Why doesn't Westgarth fight anymore?

[Stevens Lindros]

Originally Posted by beav66

westgarth is one of those useless tough guys ,I have never seen him have a good fight ,sits on the end bench for 58 mins cant skate or throw a hit ,his fights have nothing to do with the game ,I thought they were getting rid of guys like that

That's a little uncalled for, some tough guys glance at these forums and quite frankly I wish we had more of those guys.

Good point OriginalSix, it's just interesting because he's almost become the Anti-Parros. Parros isn't going to force his good buddy (or anyone quite frankly) to fight and I doubt he actually likes to fight (just does it because it keeps him in the NHL) but watching the last game and part of this one it looks like both games, even when the score was tied, Westgarth really didn't want to do his job and that's unfortunate. [End of run-on sentence] Westgarth's had easy chances for at least 5 fights this season and has only 2, that's pretty disappointing and you can't always fight when the game is 0-0 or your team is behind. Take the last Leafs-Islanders game, Orr and McLaren were trying to get Boulton to go in the 1st and 2nd, but with his team up or one shift the game merely tied he wasn't interested. In the third when the Leafs were up, Boulton was trying to get Orr and I believe McLaren to go. Orr and/or McLaren may have went regardless of score (as they've done many times before) if they didn't view Boulton as spot-picking that night. However, this was just a one-game event and won't likely carry over next game (though Boulton may not be in and even if he is there might still be no fight.) Westgarth has been doing this since that tilt with McGrattan where he was KO'd back in the 2011 pre-season. Can't blame him for being tentative but 5 fights in the last 39 games he's played with all the chances he's had is way too low for a player of his role. It's not like he couldn't get anyone to fight him. As for analytically, analytically he's being paid $750,000 pro-rated this year to fight the other team's heavyweight, hit, and be a big body out there, not score (though when he does, great, and obviously he should try to play to the best of his abilities.)

If Westie wants to stay in the league he's going to have to go when the opportunity arises.