Mark Stuart smokes Anze Kopitar

Check out the hit that former C.C. star Mark Stuart puts on Anze Kopitar, it’s text book clean, elbows down, didn’t go for Kopitar’s head. Then you have Wayne Simmonds dropping the gloves because Stuart put a legal hit in his teammate. I have to agree with Bob McKenzie and what he has to say, don't we want legal hitting in the game and I think fighting after a legal hard check is senseless in this case. I would the fighting reserved for violations of the hockey code.

Immediately after the hit, the Kings' very fine forward Wayne Simmonds immediately challenged Stuart to a fight and Stuart obliged by dropping the gloves. As it turned out, Stuart broke his pinky finger in the fight. He will be out a number of weeks now and the Bruins will be without a defenceman who was playing quite well.

And for what? Getting into a fight that was started because of a clean, open-ice hit?

Am I the only one who finds this sensibility odd? We want more hitting in the game. Or at least we don't want to take hitting out of the game. So here's a novel concept. When there is a really good, clean bodycheck, let's make the person who throws the check have a fight. That sounds like a heckuva way to keep hitting in the game. (Actually, it sounds more like a way to keep fighting in the game.)

I must be getting old. I've never fully embraced or understood the concept of not being able to hit a star player on the other team. I mean, isn't that the point? Make the stars earn their ice. Isn't that what makes hockey great - that even the star players have to take some physical abuse to do their job. I am not sure when the game fully changed on this. It was probably in the 1980s when Wayne Gretzky earned special status with the Edmonton Oilers. [Read the rest of the article]

What do you think, I am not for taking fighting out of the game but I don't think there needs to be a fight after a legal hit. If Stuart had charged Kopitar then maybe not for a legal hit.