Physical play including fighting are missing from the game...

[LabattBlue]

I know I will be viewed as a dinosaur and wanting something that is gone from the game, but it is a big part of why I am "losing my love" for the game.  Just to be clear, I am not asking for bench clearing brawls, or even line brawls, but a fight between two players should be ok and a regular part of the game(remove the instigator penalty). 

Also, and this is magnified by the play of the Sabres particularly, what has happened to body checking?  The Sabres are dead last in hits per 60 min, by ~3.5 hits per game(and 13 hits per game away from being middle of the pack). 

https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20222023&seasonTo=20222023&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=hitsPer60&page=0&pageSize=50

This isn't a women's "no checking" league.  Maybe I would feel differently if the Sabres were a playoff team AND if they were not another season into one of the worst periods any NHL team has ever experienced...or maybe I'd still yearn for the physical play even if winning.

 

Anyone who has ever been to an NHL game, can't tell me that other than a goal, two of the most exciting plays in a game, are a bone crushing body check or a fight.

Edited November 16, 2022 by LabattBlue

[spndnchz]

I’d agree. After the ‘instigator’ penalty, things quietly downed for fear of putting your teams down a man. 

[mjd1001]

I like the hitting in the game. Some of the hits Lyubushkin had on the western trip were great.

Fighting, no need for it.  I'd give up every single fight in an entire year (not that there are many anymore) for one single more exicting goal.  The game for me is end-to-end rushes, it is goals like the last few Thompson scored....a one timer from Ovi (or Olofsson) for that matter. Those are the things to me that are 100x better than fighting.   Thats just me though.

[Refuting]

Good post. The Sabres do lack a certain physicality/take no shyt approach. Couple that with defensive responsibility, and the wins will pile up. Provided the offense stays the course. 

Trade for a power forward please 

[Pimlach]

23 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I know I will be viewed as a dinosaur and wanting something that is gone from the game, but it is a big part of why I am "losing my love" for the game.  Just to be clear, I am not asking for bench clearing brawls, or even line brawls, but a fight between two players should be ok and a regular part of the game(remove the instigator penalty). 

Also, and this is magnified by the play of the Sabres particularly, what has happened to body checking?  The Sabres are dead last in hits per 60 min, by ~3.5 hits per game(and 13 hits per game away from being middle of the pack). 

https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20222023&seasonTo=20222023&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=hitsPer60&page=0&pageSize=50

This isn't a women's "no checking" league.  Maybe I would feel differently if the Sabres were a playoff team AND if they were not another season into one of the worst periods any NHL team has ever experienced...or maybe I'd still yearn for the physical play even if winning.

 

Anyone who has ever been to an NHL game, can't tell me that other than a goal, two of the most exciting plays in a game, are a bone crushing body check or a fight.

Your classic avatar of Eddie Shack riding Gerry Ehman already puts you in the dinosaur category whether you like fighting in the game or not.  

Shack electrified the crowd in The Aud in those first 2 years.  Not in the way that Gilbert did, but he really was just so painful to play against.  He could score, check, instigate, fight - you never knew what he was going to do.  Add in the fact that we traded him straight up for Rene Robert.  

 

I like to see a good scrap every now and then but those days are gone and not coming back.  

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by Pimlach

[Porous Five Hole]

I think players don’t want to throw haymakers and hit a helmet visor with a bare hand.

[Refuting]

1 minute ago, Porous Five Hole said:

I think players don’t want to throw haymakers and hit a helmet visor with a bare hand.

It's a piece of plastic who cares 

[inkman]

3 minutes ago, Toilet_Mop said:

It's a piece of plastic who cares 

Probably the guy who breaks his hand on said piece of plastic. 

[Refuting]

Just now, inkman said:

Probably the guy who breaks his hand on said piece of plastic. 

That's not gonna happen. Maybe if the visor was made out of brick 

[Mustache of God]

This is a symptom of having the youngest team in the league. You can't expect the kids  (Peterka, Quinn, Power, Cozens) to be throwing heavy hits on full grown men, and players like Oloffson, Skinner, Byrson, Pilut don't really seem to have the body type to be outmuscling other players. 

[SwampD]

Dahlin threw a pretty good hip check last night and got called for trip.

Edited November 16, 2022 by SwampD

[LabattBlue]

55 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

This is a symptom of having the youngest team in the league. You can't expect the kids  (Peterka, Quinn, Power, Cozens) to be throwing heavy hits on full grown men, and players like Oloffson, Skinner, Byrson, Pilut don't really seem to have the body type to be outmuscling other players. 

C'mon man.  So every player in the league is a "full grown man", and incapable of being checked by someone else just because of their age?

