News & Observer | newsobserver.com | 2008 NCAA Men's Bracket

Any player who has made the NHL is tough. It is this team's management and how they have built this team purely around a fast offense. I don't blame any Cane for the lack of physicality, it is not their forte. Their succes will lie in their defined playstyle: puck control and speed.

I do, however, blame many of  the fans here on this board that do not have a thick skin. So much so that they cry to the moderator.  I have made my sentiments clear on the subject in the other the blog "Courtesy, Please."

I am not worried about this team's toughness, it's the fans. And no I don't mean that as a challenge to fight, I mean it as the ability to take criticism of your team.

Hmmmm...wonder if I will get a warning for this.

Who's the toughest guy on the Red Wings?

The type of toughness that is most useful isn't a player who can only fight but not play a regular shift, or a guy who can lay a big hit every once in a while but is useless otherwise, but a player who can play a regular shift and be strong in front of the net and on the puck along the boards as well as being able to knock a player off the puck This team has a limited number of players who can do those things. What good teams like the Bruins have are players who are strong and physical in ways that affect their ability to hold onto the puck, and get the puck away from other teams in one on one battles. This is were the Canes lose out.

I think your asking the wrong question. I think the question is is the team structured right. If you have the right players and right motivators you get reaction. The Bruins have not looked well at all for a lot of seasons now. So a slow rebuild. Result they look like the Canes of 06. Result? We all know . Is Maurice just a band aid ? Is Francis coaching material? Francis has a incredable background as player that gave 100% Plus. Maurice has had an excellent past record with the Canes! So managment? Leaning to hard on Cam Ward? Expecting too much out of him? I beleive so. He needs a backup. When I saw the last back up goaile from Tampa. Grahame not my choice for sure. Next I beleive a good motivator is Key. Julien the lastest coach in Boston seems to be that. So there is good comparison. Toughness comes with real commitment. The Canes have a super bunch of players. Someone needs to guide the Team. Just my half a cents worth

OKay, let's get logical here people. I understand you want certain things to happen, but you have to realistic and think about the team as a whole and the long term effects in a game and a season. Okay you have suggested bigger hits which often leads to a line being drawn and someone having to fight. So your options are limited in that department to Ruutu, Walker, Gleason, and if you're desperate Wallin, Bayda, or Sutter. You can also dress Brookbank or call up Conboy. Unfortunately I see holes in all you solutions except Brookbank. I am a fan of fighting but I am a fan of the game as a whole as well. Here is how I see things panning out. If Ruutu or Walker fight, you lose a top nine forward for at least 5 minutes, worse case scenario they get hurt and lose them for games at a time which applies to all of these so I don't have to type that again. Now, Gleason fights you lose your top defensive pairing for five minutes, you can't play defense from the box. Wallin and Bayda are not fighters and will do more damage than good. Sutter is a big penalty killer and can't be spared. Bringing up Conboy, you have a good young defensman who can play physical and answer the bell. You also have a bigger cap hit, eight dmen, and when he fights you have to play with five dmen for the time he is out. Not to mention halting his development when bringing him up and cutting his ice time. Now you also have the option to trade for someone who can play the role and play the game, but you have to give to receive so you have to deal with that sacrifice. Dressing Brookbank means you have a tough forward who won't hurt the number of dmen you have, he's no longer developing, the cap hit stays the same, he knows how to play the role and has earned respect with the other teams as well as our own. Not to mention he only plays the enforcer role, it won't hurt offense that much, and won't affect the penalty kill at all and you only really use him for maybe 4 minutes a night unless necessary, so the 5 minutes he's in the box really won't matter. I'm not biased in this at all as far as Brookbank being my favorite or anything(honestly I'm a Janssen or Jared Boll fan), but this seems like the best thing for the team in the long run. The players themselves have said they feel more confident and safer when an enforcer if dressed, so why would Maurice have ever taken that away from them. So you put in the enforcer and everyone plays better. Also factor in now that you have 11 remaining forward spots for 12 players. This creates one scratch per game, which means guys who really want to play will step up and play hard to not be scratched. No one competes when they have too much job security. Create competition within the team and you have guys pushing each other to play better all the time. Hopefully someone reads this and it leads to a change with the team and another playoff run. In the end that's all I really want for this team is to perform and be respected. Alot of people say 05-06 was a fluke and I don't believe that at all. I think this is a good team and we deserve respect in Raleigh from the other cities, but we have to earn it.

