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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 25, 2008

BRANDON - In an act of temporary insanity, place a half-inch piece of foam in front of a brick wall, put on a pair of in-line skates and head toward the wall. Try to ignore the 6-foot-2, 210-pound man trailing a stride behind, picking up steam to about 20 miles per hour.

Just as you are about to reach the wall, the trailer will lean in and plant you right into that wall.

Sound like fun?

This is part of the job description for a defenseman in the National Hockey League, letting large men use your body as a cushion during routine plays on a nightly basis.

"It's not fun, it's definitely not fun," Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle said.

There are a variety of ways to get slammed into the boards, but they all essentially feel the same.

"In a sense, it's like hitting a brick wall with a little bit of give," said Panthers defenseman Jassen Cullimore, a member of Tampa Bay's Stanley Cup-winning team in 2004.

Throughout the course of a 60-minute hockey game, disruptive forwards force opposing defensemen to get up close and personal with the end boards numerous times. One man chases the puck, the other - called a forechecker - chases the man.

Each has the same goal - get the puck - but different ideas of how to accomplish the task when the ice surface ends and the body contact begins. All this occurs in the name of puck pursuit.

For the defenseman, getting to the puck first is the name of the game, but there is plenty of information to process on the way.

"You want to know what your options are going to be once you get to the puck, aware of where the opponent is and be able to protect yourself," Panthers defenseman Bryan Allen said. "There is definitely a strategy and timing, and every play is not going to be the same. Sometimes you just know you have to sacrifice your body and yourself to make the right play and get the puck out of harms way."

Experience and instincts are a large part of reading the situation. Knowing angles to avoid the hit, knowing where your defensive partner is to make a quick play on the puck, even putting on the brakes to minimize the damage, are all factors. Decisions are made in just a few seconds.

Many times, the option isn't going to be pleasant.

"You are not scared, but you take a look to see who is breathing down your neck," Lightning defenseman Shane O'Brien said. "You know your job as a defenseman is to get to the puck first, but if he is right on you, sometimes you can slow down a little bit and let him get right on your back. That way he doesn't have that stride-and-a-half to bury you.

"Sometimes, when you don't have that luxury, you just try to brace yourself and take the hit as well as you can. But it definitely is the worst feeling for a defenseman, those little soft chips where you know you have to turn and go get it."

For a forechecking forward, however, the play is viewed from a much different perspective. And the end result, if executed properly, has a much different feeling.

"The first job of a forechecker is to take the man out of the play," Lightning forward Karl Stewart said. "If I see him going after the puck and I know he doesn't have a step on me, I'm going to finish my check. If he doesn't know I'm coming, I'm going to hit him hard."

And what's the impact like for a forward?

"I don't feel it at all," Stewart said. "All my momentum is going forward and I don't feel anything."

The constant pummeling of defensemen into the boards acts as a form of strategy, too.

"In a game, you want to finish your check every single time on the D. They don't like that. They don't want to be hit every single time they have the puck," Lightning center Vinny Lecavalier said. "So the more you do that, the more you get them tired, the more you can make the D make bad decisions. Sometimes, it changes the momentum of the game; you get more opportunities to score."

Defensemen have strategies, as well, when it comes to taking the hit. Some of the better skaters, such as Boyle, try to use their speed to either escape the forechecker or create angles to make it harder for him to land a solid hit. Others want to be as close to the boards as possible at the point of impact to allow the boards to absorb some of the force.

If the timing is off, injuries can occur. That's what happened to Paul Ranger in Buffalo on Wednesday, when his left shoulder took the brunt of the impact into the end boards when hit by Daniel Paille, knocking the Lightning defenseman out for the remainder of the season.

Either way, there is that moment of trepidation for a defenseman, knowing he's about to be the guy between an immovable object and an irresistible force.

"You're not scared, but you always have that feeling of anticipation," O'Brien said. "And when you know you are going to get hit, you have that thought of, 'I hope I take this clean,' and just get prepared for the hit. But it's part of our game, and that's what makes our game fun."

Fun?

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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