Let’s be frank.
Marty McSorley isn’t walking through that door. Bob Probert isn’t walking through that door. Dave Semenko isn’t waiting to get picked up on waivers.
In today’s NHL, these enforcers have become relics of yesteryear, rarely deployed on a pro-hockey roster. Even now, the John Scotts and Zack Rinaldos of the hockey world are struggling to find consistent reps up in the league — with more and more teams opting instead to inject the speed and skill that is starting to become more and more abundant both on the blue line and in the bottom six.
The Bruins have taken full advantage of the league’s transition into a skill-centric game, with the likes of Sean Kuraly, Anders Bjork, and Charlie Coyle all earning extended looks in the bottom six so far in 2019-20.
Ultimately, the game is better off when players like Scott and Matt Cooke are no longer hopping over the boards for shifts. Although, given how the last couple of games have played out for Boston’s skill players, you have to wonder if Bruce Cassidy and Co. wish that they could roll out a "goon" for a couple of shifts every once in a while.
What started with a physical gameplan deployed by the Canadiens against David Pastrnak has snowballed into a pretty miserable week for Boston’s top sniper. During a four-game stretch in which Pastrnak has been limited to only one goal and two points, opponents have taken turns knocking the winger around whenever he's deployed out on the ice.
Following Thursday’s OT loss to Chicago, in which Pastrnak took a heavy hit into the boards by winger Zack Smith, the B’s top goalscorer didn’t buy too much into the idea that a physical response from the opposition had left him frustrated during this recent stretch.
“Oh no, not at all. It’s hockey,” he said. "I don’t really get frustrated anymore, besides when we lose. It’s hockey.”
Still, that doesn’t mean Pastrnak’s teammates haven’t taken umbrage with the rough handling No. 88 has received.
And while Zdeno Chara still stands as an intimidating presence and John Moore dropped the gloves with Smith following Thursday’s hit, Boston doesn’t have a go-to body to turn to when things get particularly nasty, especially with Kevan Miller still on the mend. But, as Chris Wagner noted postgame, the days of line brawls and enforcers standing as a regular sight in the NHL are long gone.
“Pasta is going to try and make plays and he has the puck a lot, so naturally guys are going to try and hit him," Wagner said. "I don't think you can fight anymore every time he gets hit.”
So, what exactly can the Bruins do to counter this physicality against their skilled players, given the changing nature of today’s game?
While Moore’s response to drop the gloves with Smith drew plenty of praise from his teammates, David Backes believes that the best way to prevent more potential damage to your skilled stars is to return the favor against the opposing side’s top talent.
“If that’s how they’re gonna play — and Pasta is a big kid, he can hold his own — then Patrick Kane needs to be hit forcefully and not be given any space … If Zack Smith hits Pasta, then going after Zack Smith doesn’t really affect him very much,” Backes said. “Tonight, John Moore steps up, just getting back from a six-month injury, admirably stands up for his teammate and does a heck of a job. It’s incumbent on the rest of us to recognize it happening and hit their skill too.
“Maybe their skill says, you know, ‘take it easy on him’. That was the big deterrent early in my career — not the other’s team’s tough guy, but your own tough guy. Because your own tough guy was saying, ‘Hey, if you don’t cut that out, I’m going to have to fight their tough guy’ and there’s a snarling bull on the other side as well. Now you have that internal policing in your own room.”
From a personnel standpoint, Cassidy believes that basic roster construction and maximizing talent has made “goons” relatively obsolete, with teams opting instead to possess hard-nosed, physical skaters that can still handle other responsibilities outside of beating the snot out of a player.
“The rules of the game have changed,” Cassidy said Friday at Warrior Ice Arena. “The old days, you could police the game a little easier in terms of taking care of business. Nowadays, it’s a little more difficult to do that. It’s probably a good thing, in the end. That’s open to debate to purists … I think, let’s face it. When your skill guys get targeted a little more, it’s talked about. Not only here, it happens to a lot of different teams … it’s just, you’re limited. How many spots can you use to take care of something that may or may not happen?”
Even if Boston’s roster doesn’t feature the likes of Milan Lucic or Shawn Thornton, Cassidy believes that Boston still has the personnel to leave some welts out on the ice, while providing value in various other areas of the game.
Wagner and Sean Kuraly are pacing the Bruins in hits this year with 65 and 55, respectively, but they’re far from just the standard “bull in the china shop” when Cassidy sends them over the boards, given their contributions on the penalty kill (each averaging over 1:30 of shorthanded TOI per game) and overall usage.
“We’re dressing the lineup that we feel that we have enough guys in there that will take care of that business,” Cassidy said. “Are they clean hits? Are they dirty or are they on the line? Because if they're clean hits, sometimes you’ve just got to take the number. That’s hockey. … I think we disrupt a lot of teams when Chris Wagner is finishing checks against their top guys. That’s part of our strategy, as long as it’s within the rules. That’s part of hockey.”
At this point, opting to knock around another team’s bottom-six skaters isn’t going to do much in terms of stopping said opponent from battering your skill on a regular basis.
As such, Cassidy echoed Backes’ sentiments when it comes to trading punches with the other team’s skill as the proper way to send a message in today’s NHL, especially when the option of dropping the gloves and settling the score by way of a beatdown is continuing to be taken out of the game.
“You’ve got to be careful with how you settle the score, so to speak. I always felt if you hit their skill clean, you’ll settle the score in a hurry," Cassidy said. "Things will calm down. That’s what we’ve experienced. Someone is going to bang Pasta, we go out the next shift and bang a Kane or (Jonathan) Toews. All of the sudden, their guys might be — ‘Ok, you know what, I’m putting my guys in harm’s way’. It sort of sorts itself out. That’s policing the game internally and in the appropriate way in today’s game.”
OTHER NOTES
A scary moment in Saturday's Providence Bruins game, as AHL rookie Jakub Lauko had to be stretchered off the ice during the Baby B's game against the Utica Comets. Lauko, who fell to the ice after making contact with Utica's Justin Bailey, did give a thumbs-up as he was taken off the ice. It's a brutal break for Lauko, who was expected to leave Providence shortly to play for the Czech Republic at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship.
So far this season, Lauko has tallied four goals and eight total points over 18 games with Providence.
https://twitter.com/BruinsNetwork/status/1203475486606790656
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