TBLightning............Tonight's your night?

Question

I've chosen to watch the Washington Tampa game this evening............and just watched the Roy-Brashear dance (Brashgar won). Is Roy the best fighter TB's got? I look at the roster and this team is only penalized 14 minutes a game and very few fighting majors.

My question.............what's up with that? Vinny fight's for himself here?

Bob...........you should pick up this week's edition of the Hockey News, the enforcers speak out.

I've never thought much of Andre Roy as a tough guy, but he didn't acquit himself well at all in this fight. Brashear was slkow in starting, but landed the last 5 punches in rapid succession before falling on top.

If Roy is the best the Lightning has in the enforcer department.........I'd be looking for another one.

Snoop.............I'm all for Vinny fighting Lecavalier, Ovechkin, Crosby/Malkin etc.............just not Brashear, Laraque, etc

In my day, we didn't have goons. We had Chris Neil/Chris Simon types. Guys who could score 10-15 goals and protect their stars.

Excellent examples of this includes John Ferguson, Eddie Shack, Eric Nesterenko, Dave 'Tiger' William, Bob Probert, etc. Ferguson was a 50 point man, Probert hit double digits in goals 6x (including seasons of 20, and 29), Williams scored 241 goals in his career.

I think the league needs more people like Rick Tocchett (30 goals, 299PIM) instead of the Jody Shelleys of the world.

But for God's sake............anybody but Andre Roy!

Answer 1

Isn't it ridiculous? Who wants their best player and the current NHL scoring leader sitting in the box or worse yet, breaking a hand defending himself?
Shane O'Brien dropped the gloves quite a bit last year but I think the bulk of those were with Anaheim and I am not sure how he did in the fights overall.
Another reason why the powers that be need to look at getting rid of the instigator rule. Just because guys like Vinny and Iginla can fight, does not mean they should. It used to be that if anyone touched Gretzky in practice, let alone a game, he would be dealt with. Practice, I'm talking about practice....practice, not a game, practice.

Answer 2

I was thinking about this the other day, and here is what I came up with:

The Tampa Bay Lightning has many things going for the team, yet the enforcer has been a problem for the Lightning in the last 5 years. Here is what they have:

Nick Tarnasky: Willing to fight, but not very good at picking a fight with a willing participant, therefore he usually gets an instigator penalty.

Chris Gratton: Been around the block enough to know when to hold them and when to fold them, but usually only fights to protect his own goaltender

Vincent Lecavalier: Has had a fighting attitude this year, but he know that his hands, face, and body are too important, so he will not risk being a man down for the team. Also, should not be on this list.

Shane O'Brien: Was easily instigated last year, but this year he has been on good behavior with Dan Boyle being gone. Also his lost a lot of fights.

Then we have André Roy: He is always willing to drop the gloves, to protect his teammates. He's pretty good, but last night was no match.

The only two I can think of in the past 5 years are:

Chris Dingman: Not a good forward, but a good goon
&
Evgeny Artyukhin: Feaster asked if he wanted to come back this year, but as you know, the Russian's only care about the money, and Feaster wasn't will to pay up. Also, Evgeny Artyukhin, fought dirty. One game Evgeny Artyukhin ripped off Antoine Vermette's helmet and hit him on the head with it, while refs were trying to break up the fight. So, I am not sure if he would be good the even have on the team.

I suppose the team has to win on talent alone and keep checking players at every chance, to prove there is a fighting force, or pay some goon to come in a take care of business. I just think if they paid some good enforcer to come in, that player's paycheck might bounce. :)

Answer 3

Yes, earlier this season, after Vinny Lecavalier had fought twice in a row, I was like, "Whoa, no else will stick up for this guy?" At the same time, it's morbidly fascinating, especially reflecting on the two instances when Vinny fought Chara!... The question I asked about him fighting after those two games was focused more on the morbidly fascinating angle, LOL, but points about his leadership were brought up. Which yeah, I know, is noble of him and all... But how long before their leading scorer gets his face broken?

Before the trade deadline last season, the Penguins didn't have an enforcer-type player. Sidney Crosby didn't start mixing it up though. Other guys stepped it up when they needed to, like Ryan Malone, Colby Armstrong, Brooks Orpik, Jarkko Ruutu, Ronald Petrovicky, and Chris Thorburn.

Answer 4

Yes, Roy is the best we've got. But it's more than just the enforcer (or whats left of it) side of him that makes him a fan-favorite; Andre is actually very, very funny. He latest segments for the Broadcast show have been absolute dynamite. Everyone's always talking about the latest "Rappin with Roy"

I was at tonight's game, and I even openly admitted that he didn't win that one. However, I think an enforcer would never be brought in by Jay Feaster, and as a result is the least of our problems.

Answer 5

Bob, did you have to go Iverson on me here? That trade is the biggest reason why I stopped watching Sixers basketball. Now on to the answer...

Back in the day, the top stars often had to fight for themselves (I'm going off some of my readings here). Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Bobby Hull, et al dropped the gloves to pummel intrepid enforcers. Vinny L. is kind of a throwback if you ask me. Who knows, he might be the toughest top star in the NHL (at least he should fight Jarome Iginla again for the crown)!

A lack of a true enforcer is just plain nuts for a team that relies heavily on their top three forwards.

Answer 6

I read that TB had been fishing around Toronto trying to get Belak to address this but, JFJr wanted too much for him.
It's sad in order to sell the game they have to dull it down and remove the 'so called violence' to sell it to the most violent nation on Earth.