I will hold off on yammering about it until details emerge and until I can sort of collect my thoughts, but I am obviously saddened to hear about today's horrible hockey tragedy. Still hoping that a little bit of good news emerges especially with regards to former Cane Josef Vasicek who has a special place in my hockey heart.

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Mostly gone are the days of NHL players whose job title is “enforcer” (or similar). The days of staged fights are also a relic of NHL past. But at the same time, you could argue that the use of intimidation, nastiness and physical play is at an all-time high. As relates specifically to my Carolina Hurricanes, as a smallish rookie skill player, Jeff Skinner had many a player take an extra swipe, jab or bang at him when he was battling around the net obviously with the aim of seeing if he could be knocked off his game. Jeff Skinner handled himself about perfectly in these situations last year. First, he was not stupid enough to get lured into unnecessary fights that took him and a lesser player off the ice for 5 minutes due to a bout where he was probably an underdog due to size and experience. But at the same time, he did not back down or become intimidated. He traded jabs, shoves, words or whatever and went about playing the exact same brand of gritty hockey that he was playing before the altercation.

The way that Jeff Skinner handled himself in 2010-11 in the face of antagonizers and intimidators is a good model for the Canes other young skill players who are not as deep in NHL experience.

But the take care of yourself thing has limits. A team cannot allow an opponent to repeatedly take liberties with its skill players without repercussions. I am not saying that you need to hunt down someone who lays a clean check. But at the same time, you cannot allow repeated cheap shots/extra stuff without stepping in. With the Canes 2011-12 roster full of young skill players early in their NHL careers, the team will have need for a little bit of policing to do this season.

While not a big, physical and nasty team by definition, the Canes roster is reasonably well stocked to handle this role. Bryan Allen is a great addition in this regard. He is very much of the mold of Tim Gleason. He is not a fighter for show type, but at the same time he is the kind of player who will fight about anyone when something happens that shouldn’t. And like Tim Gleason (of that same Scott Walker mold), he fights to win a fight not to protect himself, get it over with or whatever. This makes him dangerous and a bit scary when opponents realize that their actions could get them into the kind of free-swinging full-tilt fight where people can get hurt. Jay Harrison brings another willing combatant who will stand up for teammates when the situation warrants it. In the new NHL, having players like this who player regular shifts who are willing combatants is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it does impact the team, minutes and ice time rotation when 1 of them goes off the ice for 5 minutes. Those guys are on the roster to play regular shifts and win games not just to get on the ice long enough to entertain with a fight or 2 like in the old days. But on the other hand, you have a much greater likelihood of actually having 1 of the right guys on the ice if the situation needs 1 of them.

As a team that needs play each game like it is playing for the 2 points that will decide between the #8 and #9 spot at the end of the season (because it very well could be), it is difficult to take or risk too many extra penalties. But at the same time, I think Coach Maurice needs to give guys like Allen, Gleason and Harrison a longer leash in 2011-12 to create an on-ice environment where the kids have some help and know someone has their back. If you make a point early in the season that shenanigans will not be tolerated and that there is a price to pay for them, the need to police this stuff should diminish as the season wears on. But given the Canes young roster, I think Coach Maurice needs to give a bigger green light early on for players to police the unnecessary stuff even if it comes at the expense of a couple extra power plays given.

What say you Canes fans? Is the game tame enough these days that the kids can mostly just handle themselves without getting bullied – Skinner did okay with this last year? Or is there value in giving guys like Allen and Gleason a little more leeway in terms of cleaning things up when necessary despite the risk of injury and giving up a few extra power plays?

For occasional updates on the Canes and notifications when I post a blog, follow me on Twitter - CarolinaMatt63.

Go Canes!

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