Dalton Smith is a must call-up vs. Bruins

[Taro T]

4 minutes ago, Andrew Amerk said:

Those Bullies redefined hockey for quite a long time. 

Did they?

Bill Masterton died in '68.

Wayne Maki - Ted Green was in December '69.  

The "Big Bad Bruins" won in the late '60's / early '70's.

The St. Louis Blues Plager brother trio led brutes beating the snot out of Filly in the late '60's spawned the Broad Street Bullies.  But expanding the league's available jobs by 200% in just 8 years (not to mention the jobs opened up in the WHA) was far more instrumental in increasing the goon factor IMHO as the Western European expansion didn't really get going in earnest until that 1st wave of expansion had been completed.  So, though there were 3x the jobs, there wasn't 3x the talent available to fill those jobs by the time the Phlyers hit their stride.  And thuggery did increase commensurately. 

But the Flying Frenchmen won 4 straight after ending the Phlyers run.  The Aisles were tough & could dish it out, but preferred to just play hard hockey.  The Eulers were far from goons.

The minor leagues had been brutal forever & yes, the bench clearing brawl was a staple of the Phlyers in their heyday and those continued on occasion through the '80's.  But winning hockey was played by the teams that could outscore the other from '76- early '90's.  Whoever had Tiger Williams put on the mega (& losing) goon show. 

Now, had Filly beat Moe-ray-all in '76 & had that style won 3 straight, winning hockey would've been redefined.  But teams trying to copy the "winning formulas" and rules to reduce (to a degree) pure thuggery kept the sport from being redefined IMHO.  And then there were the addition of the 3rd man in penalty & misconduct for leaving the bench to join a fight & the '79 requirement of helmet usage which did tend to alter the game again.

My 2 cents.