As per here :

1. Grab the nearest book. Don’t search for something cool. Grab what’s actually closest to you.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

“In that we are the same, Mishka,” Provalov agreed.

Okay, so maybe you’ve heard enough about hockey and violence, but I just have to rant for a bit. Last weekend I got the chance to go see a hockey game at Mile One between the Hershey Bears and the St. John’s Maple Leafs. My wife, my parents and I have really good seats , three rows back form the corner on the home side of the rink. When the first guy got checked into the glass in front of us, I thought my mother was going to leap out of her skin. And no matter how many times it happened, I don’t think she ever got used to it.

That’s the variety of violence that I can handle in a hockey game. It’s the hand-to-hand combat that seems to be more and more prevalent in today’s game that I just don’t understand. First, let me point out that Saturday night, there was no fighting (not that a couple guys didn’t look like they wanted to start a few). The game however was no less entertaining. If fact, with four-on-four overtime and a shootout to decide the winner, I would say I got more than my money’s worth (especially since the tickets were free). Yet it didn’t seem to please all the fans.

There were the people who got all excited and cheered whenever there looked like there might be a little fist action. There were the people who yelled out the occasional “deck him” or “fight” whenever they felt one of our players had been wronged. Then there was the section that for a good 10 minutes in the third period when it looked like there wouldn’t be any bloodshed who kept chanting, “We want a fight, we want a fight.”

I can’t understand this mentality. The people who believe that fighting is an integral part of the game. The people who feel they have been inflected with injustice if not one set of gloves hit the ice during a game.

Now, I’m not saying that I would walk away from the television and boycott the sport if there was a fight, they’re bound to happen. I just think that the leagues should do more to hinder them. Take the NFL for instance, where fighting is met with stiff fines that discourage most to refrain. This doesn’t stop all unnecessary fighting, but it limits it to a more tolerable level. If you want to see hockey, you should go to your local rink, if you want to see fighting, try boxing.