Five for Fighting Monday - Chris Stewart

I don’t get it, all this angst about Chris Stewart dropping the gloves and breaking his hand. Yeah, yeah, I get that part about how it sucks that he is out 4-6 weeks and that it isn’t good for the Avs.
What I don’t get is all the high and mighty, 20/20 vision by everyone now declaring that Chris Stewart shouldn’t be fighting. He’s too valuable. He needs to be scoring goals rather than playing rock ‘em sock ‘em robot.
Really? Are you sure about that?
Isn’t that a big part of what Chris Stewart is as a hockey player?
Isn’t that why you love his game so much?
Joe Sacco gets it, why don’t you?
Look in the mirror: you LOVE a guy that can skate like the wind, pass pretty, score on a slapper and pound the lights out of anyone in the league. Anyone.
How are you going to know and love that about Stewie if he isn’t THAT guy?
Well, you say, we all know he could do it if he wanted to.
That reasoning doesn’t fly when some d-bag decides to run Matt Duchene through the boards. Does he think twice about it just because he knows Chris Stewart COULD pound his brain to mush, even though he hasn’t in weeks/months/seasons? In fact no one can remember the last time he did cause he decided or was told that that isn’t his game anymore. Yeah, that should slow down that freight train barreling towards Dutchy.
Right.
And I know what you want to say. Well Koci should take care of those duties. Or, if you have a bit more brain power you are going to argue that McLeod should take care of business.
Both arguments are crap.
First, neither of the two can kick ass like Stewart. There’s no denying that.
Second and most importantly, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. No, you can’t. Every where I turn there’s whining about Stewart’s injury. Yet these are all the same people that spent vast amounts of time last year whining about Koci being on the ice. C’mon man! You can’t bitch non-stop about the team carrying Koci as a fighter and then complain when a REAL hockey player drops the gloves.
So he got hurt. Players get hurt all the time in a million ways. It happens and who’s to say how and when?
Wouldn’t you rather watch Stewie play his rough and tumble style than see Koci out there skating around like a goon? We all know Koci isn’t much of a hockey player. But if we go with the common argument (always loudly opined when Koci is on the ice) that we should get a better fighter that can actually play hockey as well…well aren’t we going to be in the same boat we are in now?
Well? Aren’t we?
It’s highly unlikely to play out that way regardless because Chris Stewart is a special kind of hockey player that doesn’t come around too often. He’s the rare kind of player that isn’t likely to show up twice on one team. Rare enough that every team in the league wishes they had one of these players. There isn’t even one to go around to each team.
Sure I’m bummed that Stewart is hurt. But I would be far more disappointed if Chris Stewart stopped being Chris Stewart and tried to be someone else.