hockey and fighting

OK, here's the deal according to me: other than actual "combat" sports -- fencing, boxing, martial arts, etc -- hockey is probably more permissive than any other when it comes to allowing direct physical action against an opponent.
While the object is to move the puck around, you're allowed to deliberately push, shove, run into, and knock down opposing players. Within some limits, you can hold them against the boards, hit their stick with yours, tie them up with your arms/legs, etc.
With all that direct personal contact happening, and with the line being often a "referee's discretion" type of thing, it's not surprising that tempers sometimes flare, and people get a little worked up.

But more importantly: the physical part of the game is important to success. You win more games if you can dominate your opponent physically and mentally, if you can make him hesitate, if you can make him not want to mix it up with you. (In the words of famous NHL coach Scotty Bowman, "Be first to the puck, and arrive in an ill humour.")

I don't think they allow it just because the players are padded and unlikely to get badly hurt, altho if players regularly got actual injuries I'm sure they'd stop it. For the record, the protocol is that you drop your gloves, and the object is to punch the other guy in the face, so facial cuts and loose teeth are as bad as it gets 99% of the time. Usually each player ends up with one hand holding the other guy's jersey and the other hand free for punching. Ultimate success is when you can pull his sweater over his head and tie up his arms, then you can really bloody his nose or whatever. As for stopping it, the linesmen wait until there's a moment when they can swoop in without getting punched themselves and without giving one player an advantage over the other -- you don't want to grab a player's arms just to have his opponent clock him in the head -- so when both players end up holding the other guy's sweater, or when they go down on the ice, that's when the linesmen dive in.

But anyway, the fighting serves several purposes, listed here in no particular order: it intimidates; it prevents your opponent from establishing mental dominance; it makes your opponent respect your boundaries when it comes to the physical game; it's used to break up the other team's momentum, to distract them from whatever they're doing to beat you; it sends a message that you're here to battle them at whatever level they want to play at.

As I said, in our league and at our level -- it's rec hockey, and the stakes are microscopic -- actual fighting is pointless, so all we ever end up doing is jaw at each other. But in its place, that can accomplish most of the things listed above. If you get in the face of their guy when he messes with your goalie, he's less likely to do it the next time...

Oh, and PS: we lost tonight, 4-3. I had a goal, but it wasn't enough -- I guess I should have tried fighting somebody...