Beating That Dead Horse

The fighting debate in a nutshell:

• On what possible level can you even begin to justify having more than $9 million worth of starting goalies fighting each other in a meaningless exhibition game? 
• Notwithstanding the above, can we all agree that goalie fights are the greatest?

(Linked because it is funny.)

This is what happens when I pay even a passing attention to the NHL.  Somehow my urge to watch hockey is at a five- or six- year low.

That said, there seems to be more noise in the blog-o-sphere which are sounding tired of fighting.  A couple of entries:

• What’s The Deal?: Fighting After A Clean Hit Without Instigator Penalty 
• NHLers fight through loophole in rule book 
• I Don't Know What The Code Is Anymore
• There’s no need for all this NHL preseason fighting

The last article is interesting, as it compares the incidences of fighting in the pre-season (more than one per game) to the incidences during the regular season (0.8 per game) to incidences during the no-holds-barred, put-the-whistle-away playoffs (just over 0.5 per game).  In other words, the more the game "means", the less fighting there is.

I'm still following things, even if disinterestedly, so my interest level is still higher than 2005 when it was "who cares?"  But I wonder how much of even this minimal interest level is sheer inertia.