For the Sake of the Team

I’m as big a fighting fan in hockey as you can get, but, this 4Th line of tough guys have turned into problems for the team. I can’t say the entire 4th line of the Flyers does, however, I can say that Riley Cote is becoming a liability for the team. If you look at the other tough guys on the team in Arron Asham and Daniel Carcillo, there is some offensive upside.

Just last year Cote was only able to post 3 assists in 63 games with a -7 plus/minus rating. I am a huge fan of Rockin’ Riles because he is such a force out there on the ice with hits and fights. He is a momentum player. Now Smash em’ Asham was able to do a bit better on the score sheets; In 78 games, Asham amassed 8 goals and 12 assists for 20 points and an even plus/minus rating. I wont dive into Carcillo too much because we know from my last post about him he isn’t my favorite guy. But as young as he is Carcillo has time to improve.

Now I’m not one of those people who thinks there is no place for fighting in hockey anymore but I think there should be a line drawn for the fighters. If there were more guys like Ian Laperriere, who can fight, check, kill penalties, and just do the little things right, the game today would be much more intense and exciting. Maybe it’s just me but, I think if we saw a few tough guys with a little more offensive talent we would all enjoy the game much more.