Go to any hockey fan message board and count the total number of discussions devoted to figting against the total number of discussions devoted to any other single aspect of hockey up to and including the decline of organ playing and you may wish to re-cant that sentiment ;)

Count the number of threads on any Disneyland board devoted to paint, the location of trash cans, or any other number of topics other than the attractions themselves. Doesn't change the fact that the main draw of Disneyland for the general public are the attractions.

No other major sport tolerates fighting on the field the way hockey does, and yet the players don't beat the crap out of each other off the field. Your theory just don't fly.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hockeyfighting1.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...25/ai_72050123

From Wikipedia........."no one has ever been killed on the ice in a hockey fight....when fighting is suppressed, players are more likely to engage in "stick work" (i.e., the use of the stick as a weapon), which is arguably far more dangerous to players than fighting. Fighting is also an important means of protecting a star player who is being brutalized by an opponent........... fighting in ice hockey led to Rodney Dangerfield's joke "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out".

Hockey is a very contact heavy sport. I wouldn't really say fighting is tolerated, there just aren't fines imposed when fighting occurs, but each team is penalized whenever a fight breaks out. There are many opportunities in hockey for injuries to occur, and more injuries occur from regular play then from the fights, there's a reason most hockey players are missing teeth, and I doubt it is from fighting. And in my opinion, the action on the ice of the game is far more action ridden then any of the fights when they break out. Besides, its probably safer for the refs to wait out the fight until the fighters hit the ice then it would be to break it up in the middle of the fight as they are both standing and get an inadvertant elbow or fist themselves. and as SleepyJeff's post points out, if there wern't fighting allowed, there would probably be a larger number of slashings and other cheap shots.