Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The faces of a dying breed in hockey. (Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports)

When Lockout: The Sequel happened and wiped out the entire 2004-2005 season, the NHL was at an all time low. Too much clutch and grab, too little skill, and too many “enforcers” that couldn’t actually play the game of hockey. The game was in a bad place, and something needed to be done.

This was also the time when coaches routinely deployed their lineups in the following manner: Two scoring lines, called the top-six, one checking line, and one line of enforcers to “keep the peace.” As the game has evolved since Lockout: The Sequel through Lockout: I Can’t Believe We Are Going Through This Again, the anatomy of a lineup evolved as well.

Less and less are we seeing the enforcer that can’t play. Sure, there are still a few guys around the league, but the breed itself is dying. It was a subtle extinction that became widely publicized when the Leafs waived both Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, two enforcers that don’t do much else. It’s worth noting that “enforcer” and “guy who fights” are two completely different players. Orr/McLaren are enforcers, Kyle Clifford is someone who can drop the gloves.

Right around the time the enforcer role started dying, coaches started altering their lineups. Zone start matchups became much more important, but even more so was having skill up and down the lineup. Speed and skill have become a requirement, as the slow guys simply can’t catch the Chris Kreider’s of the world.

Slowly but surely, the third line, primarily used for defense, morphed into a third scoring line. Those defensive players? They took over the fourth line, turning that line into a true shutdown line. Speed and skill took over 75% of the forwards, while a different kind of skill is now needed to fill out the depth spots.

Using the 2013-2014 Rangers as an example, they had skill in their top-nine, and used the Brian Boyle-Dominic Moore-Derek Dorsett trio to handle the majority of the defensive zone starts, a truly defensive specialists line.

The end result: A faster game, a more skilled game, and fewer staged fights that kill momentum. Don’t get me wrong, I”m all for a fight in the heat of the moment and in the passion of the game, but the role of the staged fight and enforcer-only role is dying faster than the New York Jets’ chances at a Super Bowl.

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