Where have all the checks gone? In today’s NHL, fewer and fewer players are finishing their checks. Growing up as a young hockey player, the game was played more physically. An incomplete check earned you an earful from the coach when you got back to the bench, and you could expect to be sitting on the pine for your next shift. Some may argue that the game has changed and there is less need for it, but others (this writer included) would strongly disagree. It’s simple physics (said no better than by Physicist Sir Isaac Newton in his first law of motion): An object (Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Artemi Panarin etc.) will continue its motion at a constant velocity until an outside force (a Philadelphia Flyer) acts on it. Now there may be a little ad libbing, but the point remains: If a player of such a caliber as the above-mentioned Metropolitan Division rivals goes untouched, it creates great risk for a goal being scored.
Some of the best in recent Flyer’s memory to hone this lost art of hitting were Flyers defensive greats 6’6 220Ibs. Chris Pronger and 6’5 229Ibs. Derain Hatcher. These two towering defensemen took a page from the NBA’s Detroit Pistons’ book. The Pistons, in the mid- to late- eighties, were better known as the Bad Boys and had a very physical, defense-oriented playing style. The Bad Boys came up with “The Jordan rule”: A way to stop the best player in the game at the time (Michael Jordan.) To carry out said rule, the Pistons would hard foul Jordan any time he came close enough to the basket to score. Jordan often wound up on his back in extreme pain and discomfort and, over time, had to develop an outside shot in order to get away from the punishment that he was previously dealt. Pronger and Hatcher took this theory and made it work for them. Whenever they were playing Pittsburgh and saw the number 87 (Sidney Crosby) with the puck they would pause at the blue line and crush him into the boards. This would halt that object-in-motion (as Newton put it) right in his tracks. This theory worked: It put a stop to Sidney Crosby’s unreal point-per-game totals against the Flyers, forcing Crosby to pass the puck out of pure fear of getting annihilated.
Keep in mind both Prongers’ and Hatcher’s size. If you have never played a competitive contact sport like ice hockey, know that there’s a reason why- even if you’re sitting up in the nosebleed section of the Wells Fargo Center- you can still hear the boards shaking after a bone-crushing hit was delivered. NHL players have been clocked at upwards of twenty-nine miles-per-hour before. The only thing that could better exemplify the force these players feel on a not-so-regular basis anymore is if you have been in a bad car accident. One where the air bag has been deployed in your face. Imagine how it would feel if that air bag weren’t there. Because there is no air bag that deploys along the boards or in the open ice when these behemoths create a sudden impact that rattles the teeth of their opponent. Now think: Right after that accident, did you want to get up and continue with what you were doing? Probably NOT right?
The NHL hit leader this season, Ryan Reaves of the Las Vegas Golden Knights, totaled 316 hits on the shorted season. That’s almost four and a half mind erasers a game! The Flyers’ hit leader on the season was defenseman Robert Hagg. Hagg totaled just 136 hits on the year. That is less than half of Reaves’ total; To be exact, Robert was 180 hits off the pace! With that total Hagg (and every other Flyer for that matter) ranked well out of the NHL’s Top 50 in Hits. To Hagg’s credit though (and the rest of the Flyers’ demise) he amassed that number in just forty-nine games played this season.
Question is just how can the Flyers acquire a player that would make the rink staff at the Wells Fargo Center need to reinforce the dasher boards?
Ryan Reaves, who was set to be an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA) at the end of the season, would have been the perfect fit to instantly add grit and toughness to the lineup- but he just resigned with the Golden Knights.
Tough guy and five-time NHL Hit Leader Matt Martin (who is 31 years old) of the New York Islanders is an option, seeing that he is set to become an UFA at seasons’ end as well. Martin ranked 5th this season in Hits with 242 on the year in just fifty –five games played. But, if he would require anything close to the $2.5 Million a year he received during his current contract, you will not be seeing him in orange and black anytime soon.
Even so, the NHL is moving away from the likes of these huge, one dimensional enforcers anyway. The Flyers would be wise not to sign someone like Martin, but rather try and find a younger version of the now 35-year-old LA Kings’ forward Dustin Brown- someone who can score 15-20 goals a year, but still lay huge punishing hits in the process.
Where might the Flyers find just a player? How about in the desert! Glendale, Arizona to be exact, in the form of a 23-year-old 6’4 220-pound Canadian named Lawson Crouse. Crouse dished out over 200 of the most excruciating hits in the NHL this season, painstakingly taking his victims not only out of the current play, but sometimes even out of the game by landing one of his famous crushing blows. Crouse is not a one trick pony though: He also was able to accumulate 15 goals on the shortened season, all while playing third line minutes and seeing virtually no power play time.
If Philadelphia could find a way to use some of that stored depth they have in their system like what was previously stated in the article linked below, then they might be able to secure a player that would not only solve their lack of hitting problem, but give them someone who would be more than willing to stand up for his teammates when needed as well. Best of all- Lawson is signed through the 21’-22’ season for an average of only $1.5 million per year, and almost forgot to mention- He is a lifelong friend of Flyers’ Travis Konecny? The two used to car pool to games together as kids.
Arizona’s talented forward Taylor Hall is a UFA at the seasons’ end and will most likely have any number of teams making a call a.s.a.p. to acquire his services. If Hall does, in fact, depart in the offseason, the Coyotes might benefit from regaining some help for their future star Center Barrett Hayton.
Here are two trade scenarios that might help the Flyers acquire that bruising power forward that they desperately need:
Flyers Receive:
Lawson Crouse
Arizona Receives:
Winger: Michael Raffl
Winger: Isaac Ratcliffe
Flyers 2021 2rd round selection
Trading Raffl and his $1.6 Million salary would make room for Crouse- both on the roster and financially.
Or
Flyers Receive:
Lawson Crouse
Arizona Receives:
Defenseman: Shayne Gostisbehere
Winger: Carsen Twarynski
Flyers 2020 5th and 6th round selections
Obtaining a talented player such as Lawson Crouse would bring back some of that “Broad Street Bullies” mentality that the Flyers have lost. Crouse would likely come in day one laying some stunning hits that Philly fans love, slowing down the best that the Eastern Conference has to offer, and helping to protect the star players: The ones that are already here, as well as the ones still yet to come. All the while, he would offer up some much needed secondary scoring from the wing position. Crouse is just the type of player the Flyers need to help push past the rest of the Eastern Conference in route to the Stanley Cup.
