Fighting in The NHL....And Quebec.

- Banning fighting from the NHL has been a hot topic the last few weeks and I think a legitimate case can be made for eliminating fighting. But I think the problem is not so much fights as it is designated fighters. Watching the Devils-Leafs game last week and watching Belak and Jannsen go at it was ridiculous. Neither one of those two guys belongs in the league. If two hard nosed players with some talent like Gary Roberts and Chris Neil get worked up battling with each other over the course of the game and decide to throw down that's fine. But guys who play 2 minutes a game then brawl for no reason have no place in the league. Maybe they should have a rule stating that if you have more penalty minutes than ice time at the end of the year you are suspended for one year.

The bigger issue is the hits from behind and late hits. If the league really started giving out harsh fines and suspensions for late and cheap hits (as an example I would have given Jannsen 20 games for the hit on Kaberle) those hits would decrease and fighting would also decrease.

I will get into this topic more next week as I want to talk about how fighting does not put asses in the seats the way defenders says it does and why it is in the players best economic interest to clean itself up.

- Another topic that aggravates me to no end lately is Quebec. Well, aggravates me more so than usual. Our provincial neighbors to the east elected a minority government last month but I really don't care about that. Whoever they voted in would have the same grand goal - Extract as much money as possible from the federal government to pay for their second rate language, culture and social programs.

What frustrates me so much is that catering to Quebec to win federal elections has never really worked. In fact, the more you stand up to them the more likely they have proven themselves to work with you. As I correctly pointed out before the last federal election Quebecers are first and foremost front runners. They really don't care who is in Ottawa as long as they have a voice at the table. Therefore the best way to win seats in Quebec is to poll well in the rest of the country. In the last election campaign the Tories only started to poll well in Quebec after they started rising in Ontario and that is always how it works. Quebec jumps on the bandwagon and the numbers rise in Quebec. Then Ontario sees the Tories or whoever it is as a national party and the numbers grow in Ontario. It is a stupid game of cat and mouse I admit but the point remains the same - Stop giving away the farm to Quebec and concentrate on the rest of the country. They will only vote for who is in first place anyway.