“I Went to a Fight the Other Night and a Hockey Game Broke Out”: Is Professional Hockey Fighting Calculated or Impulsive?

BACKGROUND: The current study explored the relationship between fighting behavior and passage of time, across games and seasons, in an attempt to assess if violent behavior in hockey is impulsive or intentional. HYPOTHESIS: Before engaging in fighting behavior, players assess the utility of their actions and thus will fight less when the game is on the line (third period) and when champions are crowned (postseason). METHODS: An archival exploration utilizing open access databases from multiple Internet sources. RESULTS: During the 2010-2011 National Hockey League (NHL) season, players were significantly less likely to be involved in a fight as the game was coming to a close than in its early stages. In addition, data from the past 10 NHL seasons showed that players were significantly more violent in preseason games than during the regular season. They were also least likely to be involved in a fight during the postseason. CONCLUSION: The converging evidence suggests that players take into account the penalties associated with fighting and are less likely to engage in violence when the stakes are high, such as at the end of a game or a season. This implies, in turn, that major acts of aggression in the league are more likely to be calculated rather than impulsive. The findings suggest that a more punitive system should diminish fighting behavior markedly.