City News – The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has approved new rules that dole out stiffer punishments for fighting.
All players involved in a fight will now receive a 10-minute misconduct penalty and a five-minute major. Previously, players were assessed only the five-minute major penalty.
Anyone deemed to be an instigator will also get a two-minute minor.
The amended rules will see players automatically handed a one-game suspension after their third fight, plus another game suspension for each additional skirmish.
Representatives from the league’s 18 teams in Quebec and the Maritimes voted on the new rules in a video conference on Wednesday.
The changes will be in effect when the regular season begins on Thursday.
We discussed the topic on last week’s podcast – (Listen Here) TJHP EP095 | Quebec Government To Get Rid Of Fighting In QMJHL. We discussed the fact that the Quebec government wanted to slow down fighting in the QMJHL and they had the power to make this request due to the fact that the QMJHL was seeking 20 million dollars in pandemic relief.
Just a week later, the QMJHL has now changed it rules to try and diminish fighting in the league by giving players a 10-minute misconduct and a five-minute major penalty for any fighting altercation.
With this rule we will absolutely see far less fights. Last season the league (QMJHL) had roughly 320 fights. This rule will absolutely diminish that, my guess, it will be much closer to 100 total fights. I am not quite sure how I feel about this rule change, as I always say, I am on the fence about fighting in Junior Hockey. I think one can make the argument that it should be taken completely out of the Tier 3 Junior Hockey level, but the QMJHL was the last place I imagined would implement such strict rules when it comes to fighting. I think the makeup of the league will change as now a “fighter” or “tough guy” is almost not needed. It will be very interesting to see if these organizations, post COVID-19, will be effected by this in terms of fan attendance as we all know a lot of fans like to watch hockey for the fights, and you just won’t get that anymore in the QMJHL.
