Should Oilers' Stuart Skinner dish it back to Panthers' crease crashers, Bennett and Tkachuk?
So should Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner take matters into his own hands when fallen on or hassled in the crease, when he keeps seeing Florida's Sam Bennett or Matthew Tkachuk?
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Grant Fuhr, as placid as they came when playing net, says goalies do have to send the odd message and it's often in the form of some lumber to a tender area. We're not talking going all Ron Hextall here, but we're three games into the Stanley Cup Final and the annoyance on Skinner isn't going away.
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'You tell the officials but if they won't deal with it, you do. I haven't noticed Stu doing it but if you really want to get players, uh, undivided attention you tap them in the right spot, and a lot of that stops,' said Fuhr, who went through lots of issues in the Battle of Alberta days and later when he played for Mike Keenan's St. Louis Blues.
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'You get a stick under the cup (athletic supporter) and the message gets sent. Word gets around. They're less likely to plant themselves there,' said Fuhr.
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As we said neither Fuhr nor Skinner are in Hextall's league or former New York Islanders goaltender 'Samurai' Billy Smith as pain distributors in the crease area. Goalies can't lose focus, of course. Watching the puck is more important, but, sometimes, maybe there's a pound of flesh to pay?
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'It's annoying (opposing players taking liberties) but if they're too big a pain with their backside in your face, they're always vulnerable,' said Fuhr.
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'I might have gotten a couple of Calgary guys and in St. Louis when I had my knee fallen on by (Nick) Kypreos, we got a couple of their guys with a little more vim and vinegar than usual. Did Nick mean to fall on me, yes? Did he mean to hurt me, no? We've had lots of conversations about it over the years,' said Fuhr, who said Kypreos apologized for the play after Fuhr's knee was ripped up in the Leafs-Blues playoff series.
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'Back in my day, Dougie Gilmour would pretty much sit in your lap all day, John Tonelli liked to park himself there… it's normal in the playoffs. It's on purpose, they try to make it look accidentally. They're purposely falling on you. If a defenceman even touches an opposing player today, they fall. Doesn't seem to matter what direction the goalie falls… funny thing is the opposing player finds you,' said Fuhr.
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'It used to be a tough spot in front of the net, of course, with defencemen. You didn't want to go there. Now guys stand in front of the other goalie because there's no price to pay (just a penalty),' he said.
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