Windsor Spitfires' Ty Bilcke leads the OHL with 27 fighting majorsIn the wake of comments made by Dave Branch and Bob Nicholson this week, as well as the story of Hockey Canada looking to curb fighting at junior levels having made it as big as the New York Times, it's probably worth pointing out that, on their own, players and teams are bringing a slow end to fighting on their own without the benefit of rules.

Using data provided by hockeyfights.net, I tallied up the number of fights that took place in every year since data for all three CHL leagues (WHL, OHL and QMJHL) was made available and found that while there was 1.91 fights per game at the CHL level in 1998, that number has reduced to just .92 fights per game.

Windsor's Ty Bilcke, left, fights Plymouth's Jamie DevaneGoing by an interview Canadian Hockey League president and OHL commissioner David Branch gave Thursday evening, the day when one junior player could rack up nearly as many fighting majors as a whole team could be numbered.

Branch, as you know, ignited a powder keg of puck punditry earlier this week when he was quoted in The New York Times stating there is an "appetite is there" to at least significantly stiffen penalties for fighting in junior hockey. It's a little too blue sky to ever conceive of it being completely gone (as Ottawa 67's star centre Sean Monahan, put it, "because it's a game of emotions, it would ruin the game if it were banned"). But after hearing the interview Branch conducted with Mike Farwell last night, one has to believe some change is coming, if only incremental.

Some of the highlights:

On the appetite to curb fighting: "As a league, we have the responsibility to lead. So when you look at, internally, the signals are very strong as to the understanding and the need to make adjustments in the style of play as it relates to fighting. We've had two different committees in our league. All have been unanimous in their support of addressing the issue of fighting and seeing what we can do to reduce the number of fights ... When I visit with minor hockey parents, when I walk through arenas, the comments are so very, very positive about what the OHL is doing, what hockey is doing, because their son or daughters who plays the games, that's the most precious thing they have."

On the rationale for reducing it: "When you talk about fighting, I don't think our game needs it to sell. I don't think our players really want it at the end of the day. Yeah, there's a handful of players who feel that's the only way they can compete and that's not where we want to be. I don't think we want to put young people in that position either."

In rebuttal to the argument that the CHL, which provides 56 per cent of the NHL's players, should mimic the big league: "Some people sort of use that as an argument to say why we must keep fighting. Let me firstly state the National Hockey League has never ever said to us, 'No matter what you do, make sure you keep fighting in the game.' That has never come from them."

On what rule changes could be considered: "That's the area that we are really drawing down on right now ... we're looking at various ways and means that would see a reduction in fighting. Is it a 'fight and you're out' rule? Is it a case where you target those players that are, shall we say, habitual fighters, for lack of better description and the like. That's the work that's currently being done." (570 News Kitchener)

Amid all the angst about hockey injuries, there's a ray of levity via an Ontario bantam player and the video his father shot that went viral.

Who knows where hockey will take young Tyler Mellish, but it's already taken him to that magical world that is being Internet famous. Like a lot of Canadians who take up the stick-and-puck game, the member of the Kitchener Jr. Bantam AAA team has perhaps imagined what it would be like to play hockey in front of a TV audience in the millions. Instead, thanks to his father and sister — ah, family, always poised and ready to capture your less proud moments to use against you at a future date — a video of young Mellish knocked loopy as he comes down from an anesthetic has gone around the world and back.

The video of the giddy, goofy 14-year-old babbling and laughing ... "I sound like the Joker!" ... "I see doubles of everything. Rainbows everywhere! Actually I don't see rainbows, I don't know why I said rainbows." ... while being treated for a broken left wrist he suffered during a game in London, Ont., last October has had some 1.24 million views on YouTube. Suffice to say, Mellish has achieved a kind of  fame that's more fitting with Tosh 2.0 than NHL2K12.

Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ...

WHL

To find out how Don Hay's Vancouver Giants plan to slow down Emerson Etem, you'll have to buy a ticket. (Vancouver Province)

Please give a read to Chris Peters' case to remove fighting in junior: "The one thing I've heard a few times is that taking fighting out will cause players to play with less respect. Why does it have to be that way? Why does fighting alone command respect? When was respecting your opponent optional in any sport? Relying on fighting to keep respect in the game sounds profoundly silly to me." (The United States Of Hockey)

League commissioner Ron Robison notes the amount of head injuries in the Western league is about the same as last season. (Brandon Sun, paywall)

Kamloops Blazers right wing Jordan DePape will play tonight for the first time since wrecking his shoulder in a fight on Oct. 10: "I don't know what's more exciting — my first (WHL) game or this one, coming back after five months." (Taking Note)

Fourth place and home ice for Round 1 is still in reach for coach Lorne Molleken's Saskatoon Blades. Funny thing, though: Calgary would like to keep that ranking. (Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Calgary Herald)

Brandon's Swiss forward, Alessio Bertaggia, is on the draft radar. (NHL.com)

Everett Silvertips and Seattle Thunderbirds head coaches Mark Ferner and Steve Konowalchuk? They go wayyyyy back. (Everett Herald)

Niagara IceDogs goalie Mark VisentinNo. 1 star: Mark Visentin, Niagara IceDogs (OHL)

The reigning OHL goalie of the year came within three minutes of adding to his single-season shutout record, making 42 saves to help Niagara hold off a charged-up Saginaw Spirit side 2-1. Visentin was at his best in the third period shortly after Niagara had forged ahead 2-0 but gave Saginaw and its potent power play back-to-back man advantages. With the win, the 19-year-old has a 1.18 goals-against average and .955 save percentage since returning from the world junior hockey championship.

