As fighting continues its annual decline in the National Hockey League, one of the last true heavyweights sat in his stall in the Calgary Flames dressing room, explaining where all of his brethren have disappeared to, while he still plies the trade in Cowtown.
“(The role) is eliminated in other towns because the guys they have can’t play,” Brian McGrattan said. “I can play a regular shift when they want me in the lineup. Guys who can’t play? They’re eliminated.”
“I played 76 games last year and fought 11 times. The other 65 games the team had a use for me,” the 33-year-old added.
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The 6-foot-4, 235-pound McGrattan has played far less this season, dressing for just seven of the Flames first 20 games and playing 6:44 per game. But he brings a wealth of experience to a young team, something a young heavyweight like, say, Luke Gazdic in Edmonton — Taylor Hall’s room mate who hasn’t played yet this season — hasn’t accrued.
“Work ethic and attitude are the number one things you have to emphasize when you’re around young players,” McGrattan said. “I’ve been around, and I’ve experienced everything you can in this game. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride throughout my career but I can bring that as a positive influence into this room. We’ve got a very young room here.”
Obviously, McGrattan is “on the pro fighting side. But I do think the fighting can be too much,” he admits. “I don’t think it’s needed all the time.”
While it seems pretty clear that the pure heavyweight will be extinct before fighting leaves the game, McGrattan wonders what the point is in having fighting at all, if guys like him and the 6-4, 233-pound Gazdic aren’t going at it on a Saturday night.
“Usually when we play Edmonton it’s Hockey Night in Canada, the rinks are packed, and it does bring a lot of excitement to the arena,” he said.
“When two guys fight who are six feet tall, or 5-10, I couldn’t care less. It doesn’t bring excitement to the game. Teams I’ve been on, when our big guys beats their big guy, it gives our team another two feet.”
•••
Speaking of the tussles, here are the latest stats on fighting majors, courtesy our old friend Benny Ercolani, the NHL’s longtime Stats and Information Officer:
Through 280 games this season (through Wednesday) there have been a total of 208 fighting majors. So, assuming it takes two to tango, that’s 104 fights or 0.37 fights per game. Through the same number of games last season there were 280 fighting majors, or 0.5 fights per game. That’s a decline of 26% in the opening quarter of the 2014-15 season.
Here is the seasonal breakdown of fighting majors over the past five seasons. We’ve done the math on fights per game based on the assumption that both combatants received a fighting major.
Season | Games Played | Fighting Majors | Fights per game |
---|---|---|---|
2013-14 | 1230 | 933 | 0.38 |
2012-13 | 720 | 691 | 0.48 |
2011-12 | 1230 | 1089 | 0.44 |
2010-11 | 1230 | 1284 | 0.52 |
2009-10 | 1230 | 1423 | 0.58 |
Said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau of heavyweights, “They’re getting extinct, but they’re not extinct (yet). When push comes to shove, it’s a big man’s game in the end. We certainly like guys who can play and are physical as well.”
•••
The next big, Robert Luongo-Cory Schneider goaltending debate will be occurring in Los Angeles, where 6-foot-4 Martin Jones is coming of age behind All-Star Jonathan Quick. The incumbent Quick is in Year 2 of a 10-year, $58 million deal, while Jones concludes his second pro contract this season, which pays him $1.1 million over two years. Jones turns 25 in January, and he’s only played 23 NHL games over the past two seasons.
“He’d be a No. 1 on a lot of other teams right now,” Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford said on Thursday from L.A. “It’ll probably come to a point like it did with (Jonathan) Bernier, where we’ll have to make a decision.”
The thing about Bernier was, many scouts didn’t even have a book on him at age 25, because in parts of five seasons he’d only got into 62 games for L.A. That helped Toronto get Bernier for relatively cheap in June of 2013, dealing Matt Frattin, Ben Scrivens and a second round pick.
Jones’ career saves percentage is .933, and the undrafted former Calgary Hitmen goalie is just four years younger than Quick. He’s a restricted free agent after this season, and will likely become impatient behind Quick sooner than later.
“He still has to prove that he can play in the NHL as a No. 1,” said Ranford. The Kings will want to know too. They’ll want more for Jones than they got for Bernier.
• Andrew Cogliano played against Ryan Kesler for long enough to know he’d rather have Kesler on his side now in Anaheim. “The guy you played against, you hate. Because he is not fun to play against, and he’s good,” Cogliano said. “Sometimes when you play against pests in the league, guys who play hard, they’re not that good. When he’s scoring goals, doing things offensively, you kind of hate him more. Because he’s productive.”
• The NHL isn’t fining divers yet, still handing out official warnings. They’re getting both players and their own staff used to the new protocol that will call for increasing fines for repeat divers. Vancouver’s Alex Burrows, once a target for a program like this, has moved on with his career. He’s straight up now, sans the head-snapping of yore. Dallas’ Antoine Roussel, however, may be getting a phone call from Colin Campbell’s before long.
• Does anybody recognize the Nashville Predators under Peter Laviolette? The Preds used to be all goaltending and defence, but could never score. So the game plan under Barry Trotz was to beat you 2-1 every night. Yawn… Today, they’re a Top 10 scoring team in the league, but more importantly, they’re lightning fast and aggressive on offence. With 22 points in 18 games, Filip Forsberg is running away with the rookie scoring race. They could use a bit more out of veteran UFA signing Olli Jokinen though. He’s pointless in 18 games.
• No surprise, eight of the NHL’s Top 10 leaders in ice time are Western Conference defencemen. Ryan Suter is tops at 29:13 per night, followed by L.A.’s Drew Doughty (28:56). Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson is third (27:40), followed by the Nashville pairing of Shea Weber (27:01) and Roman Josi (26:35).