Although rare in foreign ice hockey leagues (Koppikkeinna and Harpitaaskki, 2009), fighting has been commonplace throughout the long history of the NHL (espn.com, 2013). Teams typically employ one or more players who have limited hockey skills but who are proficient pugilists, and therefore known as “enforcers”. The role of these players is supposedly to protect their team’s star performers from physical harm by projecting an aura of menace. In theory, opposing players know that any act of aggression will result in swift retribution (Cherry, 2004). This notion is a fallacy, since the league’s rules allow minimal punishment for fighters (5 minute penalty) only on the condition that the fight has no clear instigator; i.e., the fighters agree to begin fighting simultaneously (nhl.com, 2014). For this reason, enforcers invariably only fight against each other, and often for no reason other than to prove their value to their team. They are paid to fight, and thus they stage fights whether or not the game itself offers any genuine cause to do so (Cherry, 2004; Hockeystats, 2011). These fights are therefore an irrelevant sideshow which serves no purpose other than to grant employment to players who are otherwise not good enough to play professional hockey.