The Great Fight Debate thread

[Dr Hook]

For me it isn't about the hits or the fighting at this point. Hit totals are weird because it's all in how you define a hit and says nothing about the quality of the hit, the effectiveness of it, nothing. It is a probably a broadly indicative stat that needs a lot of qualification. My problem with the team at this point is the lack of attitude- I guess hockey aggression- that the team shows. They appear so very passive. I would like to see them impose themselves physically in games and they just don't, or maybe can't. I don't know if it is a personnel issue (as some here claim), a coaching issue, an actual biological inability . . . I don't know, but I would like to see some changes in that regard. They don't have to be the Broad Street Bullies or Big Bad Bruins- we'd be killing penalties 58 out of 60 minutes LOL- but something seems missing, some spark, some jam.

 

[Gee Wally]

It's high time the Mods locked up this Sheep in Wolves Clothing Part III thread, because this debate is ridiculous.

Neither side will admit the other has valid points.

Neither side can actually prove their viewpoint is true or not.

What a waste of time.

Nope.
I agree it will never be settled or not for at least another decade or so.

But this thread and siblings will go on. Why? To contain the Pepsi-Coke lunacy from invading other threads . Thereby allowing others to stay out of this and not be contaminated by it in the other subjects.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Nope.
I agree it will never be settled or not for at least another decade or so.

But this thread and siblings will go on. Why? To contain the Pepsi-Coke lunacy from invading other threads . Thereby allowing others to stay out of this and not be contaminated by it in the other subjects.

They still bring their tough guy nonsense into other threads though?

 

[BruinDust]

Nope.
I agree it will never be settled or not for at least another decade or so.

But this thread and siblings will go on. Why? To contain the Pepsi-Coke lunacy from invading other threads . Thereby allowing others to stay out of this and not be contaminated by it in the other subjects.

True, serves a purpose I guess.

 

[Lobster57]

team needs an Andrew Ference type WAAAAYYYYYYY more than it needs a Shawn Thornton type, although i think the forward group needs that type of player more than the blueliners do.

 

[Fenian24]

team needs an Andrew Ference type WAAAAYYYYYYY more than it needs a Shawn Thornton type, although i think the forward group needs that type of player more than the blueliners do.

Both would be nice. Lauzon may project out as a bigger, not as physical version of Ference down the road, which would make him a great pick. With the Heinen's, Bjork's, Donato's and other smaller, more passive prospects at forward a Thornton would be a welcome addition.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Bruins don't fight......checks hockeyfights.com.....league leader, Bruins...

Bruins don't stick up for each other.....checks hockeyfights.com....last three fights were sticking up for each other...

But but but but the Bruins fighting are too small.

Did anyone else not see Gudbranson **** himself when Chara came calling? Does that not count? he was quiet the entire rest of the game.

Uh... your first two points are utter BS with all due respect. Marchand and Krug fighting, yeah that's what we mean! Then again, Campbell only had one fight here too, when he beat the Montreal player.

The last point is legitimate. Chara did his job there.

 

[xStanleyCupsFor]

I'll play this game.

Gudbranson, Archibald, Virtanen, Roussel, and I suppose Beagle who does not play.

Vancouver is not a tough team either which makes this even sadder.

It does feel like outside of a handful, and this is leaguewide, players are secretly very happy the NHL has become a systems, unemotional, soft league where going through the motions and collecting large pay checks is acceptable.

I cannot believe we are softer than this bunch. Sad times indeed.

Chara, Miller(shoulder problems), Backes(cooked)....and?....and?....Wagner/Acciari? Good lord!!

 

[neelynugs]

Don’t know much about him. But thought Archibald was a pretty good guy about it and didn’t take Krug to pound town.

More of a wrestle this little fellow down nicely type rumble lol

yeah, i thought he took it easy on krug for sure. sorta like the little brother who would come after you,
and you're holding his head while his feet spin around.

 

[Glove Malfunction]

If any of you guys haven't seen the documentary Ice Guardians, you definitely should. It was highly enlightening. Loved it start to finish. Gave me a lot of perspective on enforcers.

 

[Sheppy]

They still bring their tough guy nonsense into other threads though?

Yeah, it’s absolute nonsense. The “tough” crowd has zero stance at all.


*as the bruins get bullied*

 

[RussellmaniaKW]

I'll play this game.

Gudbranson, Archibald, Virtanen, Roussel, and I suppose Beagle who does not play.

Vancouver is not a tough team either which makes this even sadder.

It does feel like outside of a handful, and this is leaguewide, players are secretly very happy the NHL has become a systems, unemotional, soft league where going through the motions and collecting large pay checks is acceptable.

