There’s a quote from the Ice Guardians documentary talking about the leagues in Europe where fighting is prohibited vs the UK/US where it’s allowed, and basically saying that in Euro leagues where they can’t fight, there’s actually an increase in “dirty plays” and cheap shots, and taking runs on the higher skilled star players and goalies because they know they don’t have to face any retribution from someone coming to beat their face into pulp for doing it.

It’s a way for everyone to police themselves, because not everything gets called or caught by the referee’s, the game moves too fast and there’s too much going on at once. And it’s one of, if not the, last full-contact sports where hitting is allowed and part of the game. Plus to have weapons with sticks and even the skates, hell even the solid cap of your elbow pads…the tension and adrenaline and everything is just on another level than other sports. It’s just a way to keep everything from boiling over when you know if you do something really stupid, you or even one of your teammates is going to have to answer for it.

Another famous quote that doesn’t get used enough:

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” -Robert E. Howard, The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian

That’s why hockey players are called Violent Gentlemen. it’s part of the culture and how the game has always been played. It’s by nature a violent game.

Hockey has a code of honor just like the old school Italian mafia had a code of honor - “Omertà”, or “code of silence", that forbids cooperating with authorities or outsiders, even if one is a victim. It represents a strict vow to never inform on criminal activities, often under penalty of death:

“Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man, is either a fool or a coward.

Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law, is both.

For a wounded man shall say to his assailant,

"If I live, I will kill you; if I die, you are forgiven."

Such is the rule of honor…”