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Originally Posted by Tonellisghost
So are you saying that every other level of pro hockey is the same as the NHL? Just curious.
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Nope. But we're not talking about some kid here that's coming off of battling teenagers every night and maturing both physically and emotionally whilst trying to carve out a career in the NHL. Westy is already emotionally and physically mature. He's already played a more demanding role for 4 years of professional hockey since he's given more responsibility and is less of a liability at the AHL level. Westgarth's role in the NHL is to skate north and then south for 5 minutes and maybe get into a staged fight. Sure, with experience he'll get a little better at the NHL level but never enough to justify him playing in so many games.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonellisghost
I don't believe in all the griping and whining that goes on around here so I will leave my opinion at this, Clifford and Westgarth are two different types of players who have been groomed to play two entirely different types of game and are given two entirely different amounts of time to learn how to bring their games up to the NHL level.
Clifford is great and in fact he makes Simmonds look expendable most nights in my opinion but if we were to give him 2 mins per game and expect him to produce more than Westgarth it wouldn't happen imo.
Westgarth is doing fine for what he is given. Can he be better? Allot better in my opinion but comparing him to Clifford simply because he (KC) plays with an edge is like comparing Kopitar and Stoll because they are both offencive centers.
Thats what I think anyways and thats all I have on the subject.
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I don't think people are comparing Clifford and Westgarth just merely using Clifford as an example to show a player that can effectively alter the flow of a game or instill fear in another team because A) he's a good hockey player that can keep up with the play and thus be involved; and B) he can and will fight anyone.
The pro-goon crowd is always using the cliche that Westy allows, from the bench, our guys to play free or somehow prevents opponents from going after our players when there's no evidence to support that. The only guys that are going to fight Westy are the designated goons from other teams in staged fights like we saw earlier. Why? Because for one the trade-off doesn't make sense unless it's goon-for-goon. And Westy is rarely involved in the play. He never gets into heat of the moment scraps because he's usually the last guy showing up to a scrum trying to initiate something after the fact with someone who knows better than to fight a terrible hockey player. But with Clifford they'll take notice.
It's more just an argument that we need more guys like Clifford to up the ante on team toughness while guys like Westy are just a facade and tip of the cap to a bygone era.