NHL players came out swinging again this season. For a third straight year, the number of fighting majors has increased in the league.
This would seem like good news for fighters such as Wade Belak of the Florida Panthers and George Parros of the Anaheim Ducks, who both stand at 6’5 and weigh more than 220 pounds.
But big bruisers such as these are disappearing slowly from hockey as the NHL focuses on speed and skill. Fighters are expected to be quicker and offer more than just their fists, and pure heavyweights are losing their spots.
It’s a shame, because the big guys will be missed – especially their brutal honesty.
In media interviews, players like Daniel Alfredsson are all business and can put you to sleep with their politically correct answers.
They are notorious for using hockey vocabulary or “jock talk.” Phrases such as “working hard” and “getting lucky bounces” are as common as Alexander Ovechkin finding the back of the net.
Tough guys, on the other hand, pull no punches. Belak’s tongue is as quick as his fists. He calls the instigator rule – where players get 17 penalty minutes for starting a fight – “brutal” and says it’s bad for the game.
“It protects rats like Steve Downie and [Ryan] Hollweg in the league,” he says.
Parros doesn’t hold back either. “When guys like [Jarkko] Ruutu are being idiots, we can’t do our job. We should be able to jump a guy and take our five minutes,” he says.
Tough guys are equally honest with themselves. They know their role and their limitations. Every team has one or two guys that complain they deserve more playing time . (Remember Peter Schaefer, Sens fans?)
But nobody likes a whiner, and that’s the beauty of NHL heavyweights.
Last season, Belak averaged little more than four minutes of ice time each game. Four minutes. That’s roughly the same amount of time it takes to tie up a pair of skates.
Parros averaged around six. “It’s mentally tough, playing only a couple of minutes a night and knowing you might have to go,” Parros says.
Belak agrees, saying the toughest job in hockey is to be a fighter.
But neither player complains and they continue to do their job.
Parros was tied for second in the league with 23 scraps last season. Belak had shoulder surgery this summer and still dropped the gloves with 6’8 Derek Boogaard in his second game this year.
Aside from throwing haymakers and uppercuts, fighters have colourful personalities.
Parros sports a thick, black mustache that would make even Lanny MacDonald proud, and has shoulder–length, WWF wrestler-style hair. Parros says he does it to entertain the Ducks – “keep the boys loose,” as he puts it.
At the end of every season, the tough guy chops his locks and donates them to a charity. And for those who think fighters are big and dumb: Parros graduated from Princeton with a degree in economics.
“A lot of people are surprised when they hear that,” he admits.
Belak is also hard to miss. His nose is crooked from being broken “a couple of times” and he has seven tattoos, including two that cover his forearms completely.
His markings range from a guardian angel, to the word ‘mayhem,’ and even one of Yosemite Sam on his back.
Like Parros, Belak makes the best of his limited, fourth line role, saying, “the only way to survive with the media and everyone is to have some fun.”
While in Toronto for seven seasons, the heavyweight was always game for a laugh. He once told a reporter he would “kill someone if he ever got traded,” because he’s “too lazy to move.”
In 2006, Rogers Sportsnet aired a six-minute segment where he talks about his dream of playing the most games as a Maple Leaf without scoring a single goal.
So while smaller players such as Jared Boll, Daniel Carcillo and David Clarkson all play a regular shift and have shown a willingness to drop their gloves, none provide the flare and character the heavyweights have to offer.
The end of heavyweights in the NHL will not mean the end of fighting but losing guys like Belak and Parros would be a knockout that no fan should wish for.