I am all for seeing some dirty work getting done, bottom line though if your D does not have that enforcer, them most of what the forwards do is just little guys being annoying. Seabroke just wont be that guy anymore. I dont know if he found Jesus or just thinks he gets paid too much to do it. but if nobody is expecting to get wiped out by a d man, teams will just keep beating up the talent..
Well, the best enforcer of all time was a LW... (RIP Probert). I don't think the purvey of creaming guys is on the D and D alone.
I think I get what you're driving at, though, and as I mentioned on another board there seems to be an Aura of Pussification™ on the 'hawks and has been for a few years now. It seems like when anyone...and I mean
anyone shows any kind of pack mentality it's quickly quashed out of them. Breadman? Remember when a guy ran kane and he went after him. Beautiful moment, no? Never did it again. Even Debrincat, of all players, went after a guy for going after Keith...and never did it again.
You could argue both of those guys are better on the ice than off the ice...and you could also argue that with the PK and Team D sucking like R Kelly when handed a bottle of Cambodian breast milk...but IMHO that's no excuse. If liberties are taken against your team, you do what you can against the opposition. Sumetimes it's a fight. Sometimes it's laying the guy out. Sometimes it's laying the opposing star out, running their goalie, taking potshots at the goalie's mask, crashing the net hard, or, if you're a guy like Kane or Debrincat, finding that extra gear and giving the goalie a Luongo Seizure. You make them pay--and if one guy does fight or otherwise go after a player in retaliation, you kill the ensuing penalty-0-no ifs, ands, or buts. It's pack mentality and it's something this team doesn't have.
And it's also why I'm so fucking pissed off at the 18 skater pantywaists iced over the past two seasons. Crawford got ran, twice, and once after he was carrying their bloated carcasses at the playoff line while they mailed it in. I don't think it's the lack of ability to make the opposition pay the piper. Hell, Keith could have swashbuckled Malkin as if he was Coyle (and given how hard Keith sucked in 2018, it would have been the best thing he did all year--even taking the ensuing suspension into consideration) and it would have been something. But, no. Nothing. No payabck collected on Malkin. No one tried to Run Crosby. No one tried to run Murray or takes some slapshots at his melon--and the same happened with respect to E. Kane and the sharks in 2019. IMHO that's inexcusable. That's not a team, that's 19 individuals on the ice, and that mentality never wins you a cup.
It's a worry I have with the squad coming in. I'm expecting a little snarl from guys like Smith, Shaw, Carpenter, even Lehner a bit. But, if that Aura of Pussification™ is too strong and still pervasive we might be looking at the same shit this year...and that worries me especially with respect to Crawford. I don't know what the exact cause of the Aura of Pussification™ is, but I believe that until/unless it stops, it doesn't matter how many big guys we get onto the ice, that pack mentality and physical play will be a nonfactor.