This got overshadowed by the Corey Perryness of it all, but this is pretty much what I was feeling after I got the thumbs up from Tavares.
Yeah the whole built for the playoffs, finish your checks, grind them down, we can't match the talent so we need to take away space, etc... All feels like the same thing. We're going to be extra violent because we can and if you get hurt, oh well.
I've had a lot of discussions about this kind of thing lately, most of it spurred by the Tom Wilson incident with the Rangers. The question is, what does the NHL want to be? Does it want to be a league that showcases the skill of the players, or a league that caters to "old style", "beat 'em in the alley" kind of hockey? There are tremendous mixed messages coming from the league - you see it in the way games are refereed ("I wanted to even up the penalties") and in the way player discipline/suspensions are handled. They talk about getting rid of dangerous hits but then they fine Tom Wilson $5000 for what he did in that game? That's probably like fining me $5. Big effin deal.
Call the games according to the rule book and keep it consistent in the regular season and playoffs. Call those damned vicious cross-checks in front of the net and after the whistle, along with the flagrant interference. Call it the same way in the first period, the third period, overtime, playoffs. Hand out suspensions that significantly hurt both players and teams for violent acts. Do that or stop pretending.
There's plenty of room for both skill and physical play to exist.