“I would tell Brendan Smith get involved in that every day, all day,” Blashill said. “He’s going in to help Hank out and I was really glad he jumped in there.
“I’d tell him to do it again for sure and if we’ve got to kill a penalty for it, we’ll kill a penalty for it. Over the long haul of the year, we’ll stick up for each other every night.”
Nice change of tune from Babcocks turn the other cheek and our PP is our enforcer crap. The only problem with this though is the Wings have a cream puff lineup and every team in the league knows it. Smith, Ericsson and Abdelkader don't scare anyone in fights even non fighters.
Teams will continue to target the Wings top players and take runs at them every game because they know there is only 3 guys that might drop the gloves on the entire roster and none of them are guys that will give anyone a beating. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are use to the abuse and are showing the wear and tear from it every season with injuries. Tatar, Nyquist and Larkin will need to get use to it now because it doesn't look like Holland is going to bring in some toughness to the 4th line anytime soon. Wings likely have the softest 4th line in the league with little to no size/toughness on the other 3 lines or the defense either.
I don't mind a mostly skilled team but you need a little nastiness somewhere in the lineup if it's not on the 4th line.
