Oh, did I offend a wings or pens fan or two?
I apologize....NOT.
Didn't offend anyone, you just come off as incredibly uninformed and lacking any knowledge in hockey.
The series is boring as hell. I have watched hockey for the past 15 years and I never seen more european pansies in one series as in this one. Neither team even carries an enforcer in case say someone decides to take a run at Crosby.. oh thats right, nevermind, the toughest guy on the wings is kris draper. lame boring non physical series.. and that is NOT what hockey is all about.
that is why i LOVED when the ducks won it last year.. a good physical all around team. not soft like these two teams are.
The "European Pansy" stigma has been completely debunked, yet many idiots continue to spout this nonsense thanks to xenophobic fossils like Don Cherry in the media. The Detroit team of European pansies out-hit the Ducks all series long, yet the ridiculous stereotype still continues, all because they don't fight. Toughness has very little to do with fighting ability. Toughness can be someone willing to take a beating in front of the net night after night just to distract the goalie for his teammates. Toughness is not being afraid to go into corners to fight for a loose puck. Toughness is being willing to take a hit in order to make a play. Toughness is the ability to finish a check. Toughness is playing through an injury. Toughness is putting your body on the line to block a shot. I'd expect someone who has watched 15 years of hockey to understand this.
As for why both teams don't carry an enforcer. I haven't seen to much of the star players needing any "sticking up for." Anyone who tries to lay a big hit on the stars (Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Crosby, Malkin) usually end up missing because they're much quicker. I haven't seen any time where the players run away from confrontation. Even the smallest guy on the ice, Jiri Hudler, mixes it it up all the time between whistles, sticking up for himself and his teammates in scrums. Lastly, the era of the enforcer is dead. The talent pool is much deeper than it was 20-30 years. How is an enforcer supposed to "stick up" for the stars when he plays 4 minutes a night and never on a line with the stars? Furthermore, the presence of someone who might fight you if you hit a star is not a deterrent. If a guy is going to run a star, he's going to run a star. Some goon sitting on the bench is not going to scare them. The ultimate goal of every team is to win a hockey game, and keeping a guy on the team that can't skate and is only there to fight is a waste of a spot.
If you think this series hasn't been physical, you aren't watching, and if you think Kris Draper is the toughest guy on the Wings, you're even more misinformed than I originally thought.
Case in point, Philadelphia was supposedly the toughest, most physical team in the East, and Pitt destroyed them in the toughness categories, which included winning a fight that changed the tide of Game 6. And your precious Ducks saw a similar fate to the hands of the supposedly pansy-ass Wings. The Wings were tougher than them between the whistles when the game matters, and didn't get caught up in the after whistle BS the Ducks try to goad other teams into. Also, see "soft" Swede Jonathon Ericsson rag-doll "tough" Corey Perry in Game 1 of that series for another debunking of this pansy Euro BS.
