Stars Daily October 17: Risks outweigh rewards in Stars recent fights

Hockey fights have been a constant point of discussion, myself included, this week after Tyler Seguin fought Colorado Avalanche defender Patrik Nemeth on Saturday.

That fight came one game after Stephen Johns fought Cody McLeod in a 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators.

Both Stars fighters were applauded by their teammates and coach Ken Hitchcock.

“It’s significant that you have a response,” Hitchcock said after practice Monday. “If you’re pretending that it’s not there or it’s going to go away, I think that’s how you really can hurt the chemistry on your team.”

I can see Hitchcock’s point. However, when you think about it further, neither fight was a smart decision.

Johns fighting McLeod didn’t lead to a motivated response from his team, if anything it pumped more energy into a loud Nashville crowd. It was also a poor trade off for the Stars, who lost a top-four defenseman in that game for five minutes while the Predators only lost a player that’s primary job is to fight.

Hitchcock said he was proud of Johns for taking that fight. McLeod had been challenging him the entire game, and a statement needed to be made.

I would argue that by taking the fight Johns allowed a fourth-liner to have an unnecessary impact on the game. If Johns doesn’t fight McLeod he wins that situation and effectively neuters the enforcer’s limited impact on the game.

The Seguin fight provided a nice anecdotal story about how he’s willing to change his game and do more for his teammates this season.

But in the context of the game it could have hurt the Stars way more than it helped. It was a 2-1 game at the time, the Avalanche were pushing to try and tie the game, and I’m sure Colorado coach Jared Bednar would gladly trade five minutes without Nemeth for five minutes not having to worry about the Stars top-line center.

There is also the injury factor. If Seguin gets hurt in that fight — which is somewhat probable for a player with zero fights in his career before that scrap — he’s hurting his team.

Today’s Schedule

The Stars play the Arizona Coyotes at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center.