The Debate On NHL Fighting Will Continue...

with both pro and con sides pulling out data, studies and statistics to prove their points.

And you can bet that the names of deceased tough-guys Bob Probert and Derek Boogaard both will be thrown into the mix. Probert's family donated his brain to science and it was found that there were "signs" of brain trauma from blows to the head.

 But there's a new study out that'll go through one of those "peer evaluations" before it's published and becomes "official."

Whether it holds water or not after the peer-process remains to be seen, but it does invoke some basic common sense as a basis for the study.



Were Eric Boulton (l) and
Travis Moen (r)
to battle outside a bar
 instead of on the ice,
some serious damage
 could be done.

The gist is this:  It's hard to fight on skates, and punches thrown do not have the power of a street fight punch simply because there's not enough traction on the slick surface of the ice.

Dig. From an article on the study:



"The risk of concussion in a fight was much lower for brawling hockey players (0.39 percent) compared to the per-game risk for those who checked one another (nearly 4.5 percent)."



Even roundhouse punches to the jaw seemed to lack the power to injure. 'If you're hitting somebody outside a bar on the ground, more than 50 percent of the time that's going to break a jaw,' co-author Dr. David Milzman said. 'We saw no jaw fractures in over 1,400 fights.'"

Kinda makes sense, doesn't it?

Thanx to Puckdaddy, via Kukla for a link to the article from U.S. News and World Report's "Health Day."

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/bones-joints-and-muscles/articles/2011/10/21/hockey-fistfights-rarely-cause-injuries-study-claims