Friday Spotlight: Enforcers Out The Door

by Mike Chen on Feb 12, 2010 11:52 AM CST in Special features Comment 10 comments

(Mike's note: I'm posting this for Joe because I can actually get into the SBN editor while he and a bunch of other SBN bloggers are having trouble. The SBN overlords are aware of the mess and are working to fix it.)

The news that Donald Brashear was waived by the Rangers (he had asked for a trade) was not the first time this season that an enforcer was "sent out the door." As many of you may remember, the Montreal Canadians decided to send Georges Laraque packing after he failed to do what the Habs expected of him when they gave him a lucrative three-year $4.5 million contract last year.

But the removal of these types of players has brought something into focus in this new-look NHL: enforcers have to be able to play hockey. It has become apparent in the Rangers situation with Brashear that no one in the NHL was interested in his services any longer. Now a lot of that (and I mean a lot) has to do with the fact that Brashear is 38 and he is not the same enforcer that he used to be. While he did get into his fair share of fights for the Rangers, he was constantly injured from them and never exactly changed the course of a game.

The point of having a "hired gun" on your bench is to allow your team (and your star players) to do what they have to do while having the opposing team know that if they so much as touch him, there will be repercussions. Five years ago, Donald Brashear was the best in the business at working the entire night while only playing seven minutes of hockey. Hell, he was even good at it three years ago when he and (then-Ranger) Brendan Shanahan went at it on center ice at Madison Square Garden because Brashear was giving Jaromir Jagr a hard time. And while Shanahan did hold his own (although he did lose the fight and was quite clearly dazed after it) you couldn't help but feel a little helpless that the Rangers had no solution for a guy who would be lucky to score five goals that year.

Maybe those were the thoughts going through Bob Gainey and Glen Sathers heads when they signed Brashear and Laraque. Maybe it was for other reasons. Regardless it has become increasingly clear that there is no longer a place for hired guns who "can't play hockey." A guy has to be able to chip in more than 10 points on a season, or at least he has to be able to play critical minutes for a hockey team. Ranger fans saw this with Colton Orr who, while he was projected to be nothing other than a fighter, saw critical minutes at the end of games and on the power play.

There is obviously a new guard coming into the NHL and it will be very interesting to see where things go from here. Thought?

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Good. I am anti-fighting, thinking it generally adds nothing to the sport. And I fully believe getting it out of the game completely is just a matter of time. But there are far too many goons in the league whose sole job is to go out and fight the other goon.

Glen Sather is a Hockey Genius.

http://glensathersucks.com/
http://twitter.com/ThGeneralissimo

by poploser on Feb 12, 2010 12:23 PM CST reply actions

and btw,

And while Shanahan did hold his own (although he did lose the fight and was quite clearly dazed after it) you couldn’t help but feel a little helpless that the Rangers had no solution for a guy who would be lucky to score five goals that year.

The Rangers did happen to win that game 4-1. And they had Colton Orr in the lineup, who I think its probably highly regarded among hockey fight fans. All this shows me, however, is that the importance of fighting as a means of winning a game is vastly overrated.

Glen Sather is a Hockey Genius.

http://glensathersucks.com/
http://twitter.com/ThGeneralissimo

by poploser on Feb 12, 2010 12:27 PM CST up reply actions

It adds nothing to the game?

Have you ever seen fans ever continue to sit in their seats and complain during and after a fight? Didn’t think so. Everyone stands up in excitement in total anticipating of what’s going to happen.

Do I like staged fights? No, but you really don’t see that much of it anymore. More and more teams are going towards the trend of a #5-6 defenceman that can log quality minutes yet provide toughness when needed. Then there is guys like Ben Eager that can fill that role yet play quality minutes with some scoring touch.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find any hockey fan that doesn’t like a good old fashioned emotional hockey fight.

"Negative energy is better than no energy at all"- "Iron" Mike Keenan

by hawks61 on Feb 12, 2010 5:25 PM CST up reply actions

Hard pressed to find one? I’m right here.

by J. Michael Neal on Feb 13, 2010 2:58 AM CST up reply actions

The Georges Laraque comaprison doesn’t really hold. The Habs cut him because he didn’t fight enough — his personal “code” got in the way.

It’s not that Montreal decided they didn’t need a hired gun. They did, they just didn’t like the one they’d hired.

Down Goes Brown - Unapologetically nostalgic for the past. Brutally realistic about the present. Grudgingly optimistic about the future.

by Down Goes Brown on Feb 12, 2010 1:57 PM CST reply actions

I'd like to believe this

But I don’t. I think what it shows is simply that a goon’s career is short – once he can’t fight on demand any more, his usefulness is gone.

Brashear and Laraque were actually counter-examples – they’ve enjoyed relatively lengthy careers because they could at one time actually play a little bit.

Meanwhile, if Colton Orr is playing critical minutes then your team is in serious trouble. He can barely get off the bench for the Leafs, and it isn’t because they’ve got a lot of offensive depth (although he is having a career year with four points in only 60 games). If he did get power play time with the Rangers, it certainly didn’t add to his career power play scoring total of zero.

In fact, a quick check shows that only four of the top ten fighters this year will score ten points, which is a pretty low bar – likely none of them will hit 20. As soon as they stop fighting once every three or four games, they’ll be gone too (with the possible exception of Matt Carkner).

I've been looking at the sky

by Back In Black on Feb 12, 2010 2:32 PM CST reply actions

And then, just like that, the Rangers go out to acquire another, different enforcers in Jody Shelley.

-Kevin Forbes
Hockey's Future

by kforbes on Feb 12, 2010 3:28 PM CST reply actions

All part of Glen Sather’s master plan. Plan to do what, I have no idea.

Glen Sather is a Hockey Genius.

http://glensathersucks.com/
http://twitter.com/ThGeneralissimo

by poploser on Feb 12, 2010 11:09 PM CST up reply actions

I can't help but think

we’re going to see the “enforcers” on teams be guys like David Clarkson. Guys who can throw their weight around, scrap when called upon, but still be able to put up 40-50 points. I realize that he’s a rare combination of skills in the league now. But I think that you’re spot on about the guys with skills comment, except I think it’s going to be a situation where teams ask their “bigger” guys to mix it up when need be, instead of having someone on the team for strictly that purpose.

by Mandmeisterx on Feb 12, 2010 4:26 PM CST reply actions

Jody Shelly?!?

But the removal of these types of players has brought something into focus in this new-look NHL: enforcers have to be able to play hockey.

Then why did the Rangers pick up Jody Shelly?

by gjhead on Feb 14, 2010 11:20 AM CST reply actions

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