There's a difference between adding guys who play physically to the lineup and adding guys who other teams are scared of getting pummeled by for stepping out of line. I appreciate the Carrick drops the mitts, but he's nowhere near a Reeves or a Deslauriers, guys that actually make other players think twice about taking liberties on your team.
At this rate, it's only a matter of time before we have another Jay Beagle incident and nobody on the ice who can do a damn thing about it.
Last year's Jay Beagle incident had Beaulieu, Benoit, and Comtois. You are defending losing those three players when the Beagle incident happened on their watch.
Anyhow, teams with Beagle-types, cheap shot artists, on their team will oft generate Beagle type incidences regardless of team makeup. They're not made of the same ilk of Des.
There's a difference between being soft and adding physical play. Last year, we didn't fight because we didn't have bite on our roster, especially on defense. We now have added more physicality to show we're not as soft as last year's team. It's a good step forward to have physicality that opposing teams are afraid of in Killorn and Gudas. Gudas has already given the Ducks advertisements he's got a short temper in pre-season. And with Lyubushkin added, at least he's willing to bear hug a player down.
Down in the AHL and system, Verbeek has acquired a few players who are willing to throw down. We saw in the rookie camp how two prospects were teaching each other how to fight, iirc it was Weibe/Caulfied and Smith. Gaucher is willing to fight as well.
PV didn't care about physicality last year, obviously. This year, he's added some bite. Also, he's trying to develop some for the near future and far future.
