No team in the NHL fights less often than the Detroit Red Wings. Not coincidentally, no team benefits from the presence of fighting in hockey more than the Detroit Red Wings.
It’s not like Detroit fights a little less than other NHL teams, either; they aren’t even in the same ballpark as the next team on the list. A quick look at major penalties since the 2004-05 NHL Lockout confirms that for us:
The Red Wings fight half as often as the next team on the list above. They fight one-third as often as an NHL average team. They fight less than one-quarter as often as the Anaheim Ducks.
That gives Detroit a significant advantage. Why can we say that?
The reasoning is pretty straight forward. Fighting has little to no connection with winning hockey games. Teams that construct their roster with an emphasis on fighting by default sacrifice other skills that actually help them win games.
Those are big claims, so let’s look at them in a little more detail.
Fighting ≠ Winning
A few years back, Terry Appleby o ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
Why the Detroit Red Wings Benefit Most from Fighting in the NHL
November 14th, 2013 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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