THN Article of Frontier Justice

[b.shanafan14 733]

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/42991-Kennedy-Advocating-for-frontier-justice.html

Related to the recent Lucic-Miller incident, a columnist at The Hockey News wrote an article about frontier justice in hockey, busting some skulls in a fight to even the playing field. His argument is strange, interesting, and potentially extremely polarizing: As retaliation for the gooning of your teams skill players, lay a beatdown on the nearest outmatched player. Essentially, why beat on someone who is used to it, when you could more evenly settle the score. In the context of the Lucic-Miller incident, Gaustad should have (in lieu of doing nothing ) grabbed someone on the Bruins who was much smaller, "handed them their ass" so to speak, and then explained to Lucic that it was his fault.

The article is worth reading, if not to see tremendously flawed logic all around. And while I think its a bit foolish, I thought it worth discussion. Perhaps the most confusing part is right at the end:

In a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, former St. Louis Blues enforcer Tony Twist recalled an incident where Detroit’s Martin Lapointe was taking liberties with a young Chris Pronger, but turtled when Twist challenged him on it. In retaliation, the Blues policeman told his Red Wings counterpart, Joey Kocur, he was going to two-hand Steve Yzerman, knowing Kocur would then fight him. Twist then told Kocur he’d continue to attack Yzerman unless Lapointe backed off on Pronger. Message received.

Twist wouldn’t have gone after Yzerman ordinarily, but he said Lapointe broke The Code first. I don’t see why a player such as Gaustad would have been wrong for doing something similar.

This is where his argument goes completely off the tracks, and not only because the thought of anyone going after Stevie is cringe-worthy. Marty Lapointe was only a year older than Pronger at the time and Pronger, not exactly a shy fella, had about 7 inches on him. So Twist, who was a 260 lbs. monster promised Joey Kocur, perhaps the hardest puncher in the history of the league, that he would attack Steve Yzerman, small man and all-around respectable guy, if Lapointe didn't stop it. The argument being that it wasn't cowardly for him to go after Yzerman instead of Kocur or even continuing to hassle Lapointe for picking on Pronger, but... intelligent?..... WHAT?

Edited November 17, 2011 by b.shanafan14

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Twist and Kocur only fought a few times, both in the late 80's. Obviously, that was before Pronger and before Twist was on steroids. Shows you how big a ***** Pronger is, that he needed backup from Lapointe.

There have been instances of fighters jumping non-fighters to prove a point or to retaliate for something. Of course if Gaustad did that, his teammates would have suffered, since Boston is a bigger and tougher team. A brawl against them wouldn't be a good idea for Buffalo.

Edited November 17, 2011 by GMRwings1983

[Nev 1,085]

And yet Kocur did the same thing with the Rangers in '94. Can't remember which opponent it was, but they were taking liberties with the Rangers Russian players so Kocur skated to their bench and told them if it didn't stop he was going to start swinging his stick and he didn't care who it hit. The liberties stopped.

Anyway, the problem with this "frontier justice" is all the BS that goes on now after a clean hit. You shouldn't have to defend yourself for a clean check.