Help settle dispute on athleticism...

[BPTactical]

Fights in hockey serve a very well planned and useful purpose. You don't want your best players getting railed unjustly and having an "enforcer" or "goon" keeps the other team in check. Make a bad run at a good player just to try and take him out of the game and you may as well resign yourself to the fact that your next shift the gloves are coming off.
Remember what I said about "ettiquite" on the ice?
That's part of it. A strategically planned fight can turn the tide of a game, it can have a way of psychologically boosting a team in a close game that has been getting bad breaks etc.
The proverbial shot in the arm.

Delfuego- I did infact play goal for a total of about 7 years, 5 when I was in school and 2+ in the adult leagues at Hyland Hills. I gave it up in the beer leagues when I got so frustrated I got in a fight playing in the net and got bounced from the game and the next one as well. I thought it was stupid to spend so much to have "fun" and then miss playing cause I was a knucklehead and frustrated.
I went back out to defense the next season.
Goalies love a defenseman that sees the game the same way they do.I miss the intensity of the net though, everything is that much more in focus and the puck seems as big as a basketball when your in the psych.
I had to stop playing in 08 after I blew out my back at work but I find myself jonesing for some ice time now. Maybe I will have to check out a "stick & puck" soon. Got the itch to bang the biscuit around a bit eh?