Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaskal
Hmm, I would personally argue against this, under Burke and Treliving we had Big Ern, Westgarth, Ferland and the epic Engelland 1v2 vs the Canucks. Then after Burkie left and we had to rely on concussion history Ferland, broken jaw Hamonic, and 18 year old Sam Bennett to fight, things really turned to hell in a handbasket.
I remember specifically about Monahan and Gaudreau's rookie years about how they were able to play how they wanted because they could let the big boys handle the rough stuff. Things have been somewhat better after adding Lucic but having some other big boys to police the ice with him have really changed things, they have that backbone again.
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Burke was fine. It was our blowhard former GM (and related coach) who wanted no part of anything tough because they were worried about being in the box. And he said the opposite of what Sutter had said before him, simply to try and be the contraian and win some cheap fan support.
In a matter of two games Lee Stemoniak got bullied and forced into 2 fights, one vs Dallas. No Flame came in and took pound of flesh.
Next game he hammered Ference hard with a clean check and Ference started throwing punches...on Lee Stempniak. Again, no Flames response that game or any subsequent games. Cowardly.
Who cares about the circus act Hartley threw out in Vancouver, when he lets a scrub on the Oilers take liberties with one of our skilled forwards to zero retribution.