Classic post...

Every once in a while I come across a post that I think is pretty good. Here is an example of one of these classic posts. I found this post that over on KFAN Rube Chat...

I have to agree with the premise that there are way too many agitators that turn into turtles after cheap shooting a star players, aka Cody McCloud. While there are agitators in all levels of hockey, they are more prevalent in the NHL. These morons skate around cheap shooting and taking liberties on the leagues star players and don't pay for the transgressions. One dimensional players like Derrick Boogaard are fun to watch fight but offer nothing on the score sheet but penalty minutes. While I like Goon's I do like players that can fight, skate, score and check. The Wild need a player like Milan Lucic.

scsuhuskyfan said: I understand your concern and agree that this team needs to get tougher. But, as SCSU pointed out, I don't know how many more top-level goons this team has to employ before Wild fans recognize that "signing goons" does not equal "getting tougher" or even "protecting skill players."

The (frightening) reality of the NHL is that another team can hurt somebody on your team if they really want to, or it could just happen by accident anyway. Brad May cheap shotted Kim Johnsson and then owned up to it by fighting Boogaard in a subsequent regular season game. But the damage was still done, and the fact that Boogaard was around didn't stop May from doing what he did in the first place.

Then you have the "Colorado Problem" where a fighter like Boogaard or Simon won't have any deterrent effect on guys that simply refuse to fight. Matthias Ohlund slashed Koivu and knocked him out for weeks, but he doesn't fight. And Cody McLeod or any number of garbage players in that Colorado series were never going to square off with a goon, so they felt free to hack and slash as they pleased.

You become "tougher" in the NHL by developing and acquiring "tough" players who can also play hockey. Brendan Shanahan, Chris Pronger, Dion Phaneuf....these are guys who play physical and do "goonish" things from time to time, but you're not hurting your team to put them on the ice. The more time the Wild give to Boogaard so he run around the ice trying to decapitate people is time that could've been spent trying to score goals and actually play hockey.