Five For Fighting? Try Ten Large

Wild tough guy Derek Boogaard has some great quotes on the silliness of the NHL's Fighting-in-last-5-minutes rule:

On March 8, Derek Boogaard, wearing stylish eyeglasses and a debonair suit, watched in fear as Wild trainer Don Fuller attended to a dazed Marian Gaborik, who had just been given a rough ride into the boards by Boston defenseman Andrew Ference.

A sore back kept Boogaard, the Wild's enforcer, off the ice that night. At that moment, Boogaard wished he could turn in his suit for a Wild sweater so he could mop the ice with a couple of Bruins.

But in reality, Boogaard's intimidating presence in the lineup would have meant nothing. Ference boarded Gaborik with 2 minutes, 10 seconds left, meaning there was no way Boogaard would have gotten another shift from coach Jacques Lemaire.

Players who instigate a fight in the last five minutes earn a one-game suspension and $10,000 fine for their coach.

Welcome to today's kindler and gentler NHL. Now, let's hear from Boogaard:

"The players should decide the game, not other people," Boogaard said. "Some guys say that rule's not in the back of their heads, but it is. It's probably never good to cost your coach 10,000 bucks."

Not if you want to see the ice again.

"I still won't play the last five minutes," Boogaard said. "Back in the day, guys came into the league not-so tough and when they left they were tough. Now I don't respect a lot of these guys. They come into the league soft and they leave soft.

Now that's old-time hockey talk. Boogaard's remarks recall the spirit of Eddie Shore.

"No matter how much [the NHL] says, 'Oh, we like fighting,' if they liked it so much, why are they putting all these rules in? It's a joke."

Unfortunately, no one (especially the TRUE hockey fan) is laughing.