I miss Enforcers

[JETZZZ]

Heres my problem with fighting in hockey. For the most part, one hand grabs the jersey, the other hand swings and this goes on until someone trips or until they are tired, then the refs jump in. If you are going to interrupt the game for a fight, don't half ass it. Fight until there is a clear winner, either by KO or by submission or a tap out at the very least. In the UFC, the fight continues on the ground and they wrestle. Now those are real fights.

 

[ca5150]

I miss fighting of all sorts, the soccer moms and ultra liberal 20 somethings that can't stand anything physical or violent and are the loudest voices because they sit at Starbucks in front of their laptops all day giving their opinions in mass are winning. Pretty soon it will be soccer on ice. Nobody goes for a cup of coffee in the arena when a fight breaks out.

 

[txpd]

Pretty soon it will be soccer on ice.

Fighting is Canadian hockey. NHL hockey is a world game. As soon as the NHL found that good hockey players could be found in Europe where they don't fight and American college hockey where they don't fight, it was an inevitable trend that fighting would regress.

add the concussion issues and the visor mandate and there is going to be a lot less fighting.

soccer on ice is, however, just chicken little chicken ****

 

[Papaspud]

Fighting is Canadian hockey. NHL hockey is a world game. As soon as the NHL found that good hockey players could be found in Europe where they don't fight and American college hockey where they don't fight, it was an inevitable trend that fighting would regress.

add the concussion issues and the visor mandate and there is going to be a lot less fighting.

soccer on ice is, however, just chicken little chicken ****

True, European hockey doesn't allow fighting...but the players seem to have no aversion to it once they play here.
True, college hockey doesn't allow hockey fighting...but the players seem to have no aversion to it once they play in the NHL.
This is a political issue, with the NHL, under bettman, trying to appease the media, and the casual fan, with little to no regard for the history, understanding, or flow of the game.
Many college players have actually become enforcers, or hard nosed players more than willing to throw down...ie: Parros, D. Murray
Europeans? Too many to mention. Nazarov, Oliwa come to mind right away.
This is not your father's NHL, to quote a bad Cadillac commercial meme.

 

[Mynameismark*]

The instigator has to go. That's number one priority. Then these guys could much better do their jobs.

Second, I do miss teams stacking their rosters with toughness. You wont get playoff series any longer like Leafs vs Islanders from 2002....now a simple cross check near the goalie crease is frowned upon and leads to a penalty.

How do you propose promoting a rivalry game if all the refs do are call ticky tack penalties to halt any emotions during a game from brewing?

This is leading to games where sometimes the scores are 1-0 or zip to zip, and fans are paying top dollar while not getting their moneys worth in entertainment. I loved watching blowout games also blow up in brawls and fights. Message sending was fun times.

What do the fans get out of their seats for the most besides the home team scoring a goal? Yep, that's right...fights. Fighting is good for the game, and has always been part of it. Trying to remove it is once again catering to the supposed causal fans who will never truly love or understand this game. It's a media driven propaganda crusade.

Rivalries are based on blood and hate and emotion. Physicality. Enforcers are needed in these elements. But with the way the game is being FORCED into by this propaganda machine, they are becoming obsolete.

So now you get to watch "exciting" 4th lines of players like Frattin and such..that ilk, who contribute very little offensively, much like a goon might, but can skate a bit better and are good at nothing really. Maybe they can take a faceoff or can be used for that ever important defensive zone help. Other then that, all they do is inspire a big ol yawn.

 

[ted2019]

I miss the days when the players policed themselves.

 

[Fenian24]

The game was 50 times more entertaining when most teams carried one or two enforcers, if not more. Instead we now have soccer on ice and people get excited is there is almost a fight.

I have never seen so many anti fighting supposed hockey fans in one place. The Bruins board is the perfect example, I think the 10 Bruins fans that don't like fighting are posters on there. Talk to 90% of Bruins fans about this year and the general consensus is, that while they need more talent, people are disgusted with the horrible style of hockey they play. No fighters and boring trap hockey.

I rarely missed a game from 1978 until this year, even some of the truly awful season I would at least watch with the hope of a fight or two. This season I have watched sporadically and when I do I'm bored out of my mind, making it worse is the worst play by play guy on TV telling me how exciting the game is because he is being told what to say by management.

