Jackets seek more punch
Having scuffled with Antoine Roussel after the whistle in his previous shift, Artemi Panarin wasn’t going to let Dillon Heatherington get away with taking a run at him — even if it was, as Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella described it, “a good, honest hit.”
So after the Stars defenseman, a former Jackets draft pick, barely mistimed slamming Panarin into the end boards late in the second period Thursday, the frustrated Jackets wing wrapped his left arm around Heatherington’s neck, spun him, grabbed his waist, spun him again and punched him in the back of the head.
Heatherington retaliated along the boards, and as their quarrel dragged into the face-off circle, Heatherington hooked Panarin around the waist with his stick, and then Panarin struck Heatherington in the mouth with a high stick. Both were sent to the penalty box.
“You see him last night?” Tortorella said proudly of Panarin after Friday’s practice. “I love that. When I show video of this game, that’s going to be on the tape.”
Added Tortorella: “That’s hockey. They called penalties, and there probably should have been some penalties called, but you don’t see enough of that.”
As Tortorella bemoaned for several minutes Friday the softening of the NHL into a “domesticated” league that has become “civilized,” no longer allows players to “police themselves,” and features opposing players “gabbing away” on the ice as if they were at a social, the self-acknowledged “old school” coach praised the 5-foot-11, 168-pound Panarin for his “intensity” against the 6-4, 215-pound Heatherington.
Tortorella also said: “Our team needs to be more physical. Our team needs to be able to take checks more, too.”
After the Canucks’ Alexander Edler knocked Josh Anderson off his skates during last week’s game — “just a really good check,” Tortorella said — Panarin approached Edler and got into it with him.
“Bread thinks he has to go over there and do something about it,” Tortorella said. “It’s the last guy I want to go do something about it, but that’s what the league has become: If you get hit, your arms go up in the air, and then the guy that hits you (with) a clean, solid hit has to look around because he might have to fight someone. Someone’s going to come, try to step in, and push him around a little bit. Because there’s not going to be a fight.”
The number of fights continues to nosedive in the NHL. There were 155 through 703 games this season, a pace of 280 in 1,271 games. A decade ago, there were 664 fights in 1,230 games.
But Jackets captain Nick Foligno said: “I don’t think physicality means fighting anymore. It means, are you over pucks? Are you winning battles? Are you tenacious in getting them back?”
Foligno cited the pressure that Tyler Motte put on Stars defenseman Dan Hamhuis behind the Dallas net, which resulted in a turnover and Jordan Schroeder burying a loose puck for the Jackets’ only goal in regulation.
Foligno also pointed to Oliver Bjorkstrand in the final minute of the third period beating defensemen Esa Lindell and John Klingberg to the puck, pushing them off and setting up Alexander Wennberg.
“That’s the kind of stuff I think we need a little bit more of,” Foligno said, adding that it produces offense and “benefits everybody.”
“Some of our personnel has changed. We used to be really physical all the time,” he added.
Brandon Dubinsky, who has been out the past five weeks because of a facial fracture, sets a physical tone, and “we miss that terribly from Duby,” Tortorella said.
“But I still think there’s an onus on the other guys — that it’s not really a big part of their game,” he added. “They need to be involved in rubbing people out and taking care of the blue [crease] when they’re in that situation. That brings energy to the game. And I know it brings energy to this team. That’s a point of emphasis in the second half for us.”
A prime example is Panarin, he said.
“It gives him space. Guys are like, ‘This guy’s a little crazy’” Foligno said. “It makes you appreciate the way he plays because you know he’s so skilled, but he’s willing to battle for that ice, too.”