I’ve been saying it for years since the transition to speed and skill, but I honestly do not see the harm in carrying a TRUE battleship as the 13th forward. Scratch him when you need, but play him 5 mins a night when it’s called for. With our young wings and glut of talented centers, the second and third line can afford to cover for a guy who barely touches the ice, unless he needs to take a few shifts to dole out punishment. I’m talking OLD SCHOOL, like the type of guy who says to evander kane that he’d better knock it off, unless he wants to see MacDavids arm get broken the next shift. I truly feel like the team two years ago would have massively benefitted from having ‘a few criminals’ on the roster in that 7 game series against the Oil, and maybe not as much, but definitely last year as well. Two small, too passive. This roster isn’t the ramrod group from 2012 who ran amok hitting anything and everything, and defending each other like a pack of wolves. I feel some of that mentality would go a long ways, because the last two years we’ve had absolutely NO ONE who will take exception to the dirty stuff and stand up against it. Doughty’s knee, Fiala’s knee, the hits against Mikey and Durzi(multiple times).. we’ve had our TOP end talent compromised in both the last two seasons just before the playoffs started. It needs to be snuffed out with a ferocity and aggression(during the regular season), that every other team in the league will be fully cognizant of the ramifications if they hobble one of our players.