Saginaw's goalie, Jake Paterson, was also sharp with 37 saves. Niagara's goals came off a turnover in the final seconds in the first period and on a play where Paterson seemed to be screened.

No. 2 star: Ben Johnson, Windsor Spitfires (OHL)

The Spitfires just refuse to lose enough games to take them out of a playoff berth and give them a high pick in next month's OHL priority selection draft. Johnson, 17, scored twice and contributed an assist in Windsor's 5-2 victory over the Brampton Battalion that gave it a four-point lead over Guelph and Sault Ste. Marie in the race for the Western Conference's final two playoff spots. (Guelph has two games in hand over each team.)

Johnson tallied early in the second period to put Windsor ahead for good and also fed fellow 17-year-old Chris Marchese on a 2-on-1 for the goal that put the Spitfires in firm control of the game. Johnson also got the empty-netter. In all honestly, Brampton goalie Matej Machovsky was really off his game (four goals on the first 11 Spitfires shots), so a first-star honour for Johnson would be a stretch.

Top 2013 NHL draft prospect Nathan MacKinnon with Halifax Mooseheads assistant coach Jim Midgley

GATINEAU, Que. — Nathan MacKinnon's worth isn't going to be proven in YouTube highlights or those all-too-convenient comparisons with his fellow Cole Harbourite, Sidney Crosby. For the projected No. 1 overall pick in next season's NHL draft, it's going to come on nights such as Wednesday, helping give his Halifax Mooseheads some swagger as they climbed out of an early hole for a thorough 6-2 road win over the Gatineau Olympiques.

The summary had the 16-year-old phenom down for only one assist — a secondary helper added a few minutes after the second Mooseheads marker — but he more than fulfilled his advance billing. It was writ large in how he seemed to be running couple cylinders faster than opponents as he skated back to force the 'Piques to hurry their passes on the rush. Or in the murmur that rippled through old Robert Guertin Arena when he had a breakaway in the second period and when he wound up from behind his own goal and carried end-to-end in the third, only to have 'Piques goalie Alexandre Michaud make a pad save. The night was part and parcel with how MacKinnon has continued evolving over the second half of his yes-he's-still-a-rookie season.

The numbers are nice, but he's looking to show observers — which on Wednesday included one of his fellow top 2013 prospects, Ottawa 67's centre Sean Monahan, along with the myriad scouts — he has the will to go with his skill. That's going to be vital, since the top-ranked prospect always gets the most scrutiny coming into a new season. On top of his homework assignments from Prince Andrew High School in Dartmouth, N.S., MacKinnon spent the Mooseheads' flight out, MacKinnon reading a book called Hockey Tough by a sports psychologist, Saul Miller, at the behest of his agent, Pat Brisson.

Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ... please come for the Chatravaganza at 12 noon ET/9 a.m. PT.

WHL

Vancouver Giants alumnus Milan Lucic, the rugged Boston Bruins forward, would prefer fighting remain in junior hockey. (Vancouver Province)

Get this: who was the first performer to play at Victoria's Save-On Foods Memorial Centre? Rod Stewart. So where did his son, Spokane Chiefs rookie Liam Stewart, have his best game this season? The Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. (Victoria Times-Colonist)

The Regina Pats aren't showing the ol' killer instinct. (Regina Leader-Post)

Carolina Hurricanes second-rounder Victor Rask is on a rampage for the Calgary Hitmen. (Calgary Sun, Calgary Herald)

The Kamloops Blazers have to be concerned about playing to the level of their competition after muddling past Everett on Wednesday. (Everett Herald)

Meantime, Vancouver has aptly named forward Austin Fyten back from a knee injury. (The Dub Hub)

One moral

London Knights coach-GM Mark HunterCoaches and executives across major junior hockey have had plenty to say about the possibility of removing fighting, but how much say would they have in it?

By happenstance, a few of more prominent coaches across the CHL — Mark Hunter in London, Bob Boughner in Windsor and recent Team Canada bench boss Don Hay in Vancouver — were each surveyed for their take on the issue. Some of the more incisive comments came from Hunter. The Knights, under he and former (future?) coach Dale Hunter, are anything but milquetoast on the ice, but this season they've played gritty hockey without fighting frequently. Hunter, reflecting the complexity of the issue ("I know that at times I feel one way and at times I feel the other") seemed to suggest that this is an instance where the sport might have to bow to societal pressure.

From Morris Dalla Costa:

"I don't think (we as teams) will be polled to find out what we think. If a change is going to be made, it will be made," Hunter said.

"If you're asking me if I think fighting will be taken out of the game, I think it will.

"I think the rule will be something like, you fight, you are thrown out of the game and suspended for another game."

From the point of view of a hockey coach, he knows the drawbacks of fighting.

"People get hurt," Hunter said. "They get in fights and get concussions and get hit in the head and that's something we can't have." (London Free Press)

Hay struck a note for the status quo, arguing change has to be top-down, starting in the NHL. (Hmm. So should the CHL have touch icing too, then?) One of the veteran coach's quotes, "Nobody is forced to fight," could be very effective to those who would prefer it remain as a necessary evil.