[LTS]

51 minutes ago, Toilet_Mop said:

That's not gonna happen. Maybe if the visor was made out of brick 

A piece of plastic designed to protect the head against a puck moving 90+ mph.  It's more than strong enough to break a hand if you can hit it hard enough to break your hand.

Physical play and especially fighting are going to be way down. It's trained out of the game early on as a byproduct of reducing head trauma. Hockey, unlike football, realized this pretty early on and I am sure its one reason the sport is growing unlike football.

The lower physical play also leads to less "rage" and so I think that also leads to lower incidents of really hard hits and certainly fighting. Having a fight, just to fight, is completely stupid in the NHL. If you want to see people punch each other there are other sports.

 

[Zamboni]

No NEED for fights in todays NHL. 
Just a want.

I’d rather have hard or skilled checks than “fights”. 
 

 

[thewookie1]

Our arena is also known for making lower than usual hit counts for both teams which certainly doesn’t help us with overall.

 

[LabattBlue]

2 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Our arena is also known for making lower than usual hit counts for both teams which certainly doesn’t help us with overall.

 

You have a link to these numbers comparing all NHL teams? 😉

3 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

I’d rather have hard or skilled checks than “fights”. 
 

 

...and in the case of the Sabres, you have neither.  

[thewookie1]

Someone on CapFriendly did it last season for us and found we averaged about 4 or so hits more per road game than at home which overall would of put us at the bottom but not by some absurd level.

 

This was after a Sabres vs Philly game in which Marty and Duffer called out the lack of hits in a rather physical game still only finishing with 13 for Philly and like 6 for Buffalo

Edited November 16, 2022 by thewookie1

[LabattBlue]

3 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Someone on CapFriendly did it last season for us and found we averaged about 4 or so hits more per road game than at home which overall would of put us at the bottom but not by some absurd level.

 

This was after a Sabres vs Philly game in which Marty and Duffer called out the lack of hits in a rather physical game still only finishing with 13 for Philly and like 6 for Buffalo

So a one game sample?  You don't even need to look at the stats to know the Sabres would be near the bottom of the league.  They fail the eye test in this regard game after game.

[Curt]

Hit stats are unreliable junk.  They are recorded differently by some local guy in ever building in the league.

For whatever reason, in Buffalo hit stats are recorded at a comically low rate.

The Sabres average 8.7 hits/60 at home (2nd lowest in the league is 14.0).

On the road they average 19.5 hits/60, 9th lowest in the league.

I would agree that the Sabres are not an overly physical team, but hit stats are completely meaningless garbage.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Curt

[LabattBlue]

10 minutes ago, Curt said:

Hit stats are unreliable junk.  They are recorded differently by some local guy in ever building in the league.

For whatever reason, in Buffalo hit stats are recorded at a comically low rate.

The Sabres average 8.7 hits/60 at home (2nd lowest in the league is 14.0).

On the road they average 19.5 hits/60, 9th lowest in the league.

I would agree that the Sabres are not an overly physical team, but hit stats are completely meaningless garbage.

...or maybe for whatever reason, they choose to be less physical when playing at home?

[Curt]

32 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

...or maybe for whatever reason, they choose to be less physical when playing at home?

This is a consistent trend over the course of many years.  It’s not just something from the 15 games this season or even from last season.  It’s year after year.

It applies to the visiting team as well.  Low hit numbers in Buffalo is a real thing.

[msw2112]

I don't watch too much NHL hockey outside of the Sabres, and at that, I can't watch all of the Sabres games.  Is it true that other NHL teams "finsh their checks" like hockey teams did in the old days?  Not to overly criticize the Sabres, beacuse from what I have seen, other teams don't do it all that much either when they play the Sabres.  I do watch some playoff hockey every year, and it definitely looks like guys finish their checks in the playoffs.

These comments are anecdotal and not tied to any statistics.  I'm curious what others who watch more hockey than me think.

To my mind, if there's no penalty for a clean hit, why not hit as often as you can?  It's fun to dish out (although not so much to take) and it sends a message to the opponent.  It also helps get the crowd into the game and sets an aggressive tone that can help create positive momentum for a team.

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, LabattBlue said:

So a one game sample?  You don't even need to look at the stats to know the Sabres would be near the bottom of the league.  They fail the eye test in this regard game after game.

No it was over the whole season

[wingnut]

I don't know where I got it from, but "it is known" Buffalo scorekeepers have low hit counts. Canucks/Sabres 11/5 hits? I don't believe it's even possible to play a game and only record 5 hits, is it? Didn't figure skating have more hits than that in 1994?

[Second Line Center]

You mean turning your sport into one where every single team builds the same way using the same analytics going after the same type of players has created a parity ridden league that’s boring.  

Stunning.  Who saw this coming?
 

But at least we got rid of the goons and the stars are safe.  They were all dropping like flies in the 70s and 80s.  Have no clue how this league survived such turbulent violent times.