[Calgary4LIfe]

I may be the only guy on this board that hasn't written Kanzig and Smith out of a possible future NHL career. However, neither of them are ready. They are long-term project type of players that - if they pan out - will go a long ways to adding depth and grit to this team. However, at this juncture, neither of them are ready.

Also, I love fighting, and part of me misses the 'great 80's and 90's'. They were emotional, they were fun, they were exciting... but they are gone. Anyone that thinks bringing in goons - or even legitimate prospects simply to 'goon it up' haven't been paying attention to what happens.

Other stars are targeted. Are you seriously telling me that 29 other coaches and GMs are stupid and haven't thought about bringing in goons? In fact, some have retained goons until recently. Have they had any positive effect in the game lately?

Remember when the Oilers used Steve MacIntyre? He was fairly effective at throwing the Flames off their game for about a few seasons. So effective, the Oilers actually decided to bring him back since they missed him and his ability to not only protect the players on the team, but to intimidate the other players on the ice. He was effective.

Now, you all know I am not a Brent Sutter fan, so when I provide praise on something he did, it is definitely worthy of said praise. Brent developed an insanely effective strategy to deal with MacIntyre. It completely neutered him so thoroughly, that the Oilers just gave up completely on ever dressing him for Calgary games once they realized what was happening. Anyone guess? Was it McGrattan beating him up? Nope. Was it just ignoring MacIntyre? Nope. Was it trying to ice a fast line against him and take advantage of having him on the ice? Nope, not even that.

The Flames were told that when MacIntyre was on the ice, they were to take runs at him. Get him to respond. Respond he would, every time, and the refs would just smother him and not let a 'goon' do anything. You see, the NHL has put a mandate on the refs to watch out for goons and stop both the staged fights, but more importantly, ensure that goons don't.. well... 'goon' anyone. As soon as they saw Sarich take two or three legal runs at MacIntyre, they would make sure they stayed close to him. The second he tried to respond, they would smother him and ship him off to the penalty box.

If anyone thinks bringing in a goon is going to deter slashes and such to Gaudreau (or anyone else) they are kidding themselves. I bet it would probably result in MORE slashes to try and get a PP out of it.

Know what is going to stop the slashes?

1) Have refs actually call the damn things
2) Have your special teams at least being average
3) Have the kind of team that can start taking liberties against their best players (slashes, run them through the boards, etc), or start crashing the net 'accidentally' in return. Make the game chippy on both sides, where either side can really end up with injuries - no way other coaches are going to want to risk their top players either.

Flames do need to get a bit bigger yet, but they already have the horses to do it this year. Other teams do it because they know the Flames have no response. They know the Flames try to be the most disciplined team in the league. That is what you get, IMO.

Fix your PK, and you can respond without worrying as much about being called for what you did.

Fix your PP in case the refs actually (gasp!) start calling these slashes.

Flames get this treatment from some teams because they know the Flames won't respond likewise, not because they aren't carrying a goon.

You don't need Tkachuk to 'worry about retribution' or 'policing'. You don't need any single player - other than Engelland, and only in certain situations (like having that idiot Lucic start acting up) - for policing. You do it as a team.

Johnny and whomever else slashes back. Brouwer, Ferland, Bennett, Engelland, Giordano, Tkachuk, Bouma, Hathaway, Chiasson... better yet, EVERYONE.. start playing chippy, start facewashing, start slashing and running guys, crashing the crease a bit, etc. Games will get a bit more out of hand, and you make sure your entire team targets their best players, not just the guys doing the slashing.

Personally, I will be very disappointed if the Flames don't target Suter and Staal with increased physical confrontations. Not gooning. Not some form of illegal retribution. Just play those guys physically, and quite honestly, dirty. Flames need to learn how to play dirty, filthy hockey on that razor's edge at times. Tkachuk hockey. Hathaway hockey. Ferland hockey with his legal but painful hits.

Target the 1st line guys, 1st pairing defencemen and goalies, and at worst you have an even playing field, and you make the other team think twice about doing it next time. You make other teams think twice about using it as a tactic to throw your team off.

Boudreau coached that team to do that. They did it as a unified group, without question. The Flames responded by crying to the refs about it for the majority of the game until Gaudreau's bone broke. That still could have happened in my scenario, but maybe Suter would be missing from the Wild's lineup as well for the next month or two.

Refs never like a game to get out of hand. IMO, that's the best pressure to put on them for calling those 'taps' with more frequency. Many of those 21 slashes I agree were taps, but there was a number of heavy slashes too. They saw them, and let them go. If the game got chippy, and those slashes were clearly causing a reaction (other than whining) the refs call about 5 or 6 examples of those every time.