This in from legendary Philadelphia Flyers coach Fred Shero, who won two Stanley Cups with his team in the 1970s, from his 1982 interview with Don Cherry on The Grapevine Show: “If you want a winner you got to have four or five abrasive people.”
My take
1. Of course, hockey isn’t what it was in the 1970s. That was a far more violent time in the NHL. There are now few designated enforcers on teams any longer. Every player must be closer to the mean for average skill to hold down a job, especially when it comes to skating ability. But if you think teams don’t need abrasive and intimidating players to win today, you weren’t watching the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. Arguably the most physically abrasive team, the Florida Panthers, won the Cup.
2. The 2024 playoff version of the Edmonton Oilers were also plenty abrasive, led by nasty Evander Kane, backed up by aggressive players such as Dylan Holloway, Vincent Desharnais , Sam Carrick, and Darnell Nurse. Players not so well known to be physical, such as Adam Henrique, Derek Ryan, Warren Foegele, Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman also played some heavy hockey in the playoffs, as did Leon Draisaitl until he got banged up in the Game 1 against Vancouver. But off that list, three of the most forceful players, Holloway, Desharnais and Carrick, are no longer Oilers, and Kane is coming back from injury. Will the Oilers have enough rough-and-tumble players for things to compute into winning if we use Shero’s abrasion equation for success?
3. While Edmonton has lost some toughness, it’s also added some, with Viktor Arvidsson known as an ornery customer, Josh Brown a major league heavy hitter more active than even Desharnais, and Ty Emberson coming from San Jose with the reputation as someone who constantly takes the body. The key for Arvidsson, like Kane, is to be stay healthy. And Brown is a stretch to make the third-pairing.
Holloway was rounding into a power forward for the Oilers, and he’ll be missed most acutely, but perhaps Arvidsson can bring some of the same.
4. The good news on this count is that the Oilers can count on veteran players to step up when it comes to aggression in the playoffs Janmark did not throw a high number of hits in the playoffs but he played with a tremendous amount of snarl and in the playoffs. The same goes for star forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who can crank up the physical play when necessary.
5. But the key is Kane. If he’s healthy and good to go, the Oilers generally have the single most intimidating player on the ice in any playoff game. Kane’s hitting on L.A. d-men Drew Doughty and Mikey Anderson was crucial to Edmonton dispatching Los Angeles. Against Vancouver, when massive Nikita Zadorov threatened to run the Oilers out of the rink, it was Kane who went after him and nullified that threat. Zadorov is now in Boston, so unless both teams make the Final, Edmonton won’t have to worry about the massive Russian.
6. The wildcard for the Oilers is Darnell Nurse, who had a low rate of hits in the 2024 playoffs. Nurse played a tough game, but the menace that he can sometimes bring was largely absent, possibly due to injury. We do know he hurt his hip in Game 2 of the Final against Florida, but that was deep into the playoffs.
7. The veteran Oilers aren’t going to be intimidated this year, but I suspect that at the trade deadline, the pressure to bring in one or two more abrasive players will be high on Edmonton’s list.
At the Cult of Hockey
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