^ well let's look at who is doing the "fighting" for the Leafs.
Kadri has the first official fight. He held on as best he could when Backes started filling him in.
Did anyone challenge Backes the rest of the game on Kadri's behalf?
Nope. Just like the headshot. Crickets.
Holland has the other fight on the team. Through I am not sure how you can call it that when he kept his gloves on.
Oh, and JVR tried against big bad Marchand. I guess when he skated to him and said stop running our guys, he wasn't expecting Marchand to actually fight. On the plus side, his turtle move protected him well.
Did anyone step up during the rest of the game? Crickets.
Does Babcock teach that in practice?
Anyways, of those involved in eating punches, turtling and keeping their gloves on you have Kadri, JVR and Holland.
Arguably all 3 incidents showed the other team the aggressor and at least 2 of those 3 would be seen as top players on the team.
Maybe not Gretzky. But in hiarchy of the crap pile we have, they would be on top.
I think I started a thread on this topic before the season. That the downside of Babcock hockey would be a softness that would be hard to take.
We could debate fighting. Whether it has a place in the game. But for people to pretend it isn't part right now is silly. It is. Just not here.
So why exactly should someone from the Leafs be coming to the aid of the 3 Leafs mentioned?
Kadri handled himself appropriately with Backes, nothing further was required by anyone else. The headcheck? I didn't see it as much of a head check, I think Stone hit the shoulder, Kadri was off balance & maybe his team-mates thought he was just trying to draw a penalty again. Holland situation was handled by Holland, was someone supposed to be running to his aid there? JVR was standing up for a player, when Marchand started going after him, JVR looked goofy, but did that warrant intervention by another Leaf player? NHL calibre players shouldn't require extra baby sitting.
Leafs re not a big tough team, but they haven't been pushed around either & they have backed each other when required. I would prefer to have a team of players that can stand up for themselves & don't need guys like Colton Orr to be their courage. Give me guys like Shanahan, Iginla, Tkachuk, Nolan & Verbeek, none of them need anyone to "stand up" for them & I would like to see a lineup that other teams would fear more.
I'm not a fighting advocate, so my position is biased.
Legal hits should be expected, and it is up to the player to protect himself and not put himself into a position to get hurt when he is hit.
"He took the hit to make the play."
So if he takes a hit to make a play what does that tell you? It says taking a hit is part of hockey.
Penalties should be dished out for illegal hits.
Don't be stupid on the ice and accept you are going to take a hit.
If you build a team of smurfs, or chicken-poops don't rely on fighters to make them brave!
Yup.
Gretzky was initially brought up by another poster. The most famous hit Gretzky ever took was by Leafs McCreary. It was a good clean hit & there was no retribution. It was part of the game & Gretzky, uncharacteristically, put himself in a bad position. Semenko & McSorely were there to protect him against cheap shots not from the game.
. Guess we should just focus on drafting goalies since scoring is just luck anyways.
