I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out

Don Cherry was on the radio this morning, talking about how fighting is required in hockey, and he was going to convince me, the listener, why this is true. I'm not a fan of fighting in hockey (or lacrosse), so I waited to be astonished by his insight. He proceeded to tell stories about how so-and-so star player (Gretzky et al) were "untouchable" and if anyone "looked sideways" at them, someone would take them out. He called this "protection". As I've stated before, I don't have a problem with sending your resident goon out after someone if he hits your star player with a cheap shot. But what Cherry and Kypreos and others who advocate fighting don't seem to "get" is that Wayne Gretzky and other star players are not just stars, they're hockey players, and part of hockey is getting checked. If you're a star player like Crosby or Malkin or Nash and you're heading towards the offensive zone with the puck, you better expect to get hit. If that's too much for you and you need this much "protection" (not from cheap shots but from legal checks), then you have no business being in the NHL. This notion of having "untouchable" players is just silly.

Cherry even told one story he told about someone who bumped his star player accidentally (and Cherry agreed it was accidental), and got beaten up anyway. He actually laughed when he said that his goon grabbed the other player by the hair (no helmets in those days) and slammed his head into the boards. Yo Don, does the name "Steve Moore" mean anything to you? Cherry's entertaining and all, but what an idiot.