, and, as one might have expected, Brash was not too hot on the idea of tampering with this aspect of the game.
"Accidents happen," Brashear said, "and every time they happen they want to take fighting out of hockey. It is only fighting that they want to eliminate, and it is only in the United States [where you hear it]. Probably, people here take their family values seriously and don't want to expose their kids to violence. They probably should explain to their children that violence in the game is one thing and violence away from the game is another. We in Canada love our families too, but we also like fighting in hockey. People [in Canada] don't kill each other more often because of this."
Brashear, however, seemed to share the GMs' dislike of staged fights.
"The staged fight, one without any reasons for it, is really just violence," Brashear said. "It often happens that someone wants to challenge me but if I don't see any reason to fight him, I won't accept. And that's how it probably should be. But when someone is out there trying to hit as many people as he can in a shift to heat things up, his opponents will send a guy out to get him. That is normal... I would recommend to leave everything as it is. Let the guys do their job. It's always been like this. It's not like someone is trying to poke an opponent with a stick in the throat or intentionally hurt anyone. A fight is a part of the game."
Brashear also remembered that his most painful memory from his fighting days was a knockdown suffered at the hands of Chris Simon in the minors. (The interview, once again, was done well before the Wade Belak fight in Nashville.) When I mentioned that Simon is currently playing in the KHL and seems to enjoy it, Brashear expressed a lot of interest and asked me to tell him more about the Russian league. As his contract is up at the end of this year, he wants to consider this option too and, to tell you the truth, it is not so bad an option.
As a matter of fact, currently there are serious talks about fighting in the KHL as well, except the Russians are going in the opposite direction: they want to lessen the penalties and make fighting more prevalent.
In the KHL -- as in the rest of Europe -- both fighters receive an automatic game misconduct, which doesn't stop the likes of Simon from practicing their trade from time to time. A proposal is out there right now to make fighting punishable with a 10-minute misconduct instead, which, of course, will still keep it a riskier business than in the NHL. However, there are some things that can make Russia a better option for Brashear, Georges Laraque and other members of the NHL's endangered species.
The KHL's long-term goal is to become a major competitor for the NHL -- in talent, quality of play and overall business viability. However, one thing that won't happen in a hurry over in the Mother Country is parity. In Russian hockey, as in most European sports leagues, there are perennial haves and perennial have-nots.
Some teams, like Vityaz Chekhov (where Simon plays) for example, have no designs on capturing the Gagarin Cup at any time in the foreseeable future. But they play in a small, blue-collar town and one way of attracting fans to their games is brawling. Vityaz's head coach, Mike Krushelnyski, though himself not a PIM leader in his NHL days, welcomes this North American aspect of the game. As does Traktor Chelyabink's head coach Andrei "Dirty Naz" Nazarov, the only Russian enforcer in NHL history. Regular-season battles between Traktor and Vityaz this year were as big a fan and media attraction as some of the games between marquee clubs.
So, there are teams in Russia willing to pay top dollar to North American enforcers, especially if they can also play some hockey. Which Brashear still can, by the way. Consider also that in Russia they will actually be able to keep most of that money for themselves, thanks to the 13 percent flat tax, and that they will have to work much less for it, thanks to the shorter season. Somewhere like Chekhov, a player like Brashear can actually be a demi-god to the locals and enjoy front-page exposure in the national press.
What's not to like? I can tell you that Brashear clearly looked very interested.
I don't think anyone has ever thought they'd see the day when a Russian league would out-brawl the NHL. It may be coming.