You claim we can't handle physical teams. We have handled physical teams. I'm not being in denial. I'm reacting to the facts as they are, instead of reacting to a narrative.
JT Miller is not a particularly physical player, McDonagh is far from a physical player. Physicality is not part of what those guys bring, or why they were acquired. So no, that doesn't tell us what you think either.
Chicago did well going with little physicality against teams that did exactly what you say. Of all the cup winning teams, they are also our closest comparable in terms of personnel and style of play. We should embrace our identity, and emulate the highly successful team that was built like we are.
I agree that we need to do a better job of making our speed a factor.
Pittsburgh definitely was physical. Chicago wasn't. Among the 30 teams that has been around since their first cup, they sit at 29th in hits. They were successful, I'd say.
Boston didn't steam roll us last time with physicality. We were actually the better team at even strength. Boston steam rolled us at the PP to the point they made up for that and eked out a third period, game seven win.
What you are talking about is not the truth, it's a weak hypothesis without much evidence to support it. Even if the issue existed, and the above paragraph shows why it does not to a crucial extent, no series in this league is an obvious cake walk before it happens as you describe it.
If you want to ignore how the game went overall and just focus on that one situation, how does adding physicality change the above situation?
It wouldn't. It would make absolutely no difference whatsoever. Even if you replaced Gardiner with a more physically robust player, he'd likely get blown up as well if he got the puck with little time and Wilson barreling down on him. It's what Wilson does to pretty much everyone given the chance. The only way to avoid it would be to bail on the puck, which would actually be the soft play that people accuse Gardiner of.
Putting any fourth line center against Bergeron would be suicide. That's an awful idea.
