2007-08 Broad Street Bully Award: Best Enforcing Team

[Merlin401]

Here we looked for tough teams that carried one or more heavyweights to supplement team toughness.

Nominees

Anaheim Ducks
69 fights; George Parros, Brad May, Brian Sutherby, Travis Moen, Sean O'Donnell and plenty of tough guys.

Calgary Flames
70 fights; Mike Keenan, Eric Godard, Jim Vandermeer, Eric Nystrom, Dion Phaneuf, Jarome Iginla and a bunch of rugged guys around

Minnesota Wild
46 fights; The three kings: Derek Boogaard, Todd Fedoruk and Chris Simon. Also added middleweight Aaron Voros.

Philadelphia Flyers
63 fights; Riley Cote, Jesse Boulerice, Steve Downie, Scott Hartnell, Jason Smith, Michael Richards, et. al. Also led the cheap shot parade and the league in suspensions. Fun times on Broad Street!

St. Louis Blues
53 fights; D.J. King, Cam Janssen, Matt Walker, Jamal Mayers, Barret Jackman

Vancouver Canucks
68 fights; no heavyweight but a myriad of scrappers from Mike Brown to Rick Rypien to Jeff Cowan to Kevin Bieksa to Byron Ritchie to Nathan McIver to Alexandre Burrows to Brad Isbister and on and on

My Pick

Here's a tough one! Last year if Anaheim had put up 69 fights, they'd be 22 ahead of anyone else. This year there are a dozen teams closer, and Calgary with even more fights. There may be teams that are slightly tougher than Anaheim now (of that I'm not sure). But you know what? All those gains in fighting majors in all those other teams is all because of the Ducks. Anaheim gets the nod for that.

Past Winners

2003-04: Calgary Flames
2005-06: Ottawa Senators
2007-08: Anaheim Ducks

[steg1989]

Hate to be the homer here, but no Boston?

Thornton, Lucic, Reich, Chara, Hnidy, Ference...

[jayc948]

Hey Steg, we're looking for the best enforcing teams, not those that "let the league address things".

[skacore]

Hard to vote against the Wild but they weren't running that line up through the year so my vote goes to the consistent Calgary Flames. They got a quality fighter in any weight class you could imagine and one of the top heavies in Godard. The team's best players like Iginla, Phaneuf, even Nolan, rarely need someone to step in there for them, they will gladly handle it themselves.

[Smerri1029]

Originally Posted by steg1989

Hate to be the homer here, but no Boston?

Thornton, Lucic, Reich, Chara, Hnidy, Ference...

Ditto. Thought the Bruins would at least be a nominee this year.

[bupz91]

I only picked the ducks because of the bounty of people that will fight that they had.

[Powerforward]

Calgary got my vote. All round team toughness. All-star players that fight(Iginla and Phanuef) and the rest of the cast that has Godard as their HW.

[Orr=God]

calgary gets my vote.

[Snipes19]

The Calgary Flames.

Led the league in fighting majors, and they just had a very tough team. Picked up Vandermeer to go along with Godard, and they had several gritty middleweights like Phaneuf, Iginla, Nystrom, and a few guys on defense. IMO they were the toughest team in the league this year. Not to mention they had a gritty coach in Mike Keenan. Hard-hitting team that will wear you down.

The Wild only had Simon for a little bit, and Boogaard was out for a lot of the year, so in a lot of games they only had Voros and Fedoruk in. And they also only had 46 FM's - the least out of all those teams, so they aren't the best.

The Blues were entertaining towards the end of the year, but at the beginning of the year it was only King doing the enforcing. Walker didn't play a lot, they got Janssen at the trade deadline and he only fought twice, and Mayers and Jackman didn't do much either, so I'm not voting for them, although they are very tough too.

The Canucks never had a true heavy and a lot of those guys like Brown, Rypien, and McIver only played a little bit for them, so I can't pick the 'Nucks.

With the Flyers, Boulerice didn't play a whole lot - and aside from Cote, they just had a bunch of middleweights - so I just think that Calgary is tougher.

Anaheim is still tough but dropped off a little fom last year after losing Thornton, O'Brien, and now Hnidy during the 07-08 season.

So, Calgary it is. They are the toughest now, in my opinion.

[TheBoogeyman]

Had to go with Calgary, almost the whole team can fight and they did when they had to. I firmly believe they are one of the toughest in the league, maybe even the toughest.

[Habs Fan 1987]

I think the Bruins should've been a nominee. Of all of the teams in the league, they used fighting and intimidation the most, from what I saw.

[Cat Smasher]

I voted for Philly, based on the willingness of Cote, and at the beginning you had to answer to Cote and Boulerice. But Philly is a tough ass team, captain obvious.

At the start they had Eager. Hatcher is a mean ass dman, Smith is a gamer and sticks up for his team mates with all he has and keeps going and going. Hartnell, Even the kids step in on occasion, Richards, Umberger, Carter, Downie had a few. Dowd had one, Lupul had one.

I gotta go with Philly, and I dislike them so, whatever.

It's super close though, I like Philly, puke, much younger. Calgary is right there though, could go either way.

[BStreetBullies]

The Ducks always had a bell ringing for you.

[blackngold]

The Bruins were not a good enforcing team in my honest opinion.

[Phila26Flyers]

Homer pick for Philly. Cote was always willing to fight, and would have topped 30 fights this season if not for some fighters declining his request. I remember after Downie threw himself into the boards on the Laraque hit, Stevens sent Cote on the ice on the ensuing faceoff to f*ck somebody up. Of course the refs blew the play dead once they saw Cote challenging the helpless Ryan Malone