Hockey fans love a good argument. If the return of the NHL to ESPN has caught your eye and you’ve wanted to learn more about hockey, you need a crash course in the hot topics that grip every real and virtual fan gathering. We’ve compiled a few of hockey’s most controversial debate topics for you to learn about. Choose a side—and choose wisely.
Does Fighting Belong in Hockey?
Football may be a violent sport, but only hockey sanctions fisticuffs within games, sending combatants off for five minutes rather than ejecting, suspending, or arresting them. Longtime hockey minds believe the threat of physical punishment keeps unscrupulous players accountable—if an agitator must answer for a dirty hit on a star player in the form of a bare-knuckle punch in the face, he’ll be less likely to take such liberties. More progressive fans argue that there’s no empirical proof that fighting is a deterrent. Worse, it’s a barbaric act that scares away potential well-heeled fans. The crowd does seem to cheer, though.
Does Hockey Belong in the South?
From 1993 to 1997, the NHL saw a massive shift in its footprint. Along with expansions to Anaheim and Miami, teams in Minneapolis, Quebec City, Winnipeg, and Hartford departed for Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, and Raleigh, respectively. Wayne Gretzky’s success with the L.A. Kings and Americans migrating south and west opened new markets for hockey in the emerging Sun Belt. The fact that these moves came at the expense of hockey’s reliable northern bedrock left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans—even after expansion and relocation brought the NHL back to Minnesota and Winnipeg. Many NHL diehards believe hockey simply isn’t viable in warm-weather cities without generous subsidies from northeastern markets, while others dream of a rivalry between the Dallas Stars and a new Houston team.
Should Games End in Ties?
We’ve all heard it before: a game ending in a tie is like kissing your sister. The NHL ended such dubious displays of affection in 2005 when it instituted the shootout, a series of dueling penalty shots, guaranteeing that every game would have a winner and a loser. Traditionalists balk, arguing that determining a hockey game by penalty shots is tantamount to deciding a baseball game by a home run derby. They also point out that a shootout loss counts as a tie in the standings, which throws off the math. However, market research showed fans hated ties, and the shootout has already led to so many memorable moments—in the regular season, of course, because overtime playoff hockey still ends only in sudden death.
Who’s the GOAT: Gretzky, Lemieux, or Neither?
In the NHL’s modern era, two players tower above the rest: Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Gretzky, “The Great One,” sits atop the record books with 894 goals and 2,857 points. If he had never scored a goal in his career, he would still be the greatest goal-scorer of all time on assists alone.
Then there’s Super Mario. In only 13 seasons, having missed time to injuries and fighting cancer, Lemieux still has the second-highest points-per-game rate in history. Had he not missed that time, it’s possible he could have broken Gretzky’s records.
As impressive as Nos. 99 and 66 were, it’s still not an “either/or” proposition. To the Boston faithful, the greatest ever is still defenseman Bobby Orr—maybe it’s a “neither, Orr” proposition. In Detroit, that title belongs to “Mr. Hockey” himself, Gordie Howe. In hot pursuit of Gretzky’s 894, Alex Ovechkin could also be in the conversation.
Should NHLers Go to the Olympics?
One of the most controversial debate topics in hockey goes beyond the NHL. From 1998 to 2014, the league took a recess to allow its superstars to participate in the Winter Olympics. A catastrophic injury to then-Islanders star John Tavares on Olympic ice made the NHL change its tune, withholding NHL talent from the 2018 and 2022 games. Most fans love the exposure that Olympic play brings—until their hometown hero gets hurt.
