7 Thoughts From 7 Days: On balancing toughness and skill in the NHL

For a couple months, I’ve been piggybacking off Elliotte Friedman and our own Brandon Cohen on this weekly thought post. While I’d usually do these ad-hoc, I liked the idea of consistency and a common theme. This week, as emotions run high from the Tom Wilson fallout, or lack thereof, let’s talk about balancing toughness and skill in the NHL. Both matter in this game.

As an aside: I’ve been toying with the idea of adding this weekly post behind a Patreon for a couple bucks a month. Figure $2 a month for this weekly post. You’d wind up, on average, paying about 50 cents a week for it. Let me know your thoughts on that in the comments.

1. What has fueled this post is the Tom Wilson incident from two nights ago. That has no place in hockey, I think we all agree with that. However for this, I’d like to move from the raw emotions and move towards proper construction of a roster. There were many comments about a deterrent and the lack of a response.

To be clear – nothing acts as a deterrent for Wilson in that situation. Any possible deterrent is not going to be on a line with Artemiy Panarin, Pavel Buchnevich, or Ryan Strome. At the very best, you are going to have someone that makes Wilson answer the call, like a Chris Kreider or a Ryan Lindgren. However that does not stop Wilson from doing it again. The only thing that would have stopped that is a legitimate punishment from the NHL Department of Player Unsafety.

2. That said, while deterrents are more or less a myth in today’s NHL, sandpaper is not. But there is a difference between a puncher and a useful sandpaper guy who has value outside of Hulk Smash. Tom Wilson would be a great hockey player if he didn’t pull these shenanigans. He’s a bigger, stronger, and more skilled Sean Avery. These types of players are rare. To balance toughness and skill in one player in the NHL isn’t going to happen often.

As currently constructed, the Rangers lack a player like this. However many teams lack a player like this. Thoughts go to Radko Gudas, but he was never really that effective. Wilson is rare. But teams can at least add a more sandpaper aspect to their roster without sacrificing skill and effectiveness. Ryan Lindgren is a perfect example of this. Another decent example is Brendan Smith, who is still a useful player in the right situation.

3. The calls to add a player who can make Wilson answer for his goonery (I made that word up) are justified. It’s just executed in a different way nowadays. I think the Rangers have the pieces in place to at least force Wilson to answer, it’s just they weren’t in the lineup.

The problem with going with a face puncher only is that they don’t do much else. They get 5 minutes a game at even strength, and that’s it. The game has evolved, and the fourth line doesn’t serve that purpose anymore. The Rangers have a decent fourth line –not going into the Brett Howden thing today– but none of them really qualify as that sandpaper guy. If you want someone to answer the call, then as currently constructed it’s someone you don’t want sitting in the box.

4. All this lays the foundation to my main question: How do you realistically want the Rangers to address this in a manner that both improves the team and addresses the issue? It is a very difficult question to answer. If your answer is adding a player that makes the Rangers difficult to play against, then I counter with Jesper Fast made the Rangers difficult to play against. As did Mats Zuccarello. Neither are noted punchers. Although I did like when Zuccarello was punching Chara’s shins that one time.

If the answer is to add to the bottom six, then I completely agree. The question again though, is how? That might mean replacing Ryan Strome or Filip Chytil, which will certainly make a few people upset. If it’s a fourth line replacement, then where does Morgan Barron fit? You can’t have it all.

If the answer is on the blue line, then it’s adding to Lindgren and, if he re-signs for cheap, Smith. Does Braden Schneider make the jump immediately? It’s unlikely, but there’s always a chance. If not, do you really add that kind of player at the expense of Zac Jones and/or Nils Lundkvist? Seems short sighted, unless a perfect deal comes along. Balancing toughness and skill is something the Rangers have been doing, but perhaps it’s not in the manner folks expect in the NHL?

5. The one thing Jeff Gorton and John Davidson can’t do is overreact to this. Altering the direction of the team because of one incident would be, as mentioned above short sighted and downright irresponsible. If it alters a minor aspect, such as having a few extra depth players that fit the mold of what we’ve been describing, then that’s all well and good. But sacrificing key pieces and/or assets to address a problem that is unique and doesn’t necessarily exist outside of isolated incidents? I’m not on board with that. And you shouldn’t be either.

Looking at the UFAs, there aren’t many that can still actually play that fit the tougher to play against model. Casey Cizikas is going to get a lot more money than he’s worth. Wayne Simmonds is a better option, but he’s also going to get more than he’s worth. That’s about it. If something is going to happen to address it, it might be through trade.

6. But perhaps the best route is to in fact be tougher to play against. That doesn’t necessarily mean a puncher or a sandpaper guy, it means being prepared to play every game. It means being unpredictable and tenacious on defense and on the back check. There are so many aspects of this game where the Rangers aren’t where they need to be. Improved definitely, but there’s room for more improvement. This is how you balance toughness and skill in the NHL.

To that aspect, there is certainly a rift between the top-six and the coaching staff, as Larry Brooks pointed out. If the message isn’t getting through to the players the organization has committed to, well there’s only one way this ends. And Artemiy Panarin isn’t getting traded, that’s for sure.

7. How the Rangers respond tonight will be interesting. Their best player got ragdolled and slew footed. One of their top-six got sucker punched. If there is no uptick in emotion in the game, or at the very least some extra giddyup in their legs, then who is that on? I don’t know if there is a proper answer here.