Rough House Hockey

[Kordic]

I found this lenghty anrticle on Larry Playfair, from the Sabres magazine during the 1982/83 season. I have the magazine itself so I typed it into Word myself, so please bear with if there´s any English grammar errors, that entirely my fault. Anyways, it´s very interesting read and he´s interviewed at a dining place, while drinking beer. Imagine a player doing this during the season nowadays! Enjoy.


PLAY FAIR (OR DON´T PLAY AT ALL)

Buffalo´s Larry Playfair has changed his game to become one of the league´s finest (but still bruising) defensemen

By Mark Hillger

Sabres Style; The Official Buffalo Sabres Magazine.
Vol. 13, no. 10, March 1983.

”I can´t stand those things”, says Larry Playfair. ”Those green things are the worst things in the world.” No he´s not talking about the Minnesota North Stars. He means the cucumbers he´s fishing out of the bleu-cheese dressing covering his salad.

It´s past 10 p.m., and Playfair is hungry. The big Buffalo Sabre defenseman hasn´t eaten supper yet. On one of his rare days off, he spent the afternoon helping goaltender Jacques Cloutier install a humidifier, then rushed up to Niagara Falls for a public relations appearance to raise money for the Special Olympics. He´s just awarded a hockey stick autographed by the team to an excited young fan, and now it´s time to sit back, eat some peanuts, have a beer, and discuss the maturing of one of the NHL´s roughest, toughest defensemen.

”I find myself playing the man more constantly, and at the proper times,” he says. When I first came into the League, the only thing I had in mind was to put somebody through the wall. It didn´t matter if they passed the puck or what they did with it afterwards. And I was always out of position.”

Playfair´s gone beyond the rock-em sock-em approach, but he´s earned and probably still deserves the tough-guy reputation he has throughout the League. After all, he´s the man of whom former Boston Bruins coach Don Cherry has said, ”We used to let him alone and hope he went to sleep. You don´t want to mess with him.”

That reputation is nothing new. ”I remember my mom telling me ´You´ve got to learn to control your temper,´” says Playfair. ”I´d get mad really quick about stupid things, I mean anything. I remember once, (in midget hockey) we lost a playoff game, and we were going down the line, shaking hands, and I just drilled a kid right in the head, I was just so mad.”

Big, bad Larry Playfair. At 6-foot-4 and 220-plus pounds, he´s the biggest most aggressive of the Sabres. He´s led the team in penalty minutes three years running, and last year he smashed the total penalty record for any Sabre, with 258 minutes. That´s over 70 minutes more than the previous record, which was held jointly by Jim Schoenfeld and Jerry Korab, who were hardly slouches themselves when it came to the rough stuff.

Yet, Playfair´s become more than just a big guy whose sole purpose is to try to make opposing forwards a part of the Memorial Auditorium decor. He´s spent a lot of time trying to improve his skating, his ability to move the puck, and learning not to get caught out of the play. And as much as the Sabres and their fans like big, tough defensemen, he probably wouldn´t still be around if he hadn´t.

Playfair, the Sabres first-round draft pick in 1978, spent only two-thirds of his first season in the minors. After being called , he´s been with the big club ever since. (”Thank God”, he adds in an aside.) He´s earned a regular spot in the defensive rotation, a place on the penalty-killing unit when he´s not in the box himself, and the respect of his teammates.

Fellow backliner Bill Hajt, the team´s ”defensive defenseman” and the oldest of the corps, says, ”Before, he was maybe expected to go in there and intimidate and play the body. Now he´s part of the regular rotation and he´s expected to move the puck out and make plays.”

Veteran winger Craig Ramsay has noticed an improvement in Playfair´s defensive performance. ”They´re using him in all kinds of situations now. He can go out and do the job just as well as anybody. He plays the penalty killing well when we need him. He know show not to get tied up, where before he used to really just commit himself to one man. Larry´s disciplined himself and he´s become a better all-around hockey player.”

Playfair´s change in attitude would probably please his mom. He´s not yet legitimate candidate for the Lady Byng, but he´s learning to control his temper. ”I think a defenseman´s gotta be the coolest person on the ice, the last one to get frantic,” he says, calmly cracking open a peanut. ”Killing penalties, on two-on-ones, three-on-twos, you just can´t go banging bodies.”

He tosses the shells onto the floor, where a small mound is steadily growing. ”I love places like this,” he comments, ”you can just throw your junk all over the floor.”

