Burke Likes Bears

Tom Benjamin’s NHL Weblog: Burke Likes Bears:


“In those situations a defenseman has two choices right now: He hits the guy or he looks like a fool,” Burke said. “We need to put the third option back into the game.”

I think Burke’s third option is a pretty good idea. Let the defenseman use his arms to ride the player safely into the boards. Obviously, he would have to quickly release the player to avoid a holding penalty, but at least it gives him a play.

It’s worth a try.

This is one of those things I’ve been meaning to comment on — I agree with both Burke and Tom here; it’s a situation where allowing a player the ability to contain a player gives them an option they currently don’t have, which might reduce the need to check them, which seems to be leading to some of these dangerous hits along the board.

The key here is contain — not pin. Just as defenders behind the goal can do, you can hit someone, you can slow them down, but you can’t grab them and stop them. And you shouldn’t NEED to go back to clutch and grab here to be effective, so we need to be careful it doesn’t end up there.

But it’s definitely worth a try.

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