2010-11 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

St. Louis Blues - 78 fights
The Blues take the crown from Anaheim as the team with the most fighting majors, by a pretty good margin (7 fights). Quite an accomplishment when 3 of 5 teams in the division, aka their most common opponents, finished the year with almost a combined 20 fewer fights than the Blues. Cam Janssen and B.J. Crombeen snagged 17 fights a piece, while rookie Ryan Reaves, Tyson Strachan, and then with the club Brad Winchester rounded out the crew with over 5 or more from each guy.

Boston Bruins - 71 fights
The Bruins picked up a lot from last years' mark (47). Shawn Thornton led the team with 14 fights, rookie Adam McQuaid notched 12 and Gregory Campbell racked up 11. Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic both added 7 a piece, some of them highly entertaining, spirited scraps. Mixed in were a couple line brawls and a full fledged 5 on 5 against the Thrashers after Lucic was drilled by Freddy Meyer, sparking all 5 guys to square off and have a go - including star forward Marc Savard. Couple that with the nasty fight filled games with the Habs this year, the Bruins really fought for each other and produced some great moments in doing so.

Pittsburgh Penguins - 71 fights
Deryk Engelland led the way with 13 fights, but also set the tone for the Pens when he took on perennial top 5 heavyweight, Colton Orr, and after taking a flurry of punches dropped the Leafs enforcer with a gnarly right hand on the jaw. From there on, the Pens were a force with the mitts off. Michael Rupp added 12 more fights, and resident HW Eric Godard, who had stints on IR, added 7 more. Securing their nod in this list, the Pens even had their goalie, Brent Johnson toss in 2 fights during separate wars against the Islanders - once dropping his Islander counterpart in nets, Rick DiPietro with one right handed bomb, and then taking on the Isles Micheal Haley.

New York Islanders - 68 fights
The Islanders were one of those teams you wanted to see on the schedule, but didn't. They weren't too good, but they brought a hard hat and a bag of knuckles to each game. Zenon Konopka was 2nd in the league with 25 fights, and continued to fight pretty much anything that looked at him. Matt Martin tacked on 13 more, oft suspended Trevor Gillies found time for 9 fights - as well as igniting what became an all out 5-5 brawl against the Penguins when he blasted Eric Tangradi with a blind sided punch to the jaw. Micheal Haley rounded out the major fight contributors with 7 of his own.

Anaheim Ducks - 67 fights
The Ducks are perennially in the top 5 with their fight all comers, and fight for each principle. George Parros once again led the way with his league leading 27 fighting majors, taking on all comers, and many coming against division rival teams. Sheldon Brookbank tossed in 7 more, Kyle Chipchura 6, Luca Sbisa with 5, and before being sent down and then traded, Aaron Voros with 5 more.

My Pick

I've voted for the Ducks for a few years in a row and its tough to change now given their reputation. But the New York Islanders actually reminded me of the old Broad Street Bullies in a crazy revenge-filled series with Pittsburgh. Michael Haley skating down the ice to go with the goaltender alone might have gotten my vote!

Past Winners

2003-04: Calgary Flames
2005-06: Ottawa Senators
2006-07: Anaheim Ducks
2007-08: Anaheim Ducks
2008-09: Anaheim Ducks
2009-10: Philadelphia Flyers

[nyislesfan45]

I sure hope the Isles can be a consistent contender for this award every year.

[Trognitz]

toss-up between blues and isles.

gonna pick isles. with a blatant thug like gillies they deserve it.

[Fatt Patt]

The Bruins.

Rename this achievement the Big Bad Bruins award.

[kam]

The Isles baby. Love what they did this season, didn't win much but were damn entertaining.

[bruiser11]

The Islanders reminded me a little bit of the Hartford Whalers of the mid 90's this year. Nothing in the standings but entertaining to watch!

[ghjkfdhgfd]

NYI was just ****ing awesome.

[RayzorEdge]

The Penguins were so close to winning this one, until Mario blew it after February 11.

Islanders get my vote.

[Sapunka16]

2009-19: Philadelphia Flyers

That would've been a lot more fun to watch than the chastity belt-like aggression blocker Laviolette unleashed.

Anyway, the only choice that makes sense for this is the Islanders. They beat the **** out of the Penguins as revenge and Pittsburgh didn't do anything in return for the 2/11 game.

The Islanders took on a "we might lose but we're not going to be pushed around" mentality, which mirrors the exact words Ed Snider said that led to the development of the original Broad Street Bullies.

I'd go on about how choosing the Bruins or Penguins is ridiculous, but it looks like the right team is going to win in a landslide here, so it's probably not worth it.

[skacore]

Went with the Bruins... maybe it's just because recently they've been the toughest team in the playoffs but seeing Lucic/Horton bully guys after whistles and having a lineup chalked full of fighters is a good look for them. Oh yea a 6'9 captain helps too.

[29th_Candidate]

The Islanders, hands down.

This year, they epitomized the old school enforcer mentality for which this site exists to celebrate.

Gillies' end of the year quote says it all: "We're willing to bleed for each other."

[xELi]

the Bruins...

[schlado]

Man. I want to go with the Isles, but I believe more players on the Bruins are willing to handle business.

[Isles4life]

For those that know my general opinion of the Islanders, I'm one of the last people on this site who will ever give them credit for doing anything right. And they are getting a bit overhyped because of the standout games against Pittsburgh. People forget that early in the season, they still let themselves get pushed around a little. But I remember back to Gillies going to town on Jared Boll after a late hit on John Tavares, and that's the moment thinking back I think when the attitude really turned around and they started consistently sticking up for each other.

This award isn't for the toughest team, it's for the best enforcing team. I think man-for-man a team like Boston or St. Louis could handle the Islanders pretty easily, but in terms of an actual attitude of enforcing. Jack Capuano started to regularly or at least frequently dress a roster containing Trevor Gillies, Zenon Konopka, Matt Martin, and Micheal Haley. 4 guys who weren't just about appointment fights, but would make it nasty when the occasion required it. Besides Matt Martin, I wouldn't say any of these guys are a lock to be on the team next year, and at this point I'd be surprised if Konopka and Gillies weren't both gone. But while it may have been short-lived, it was really fun to watch while it lasted.

[Trognitz]

i'd like to see Caps get Gillies, after Kings sad season.