From a hockey player:
Not only do the fans like it.
Hockey is incredibly dangerous, it is ridiculously fast compared to other contact sports, and everyone on the ice is a potential target. Every single shift a player could choose to attempt to end someone’s career. The consequence of attempting and failing is relatively small, fighting exist to balance the repercussions of players being egregious. There is a general code to fighting.
This was written in 2020…