ON THE MARK.

BEST GOON SQUAD EVER.
Watching the Maple Leafs dismantle the Montreal Canadiens the other night, I couldn't help but wonder if this is the type of team that Brian Burke was hoping for all along.  Truculence, testosterone, pugnacity.  That's what the Leafs showed via Mark Fraser, Colton Orr and Fraser McLaren on Saturday.  If you thought this team was going to get pushed around this year, you were sadly mistaken.  The Leafs are tied for the league lead with 14 fighting majors, and in my estimation, are the toughest Leaf team since 1989-90, when they set a club record with 2401 PIM.    That's 30 minutes PER game, folks.   And that was the year the Leafs hit the .500 mark for the first time in over a decade AND made the layoffs.
     Doug Carpenter was the Leaf coach that year, and had, at his disposal, 12 players who topped the 90 PIM mark.    Nobody wanted to play the Leafs in those days because they had John Kordic, Brian Curran, Lou Franceschetti, Rob Ramage, Luke Richardson, Al Iafrate, John McIntyre, Todd Gill, Brad Marsh, Scott Pearson and Mark Osborne.  Even Tie Domi got in a couple of games (and 42 PIM).   The problem with that Leaf team was a lack of defense and goaltending, and their inability to kill penalties, as they found out during their 5 game loss to St. Louis in the opening round.  Brett Hull, Adam Oates and Jeff Brown absolutely killed them on the powerplays.  And don't forget, the Blues were pretty tough as well.  Kelly Chase, Harold Snepts, Dave Lowry, Rich Sutter, Glen Featherstone and Sergio Momesso gave the Blues a lot of sandpaper that year.
      The late 80s and early 90s saw teams take penalties at an extraordinary rate, more so than during any other era. This was after the NHL introduced the "Third Man In" rule to eliminate bench clearing brawls in the late 70s.  It helped curtail those donnybrooks, but the mano a mano fighting continued unabated until the league added the "instigator" rule in 1992, which added an additional two minute penalty to the player who started the fight.   They had to add this rule because the previous year saw 3 teams, the Sabres, Flames and Blackhawks amass better than 2600 minutes in penalties.  It was a steady parade to the sin-bin in those days.  Games were taking too long to play.    Something had to be done. 
     The problem was, the fans, for the most part, loved the fighting.  Still do.   Ever since the Philly Flyers of the 70s were anointed as the "Broad Street Bullies", teams looked for a mix of talent and toughness.    But forget what you heard about Dave Schultz, Don Saleski and "Moose" Dupont during their heyday.   The real Philly goon squad played under Pat Quinn in 1980-81.   Listen to this motley crew:  Paul Holmgren (306 PIM), Behn Wilson (237), Glen Cochrane (219 in just 31 games), Mike Busniak (204), Mel Bridgman (195), Frank Bathe (175), Ken "the Rat" Linseman (150), Bob Dailey (141) and the great ankle-breaker himself, Bobby Clarke (140).
     But the best (or worst) Goon Squad ever, the team that had the most cement-heads, scrappers and brawlers  were the 1991-92 Chicago Blackhawks.   Mike Keenan coached this bunch, featuring Mike Peluso (408 PIM), Steve Smith (304) Stu "The Grim Reaper" Grimson (234), Bryan Marchment (168) along with Chris Chelios, Rod Buskas, Jocelyn Lemieux, Dirk Graham, Jeremy Roenick and even Eddie Belfour (38 PIM, two fights).  
     (Dis)honourable mention goes to the 1988-89 Pittsburgh Penguins, who had 15 players amass 90 PIM or more.  In fact, their top SIX scorers all had over 100 PIM.   Mario Lemieux, Rob (Down Goes) Brown, Paul Coffey, Dan Quinn, John Cullen and Bob Errey.  If you add the likes of Jay Caufield, Rod Buskas (a must on your goon squad), Jim Johnson, Troy Loney, Randy Hillier, Randy Cunneyworth and goon goalie Tom Barrasso (48 PIM, three fights) you're looking at a pretty talented and tough squad.
    Back in those days, my buddies and I had "penalty" drafts, where instead of drafting goal scorers, you gained points every time your draftee visited the penalty box.  You got two points for every minor infraction.  Fighting majors and misconducts were worth 5 and 10 points respectively, but a game misconduct was worth 60 points.   Guys like Tiger Williams, Basil McRae, Tim Hunter, Chris Nilan, Willi Plett and Torrie Robertson were always high picks.  Rick Tocchet and Marty McSorley were usually up there as well.  Sometimes a Gary Rissling or Paul Baxter or Jimmy Mann was worth a shot.  Alan May, Shane Churla, Randy Holt and Wayne Van Dorp were pretty good too.   Oh, I could go on and on.  Of course, that's when fighting was omnipresent in the NHL.   Saturday night in Montreal was a return to those days, and while today's Leafs aren't quite a goon squad,  quite frankly, that's MY kind of hockey.