He pours himself another beer and returns to the discussion of defense. ”The tough thing about playing defense…it´s more mental than anything, because you´ve gotta try and calculate the proper time to hit somebody and move them out of the play; and the proper time to say ´all right, I can´t move on the guy, because if I do and he passes the puck, then I´m really out of position.´ Those aret he kind of things you´ve got to try and figure out, and then when you do get a chance, you play the man and really take him out.”

When it is time to take someone out, surprisingly, he´d prefer it wasn´t one of the League´s shorter players. Those little guys can be tricky, he complains. ”I can take on guys my size, one on one, coming down on me, trying to beat me, and 100 out of 100 they won´t. Shorter guys, you can´t get ´em in the chest area because they´re so darn small and they´re beeping and bopping around….”

Playfair is playing with more subtlety, but all this is not to say he´s stopped being tough. He doesn´t shy away from intimidating the opposing forwards, or from talking about it. ”My job is to intimidate them to the point that they say to themselves, when they´ve got the puck, `He´s on the ice, so I´d just as soon not go into his corner, because I know he´s gonna hit me.´´´

And he does feel he lives up to his last name. ”I don´t consider myself a dirty checker, I don´t think I hit people with cheap shots. But if I get a chance-and most guys are like this-if I get a chance to hit somebody clean, I´ll do it. So, it´s important for for the forwards to think ´Well, geez, maybe I don´t want to go into his corner.´´´

The intimidation isn´t just for the opposing forwards when they´re carrying the puck. As Cherry says, you don´t mess with Playfair. The rest of the NHL soon learned you don´t mess with the other Sabres, either. Playfair watches out for his teammates.

He´s not reluctant to talk about that either. ”Every hockey team, I believe, has to have somebody that´s kind of , I hate using the word policeman, but—enforcer. Somebody like Larry Robinson. Larry doesn´t fight a lot, but he´s there if trouble starts. I think every hockey team has to have one of those to give the players that aren´t real physical a little more confidence.”

Playfair leans over the pitcher of Michelob and chooses his words carefully, wanting to convey the right impression. ”If you play a team that doesn´t have an enforcer, then you have the tendency to be even more aggressive than you usually are. You take advantage of it. Guys like Mike Foligno and Lindy Ruff do the same job as I do, they give the players the same type confidence. I don´t think it´s such a one-sided deal it used to be, say, as when Jimmy (Schoenfeld) was here—for years he was the only guy.”

Ramsay says there´s no question Playfair´s big-brother attitude is a great help. ”I´ve had situations where guys maybe hit me, a defenseman or a big winger. If they maybe take a shot at me and Larry come flying in, all of a sudden they change their tune pretty quickly. There´s not many guys who want to tangle with him. He makes sure people know he´s around and it´s given me room at times where I´ve had a few extra steps, a little extra time.”

”At some point in time,” Ramsay continues, succintly capsulizing what Playfair meant, ”a guy has to make sure he sorta stands up for himself. But it´s great to know if Larry´s on the ice and you stand up and start pushing with somebody, all of a sudden a big guy like him is going to come flying in there.”

Naturally, Playfair´s actions in this regard often produces penalties, but Hajt feels that´s not a detriment but a morale booster. ”A good penalty,” he explains, ”where you hit a guy into the boards, or if a guy´s been bothering somebody else and he comes in and steps in and give him a lesson, I think that can be very positive. You see him out there grinding and intimidating and everybody else picks up the fever a little bit—our other players feel more comfortable out there.”

Buffalo fans have always appreciated a hard checker and a player who´ll stand up for his high-scoring teammates, and they´ve found a lot to like in Larry Playfair. But the more discriminating types look past that, and have been known in the past to say that more is required to make a good defenseman.

Playfair agrees, and he´s been working on it. ”I´m not blessed with a lot of talent, so in order to make up for my lack of ability I play a little more physically,”, he admits. To counter that, he spent some time each summer for his first three seasons taking power-skating lessons.

”Larry´s worked har on his skating,” Ramsay says. ”He started skating with the puck, and when he´s skating with the puck he´s a pretty dominant presence, too, because he´s so big and he´s really fast. I don´t think people realize how fast Larry can skate, and when he´s moving with the puck he really opens things up for us.”

Hajt adds, ”It takes a little bit to learn how to play defense properly and he´s adapted very well. He´s a very good learner and he´s still learning every day.”

