Our team plays differently when we have guys that will stick up for each other... I don't know if you've noticed, you look at the past couple of games, there would be scrums, and there would be one guy in there and maybe Three of their guys... I don't know if you noticed today they'd get 4 guys in there, we'd have five guys in there. You know that's the way our team has to play. We gotta play with team toughness.
I know fights make you all hot and bothered, but what makes your Anti fighting opinion more valid than our superstar defenseman's Kriss?
PS: Habs won last night.
Euh...I'm against fighting because I said I like victories?
I don't care about fighting, I'm neither for or against it really. I don't think it's a necessity, but I don't oppose it if we have it. I think an enforcer can serve a purpose, but not to the level most here claim.
That being said, if we're to have a 4th line like we had all year, might as well replace it with one full of scrappers/fighters.
Now that we got that out of the way, I still don't care about fights, I care about victories.
And ya we won yesterday. We also blew a third period lead, yet again. Not only that, but we had a two goal lead with 1:40 left in the game and managed to screw it up. Team toughness really changes everything! Not..
Dont like goons, no place for them, but I like a couple of guys who can fight if need be. Need be is not staged fighting, but standing up for a teammate. Standing up for a teammate was Malone letting them fly at the non fighter Emelin and Staubitz intervening. Having players like this makes other guys tougher and I just dont mean in the fighting department. To me, the main toughness of a team are having players that are gritty, who will hit, go in the dirty areas, in otherwords, thrive on physical play. Boston is a good example. They have a few guys who can fight, but the whole team has a toughness about it and a dont mess with us attitude. This isnt a Boston model. I remember Horton in Florida, they called him a power forward but I just saw him as a big, skilled guy because he didnt have a physical edge to his game. He goes to Boston and with that culture , presto, a power forward and a better player.
I know many will take issue with my comments, but I will just point to the Comments of White and PK about how glad they are of having Staubitz. This is the players themselves talking, and they didnt have to say anything. Again, Staubitz to me has to be able to play 8-9 minutes without being a liability. If he cant then I dont want him but Id want the Habs to get another guy who can play and capably and willingly fight, in addition to White and Moen.
I know what you are saying. Dont dismiss what Subban is saying. A team that has a stand up for each other mentality usually is a more confident team. Confidence leads to success.
Price has been less than stellar in shootouts. Yet he looked like a stud last night. Was it confidence? Was it his extra effort to stand up for his team by getting a W to repay White for standing up for him?
I believe that confidence leads to great things, performance included. And I also believe that the anti-fighting faction will dismiss the efficacy of fighting just like usual.
Nothing changes here. But as long as Subban sees a difference (and I am sure there are more players on the team agreeing with him), then thats good enough for me.
I know what you are saying. Dont dismiss what Subban is saying. A team that has a stand up for each other mentality usually is a more confident team. Confidence leads to success.
Price has been less than stellar in shootouts. Yet he looked like a stud last night. Was it confidence? Was it his extra effort to stand up for his team by getting a W to repay White for standing up for him?
I believe that confidence leads to great things, performance included. And I also believe that the anti-fighting faction will dismiss the efficacy of fighting just like usual.
Nothing changes here. But as long as Subban sees a difference (and I am sure there are more players on the team agreeing with him), then thats good enough for me.
actually, no he didnt... we only won the SO cause there was ONE player (DD) in the bunch who could get a decent shot, all the others were meh, on both sides...
I know what you are saying. Dont dismiss what Subban is saying. A team that has a stand up for each other mentality usually is a more confident team. Confidence leads to success.
Price has been less than stellar in shootouts. Yet he looked like a stud last night. Was it confidence? Was it his extra effort to stand up for his team by getting a W to repay White for standing up for him?
I believe that confidence leads to great things, performance included. And I also believe that the anti-fighting faction will dismiss the efficacy of fighting just like usual.
Nothing changes here. But as long as Subban sees a difference (and I am sure there are more players on the team agreeing with him), then thats good enough for me.
Of course having tough guys makes others act tougher, take the Bruins as an example. You have guys like Bergeron, Kelly, Marchand and Peverley acting like big tough guys. We all know that would be different if Thornton and Chara weren't there.
That being said, no, I don't think it's strong enough influence to actually be the difference between a win and a loss.
What happened to all this toughness when we allowed 3 goals in 4min? 2 of them with 1:40 left?
It's good to see them stick up for another and at least show that if you push our guys there will be consequences, but there are more important things to fix.
The fighters complement our trolling/agitation game, and we troll to help our scoring. If PK feels like he doesn't need to restrain his mouth or if Pleks wants to play naughty in order to draw a penalty because we have guys backing him up, that's a positive.
At least on this roster, we don't have frauds like Laraque, who cared more about spectacle than substance when a teammate was roughed up and would wait for a "fax" like a girl waiting for a guy to ask her out on a date.
Still, our roster could use some fighter/trolls with skill in the skill positions; oh. how I covet Corey Perry.
Last edited by Prallchengher: 03-02-2012 at 01:36 PM.
Now that we got that out of the way, I still don't care about fights, I care about victories.
..
It seems you'll never understand the concept of what dynamics can bring a team together. Some teams have enough character and size to have success without the 'enforcers', Montreal hasn't in years.
20 years ago if Chara would have never run Patches like that, not even a consideration.
It seems you'll never understand the concept of what dynamics can bring a team together. Some teams have enough character and size to have success without the 'enforcers', Montreal hasn't in years.
20 years ago if Chara would have never run Patches like that, not even a consideration.
I do understand the dynamics, I just don't think Staubitz is the key to success. I think a guy like White certainly might be, because he can actually play hockey. And yes, we were definitely missing this element all year.
I also realize you need to go mix of everything. But toughness to me equals victories. Anybody can dress a bunch of fighters and claim to be tough, but they'll be dead last in the NHL. No toughness in that. That was the point I was making. That at the end of the day, all I care about are wins. I guess people missed it completely.
But Toronto are so soft. They only have Brown and we already have White and Staubitz. It's nice to say that they don't have enough customers for our tough guys haha Imagine if we add Schultz
I would be very surprised if Schultz gets the call
Team toughness is critical, imo. An element of team toughness is having a few guys in the lineup who will drop the mits if they have to and a couple of guys who actually want to. If you have that together with some size and some jam (guys who like to take the body and get in people's faces), then you have team toughness.
We're on our way. We have size and physical play with Cole, Pacioretty, White, Subban, Emelin, Bourque and Staubitz. Tinordi is also a big body and it seems to me we're one or two players away from having a team that will really take care of itself. And I think that's a team that's more likely to succeed against Boston or Philly in the playoffs.
