Columnist Ron Kantowski: NHL needs to consider fighting ban

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2000 | 10:27 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at ron@vegas.com or 259-4088.

Hockey did the right thing in handing down an unprecedented 23-game suspension and banning Marty McSorley from the playoffs (that his team, the Boston Bruins, has virtually no chance of making) after McSorley tried to turn the coconut of Vancouver's Donald Brashear into a pina colada with his hockey swizzle stick Monday night.

I thought the NHL might even take an extra stride and ban McSorley -- who is about one shift away from retirement, anyway -- for life.

But if the NHL really wanted to make a statement, it should have gone all the way Wednesday.

It should have eliminated fighting altogether.

Traditionalists will argue that fighting is a necessary part of hockey, serving as an outlet for players to relieve hostilities in a game that perpetuates them. Or that the threat of reprisal with fisticuffs insures that playmakers won't be folded, spindled and mutilated as they work their magic around the crease.

News flash: If you eliminate fighting, you eliminate enforcers. Then brawlers such as Marty McSorley and Donald Brashear will have to learn basic skills, such as how to skate and pass and shoot the puck, or retire to plowing wheat fields in Saskatchewan.

That doesn't mean that hockey will become a game for pantywaists. Take liberties with a playmaker, and there's still going to be hell to pay in the form of fierce body checks.

Granted, boys will be boys, and as is the case any time testosterone levels reach country and western nightclub levels, an occasional fight is bound to break out. Just as it does in baseball, basketball and football.

In those sports, the minimum penalty for fighting is ejection from the game. In hockey if you punch out the other guy's lights, the most you can get is five minutes in the penalty box -- unless you instigate such tomfoolery. In that case, you get an extra two minutes in the sin bin.

But that's only in the NHL. In college hockey, fighting is not tolerated, and it doesn't detract from the game. In fact, it's almost impossible to get a ticket to NCAA hockey's Final Four.

And when was the last time you saw a fight break out in a taut Stanley Cup Playoff series?

The only reason the NHL looks the other way when it comes to fighting is because it thinks many of its fans want to look directly at it. Sooner or later, that "Slapshot" mentality has got to change.

* MIRACLE ON ICE REDUX: As fate would have it, McSorley's detestable antics coincided with the 20-year anniversary of one of hockey's all-time shining moments.

Has it really been two decades since Mike Eruzione planted that wrist shot off the wrong skate into the back of the net, lifting the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team to its improbable 4-3 victory over the U.S.S.R. juggernaut during the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid?

I watched that game in its near entirety (ESPN Classic edited some of the boring -- er, less exciting -- moments from its re-telecast) for the first time Tuesday. Afterward, there were at least two things about that game that defied explanation.

The first was Herb Brooks' slacks. Who allowed the U.S. coach out of the Olympic Village dressed like a bagpipes player?

The second was Jim Craig's performance in goal. It was even more incredible than I remembered it.

The shots on goal wound up something like 39-16 in favor of the Russians. Were it not for the acrobatic Craig, the U.S. would have -- should have -- lost about 10-3.

That was the score by which the seasoned Soviet squad had beaten the U.S. college kids that comprised the Olympic team just two weeks prior to the start of the Games, which made the Americans' victory all the more remarkable.

So why wasn't I watching live, like the rest of the country claims it was doing 20 years ago? I was in Deming, N.M., covering a girls basketball district playoff game for the Silver City (N.M.) Daily Press -- my first newspaper gig. After Al Michaels counted down the final seconds of the hockey game, the gymnasium exploded into a wild cheer.

Keep in mind these were basketball fans of Latino descent, who, were it not for the frozen margarita, might have gone through life never having seen ice, much less a hockey game. But they rejoiced as if Carlos Santana had just walked onto the tiny stage at the far end of the gym.

The scene was even more amazing than some of Jim Craig's saves.

But not nearly as remarkable as Herb Brooks' pants.

* IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING: Three rites of spring at my house: Cleaning out the garage, fixing the sprinkler system, guessing UNLV's first-round opponent in the NIT.

I'm going with UCLA this year or one of the following three teams from the West Cost Conference: Pepperdine, Gonzaga or San Diego.

Prediction two: Utah will be the only Mountain West team to get an invite to the NCAA Tournament while what remains of the WAC will get two (Tulsa and Southern Methodist).

* AROUND THE HORN: If UNLV's Kaspars Kambala happened to change his mind and declare himself eligible for the draft following his junior year, he still might have an NBA future. The CBS Sportsline.com website has ranked the hulking Latvian 31st on its list of most draftable players. Utah's Hanno Mottola is 10th on the same list but he's a senior. ... What could UNLV coach Bill Bayno have been thinking by playing Mark Dickel for 39 minutes in Tuesday night's scrimmage against Florida Atlantic? A jump shot is like a fastball -- once a player loses either, you immediately suspect tired legs. In recent games, Dickel's shot could have used a Geritol cocktail and Tuesday's pickup game would have been a perfect time to give him a well-deserved rest. ... Perhaps it might have more beneficial to UNLV had it just forfeit the game against Florida Atlantic. Don't know if the RPI gurus view a forfeit the same as a loss, but given they apparently treat a 50-point defeat the same as the one-point variety (the Rebels didn't drop in the one RPI poll we checked after getting creamed at Utah Monday night), it might have been worth looking into. UNLV tumbled from 45th to 56th on at least one RPI list following the romp over hapless (1-25) Florida Atlantic.