Ever since OHL’s commissioner David Branch implemented a new fighting rule this season, scraps between players have significantly gone down compared to last season.
Almost 50 per cent of major altercations have been reduced in the first 20 games since opening night last Thursday.
To this point there have been only 15 fighting majors given out, 13 less than the same amount of games last year.
A few days before the OHL’s regular season started, Branch adopted rules to punish players who engage in more than 10 fights in order to protect their safety.
If a player is involved in more than 10 fights, he will automatically get a two-game suspension for every fighting major he receives up to the 15th game.
At No. 16 his team will be fined $1,000 and he will be banned two games per fight after that.
Also, if a player is assessed a instigator penalty and had had more than 11 fights, he is subject to an automatic four-game suspension. However, the player who is involved with that instigator will not have his fight counted on his record.
There were 10 free fight games after the first week of this season.
If the rule existed in the previous season, 25 players would have faced suspensions.
Windsor Spitfires forward Ty Bickle led the league with 37 bouts last year.
The fight record will reset once the playoffs start.