Fighting in hockey has always been controversial. While some stand up and cheer when the gloves are thrown off and two heavy weight titans go at it, others recoil at the site of bloodies faces and unconscious players. The debate has waxed and waned over the decades and has once again come to the forefront with the recent deaths of career pugilists Bob Probert, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak, and Derek Boogaard. While emotions tend to flare on this subject, this book may give the reader some perspective on the topic as it looks into the istory and development as well as the culture of fighting in hockey.

Arpon Basu had said since the age of eight that he would one day make the National Hockey League. Any chance of that happening, came to a crashing halt when, at 15 when he realized he was completely devoid of any talent. He earned a graduate journalism degree from Concordia University and went straight to a sports-writing job with the Canadian Press. The first time he walked into the Montréal Canadiens dressing room as a giddy cub reporter, Basu nearly fell over as it dawned on him that, despite his ineptitude on the ice, he had in fact been telling the truth as a dreamy-eyed eight-year-old.Basu covers sports for the Canadian Press in Montréal and writes a weekly sports column for the Montréal Gazette. He is also editor of Montréal’s South Shore, The St-Lambert Journal.

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