This is an interesting point. I think there's a lot of truth to this but mainly during the regular season. The playoffs are still intense and a blast to watch. I think the game becoming softer over an 82 game season isn't entirely on rule changes or aversion to violence as it is that the players are richer than ever and too comfortable to be going out there playing balls to the wall every other night when they can often cruise to OT, get a point or two and only bother going all-out when the playoffs start and the games actually matter.

 

[RussellmaniaKW]

team needs an Andrew Ference type WAAAAYYYYYYY more than it needs a Shawn Thornton type, although i think the forward group needs that type of player more than the blueliners do.

I think Wagner brings a bit of that. He's always in the mix and you can tell all the west coast teams that know him from his Anaheim days can't stand him.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Yeah, it’s absolute nonsense. The “tough” crowd has zero stance at all.


*as the bruins get bullied*

It belongs in every thread, Sheppy! I think you have 10+ pre-written bitches about toughness saved in a word document that you pull out during the games to copy/paste in the GDT.

 

[Chief Nine]

It belongs in every thread, Sheppy! I think you have 10+ pre-written *****es about toughness saved in a word document that you pull out during the games to copy/paste in the GDT.

Well that’s just to be sure in case anyone on this board from the last ten years missed the first 6,000 other posts

 

[DrJustice]

It belongs in every thread, Sheppy! I think you have 10+ pre-written *****es about toughness saved in a word document that you pull out during the games to copy/paste in the GDT.

I'm personally hoping for the team to get Alex Semin out of retirement and advocate for no-touch hockey.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Well that’s just to be sure in case anyone on this board from the last ten years missed the first 6,000 other posts

Need to trade for Austin Czarnik to center Semin and..... who else? What's that magical 3rd piece to the softest line to every (not really) play in the NHL?

 

[Chief Nine]

Need to trade for Austin Czarnik to center Semin and..... who else? What's that magical 3rd piece to the softest line to every (not really) play in the NHL?

Ryan Spooner

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Ryan Spooner

There it is!

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

They still bring their tough guy nonsense into other threads though?

If there is a big hit in a game you better believe it will be brought up....

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

If there is a big hit in a game you better believe it will be brought up....

I think it's more of the same, "team is soft, team is weak," posts constantly by a select few.

 

[RussellmaniaKW]

I think it's more of the same, "team is soft, team is weak," posts constantly by a select few.

there are a handful of regular posters here that I swear to god I have never seen praise an actual hockey play but will post in every thread about how the team needs to be bigger or tougher.

 

[Chief Nine]

there are a handful of regular posters here that I swear to god I have never seen praise an actual hockey play but will post in every thread about how the team needs to be bigger or tougher.

Because that’s all they want to get out of hockey, the word skill is like poison to them

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Because that’s all they want to get out of hockey, the word skill is like poison to them

Unless the words "Big" and "Tough" are attached with "Skill".

 

[ODAAT]

If there is a big hit in a game you better believe it will be brought up....

I think therein lies the issue, a "big hit", for this fan, does not automatically have me feel a guy is a tough player. Now, it`s definitely part of what constitutes being or playing tough but being a guy who is consistently out there laying out opponents alone doesn`t mean that player is tough.

Same goes for fisticuffs, another aspect but not the key for me to identify a guy as being tough.

Brief story, I was a barely above average player during the days where I didn`t have grey hair, moved from Oakville back to Ottawa and was at the tryouts for the AA team, as many know here, there`s as much politics at the amateur level as with higher one`s and the lineup that was expected to be chosen, as I found out after, seemed well established and I was likely to be cut and off to A level.

I wound up making the team and the coaches spoke with each player individually after the cuts were made and this coach ( Paterson ,can`t recall first name) but his son Mark had a cup of coffee in the NHL said THE reason he was cutting player X who had been part of the team the year previous in favor of me was that in spite of my lack of natural skill and lack of size, I played each shift hard, played responsible and while I was nothing close to being a bruiser, I planted my arse in front of the opponents net and drove them nutso but he said what solidified it was during a little pre-season game, I dropped down and blocked a shot with little to no time left and he said that was what convinced he and the other coaches I`d be a guy they could put in the lineup.

It`s that sort of thing that I love watching from players, yep, drives me nuts when I see a Gallagher from the Habs do it but the guy is tough as nails in the sense that he NEVER hesitates to go to the front of the net, in the corners and muck it up, that`s toughness to me, there are plenty of guys on the B`s who aren`t 6`5 but that doesn`t mean they can`t play tougher but the problem with toughness, IMO, is you can`t teach it, a player either has it within himself or he doesn`t.