I grew up in Calgary and went to a lot of Calgary Flames games at the then-Olympic Saddledome through my childhood. Quite often, games between the Flames and their Smythe Division rivals devolved into line brawls and often my father and I found ourselves sitting in Section J2 laughing at the absurdity of it all.
When news broke on Thursday that Travis Hamonic would miss some time with a facial fracture suffered in a fight, I couldn’t help but think about the absurdity of the situation he was placed in.
The context of the sport
The role of fighting in hockey has definitively changed.