Fortunately I still have Worcester and Springfield nearby and the AHL has not become completely wussified yet.

 

[Neil Hamburger]

I played AA or AAA hockey in the GTHL from 8/9, until I was 17 (and obviously, house league before that). There was probably around 10 - 15 fights I can remember (I was in two of them after dirty hits on teammates), pretty much all of them breaking out after a dirty hit in which there was no call.

Obviously that's not exactly comparable to the NHL, grown men being paid millions of dollars to win at all costs, but to me, a guy who's only job is to fight other guys whose only job is to fight, is not "part of the game". Fights breaking out after a dirty hit, or an intense battle on the other hand, are.

 

[Anton96]

I dont miss the pests who only were in the NHL to fight. That is not what icehockey is about. I do however like the players who could step up for either themselves or teammates, and still contribute with other than PIMs, even if it wasn't much. Icehockey is so physical that it would be a shame to eliminate these kind of players, whether you call them tough guys, power forwards etc.

 

[Hobnobs]

I dont really miss the goons. Like Berube, Odjick and misfits like that. I do miss the talented goons that could play hockey.

 

[Nothing Is New]

Love Starbucks. Like them squishy little snail critters. Also like limited fighting in hockey. Have never been to a game where the fans did not stand up and cheer wildly at a fight. Not once. And there were good and bad guy enforcers. Nothing was greater than seeing a real bully get his come comeuppance (like Robinson on Broad Street bully Schultz).

 

[c-carp]

Maybe it's because I have an old school mentality, but does anyone miss seeing enforcers in hockey?

The Leafs for an example were very entertaining to watch from the last few seasons. With Frazer McLaren and Colton Orr in the line-up; they could make games more entertaining. I still watch the Leafs, but they don't play with the same emotion that they used to. I appreciate watching the skill of JVR or Kessel. But, there have been games this season that were so damn boring (to me anyway). I don't need to see a fight in hockey to be entertained. Although it would be nice to see some emotional in the game.

Say what you want about enforcers; these are players that seem to give their best effort every shift. Even if they're not talented. I cannot stand watching players like David Booth or Matt Frattin.

Couldn't agree with you more my friend, with McGrattan getting waived that may be the death roll

 

[c-carp]

No one cared why someone was fighting before the media started promoting this propaganda term of "staged fighting". Do you seriously think that the legendary fights between Bob Probert and Tie Domi weren't "staged"? And yet fans sure didn't complain about it during that era.

Agree with this too the whole staged fight term is BS and it was invented by the anti fighting crowd and segments of the Media

 

[canucksfan]

Unfortunately, enforcers are not needed anymore. Most enforcers in the 80's and 90's could play a regular shift. It changed for the most part when enforcers would only play less than 5 minutes a game. In order to be successful you need to roll four lines. Teams cannot have a guy play less than 5 minutes a game taking up a spot.

 

[Papaspud]

Couldn't agree with you more my friend, with McGrattan getting waived that may be the death roll

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/11/flames-mcgrattan-quitting-isnt-in-my-vocab/



"" McGrattan is just the latest enforcer to be waived and assigned to the AHL. Earlier this month, the Vancouver Canucks waived Tom Sestito. In October Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren were waived and assigned to the AHL by the Maple Leafs.

McGrattan isn’t sure the move is a smart one.

“They might be playing with fire taking big guys out – you never know the way the game is going to go,†he said. “Might see more dirty hits†""

 

[c-carp]

I agree with McGrattan there, I think you see more cheap shots in the game now then when I started watching it in the early 80's and I think it is as simple as the fact that there is no accountabity on the ice because the players aren't allowed to police themselves. The League went clear around the block to eliminate the Enforcer role now we will just have to see how this plays out. I think it may well be a case of "Be Careful what you wish for as McGrattan said

 

[ThatQuietGuy93]

It's not being thrown around to put down fighting, its being thrown around to put down goons who do nothing but fight off the face-off. I love to watch two hockey players get into it after a big hit or intense battle; I hate watching two on-ice boxers fight off a face-off in order to justify their existence.

Watching Colton Orr cough up the puck time and time again was one of the most infuriating things to watch in any hockey game; I'm glad I no longer have to.

