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Who remembers the deafening NILAN! NILAN! chants that made the forum shake whenever there was a REMOTE late hit or disrespect from another team. The energy was amazing, and you just new the dude on the other team was crapping his pants. Then he would step on the ice and guess what. He would get his ass kicked. Then guess what. Keane would wallop some other guy's face. It was automatic. The other teams knew that to behave a certain way had painfull consequences. I doubt they give a rat's kazoo wether the fans boo them as the ONLY consequence to intimidation. How lame.
Intimidation WINS games. It gives you space and time, it gives you confidence, it makes the other guys take worse descisions in the fastest game on earth.
Playing against Montreal looks like a complete night off for any team that has grit nowadays. Seeing a guy get face rubbed or cross checked in front of the net, or the the goalie being interfered with, or a rookie getting boarded like Eller did against Buffalo, or Max having his neck broken but NO retaliation makes me want to puke. It's not even hockey.
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