Was Pierre Turgeon soft?

[The Panther]

He was more soft than Oates, Savard, Lafontaine. Sedin was more soft than Turgeon.

But what's this based on? Did Savard, Lafontaine, or Sedin ever drop the gloves and throw down with another NHLer? Because young Turgeon (in Buffalo) did.

 

[Gorskyontario]

But what's this based on? Did Savard, Lafontaine, or Sedin ever drop the gloves and throw down with another NHLer? Because young Turgeon (in Buffalo) did.

Did you actually watch Savard play? He was always chopping and spearing guys. Definitely not soft. As far as 'star' centers go, he was one of the feistiest I remember as far as pure skill guys go.

Lafontaine was absolutely fearless playing. There's a reason the guys brains were very sadly scrambled, because he constantly went to the dirty areas and got caught.

Denis Savard (LW) | HockeyFights

Denis Savard (LW)

www.hockeyfights.com

10 fights in Savards career.

 

[MadLuke]

And Sedin run full marathon with really good time (under 3:30), which is in good part a long who tougher competition.

 

[reckoning]

Did you actually watch Savard play? He was always chopping and spearing guys. Definitely not soft. As far as 'star' centers go, he was one of the feistiest I remember as far as pure skill guys go.

Lafontaine was absolutely fearless playing. There's a reason the guys brains were very sadly scrambled, because he constantly went to the dirty areas and got caught.

Denis Savard (LW) | HockeyFights

Denis Savard (LW)

www.hockeyfights.com

10 fights in Savards career. Savard was not shy about pushing back when someone tried to intimidate him.

Yeah. Savard wasn't shy about pushing back if someone tried to intimidate him. Granted, he'd usually retaliate with his stick and not his fists, but he got in more scraps than you'd expect from a smallish skill player

Kind of like the guy in Revenge of the Nerds who broke his leg playing chess....

Turgeon was just as "tough" (whatever that means) as any other mainly non-physical, skilled forward of his era. I can't find the clip right now, but there was a Boston-Buffalo game in 1989 or 1990 when Turgeon dropped the gloves and fought a Bruin (didn't do particularly well but he was in there). This "soft" narrative is just a myth.

Turgeon only had one fighting major in his time in Buffalo, but it wasn't against Boston. It was Feb.18/90 against Dean Evasion of Hartford. As luck would have it, it's on YouTube.



I'd love to know what led to this. It's totally out of character for him.

 

[The Panther]

Turgeon only had one fighting major in his time in Buffalo, but it wasn't against Boston. It was Feb.18/90 against Dean Evasion of Hartford. As luck would have it, it's on YouTube.

Oh yeah, that's the one I was thinking of earlier.

My point wasn't to say that Savard or Lafontaine wasn't tough, but just to say that Turgeon was.

At the end of the day, if you're a top-minutes guy who spent 18-19 seasons in the NHL scoring 1300+ points (and 100 more in the playoffs), you're tough.

 

[Boxscore]

Yes, Turgeon was definitely considered soft during his era. Mainly because he was a big guy who didn't throw the body or get dirty. He was also a very mild-mannered gentleman, which added to his "softness" in the 90s. A more recent comparable is Rick Nash... another big body who wasn't physical.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I'd love to know what led to this. It's totally out of character for him.

Evason ran him. Then started throwing punches before Turgeon had his gloves off. Evason got two instigator penalties in the sequence.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Yeah. Savard wasn't shy about pushing back if someone tried to intimidate him. Granted, he'd usually retaliate with his stick and not his fists, but he got in more scraps than you'd expect from a smallish skill player


Turgeon only had one fighting major in his time in Buffalo, but it wasn't against Boston. It was Feb.18/90 against Dean Evasion of Hartford. As luck would have it, it's on YouTube.



I'd love to know what led to this. It's totally out of character for him.

oof, for a guy who never fought it was bad luck that his one fight was against a lefty

 

[MadArcand]

here is the source of the snow peas comment, from gare joyce’s piestany book:

View attachment 963836

obviously the identity of the speaker isn’t known. could be roy, could be guy lafleur or henri richard for all we know.

the context suggesting it was roy would be that in the brawl that turgeon stayed on the bench during, roy’s brother stephane was left to be double-teamed by two soviets and sustained an extremely dangerous kick to the head.

the person stephane roy singled out in the book was kerry huffman, although turgeon’s name does come up.


View attachment 963841

View attachment 963842

This makes it fairly clear that the whole Roy connection seems to be a random fabrication - certainly Stephane Roy seems to have a grudge against Kerry Huffman and not against Turgeon, so it would be a very weird basis for Patrick Roy to have one against Turgeon...

On the original topic, yeah Turgeon was "soft" in the sense of non-physical skilled centerman soft - just like great many others already mentioned. I mean, by that logic people could go around calling Sakic soft... but they don't, because he was better defensively and more competitive, maybe?