Some of that adapting means knowing what to do and when. Instead of merely hitting anything in an opposing jersey, Playfair´s learned to think first. He´ll adjust his style to suit the opposition.

For example, asked whether he prefers to play against a physical team, as opposed to a skating team, he frowns, opens another peanut, and looks into his glass in concentration. ”I feel I´m more effective against a team like the Islanders or the Bruins, because I´m always banging people,” he says. ”It´s tough to play like that against the Canadiens. With the Islanders, if you hit a guy and it´s a little bit late or something, you won´t catch yourself out of the play.

”With the Canadiens or a team like Quebec, if you hit a guy and happens to do it at the wrong time and get yourself out of position, they can turn around and score a goal on you that quick,” he says, snapping his fingers.

"With a Stastny coming down the ice on you, you´ve gotta worry about, one, falling down,; two, trying to figure out which way he´s going to go—you og the wrong way and he burns you; maybe he´s going to pass the puck…there´s a lot of things he can do when he´s skating with the puck. Moving someone from in front of the net is easier, because it´s black and white. He´s there and he wants to stay, and you´re there and you want him to go. It´s just a matter of who wins that contest.”

There´s one area in which Playfair´s improvement has been less notable—offensive staistics. Before this season, he netted just 11 goals and 32 assists. ”That´s something I never really cared about. I didn´t care if I ever scored—well, I wouldn´t want to go a whole season without scoring a goal,” he laughs. ”Now, I´m starting to think a little more about it, and I´d like to be a little more productive. I´d like to play a season and get 30 points. I´m not gonna be a Bobby Orr, but still like to get a goal once in awhile.”

He apparently means that, as he recently went on what for him is a scoring streak, getting two goals in two nights. And with about a third of the season left to play, he´s already equaled his career high of 16 points. He´d already gotten four goals, giving him a good shot at breaking his record of six last season.

If he doesn´t, though, he won´t be too disappointed. Scoring still isn´t as important to him as keeping the opposition from doing the same. ”It (offensive ability) is the last thing I´d look for in a defenseman if I were choosing a team,” he says. ”I don´t think you can survive in this league by being a good offensive defenseman and not being a good defensive defenseman.”

His more important goals are less tangible than figures in the scoring columns. ”I´d like to end up the season a plus player. I´d like to be one of the two or three top plus defensemen. My major goal would be to play a good, consistent season, not to be great one night and mediocre the next. To be just consistently good every night, I´d be happy with that.”

The Sabres´resident tough-guy stretches his legs and accidentally moves the bench he´s sitting on. ”Hey, is anybody sitting there?” he queries, peering into the adjoining booth. ”I just moved the chair, I hope I didn´t break your feet…”

The peanut basket is empty, the shells scattered, the steak fries and sallad gone, and the offending cucumbers sent to their doom. It´s time for Playfair to go home to his wife. ”Hey, I gotta take off,” he says, standing up and swallowing the last of his beer. ”Now, I don´t want you staying here all night and getting drunk.”
Evidently, the big-brother attitude extends towards sportwriters too.

[Sittler]

Thanks, Kordic, very good read. It's always been hard for me to find Playfair articles, too. Nice to finally read a good one.

[Kordic]

Bill Hajt´s take on a "good penalty", kind of shows the attitude those old-school guys had towards the game. Hajt said a guy like Playfair going out and teach a cheap prick a lesson is a good penalty to take

In today´s NHL there is no such thing. Back then there were tough guys patroling the ice and no instigator penalty... How long would cheap-shot artists like Matt Cooke, Sean Avery etc. last back then? They would be chopped liver in short period of time.

[silentbob]

Good article but there have always been guys like Avery and Cooke. Ken Linesman, Bobby Clarke, Billy Smith, Dale Hunter etc.

[Kordic]

That´s true, but they were some times jumped, beaten, riots & brawled started because of their actions...now we have stupid visor wearing dorks who just stands around like they´re on a different planet (i.e. Gaborik fighting Carcillo).

[Buffalogotcheated99]

Thanks for posting that article Kordic, I enjoyed reading It.

[Kordic]

I have found an interesting Mike Hartman/Kevin Maguire article from 89/90 on a Sabres magazine. Will get it into the computer an post it during the weekend. There is a GREAT up close photo of Hartman fighting John Kordic in that article. Will try to scan it so Sittler can use it on the site. One of the best fight pics with up-close facial expressions I have ever seen.