" To be or not to be, the is the question, weather tis' nobler in mind to suffer, the sings and arrows of outrages fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing en them" ~Hamlet Prince of Denmark
Alright, 400 years later, times have changed. Yet even now the simple meaning remains the same(all be it scaled down a couple notches). So many years ago, a man now regarded as perhaps the most brilliant mind in the history of the preforming arts set fourth, placing pen to paper and encsribing a deeply meaningful line that even now, while many barely understand what it means, is known by almost any and all who have even heard the name Shakespeare. Fact is in that famous soliloquy Hamlet prince of Denmark was questioning the meaning of life and while weather or not fighting in hockey is good or bad is a far more petty question, the outlining backbones to the meaning of that historic speech still can be applied to our modern day hockey query.
As Bruins fan fondly remember, our beloved team still remains just 2 years removed from their first Stanley Cup Championship in almost 4 decades, and even better with the exception of big additions like Jaromir Jager, Dougie Hamilton and Anton Khudobin, coupled with the loss Tim Thomas, the inner core of the Bruins squad remains unaltered. Yet while close nothing has changed on the front of the Bruins roster core, the style of play the B's have so prosperously employed for 3 years now couldn't be more different.
You see when the books closed on the 2011 regular season, Boston had tallied 71 fighting majors, an average of just under a fight per game. They had 5 players with more than 5 fights 3 of witch threw down the gloves more than 10 times, as throughout that season it seemed that everybody, and I mean everybody was fighting. Mark Recchie, David Krejci (Krejci fought twice), Daniel Paille and even Tim Thomas all recorded at least one fighting major. In that season it seemed like a fact, when Boston beat up their opponents by way of the fighting major, they beat their opponents by way of pucks ending up in the back of the net.
As said before, the Bruins fought at just under a fight per game clip, (.85 per game to be precise), a statistic that only slightly diminished as the Bruins finished their historic playoff run with an additional 5 fights going 3 and 2 in games in which the gloves were dropped. Coincidence? I think not. Boston won it all that year and with their roster not changeing much, one would think neither would their aggressive physical style. Yet when the Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs last spring, it had. Less than 1 year after marching around the Vancouver ice, Stanley cup held high, not only did Boston's sheer number of fights diminish also did the distribution of wealth if you will. With 61 fights over the course of their 2011 2012 cup defense Bostons fights per game average dropped from .85 down to .74 as in addition to that Boston had just 4 players muster more than 5 fights only two of which threw down more than 10 times. Yet while their physical style worked wonders for them a year earlier, Boston won 3 more games last season than the did in 2011, a fact that gives meaning to the argument to abolish fighting in the game of hockey. Finally we arrive at this the final month of the 2012 2013, NHL season. At last check, Boston has dropped the gloves 23 times in 37 games meaning that if this were a full 82 game season they would be on pace to notch about 51 fights, that's 10 less than last season and 20 less than 2011, and like 2012 and unlike 2011, the Bruins are now on pace to yet again with the less fights power out more and more wins.
With 24 victories already, Boston is projected to win a whopping 53 games, that last season would have been good enough for the best record in the league, yet astonishingly Boston now sits 2nd in their division 3 points behind the leading Montreal Canadians.
For 3 years now it has been an enigma of a question, a far from simple inquiry of what really fuels a teams success, brutish bouts of barbaric aggression or a simple pacifist approach where the main goal is not to stain the ice red with the claret blood of their bruised opponents but instead focus on the new contemporary style of play prosperously employing the skills surrounding crisp passing and fleeting explosions of speed and mighty moves. It's a simple question with a massive answer. Do your drop the gloves and start throwing hay makers or keep your mitts glued to your hands?
* All fight statisitics from http://www.hockeyfights.com/teams/3
0 comments:
Post a Comment