Gleason, Walker, Seidenberg, Ruutu, these guys bring the physical edge about 95% of the games.

Eaves is better when he plays with that nasty edge. He just seems to get hurt everytime he tries. Sutter is another one who brings the physicalness.

Wallin, Brind'Amour, Babchuk, Bayda and Staal need to  up their physicalness. They can't do it only on the nights they feel like being physical, they need to do it every night.

I think alot of the Boston game had to due with Gleason being out. He would have been the one guy to step up and say enough is enough. With him out of the line up, I do think our physical play is going to suffer. He seems to be the one that gets that aspect going.

We are by far the softest team in the league. I don’t who is responsible for that? Rutherford for putting together such a squeezably soft, undersized lineup, MO for not playing the guys with size that we do have in the system, or the players themselves for not sacking up and doing ‘Whatever it Takes’. But whoever is responsible, needs to wake up and realize that what is going on out there on the ice is not hockey. It’s more of a Disney on Ice spectacle.

We don’t need to resemble the old Broad Street Bullies and fight our way to a Cup. But we definitely need a serious injection of grit and intensity. I throw in my vote for Conboy as well. Watching Brookbank chuck knuckles with a goon is entertaining, but Conboy can have a greater impact on the game and can make other players pick up their intensity. They always say that having a tough guy on your team makes everyone 2 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier. On a smallish team like ours, we sure could use that.

What is it going to take for Rutherford to wake up? We were a few inches and fraction of a second away from losing Williams to a Cullen and Letowski-like hit on Saturday. Chara basically manhandled our entire team. Boston’s 4th line abused us all day. And our only response was Walker dumping Axelson and getting an interference call. Oh yeah, and Williams having to stand up for himself and taking a hard right to the side of the face.

Do we really need LaRose, Eaves, AND Bayda. Couldn’t we swap out one of these guys for someone who actually plays hockey? Eaves and Bayda have done NOTHING this year. Rotate one of them out of the lineup, bring up Conboy, and make Eaves and Bayda work hard every game to earn a spot.

Tim Conboy is not going to vault us into the top of the conference. But he just might be the difference that helps us win a few games we would have lost without his energy and grit. And as we saw last year, even a point or two can make the difference between playoffs or epic failure.

Can this team be more physically tough? Yes, they can. During the cup year, we came out and dictated the play with speed and aggression. To me the bigger issue is the mental toughness. Again going back to the cup run, we might get that smack in the mouth but then turn around and give the other team a bigger smack in the mouth by putting things behind and playing with even more determination. That doesn't happen as much now. It's almost like they are waiting for something bad to happen to them instead of making something bad happen to the other team. I would rather seem a team that's stronger mentally than it's opponent. A belief that you may hit us physically, but we will not be beaten mentally.

Boston, Calgary, San Jose, Philadelphia, Vancouver. These teams are coached and trained to use rough play and to bow to no one. And it works VERY well.
When your team is dominated physically, you make more mistakes, you hesitate to win the dump-and-chase races, and you'll make mistakes in general. You saw how sloppy the passing got in the Boston game. It's demoralizing. Not to mention, it's green light to run your star players and have your way with them.
I think we have the right players, we just need to get away from the "Lady Bing" mentality. We definitely need more grit, and someone like Conboy will help the players step up with more confidence. Every team needs an insurance policy. He could be ours.
Hats off to Ruutu and Gleason. These are two Canes that are playing aggressive, physical hockey and are an example of what we need on every shift.

could not agree with "abramsdoug" more. he hit the nail right on the head. in a nutshell, bring up conboy. the intensity and energy of the entire team is much more evident when conboy is on the ice rather than brookbank. conboy's a fiesty, high energy "i dare you" type hockey player when he's out there. its contagious. he provided the same spark last january and february.

We do need to toughen up, hit harder, crash the net more, clean up the sloppy passing, and keep hammering away at the net. Even feeble looking shots on goal are better than no shots on goal. heck Even Sutter tries to do that, or help set up another player to get a shot. And Joe Corvo needs to get mad at somebody, but do we want hm to bruise up his out standing looking tats ? ? Come on canes...wake up !! Some of the games from the whl & ohl sound more physical and intense....