lack of toughness cost sens cup
 

matched up against the ducks who lead the league in fighting majors and who were big hitters told in the result of the cup finals.. chris neil dealt a lone hand in this area... in general the sens were afraid to go in the corners and in front of the net..

GM's across the NHL know this and will respond.. perhaps players in the AHL like lousi robitalle , and the brookbanks will get a closer look next year..

fighting and toughness won the cup from a weak euro team and the ducks will be copied in their aproach...

There is nothing in your post that hasn't been said before and I don't quite know what you're trying to get at? I think the Sens were outmatched and pretty much outplayed in many areas that were more important that fighting and hitting, although hitting was vital, the Sens through just as many. They certainly weren't/aren't a "weak Euro team" but I do hope GM's go tougher next year. Obviously.

it's why 1 dimensional players either won't last in the NHL or play in the playoffs. You saw very little parros and very little mcgrattan (if any, not sure how much he played in the other rounds) throughout the entire time...you are going to have to have a bunch of guys that can fight and actually play hockey. This was what everyone said about fedoruk after last season, that he was the future enforcer type of the nhl (minus the ko's)

I may be biased, but I think it's wrong to blame Ottawas 5 Euros (Daniel Alfredsson, Andrej Meszaros, Anton Volchenkov - tough as nails, Oleg Saprykin & Christoph Schubert - fierce hitter) for how the finals transpired in terms of toughness. What about the 14 North American players on their roster? Aren't they supposed to lead the way in toughness? With three times as many domestic players as Euros, I wouldn't even call Ottawa a Euro team for that matter.

Ottawa lost because Heatley and Spezza were shut down (by a line lead by - get this - a Euro!) and did nothing but float around, waiting for someone else to do something. As noone but Fischer, Alfie & Emery showed up, Sens lost.

All that said, I'd love it if every team followed Anaheim's suit and dressed more tough guys and generally incresed their toughness (though a more offensive laden system wouldnt hurt!).

Alfredsson shown up at the last game. As for the rest of the team, they disappeared like they were playing the Leafs. :D

I think my friend had it right when he told me that they should have had McGrattan dressed for game one and him and Neil just take runs at Neidermeyer and Pronger. Not the blatant runs but just dump the puck in the corner and hammer them. The league's top defensive pair shut everybody down.

What a bunch of bullsh*t I cant believe anyone would be stupid enough to say a team didnt win the cup because they didnt do enough fighting!

They didnt win because they couldnt outscore ANA fighting had nothing to do with it!

AVALANCHE FAN is 100% correct. While the Ducks fielded a tough team all year and led all of hockey in fighting majors, the roster of active players in the playoffs for the Ducks wasn't the same team and I believe only had one fighting major for the entire playoffs. The Ducks just out-played the Sens and the Sens top line was completely shut down.

They might get closer looks, but do you think they will even sniff the ice once the playoffs start? If you can't skate and play at a certain level, you'll be watching the games from the pressbox during the playoffs.

Saying the Sens lost the Cup because they were intimidated is complete bs. Ottawa was outthouging all the teams in the East before they met their match in the Ducks.

The Ducks have just as many offensive catalysts (if not more) as/than Ottawa.

It had all to do with scoring, and this has how the game has been played since the 1850's, when it was introduced here.

There weren't any FM's in the finals, so how did Anaheim win based on "toughness?" They are most certainly the tougher team, but it comes down to how many goals you score, and how few you let in...:approve:

I dont see this happening.. Look at the "new" nhl...
What makes you think gms WILL respond?

spezza **** the bed big time , when met with physical play he vanished.

THANK YOU! I'm sick of this "euro *****" crap....
90% of teams aer mostly composed of north americans, yet everyone blames the euro's....
I'm not saying go fill a team up with euro's if you want a tough one, but jesus stop blaming the euro's (a small fraction of every team) for soft play....because 90% of the players are north american!

Chris Neil deserves a lot of praise for his toughness during the finals-he, in my opinion played w/ the most grit, as a Senator.
The Ducks were bigger & tougher, but I wish that Neil’s teammates could have played w/ the same edge, or rather ‘heart’ that he did-however, the Senators built more of a finesse team, in my opinion & as everybody knows, the Western Conference is generally more physical than the Eastern Conference.

well, although The Ducks are the tougher team. Ottawa is far from a ***** euro team, especially since most of the euros on the team are a few of the toughest players in the league (volchenkov). I agree the euro stuff is getting annoying. The senators lost because they didnt perform or play like they should of. There top line was horrible the whole series. Senators never let up and let the Ducks push them around though, they fought back the entire series. It was the team performance as a whole that lost them the cup. And also, fighting didnt play a single part in this series or the playoffs at all, this playoffs was the biggest flop fighting wise ive ever seen in my life.

Did you even watch the series ejwalk?

It cost the Wild the cup too. I believe they would have gone to the finals if they got past the Ducks. We got manhandled though.