Quote:
Originally Posted by CroFlames
This speaks volumes to me:
When a hockey guy who is at the pinnacle of this sport says you need emotion to help you win games, I feel vindicated. So many times you hear people say a fight can't/doesn't spark a team, or things like "why retaliate and take a penalty?".
In the long run, the extra 2 mins you get is negligible compared to how you make a teammate feel when you genuinely standup for him when an opponent is molesting him. Guys at every level feel a boost when they see a teammate to go battle for them. I know that doesn't show up on counting stats or the fancy stats, but it's a real thing. There are intangibles in hockey and I hope we don't remove all emotion from the game so it truly becomes a dump, chase, change library event.
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I don't think anybody disagrees that "emotion" plays a role.
I think the problem is that "emotion" then gets immediately changed to "we need a fighter" or "this team needs more toughness".
Personally I think the loss of a guy like Paul Byron is a bigger impact to the difference in team emotion over the last 3 seasons compared to the emotion they showed in 14/15, than a guy going and fighting.
Byron, much like a guy like Tkachuk, did a great job of pulling the rest of the team into a game. His speed, tenacity, and drive would give the coaching staff somebody to point at and say "Look at Paulie, he's 5'8" and goes out there and battles with the 6'3" guy. He's Fearless".
This team needs more guys that go out there EVERY SINGLE SHIFT and play with speed, and some tenacity to wake them up. Not just a tough guy that will sit on the bench 90% of the time but will go out and chuck knuckles once every 4 games.
And I think that is where the coaching staff can be questioned. Bennett, Lazar, Ferland, Hathaway have all shown that "drive" and "emotion" at times in the past but as time passed it seemed to diminish under this coaching staff. Why did that happen and why could the coaching staff not get them to play a way they seemed to be willing to play in the past?