Random thought, but hit counts are so inflated now. Was reading a post on the Kings board about how they have 200 hits in this series while only having 140-some in their 2012 series against the Blues.
I watched a game (must've been game 2 or 3) of Bruins vs. Leafs a few days back and I was laughing when the panel was pointing out how physical Toronto was with their 30 hits in two periods. There were maybe 5 notable 'big' hits, while every other one was just a 'finishing your check' moment. It always has been an ambiguous stat that changed depending on the home arena's stat guy, but it seems the threshold of a hit is lower now.
Damn Trudeau and Biden inflating hits now