It’s not so much about toughness or overall team physicality. It’s more the make up of it, almost all of our physical players are on D.
I know it’s comparing apples and oranges but look at our last season forwards who could be classed as big physical players; Riley, Haddad, Pope, Marjamaki, Dixon, Duggan, Batch (was forward then), Myers.
This season we have McNally and Dixon. Duggan of course remains but he’s playing as a spare forward rather than regular 4th line. Even a few of the players who weren’t big guys on the 19/20 roster like Martin, Linglet and Benti were still physical players. We’ve gone the complete opposite this season. I’m not necessarily saying one is better than the other but personally I preferred our forwards being a bit more naturally physical than they currently are. Even forgetting the hitting element, which obviously most of our fans love to see, our O-Zone time is way down. Which I personally don’t think is that great to watch. It’s great we break out at speed, that part is good, but I think we are riding our luck not being able to get good zone time and getting a cycle going.
I know it’s comparing apples and oranges but look at our last season forwards who could be classed as big physical players; Riley, Haddad, Pope, Marjamaki, Dixon, Duggan, Batch (was forward then), Myers.
This season we have McNally and Dixon. Duggan of course remains but he’s playing as a spare forward rather than regular 4th line. Even a few of the players who weren’t big guys on the 19/20 roster like Martin, Linglet and Benti were still physical players. We’ve gone the complete opposite this season. I’m not necessarily saying one is better than the other but personally I preferred our forwards being a bit more naturally physical than they currently are. Even forgetting the hitting element, which obviously most of our fans love to see, our O-Zone time is way down. Which I personally don’t think is that great to watch. It’s great we break out at speed, that part is good, but I think we are riding our luck not being able to get good zone time and getting a cycle going.