According to part of NHL rule 47.11, “a player or goalkeeper who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation shall be assessed an instigating minor penalty, a major penalty for fighting and a ten-minute misconduct.” This rule is known as the “instigator penalty”, and is widely admonished by the hockey community, and with good reason. The penalty is often given to he who starts a fight, but that fight is often started because the instigator is actually working in retaliation for something started by another.

“Dirty” players are often guys who play cheap. High sticks when the ref isn’t looking, hits from behind, and all kinds of other small offenses are ways to get into the heads of your opponent, and with the instigator rule, you can rest easy in most cases that you won’t suffer any consequence. That’s not good sport. What’s worse is that the so-called “goon” players can’t be goons because there’s a rule against it. “Dirty” players run free because there’s nobody watching.

It’s understandable that a player won’t want to retaliate against the dirty ones. The enforcers’ role has effectively been reduced to that of fighting solely to “energize” a team. No longer can they help to police the action on the ice like they did in the 70s and 80s. As a result, the game has taken a step back. Seemingly all the enforcers can do now is waiting on the bench for their coach to tell them to get out there and drop the gloves with their counterpart. It’s just not a role anybody wants to have.

Introduced in 1992, the instigator rule effectively hand-cuffed fighters from sticking up for their teammates against the dirty players they play against, and if they league is going to condone fighting, they should allow it in all of its forms. If somebody wants to start trouble, they should be willing to finish it. The NHL should eliminate the pointless rule and give more of a role back to the enforcers. As it stands right now, three minutes a game is too many for them with nothing else to do.