With Parros, the Bruins, and the Atlantic Division nearby, what do you think? This team is rather soft and in today's NHL a fight-first spare forward instantly makes this a much tougher team. Thornton, Rupp, Parros, Janssen, Barch, etc. won't be playing with reckless abandon against this team since they'll have one of their contemporaries to fight instead of bullying soft targets.
There are several men available for the job, all with NHL experience:
Eric Godard
Jay Rosehill
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond
DJ King
I just hope it's somebody who can play. The bottom 6 is bad enough without a 4-minute-a-night goon.
Exactly. If we're going to grab an enforcer, it better be someone who can has a clue what to do on skates. Though I still believe an enforcer is a waste of a roster spot. Maybe as a 13th forward, but not someone I'd give regular time to.
I just hope it's somebody who can play. The bottom 6 is bad enough without a 4-minute-a-night goon.
Godard in particular can take more ice-time than that without embarassing himself, and played 71 games for the Pens 3 years ago when they won the cup. He's even played 7 playoff games. He's also one of the NHL's best fighters of this century having KO'd Boogaard and Steve MacIntyre among others.
Jay Rosehill, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and DJ King don't belong anywhere near an NHL lineup. If we are going to pick up a tough guy for our fourth line I'd go after someone who can actually play some hockey.
If we're going to grab an enforcer, it better be someone who can has a clue what to do on skates. Though I still believe an enforcer is a waste of a roster spot. Maybe as a 13th forward, but not someone I'd give regular time to.
I was hoping something would soon come along that I could agree with you, and this fits the bill nicely.
I've been religiously watching the game for well over 10 years, and the more years that separate me from my initial assessments of hockey and now, the less sense an "enforcer" makes to me. I just don't see why an opposing team would care at all that my team has one, whether he is on the ice or not, nor how good he was at beating other player's brains in. There are just too many ways that players legitimately avoid such "justice" to justify the expenditure in terms of salary, playing time, and the roster spot.
Post instigator rule, I don't see much value in an enforcer.
Now a 4th line grinder with a pest-ie streak, that could be valuable. But in todays game it's much better to goad the bad guys into taking dumb penalties.
Yeah, I'd rather have a real pest than an enforcer TBH. someone who could provide a counterpoint to guys like Ott and Hartnell if they want to start something with our skill players.
I was hoping something would soon come along that I could agree with you, and this fits the bill nicely.
I've been religiously watching the game for well over 10 years, and the more years that separate me from my initial assessments of hockey and now, the less sense an "enforcer" makes to me. I just don't see why an opposing team would care at all that my team has one, whether he is on the ice or not, nor how good he was at beating other player's brains in. There are just too many ways that players legitimately avoid such "justice" to justify the expenditure in terms of salary, playing time, and the roster spot.
Glad we could find some common ground.
My thinking is this: When a "dirty hit" is laid out, the kind of hits that an enforcer will apparently deter, it's either accidental or intentional.
If the hit was accidental, whether the enforcer was on the ice (or on the team) is irrelevant, since the hit was likely a clean hockey play turned badly. An example (in Canes history) would be Weight's hit on Sutter or Staal's hit on Markov. Having an enforcer wouldn't have prevented those from happening.
If the hit was intentional, whether the enforcer was on the ice (or on the team) is irrelevant, since those players that intentionally lay dirty hits will do so regardless of who's on the opposing team. The most recent example was Torres hit on Hossa. Having an enforcer wouldn't have prevented that hit from happening. It may have caused more repercussion for Torres (though he likely wouldn't have fought anyway), but the hit still would have happened.
Getting "size" confused with "not size" and getting "toughness" confused with being a "snot-nosed brat"? Come on Trollinen, you're better than that...
Ya I know
Honestly, instead of just getting a John Scoot style enforcer, I think there are ways to get bigger bodies who can hit and occasionaly drop the gloves when needed, but are actually defensibly responsible players who aren't a liability when they aren't fighting.
I'd rather get a guy like Douglas Murray, who can log top 4 D min and when someone oversteps their bounds with Skinner or such, can be taken out with a monster hit, rather than a 5 min major.
That's twice now and nobody responded. Blanchard is a good option...size, grit, can fight, and actually has some hockey skills...We have a number of folks who could serve this role without going out and getting goon-specific.
Nicolas Blanchard...for the hat trick. There were rumors he was in line for a call-up at the end of last season, might as well see what you have in him before you add a veteran.
