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- #61
Bobo,
I don't know where you heard that Gretzky played in a less physical era. But let me assure you that it isn't true. If anything it was more physical. He wasn't babied by the refs either. However, we was protected by Dave Semenko, one of the baddest goons who ever played the game. But then again most teams have one or two enforcers that are there to protect their superstars, so there's nothing unique about that. As for the rule changes, they've pretty much all been to increase scoring, especially the elimination of two-line offsides. So again, whoever told you his records won't be broken due to rule changes doesn't know what they're talking about.
Gretzy's scoring record is going to be threatened more than his assist record, even with the elimination of the 2 line (red line) pass. Nobody's in the same zip code as Gretzky's goal record right now, but nobody's on the same continent for assists.
I'd a agree hockey was probably more physical in the 80s than it is now. There's little room for enforcers on teams these days, and there was a lot more fighting 20 years ago.
In 1987-88 season (Gretzky's last year with the Oilers), the top 10 fighting teams had 1,037 fights during the regular season, with the Bruins leading the way on 132. The top 20 enforcers alone had nearly 450 fights, with Miller, Macrae, and Donnelly each fighting over 30 times. Gretzky's team had 94 fights, with Kevin McClelland, Marty McSorley, Jeff Beukeboom and Steve Smith dropping the gloves on 70% of those occasions.
This regular season, the Ducks led the way with 82 fights, while the top 10 had 635 between them. The top fighters this year were still in the mid 20s, which suggests that while there are still enforcers, there are fewer of them.
No team has had over 100 fights in a season since Florida in 2001-02.
Maybe I'm wrong. I heard this shit about Gretky the same way people bitch about Jordan being able to take an extra step or if you touched him he always got the benefit of the refs.
Maybe those are just haters saying that shit. You're right about them not fighting like they used to.