well i understand why they were doing it and it wasn't a bad thing to look for in general, but it was like all their moves were based on that and nothing else. "well these guys are pretty mediocre, but they're TOUGH". there's a reason all those though guys (other than montador) signed 1 year deals despite bringing toughness. they aren't really good. i don't think it's the team being soft, i think it's more of a lack of effort and motivation. they still don't seen engaged. i know that's comething that's often a cliche for struggling teams, but this has been going on for a year and a half now. duncan keith is like the poster boy for it. i mean, what was the difference between our cup team and the 2 teams we've had since then? ladd, versteeg, sopel, madden weren't tough guys. you could put byfuglien, eager, and burish in that category, but those guy can play. we had actual depth up and down every line on both sides of the puck. we lost all that and now we tried to mimic it by signing a bunch of tough guys to one-years deals and calling it "depth".