Smaller players hurt by playoffs?

[ktang 34]

In this year's playoffs it looked like Ottawa roughed up Buffalo and were in turn roughed up by Anaheim, which roughed up Detroit. Do you think the smaller skill players will be hurt by these outcomes? E.g. Briere and Drury are RFAs; will their stock go down in the eyes of the GMs? Will teams try to build like Anaheim and get some toughness?

[Hockeyman9621 0]

Different teams have different styles. Maybe a tough team wins this year, then a skilled team wins next year. It depends a lot on the coach, if the coach wants a tough team, he discusses it with the GM and it goes from there. Anaheim wasn't looked at as an overly 'tough' team until the playoffs where some of their guys stepped up and played that role.

[Chadd 916]

It depends even more on the referees and the league, tougher teams won just about every series where toughness was even a small factor.

[DarkStar50 679]

Things got chippier the deeper the playoffs went. If any game in the last two rounds was played in the first two months of the regular season, it would have been a parade to the penalty box. Forgeting about the head shots for the moment(they are not yet penalties anyway), the ability to get away with the stick work increased in the playoffs, while the stupid mystery interference call was infraction A #1 for two minutes. At the same time, hey face it, some smaller skilled guys didn't deliver the goods during crunch time in the playoffs. As Enzo says, "You've got to fight through your checks to score!"

[ktang 34]

This year's Sabres did so well in the regular season that they were the epitome of the "New NHL"; a smaller team with a lot of skill, including the D. Then the Islanders and then the Senators prepared for them and exposed their lack of size.

I think they were like the '80s Oilers teams; firewagon hockey with speed to burn.

[Project824 0]

It depends even more on the referees and the league, tougher teams won just about every series where toughness was even a small factor.

You're right - the league needs to decide what it wants to be. Increased intensity in the playoffs is a given, but it shouldn't throw the entire style of play in the regular season out the window. If you're going to reward a team like the Sabres who did a great job building a team well suited for the new style of play, then there should be some consistency through the playoffs. Otherwise you're always going to have teams that excel during the "Sunday skate" regular season and then disappear come May.

I personally don't have a problem with the way the playoffs were called, it didn't reward just skill, but also a combination of heart and toughness, which is the way hockey should be. But if you're going to let it get to that in the playoffs, why condition the players to another style of game?

[badsk8ter 0]

I was glad to see the Rangers get beat because they got away with alot of holding and interference; the way the game was called during the regular season. I imagine their reasoning was that they were just "finishing their checks" but when you hold a guy against the boards for a good 1-2 seconds after the hit, so he can't jump back into the play, while the guy doing the checking is watching the play, waiting until it's OK to release the guy he checked, then that's either holding or interference. That was part of the reason they were able to give Buffalo such a tough series. I'm not a particular fan of either team but I am a fan of offense and I can't stand clutch and grab hockey. To say Anaheim isn't skilled isn't giving Nieds, Selanne and Getzlaf enough credit. They had 2 Norris Trophy winners, roughly still in their "semi" prime, a 500 goal scorer who's put up back to back 40 goal seasons and several young forwards that are primed for break-out, star seasons. It was just their year. I just hope that in the future, the playoffs are still called like the regular season. Increased intensity is fine but allowing things to occur that are normally called during the regular season isn't. I hate it when they say they're just "letting them play". Because the team that's getting abused isn't being allowed to play.

[taigyr 0]

There were quite amount of penalties called in the postseason. Teams such as the Ducks and Sens learned to adapt and became amazing at Penalty killing.

If the Sabres were more successful on the PP, perhaps their playoff outcomes would have been different.

It's a funny thing...if a ref calls too much penalties he influencing the tempo of the game...if he calls nothing the tempo is considered to be sluggish due to the holding and grabbing. I wouldn't want to be a ref in the NHL!

[hunterphfr 12]

No one knows that small highly skilled players get rocked in the playoffs better than the Senators . Late nineties through the eaarly part of this century they had teams filled with fast, fancy highly talented europeans, who would just get outmuscled in the playoffs. They learned that lesson well. For years they would finish at or near the top of their division. Then make an early exit as the physical intensity got turned up in the playoffs. Taking early elimination at the hands of large physical teams such as Toronto, Buffalo and Jersey. They finally got the message and got some size and strength. Only to be outmuscled by the Ducks.