Edited May 12 at 11:30 a.m.
Quoting: HockeyScotty
Look Benn is a physical force but this statement is utter BS. Manson ran him several times after the Toews hit. Put him on his ass on his own bench even. Don't sport crap that isn't true
I mean, people will play him physically. Between the whistles is normal. I feel a rite of passage for stls middle 6 is landing a solid hit on him - we’ve had a few.
But post-big-hit on Toews there aren’t Avs mobbing him, chasing him (like cousins lol). A lot of that has to do with who is on the ice, but it’s been like this for years.
I can’t recall a single time Benn was challenged after a dirty hit and I remember about 5 of them. I can’t recall anytime he “had” to fight. I don’t remember Pronger ever “having” to fight to answer the bell either. I’m sure it’s happened but it doesn’t seem like it works for him the way it works for everybody else. I believe Benn is one of the meanest skaters in the game right now, very very Prongeresque.
Both of them were literally trying to hurt the opponent at moments (elbow drop on prone stone).
People still played pronger physically every second of time between whistles, but nobody messed with him after the whistle ever despite pronger hacking guys to bits in the net front. He was mean as hell and relentless, way over the line nearly every game . I had extremely good season tickets during this era, had “front row” (not exactly but close) seats to some absurd cross checks. People don’t sucker punch Benn/Pronger as much in scrums and such because he’ll cross check them in the neck (Wild can’t remember dudes name happened just like this).
I wish I could find it, Reddit’s hockey sub has historically had a highlight reel of this exact thing: is just a series of elbows, very high cross checks from Benn, opponent dropping, nobody doing anything about it.
Here’s Benns hit on stone. Notice nobody does anything about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=urZghaQzdXg
Here’s an absurd hit. Notice nobody does anything about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tKSVnrQ9fBY