Fighting has been a feature of hockey since the earliest days of the sport in 19th-century Canada. And for just as long, the debate has raged as to whether fighting should be permitted in our national game. On one side are professional hockey club owners and the many fans who want to keep fighting in the game for its inherent excitement and drama-hockey as gladiator sport. Others argue that fighting has no place in a skilled game and is highly dangerous. This side of the argument gains credence whenever fighting results in serious injury or death, as happened in January 2009, when Don Sander-son of the Whitby Dunlops of the Ontario Major Hockey League died a month after striking his unprotected head on the ice during a fight. Career NHL pugilists Bob Probert, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and Derek Boogaard also met premature deaths resulting from depression, substance abuse and other health conditions that were discovered to be a direct result of repeated blows to the head. Emotions tend to flare on this subject, and whatever your opinions are, in Fighting in Hockey, Veteran sports writer J. Alexander Poulton attempts to provide a balanced perspective on the role that fighting plays in the North American game of hockey, examining its history and its place in modern popular culture, as well as including a look at some of hockey's most famous fighters.

Book jacket.