A fight can be a good way to fire up your team, but I personally would not be fired up one bit watching a guy like Colton Orr fight Brian McGrattan off the face-off. Especially knowing that's the only reason those clowns are in the line-up, when much better players are available who could actually make a contribution on the ice.

A big hit, a gutsy blocked shot, a nice play, a goal, or a real hockey player fighting in the heat of the moment on the other hand, would definitely bring me off my feet.

I don't believe you, I believe you would be just as excited about Orr fighting after a faceoff just as much as an 'in the heat of the moment fight'.

 

[McDonald19]

There has been a lack of emotion in games this season. No animosity. One unexpected problem for the league from getting rid of the enforcer vs enforcer fight, is the loss of intensity between teams. These fights used to wake up their teammates and pick up the hitting, pushing, shoving.

 

[Quares27]

I don't necessarily miss goons who can't play but as a Leafs fan I do miss fights in general. I wish our 4th line permanently had some young, scrappy guys from the Marlies like Broll, Carrick, Devane who can actually play rather than discarded junk like Booth, Smith and Frattin who suck at hockey and are soft on top of that. It's sad that the only three options for a Leafs fight right now are Phaneuf getting attacked by some plug, Bodie getting beat up because he can't keep his balance for 10 seconds, or a non-fighter fighting.

 

[ObjectiveOpinion]

There has been a lack of emotion in games this season. No animosity. One unexpected problem for the league from getting rid of the enforcer vs enforcer fight, is the loss of intensity between teams. These fights used to wake up their teammates and pick up the hitting, pushing, shoving.

This is where I'm at emotionally, too, when I watch games this year. There's no hatred between teams anymore, so it's turning into European hockey. Not only are guys not fighting, but they're not even getting scrapping after whistles like they used to.
The thing I don't fully understand is, why has fighting gone down SO dramatically? I know refs are jumping in faster, but that never stopped guys from dropping the gloves before. Did they send out a league wide memo to players telling them to cut the fighting?

 

[FuelOrWater]

Goons are needed to protect the star players.

 

[c-carp]

The NHL keeps saying they want rivalries, rivalries help the game grow, just look at all your classic rivalries physical play, enforcers and fights play a key role, anyone that doesn't believe this is ************ themselves and the NHL is wrong for eliminating the fights, physical play and enforcers to the extent that they have

 

[JETZZZ]

I think the NHL wants to have the referees police the game instead of goons, much like what the referees are for in literally every other sport on the planet.
I think that hockey will have a to find a way to officially score a fight so it serves an official purpose before it can bring back the goon position.
For example: there are 2 minutes left in a boring, non emotional, 5-5, tied playoff game between Montreal and Boston. It looks as if it may go int overtime. Then all the sudden, OH MY GOD! THIS IS IT! Lucic and Eller are scraping! this is great! Now this is hockey! after a few moments Eller's knee touches the ice first before Lucic falls on top of him and Lucic is officially declared the winner. with only 1:48 left on the clock, Boston is awarded an extra goal and holds off the habs to win 2-1...
Down the road, this could not only allow the goon to return, but also become an official position in hockey that will allow the REAL hockey fans to get what they paid for instead of this non emotional shooting and scoring crap thoes other poser leagues keep forcing down our throats. You may even one day see the goons steal games by winning fight after fight the same way goalies can steal games by standing on their heads and shutting out offensively superior opponents.

 

[cpsman]

I think the NHL wants to have the referees police the game instead of goons, much like what the referees are for in literally every other sport on the planet.
I think that hockey will have a to find a way to officially score a fight so it serves an official purpose before it can bring back the goon position.
For example: there are 2 minutes left in a boring, non emotional, 5-5, tied playoff game between Montreal and Boston. It looks as if it may go int overtime. Then all the sudden, OH MY GOD! THIS IS IT! Lucic and Eller are scraping! this is great! Now this is hockey! after a few moments Eller's knee touches the ice first before Lucic falls on top of him and Lucic is officially declared the winner. with only 1:48 left on the clock, Boston is awarded an extra goal and holds off the habs to win 2-1...
Down the road, this could not only allow the goon to return, but also become an official position in hockey that will allow the REAL hockey fans to get what they paid for instead of this non emotional shooting and scoring crap thoes other poser leagues keep forcing down our throats. You may even one day see the goons steal games by winning fight after fight the same way goalies can steal games by standing on their heads and shutting out offensively superior opponents.