I know it's not banned at every level. There's fighting in juniors (16-20 year olds), semi-pro / farm Teams. I can't speak to Canadian hockey from midgets to college level, but I'm guessing it's not banned. Same goes for European / Russian leagues although I'd guess there's a lot less fighting over there.
Not having the outlet of fighting may be the cause of the more serious in my mind stick infractions (spearing / slashing). Hockey is a game of high physicality (is that really a word?), camaraderie, and emotion. If a method to right perceived wrong is not available, what do you think the players should do?
I watched bench clearing brawls in college hockey growing up and it didn't result in more player injuries, but it did make for some intense rivalries.
What you saw wasn't fighting. It was an assault. Fighting is when two combatants agree to fight and then go at it. I see you're anti-fighting and I'm probably not going to change your mind, but I believe fighting fairly has importance at the NHL level. Not allowing fighting in college could partly be why this incident happened.
I watched the clip and was surprised that this incident even happened. The open ice hit wasn't much of a hit with both players basically spinning off of each other. I'm guessing that earlier interactions led up to the attacks. The blind side sucker punch reminded me of the bertuzzi incident (not a fight either) and the slashes toward the head and then at the ref show that both MSU players weren't thinking straight.
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