http://video.blackhawks.nhl.com/videoce ... &id=162940

Toews out there. Not wearing a no contact jersey.

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Team Cutler.

I think this is a bad idea. I'd like to see him out for a while, especially considering how poorly they are playing.

He should leave the team and go on spring break.

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I would totally contribute to a Toews practice bounty...

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Terrific post, Krazy Ivan. I'm glad you made it!

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Quick question (becasue I'm always so curious about this "sport"):

When Toews plays his first game back from his upper body injury, what would stop someone from just trying to start a fight with him? Would he just refuse and skate away or is he somehow inclined to fight the guy out of respect for hockey? Would someone else be able to sub into the fight for him sort of like a tag team match?

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I'd work harder to answer your question if you weren't obviously trolling with the scare quotes.

Toews doesn't really fight as a matter of course, unless it's that anal cyst David Backes. They've had two or three. If someone tried to fight him, he probably wouldn't go. If an opponent went for a headshot on him, then it would probably get pretty ugly, probably involving Bollig or Mayers.

I should also like to think that the officials will be extra vigilant when it comes to looking out for headhunting in such a case, but we've sadly entered a new era of "herp derp, let those boys play out there" where you have to decapitate a man in front of his wife and children just to get two for interference.

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Thanks for the answer. So it isn't considered lame or unmanly to just refuse a a fight?

Truthfully, I don't even have my hockey troll level turned up here. I've just always been confused about the place og fighting in this sport. Not sure how fans would look at a guy who just ran away from a throwdown...

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I don't think fans get on their star players for not deigning to fight. We don't expect it of Toews/Kane/Hossa/Sharp because that's not their job. Conversely, no one's rending garments over Jamal Mayers not having 30 goals (though it is cool that he has like four or five). Now, players who play to hurt but avoid confrontation, they do get shit from fans (just never their own). Niklas Kronwall is the perfect example. He aims for the head on every play, but if he injures someone, he goes right to his hands and knees so anyone who tries to retaliate gets the penalty, all while Wings fans crow about how disciplined they are. Fuck those guys.

If you're looking for, well, a fight, so to speak, you'd do well to look to someone who has a more favorable opinion of fighting than I do. 95% of it is useless. The only place for fighting is that if you take obvious liberties with an opponent, someone should get to beat the shit out of you for it. Unfortunately, this is heavily punished, whereas mutually agreeing to hug each other for 45 seconds just results in coincidental majors and the game goes on like nothing happened. Example: a defenseman for the Penguins hurled himself into Marcus Kruger's head along the boards, concussed him. John Scott flew over and bloodied him for it. This is to be applauded! However, it's the Penguins, so they got a power play out of it and scored. That sucks! On the other hand, Brandon Bollig and Ryan Reaves had a fight at center ice the other night, however, the play was going on at the end of the ice, about 100 feet away. That planned bullshit is the kind of fighting you punish, not the kind that organically develops from the play for a reason.

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