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2018 NHL Playoff Thread


dlbalr

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25 minutes ago, BCHabnut said:

So there are less injuries now than in the 8os and 90s? 

 

Less players committing suicide after careers of undocumented concussions. Less flagrant head injuries. Less flagrant stick injuries. Better care by doctors not pushing players back out on the ice early. 

 

It feels like players are injured more but in reality they are just getting better treatment. Nobody is going back out after a big headshot. A lot less headshots are a part of that. More players get injured from working out too much now than an on ice play.

 

Guys like Luke Richardson getting their head unscrewed and then playing at half skill are less common now. Paul Kariya suffered six concussions, most from hits which were legal at the time.

 

The game is much safer today but that doesn't mean it's completely safe or will ever be. There's always a danger. But it used to be a head hunter game and slash happy. Nowhere near as much. People made a big deal out of Crosby slashing Giroux a few years back. That used to just be a regular shift for Lemieux, to get slashed like that every game.

 

The illusion of safety is a powerful thing. It's why people own guns. 

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Last thing. 

 

If fighting helped teams win... why does no one take a fighter to the world cup or the olympics?

 

if fighting helped teams win... why do teams put their fighters in the press box during the playoffs when winning is much more important. Why do fights go down in the playoffs? 

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7 hours ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

 

Less players committing suicide after careers of undocumented concussions. Less flagrant head injuries. Less flagrant stick injuries. Better care by doctors not pushing players back out on the ice early. 

 

It feels like players are injured more but in reality they are just getting better treatment. Nobody is going back out after a big headshot. A lot less headshots are a part of that. More players get injured from working out too much now than an on ice play.

 

Guys like Luke Richardson getting their head unscrewed and then playing at half skill are less common now. Paul Kariya suffered six concussions, most from hits which were legal at the time.

 

The game is much safer today but that doesn't mean it's completely safe or will ever be. There's always a danger. But it used to be a head hunter game and slash happy. Nowhere near as much. People made a big deal out of Crosby slashing Giroux a few years back. That used to just be a regular shift for Lemieux, to get slashed like that every game.

 

The illusion of safety is a powerful thing. It's why people own guns. 

As fans we typically know more than the players, coaches and management so I will defer to your opinions instead of theirs. 

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Me too. 

 

You never saw low bridges and headhunting like in today's NHL.

 

How did guns get into this?

 

I would much rather have a gun to protect myself and my family than have to wait to call the cops, i'd be dead by then. All the criminals have guns. 

 

 

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I am not a fan of the way fighting evolved. They trained as boxers.  Stood in the middle and fought for no reason. It accomplished  nothing. I am a fan of Sheldon souray beating the shit out of colby Armstrong for dirty stick work on Koivu.  Fighting in hockey evolved into something useless at the end. And dangerous because of how well trained they were. On the 80s and 90s when you answered for your dirty play, I felt it had a purpose.

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3 hours ago, BCHabnut said:

I am not a fan of the way fighting evolved. They trained as boxers.  Stood in the middle and fought for no reason. It accomplished  nothing. I am a fan of Sheldon souray beating the shit out of colby Armstrong for dirty stick work on Koivu.  Fighting in hockey evolved into something useless at the end. And dangerous because of how well trained they were. On the 80s and 90s when you answered for your dirty play, I felt it had a purpose.

Fighting is bush league and thankfully going away.

Fights will always happen once in a while; but, suspensions and fines should be handed out when they do.

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I preferred the fighting to the scrums and silly horseshit now. Also hitting is way down and I dislike that as well. Just personal preference.  I liked knowing when someone acted like a rat they would get their face smashed in.  Love the violence.  Big fan.

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1 hour ago, BCHabnut said:

I preferred the fighting to the scrums and silly horseshit now. Also hitting is way down and I dislike that as well. Just personal preference.  I liked knowing when someone acted like a rat they would get their face smashed in.  Love the violence.  Big fan.

So UFC and WWE are more your thing and not football, rugby, soon to be hockey and every other sport that doesn't allow fighting?

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2 minutes ago, DON said:

So UFC and WWE are more your thing and not football, rugby, soon to be hockey and every other sport that doesn't allow fighting?

If fighting had just started in the league I might agree. Not fighting is new. Maybe the sport for you Is basketball or gymnastick floor events.

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I think the instigator rule, ostensibly designed to curtail 'sideshow' fights, ironically had the effect of relegating fighting largely to goons, who would carefully coordinate fighting opportunities according to an arcane formula so as to avoid being instigators. (Well, except for Laraque, who just politely opted out every time :rolleyes:)

 

The main reason fighting has withered seems, however, to be advanced stats, which demonstrate pretty conclusively (or so I understand) that teams with goons on the ice surrender way more scoring chances, etc.. Once teams realize that, they start insisting that *everyone* on the team be a quality hockey player. So much for the goons.

