Can you imagine HF back in the 80s? With some of the things that used to happen the freak outs would be epic.
Covering 80's and 90's:
The ankle-breaker, the Stevens hits, the bench-clearing brawls, the "foot-in-the-crease", Bure's flying elbow, etc.?
I would simply not be on HF I think.
I think part of the reason we're seeing a "watering-down effect" of hockey is actually because of increased media exposure. I will state it here right now that I am pro-fighting in hockey as part of the sport - but I don't love "heavyweight" matchups or staged fights, but reactionary plays are OK with me as long as it it doesn't get out of hand a la Bertuzzi "vs." Moore.
Physicality should be part of the game - and that includes fighting, but it should never include dirty Cooke-esque plays. The increased media exposure has led to a movement eliminating dirty players but has also overreached its intent and begun to slowly remove physicality as a factor in games - I like that the game is centred around speedy players, but not many are what I would call scrappy or physical. I don't believe players have to be one or the other, but in today's game, there's normally just the "smooth-skating skill players." Truly elite power forwards might become a non-existent breed by 2025 at this rate, relegated to fourth-line checking duties.
I want to clarify that I don't dislike finesse players OR promote increased interference but that rather I believe that there's an active movement to specifically promote finesse over power. It used to be that physicality was allowed to match finesse if a team didn't have enough skill, but now we are moving towards finesse versus finesse players, teams, and strategies.
Sorry for getting heavily off-topic.
TL;DR last two posts: Physicality is fine, national hockey pride was viewed differently back in the 80's and 90's, the game is not the same and it makes me sad.