The End of an Era: NHL Enforcers
by: Azzaya Khan October/18th/2018
Hockey is more than a sport to Canadians, it’s a culture. Millions of citizens tune in on game nights to catch the thrill and rush of what is in the National Hockey League.
Any Canadian will tell you hockey is the most exciting sport, but out of all that excitement it can all change through one big hit, that one hit that takes the crowd off its feet and changes the pace from speed to physicality in an instance.
If you grew up watching hockey prior to the 2010’s you knew the tempers would boil and coaches would send out the all feared, enforcer. The enforcer was skilled enough play, but their hands weren’t necessarily used for good, instead they were sent out on the ice to strike fear into their opponents, and protect the superstars on the ice through the form of physical statements.
Alexei Kovalev from Montreal had George Laraque, Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs had Tie Domi, it was just normal to have your enforcers. Even when they didn’t have to protect they would transition to being a big ugly pest aggravating the opposing superstars.
Yet in this current NHL the enforcer has seemingly died, no matter how big you are speed has taken over what is the nature of the game today. The most recent example being the brutal take down that was Florida Panthers defenceman Michael Matheson throwing down Vancouver Canucks rookie Elias Pettersson, and as play resumed no one from the Canucks bench played the role of the enforcer, not even 6’5, 217 lb Erik Gudbranson.
After the appall from fans coach Travis Green made a statement that calmed the out lash saying
“My main focus was winning the game”
This is just one example of the new focus of the game, instead of responding with the enforcer they respond with a win, and the NHL took the responsibility amongst themselves as a whole and served Matheson with a two-game suspension and a fine up to $100,000 USD. The NHL has been penalizing players for being too physical and have established an indirect precedent around the league that is abolishing more physical plays.
Not only has overall physical play of the enforcer dropped, but fights have essentially become non-existent in today’s NHL. The Hockey News released a poll to fans based on the desire for fights and 98% of fans want to see more fights, and for fans some there are some things you can’t have, fights are one of them. Even with fans having their desires the trend has converted physicality from being a necessity to almost extinct.
In today’s current NHL there are still a couple of lone survivors playing the role of today’s more skilled enforcer and agitators; Tom Wilson, Matt Martin, and Brad Marchand. Even then these lone three are the only reputable names to be associated with the titles of enforcer or agitator. Seems time has told its story and the age of the enforcer has reached an end of an era.
