NHL Brawl-Stars

[The Comish]

NHL Brawl-Stars

For the record, I don\'t like the current NHL All-Star game format. It takes what makes hockey great; the passion, the hitting, and the rivalries, out of the game. In theory, it should be great, but for me its sum is less than the parts. I do enjoy seeing the best players in hockey come together though. It\'s just that the game is almost always a score-a-thon (snore-a thon?). Is this what the NHL is striving for when they talk about more scoring?

This is the evil twin to the NHL\'s All-Star love fest. All the players listed here would not be much fun to play against due to their physical/violent nature, but would certainly add a little buzz to the current All-Star format and make the game much more interesting. Imagine the Skills competition possibilities:

Hardest Puncher;

Hardest Body Checker (as measured by a crash-test dummy);

Fastest Hands (to drop the gloves and strike opponent);

Trash Talking (as judged by a rapper with street cred);

Best at tying up your opponent in a fight (Judged Event) - Guest Judges could be Ron Hextall, Nick Kypreos and Don Cherry (to keep Kypreos in line)

Heck, you could even have fan interaction. Imagine how popular the promotion \"Win a fight with Georges Laraque\" would be? Maybe Downie would be more popular?

All of these guys will help you win your roto league if penalty minutes are counted:

Eastern Brawl-Stars

F - Steve Downie. The NHL’s most hated player by far, only Flyers fans and contrarians feel otherwise. If Downie can keep from crossing over that fine line and stay out of Colin Campbell’s office, he is going to be a very useful fantasy hockey player for years to come.

F - Sean Avery. Avery hasn’t garnered too many negative headlines this season, thanks mostly to a series of injures and some kid in Philly named Downie. Well, I guess there was that pre-game incident against Toronto back in November. Don’t worry Rangers fans; I\'m pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of angry Avery.

F- Scott Hartnell. Top scoring player with 100 penalty minutes or more. On pace for over 50 points and nearly 200 penalty minutes. Heading into the All-Star break, Hartnell was hot, scoring 16 points in his last nine games.

Runners-Up - Darcy Tucker, Chris Neil, David Clarkson, Jarkko Ruutu, Ryan Hollweg

D - Zdeno Chara. This freak of nature is very big, tough and money in roto leagues. Last year wasn’t very good for Chara, but this year is a different story. He’s on pace for 57 points, 129 penalty minutes and is a decent plus-7.

D - Shane O\'Brien. Fits nicely into your number six defence spot. O\'Brien\'s racked up 101 penalty minutes to go with 18 points.

First Runner-up: Derian Hatcher. I never liked him when he played for Dallas and I haven’t changed my opinion of him as a Flyer. I didn’t think he would survive the “new” NHL’s crackdown on obstruction and his penchant for laying on the lumber in front of the net, but he’s still out there beating on opposing forwards…and the occasional team mate (just ask Lupul).

Runners-Up - Mike Commodore, Brendan Witt

G – Ray Emery. No question Sugar Ray is the best fighter among NHL goalies. I just don’t want him on my fantasy squad unless he can take back that sweet starting gig on a dominant Ottawa team.

Coach - John Stevens. The coach of the Flyers certainly encourages physical play, so this one was a natural fit.

Western Brawl-Stars

F - Daniel Carcillo. Insane amount of penalty minutes combined with some semblance of offensive ability. Although he’s missed 15 games with a knee injury, he looks to be back following the All-Star game to help his owners dominate the penalty minute category once again.

F - Steve Ott. He\'s got big skates to fill, effectively replacing Matthew Barnaby in the Dallas lineup. Ott has been good to fantasy owners who need penalty minutes (92) combined with some offence (14 points).

F - Aaron Voros. Here\'s an interesting player who came from pretty much nowhere. In 33 games this season, Voros has scored seven goals, 13 points and racked up an impressive 81 penalty minutes.

Runners-Up - Jordin Tootoo, Ian Laperriere

D - Dion Phaneuf. He’s no fun to play against. Always looking for the big hit and often finding it. Phaneuf is a great combination of youth, scoring ability and toughness. Virtually impossible to trade for in positional keeper leagues that count penalty minutes.

D - Chris Pronger. Seems virtually immune to lengthy suspensions despite being suspended on seven separate occasions by the NHL for a total of 14 games. Likes to hit and hit hard. Some would say he hits to hurt. Some would say he\'s a dirty player. All I know is that I want the former Norris and Hart trophy winner playing for my team rather than against it.

Runners-Up - Rob Blake, Craig Rivet, Ed Jovanovski, Jack Johnson

G - Jason Labarbera. I have never seen Labarbera fight, but at 6\'3\" and 225 lbs he should at least be a match physically for Emery, if they were to come to blows.

Coach - Randy Carlyle. Who else could it possibly be but the coach of the team that is the most penalized and has the most fighting majors in the NHL?

[Torture]

Hahaha! Nice! Would love to see that.

[angus]

the West should call up Cloutier for this tilt.

[smack]

angus wrote:

the West should call up Cloutier for this tilt.

Ok Angus, what\'s up with this? You write that and next day he gets called up? Something ain\'t right!!! :laugh:

[Schultz]

Great idea. We would see that only if Gary gave up his commish title. I called in on his radio show and gave him a tongue lashing for the instigator penalty and for moving the hartford whalers oh and turning hockey into basketball. LOL oh and i dont like Dion as your west defender. He does get the penalty minutes but whats up with that visor. If he wants to be a tough guy and hit like that he needs to take off the visor and show how tough he really is.

Good job