Former NHL player Gary Roberts weighed in on the Sidney Crosby incident on TSN 1050’s Leafs Lunch, and the kind of abuse stars like Crosby and Edmonton's Connor McDavid have to endure in today’s game, suggesting enforcers could help eliminate that.

"Years ago you weren’t able to take a run at a star player [like Sidney Crosby]," Roberts explained to Leafs Lunch host Andi Petrillo. "I get it that it’s playoffs and there’s a little more let go, but I think there’s more stick work in the game today. I’ve seen more stick work in the last three weeks than the last three years...if you take run at a guy like Crosby, can you imagine the war that would be on your hands years ago if that was Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky?

I believe they’ve taken the enforcer out of the game that used to control those situations and I still believe that’s part of the game that’s ok. The enforcer making those other players accountable and accountable for their actions. Fear of sitting on the bench knowing that he’s going to have to fight on his next shift will take some of that cheap shot and some of that stuff away."

Hockey fights occurred at the second-lowest rate ever during the 2016-17 NHL season at 0.30 fights per game, according to hockeyfights.com. This is largely due to the enforcer role becoming near-extinct in the game. Players no longer exist on rosters simply to drop the gloves, especially with the instigator rule, which adds an additional two-minute minor penalty to the player that starts a fight.

Roberts, 50, doesn't necessarily believe there needs to be more fighting, but the potential for a fight that an enforcer brought to a game would help protect superstars and maintain order.

"Is fighting going to come out of [having enforcers in the NHL] or just the fear that that could happen? I don’t think the enforcer is going to go out and necessarily fight and I recognize the enforcer has to have a role on the team – he can’t just be an enforcer," Roberts said. "But if I have Tie Domi on my bench and he can play on the third line in many situations I feel a heck of a lot more comfortable if I’m Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid right now."

Roberts also said he believed Capitals defenceman Matt Niskanen deserved a suspension for his cross-check that led to Crosby’s concussion, whether there was intent or not.

"I believe if you look at the previous clips and the history between [Niskanen and Crosby] … did he know that Crosby was going to lose his balance and maybe drop a few inches? The bottom line was his stick was still off the ice, he had two hands on his stick and he was ready to cross-check him," Roberts continued. "It’s still a cross-check whether it hit him in the head or he meant to hit him in the body, you’re supposed to control of your stick, aren’t you? That’s what they say. So, it ends up being a cross-check to the head and I think there should’ve been a more severe penalty for what they’ve called over the course of the year with suspensions, I think [Niskanen] should’ve been suspended for a few games for sure."