Funny thing the boys on XM-204 today were talking about Blakes spear on Crosby and then the discussion of not having any goons anymore to police the game anymnore because of the changes in the game. Kind of funny but they basically made the argument that when A star get slashed, hack, cheaped, speared in the old days that guy would be dropping the mits and fighting. Now with the PC NHL basically isn't protecting their star players anymore, allowing them to get hacked and not having an consequences for bad behavior anymore.
As far as goons go they might be a think of the past, I think eventually the multi skilled players that can score and fight will be looked at as a plus in the future. After watching Booguard (sp) last night in the wild games the man has no talent but can fight, however in his last fight he got killed by a lesser AHL player, hence no one is going to be scared of the Boogey man anymore. I think unforunately the NHL is starting to have a lot of stick work like the college hockey.