Shawn Skiehar has been talking in today’s Belfast Telegraph about his hopes for the playoff champagne. Ski has really been in the battles of late dropping the gloves on a number of occasions as the season has came to a close. His biggest foe of the year has been Manchester’s Brett Cloutier (originally with Sheffield) whom Ski has went with on three occasions. On all three Ski was the aggressor showing why he’ll always stick up for his team-mates and not let the Giants be walked over.
The last of the three tilts with Cloutier was on Saturday night with Ski finally getting the better of the leagues toughest man and knocking him down. In two other fights that night Hutchins was taken down by Campbell while Ruff in his only fight of the year also tangled with Cloutier putting up a good battle before Cloutier got his best punches after Ruff appeared to have finished his fight. A tad cheap and probably a reason for Ski going after him later in the game.
View the Manchester highlights including all three fights
Skiehar is a guy the fans have debated about all year. Many have bizarrely said he hasn’t been fighting enough this year, that he wont ‘goon’ it up when we’re getting beat and that he hasn’t brought enough to the team on the scoring front. I’ve found all that to be nonsense for the following reasons:
1. Skiehar finished the regular season with eight fights, third most ever in one season by a Giants player, tied with the eight Paxton Schulte had in 03-04 and behind only Paxton’s nine from 00-01 and the twelve set by Ski himself last season.
Verdict: He’s clearly been fighting enough; he just goes about it quietly and has done a lot of the fighting on the road.
2. Ski is generally a player with a long fuse, he can fight but he doesn’t do it out of pure anger (well rarely), he doesn’t go taking needless penalties and gooning it up on opposition players. Now although that’s fun to see sometimes, when Paxton Schulte played that kind of game in his forth season here the same fans criticising Ski for being to tame where lambasting Paxton for being to over the top.
Verdict: Ski has clearly been sticking up for his team-mates when required. He may not be winning every fight but then he’s not getting beat down either and each time he does fight it energises the Giants bench. He doesn’t need to go around cheap-shotting to do that.
3. Skiehar is not a scorer, though when he does get goals they tend to be in the important games when it matters. He had a great run of form in last seasons playoffs (bodes well for what stage of the season we’re now at). Ski is primarily an energy player, a checking/defensive forward. He’s a guy that will skate hard all night long, that will chase down the dump in’s and finish his checks. He plays the first line penalty kill and won’t hesitate to lie down in front of a slapshot.
Oh and did we mention he wears an ‘A’ on his chest. The guy clearly brings leadership to the team.
Verdict: If you read that and still don’t see the use for a Skiehar on any hockey team then you mustn’t really understand your hockey - every team needs a Skiehar and we’ll see exactly why in the next two playoff games. Mark my words.
