I dunno, man. The strict 'enforcers' is one thing -- guys like Tony Twist who could barely skate but were there for the punchin'...

But a guy like Stevens? Trouba? Those guys get your attention when you're coming into the offensive zone. You know where they are and it keeps you from being too aggressive with the puck -- you get it off your stick pretty quickly. And a guy like Jeannot (or that dirty ****stain Tom Wilson) are guys on the forecheck who you absolutely remember if you're going into the corners for a loose puck. And you maybe take a half a heartbeat setting up for a hit that gives someone time to get there before you.

I think physical players still absolutely have a role -- at least the guys like Stevens.

It’s not 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7 etc? Why?

Hell, I think Stevens even had a couple 20 goal seasons, even if he wasn't much of a scorer in the 2nd half of his career. He wasn't just a goon.

The Blues deciding they've had enough of this shit and stepping on Utahs throat tonight has been fun. ****ing sucks that they ended up gacking the 1st wild card slot but even 4 games of playoff hockey is better than none.

You know what was fun? When the NHL flat ****ing took him away from the Blues and awarded him to the Devils.

It really has been a garage league for most of its existence.

Wow, I'd forgotten about that! Crazy deal with Stevens and Shannahan, draft picks, and a weird arbitration system.

I've known of it, but hadn't ever really read up on it... I know contracts can sometimes be wonky with 'future considerations' and so forth, but how ****ing bizarre to know you can't compensate the first round draft picks, but you say **** it anyway, we'll figure it out... sign here?

What was so crazy is the thunderous amount of firepower that went around in all that.

Sign Steven (young future HoFer) and lose 5 picks. One of those picks is Sergei Gonchar who really should be in the HoF, IMO.

Then the blues lose Stevens a season later as compensation for signing Shanahan (after offering Brindamour and Curtis Joseph and both of THOSE guys are borderline HoFers).

Then 4 years later you trade Shanahan to get Chris friggen Pronger.

Somehow in all that NOBODY missed anywhere on a talent evaluation.

Rules were weird then. I don't really think anyone expected the NHL to make the Blues give up Stevens. And Brind'Amour/Joseph was very obviously fair compensation.

But again - garage league. The rumor is that the NHL owners were pissed at the Blues for offer sheets and salary escalation so they were essentially trying to bury them.

I can buy that.

If you're a repeat offender who tries to decapitate someone, you get to rest one game before the playoffs start and uh, think about what you did...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse has been suspended for one game for cross-checking against Los Angeles’ Quinton Byfield. <a href="https://t.co/mZDe51ynMz">https://t.co/mZDe51ynMz</a></p>&mdash; NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLPlayerSafety/status/1912331391133507636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Department of player safety is just laughable.

Had Shanahan still been in the room and that had happened to a Red Wing, Nurse would've gotten 10 games for it.

And things aren't much better now.

The NHL still just feels like a league that wants to be self-contained and make decisions based on their gut. There's just too much money involved for that shit these days.

I don't know how the NHL could possibly be doing this shit and not be blatantly making a complete mockery of player safety.

If hiring a goon to make these decisions wasn't enough, how the hell could anyone in the front offices look at a suspension like this and think.... he won't do that again, huge win for player safety, LFG!

And I've seen people blame the NHLPA... they agree to the policy and if they don't care enough to demand long suspensions and so forth, then why should fans care. I'm sure some players care a lot more than others, then I'm sure there are trust issues with giving the league the green light to hand out lengthy and/or playoff suspensions and then it backfires after a bang-bang play.

....but I dunno, how hard is it to look at that cross check to the head while dude is on the ice and the play is over and say maybe we don't want that shit in the game. :facepalm:

If a guy get blows up it’s usually his fault or a player made a sacrifice to make a play , still technically his fault but acceptable, I met Lindros and he was a dick so karma caught up to him .

It will go 6

Oh surely Winnipeg can force it to 7...