Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteMoss
For the majority of the history of hockey guys like McGrattan were not in the NHL. Back in the day the tough guys could also play a regular shift. The one dimensional two shifts a game tough guy had what - a 20 year lifespan. McGrattan is lucky he came up in that time where he could make some money.
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Enforcers of the past could no more play in the modern NHL than McGrattan can now. The game has evolved. Were McGrattan to have played in the 80s, he would be remembered as one of the guys who 'could play', because he kinda could.
That's not a bad goal at all. He beats two defensemen with 800+ games in the NHL and goes coast to coast.
The role is extinct because of the rules and the salary cap. The rules in the OHL and AHL should prevent true thugs from being bred like pit bulls, which I like. I think there's something very unnerving about having a teenage boy away from his parents filling the role of 'enforcer' on a junior squad.
Fighting doesn't need to go away, it needs a renaissance. Guys who take runs at people should have the threat of a beating in the back of the head. If a few more people had Evander Kane'd Matt Cooke, he would've been gone from the league years earlier.
I encourage everyone who has the time to see the encore showing of Ice Guardians this week.
98% of NHL players still want fighting in the game. All the team rituals and intimidation in the world can't get 98% of a group to agree on something like that unless there's actually something to it. The game moves so fast and people are able to get away with so much as it is. It's impossible to expect the refs to deal with this, because that's not how the game works. Refs let #### go all the time for any number of reasons. They don't protect anyone, especially not stars.
In the film, they show Gretzky getting clocked once. There were probably other times it happened, but there's a montage of fifteen-twenty times Sidney Crosby gets cheap shotted.
In a world without an instigator rule, I wonder if Johnny Gaudreau's life doesn't get a lot easier. You don't need to carry a McGrattan type to protect players, all you need is an Engelland. Someone who can play 15 minutes on the bottom pair and ruin some guys if they step out of line.
I don't know. Brett Hull seems to think he would not have been Brett Hull without Kelly Chase. When Gretzky was traded to the Kings, he didn't insist Jari Kurri, 4-time 50-goal scorer come with him. He insisted on Marty McSorely.
The NHL regular season is worse without fighting.