 

Add to that the concern over concussions. Even though fights often don't cause them, it's still hard to celebrate watching young men receive repeated and intentional blows to the head. I used to love hockey fights (as well as boxing), but now they tend to make me wince, knowing the damage that concussions do.

 

Finally: I'm not seeing this huge spike in cheap shots, myself. The cheap shots were always there, and the kind of unbelievable punishment that used to get doled out, especially in the slot, now tends to get called by officials. Meanwhile Scott Stevens-style headhunting has been cracked down on. I think fighting is a 'solution' to a non-problem, basically.

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I hate staged fighting but I love fights that happen organically in the moment. It's even better when it's two guys that don't usually fight, they're just so pissed off at each other that they want to bash their face in with fists. The fights aren't as good nowadays because most players wear visors, but there's still an element of pure aggression associated with it that I feel still has a place in the game. 

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

I think the instigator rule, ostensibly designed to curtail 'sideshow' fights, ironically had the effect of relegating fighting largely to goons, who would carefully coordinate fighting opportunities according to an arcane formula so as to avoid being instigators. (Well, except for Laraque, who just politely opted out every time :rolleyes:)

 

The main reason fighting has withered seems, however, to be advanced stats, which demonstrate pretty conclusively (or so I understand) that teams with goons on the ice surrender way more scoring chances, etc.. Once teams realize that, they start insisting that *everyone* on the team be a quality hockey player. So much for the goons.

 

Add to that the concern over concussions. Even though fights often don't cause them, it's still hard to celebrate watching young men receive repeated and intentional blows to the head. I used to love hockey fights (as well as boxing), but now they tend to make me wince, knowing the damage that concussions do.

 

Finally: I'm not seeing this huge spike in cheap shots, myself. The cheap shots were always there, and the kind of unbelievable punishment that used to get doled out, especially in the slot, now tends to get called by officials. Meanwhile Scott Stevens-style headhunting has been cracked down on. I think fighting is a 'solution' to a non-problem, basically.

I think the other big difference is size of the players and just how much stronger all players are now.

 

I loved watching the fights like the one in the nordiques playoff series where almost the entire team fought.  Back than,not everyone that fought trained 12 with weights all year and they weren’t “fighters”.  Only the goons really trained as fighters (not withstanding when Savard brought in a boxer to train the team during the smurf years ?,),  so there was less of a chance of guys hurting someone

 

Now with all of the training that the players being bigger and stronger, they can do a lot more damage to each other.  It’s no surprise that it is mainly the dedicated fighters (who were bigger/stronger than the average player and fought a lot more), are the ones who mainly have the brain injuries.

 

i see no reason for fighting anymore.  You can police the rats by giving them meaningful suspensions.   If someone low bridges, or gives a viscous slash or head shot, start suspensions at 10 games and that will weed out those actions. Expand the unsportsmanlike to be an option a major and add suspensions that start at 5 games and you won’t have Pinocchio kissing or licking players anymore.

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58 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

I think the other big difference is size of the players and just how much stronger all players are now.

 

I loved watching the fights like the one in the nordiques playoff series where almost the entire team fought.  Back than,not everyone that fought trained 12 with weights all year and they weren’t “fighters”.  Only the goons really trained as fighters (not withstanding when Savard brought in a boxer to train the team during the smurf years ?,),  so there was less of a chance of guys hurting someone

 

Now with all of the training that the players being bigger and stronger, they can do a lot more damage to each other.  It’s no surprise that it is mainly the dedicated fighters (who were bigger/stronger than the average player and fought a lot more), are the ones who mainly have the brain injuries.

 

i see no reason for fighting anymore.  You can police the rats by giving them meaningful suspensions.   If someone low bridges, or gives a viscous slash or head shot, start suspensions at 10 games and that will weed out those actions. Expand the unsportsmanlike to be an option a major and add suspensions that start at 5 games and you won’t have Pinocchio kissing or licking players anymore.

 

Habs29 for Head of NHL Player Safety! :thumbs_up::thumbs_up:

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We can see the growing list of ex-goons gone to the grave at a much earlier age than skilled hockey players. Is absolutely irrefutable evidence on impact fighting has on goon-brains...isn't it? I would guess is it also partially due to the certain personality type of goons like a Kordic, Probert, Belak...

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On ‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎08 at 7:23 AM, BCHabnut said:

So there are less injuries now than in the 8os and 90s? 

All the extra Kevlar body armour they wear now likely a big factor, also obviously there are bigger, faster and stronger players now. 

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On ‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎08 at 3:24 PM, BCHabnut said:

As fans we typically know more than the players, coaches and management so I will defer to your opinions instead of theirs. 

?

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