Is hitting necessary in hockey?

You know, people have been talking for years about checking in hockey, and I’m not just talking about in house league, AE, AA or AAA, I’m talking all those plus the OHL and NHL. People have been saying, “Is hitting in the NHL really that necessary?” In my opinion, it is and it isn’t. I believe strongly it is, for it adds competitive rush to the game and actually increases your skill with the puck and your reaction time. If you didn’t play with checking, you could have all the time in the world to pick someone out and make a good pass. Now granted, this is excellent for beginners’ hockey, but once you reach about fifteen years old, your mind starts to work faster and your skills have developed. Now I believe you’re ready for checking. For players in AE and higher and even house league, with players that are sixteen to eighteen, they are ready to hit, they are ready for that rush. Now OHL and NHL players, well…they’re the best of the best, they are surely ready for anything hockey has to throw at them and yet, they’re still talking about removing hitting, why? It’s because of the injuries that some players are encountering, some hits cause near death injuries, which are bad and scary for both sides (player who’s hit and hitter). The question remains though, should we remove checking completely from hockey, or leave it as is? I believe we should leave it as is, because the players love the rush and they love physical contact, they don’t want to hurt the other player, they just want to be physical, add the excitement into the sport of hockey.