JR Ewing

Two breakout years in a row... I like the sound of that. JR

Sucks to get old and lose a step, but I guess it happens to all of us. Bob's no different. He used to be kinda spellbinding in the past, but you're right: those days are gone. JR

Just my 2 cents, but I think TSN is leaving HNIC so far behind in the dust it's not even funny. Cherry/Williams aside, there's one guy with a brain in his head there: Elliote Friedman. Just my opinion... JR

There's so many defensemen, it seems like it's gotta be happening. JR

It's pretty bad when even your hometown would like to forget you're from there. JR

Yes, especially since he and Nick Schultz (who was very prone to bad pinches) didn't work out together. JR

This is Dave "Tiger" Williams, jackass. He comes from Weyburn, Saskatchewan, the same home town as my wife. You know how, even in the tiniest towns in Canada, there's a sign saying "Home of" if an NHL player comes from there? Not Weyburn. My father-in-law told me that obody could stand him when he lived there and they were just all glad that he left. Williams once beat up teammate Pat Bouttete, smashing his face against the glass, and then attacked Lanny McDonald when he attempted to break up the “fight”. In 1976, Williams bit Dave Schultz during a fight, hit Dennis Owchar over the head with his stick, causing a gash that required almost 50 stitches to close. Williams attempted to strangle Billy Smith after hitting the goaltender in the throat with a shot, and one time physically threw a reporter out of the Canucks dressing room after the writer had less than grand things to say about him in an article. Williams was a regular guest on Off the Record, and even continues his old ways by intimidating other guests into sharing his opinion. Williams is the all-time leader in penalty minutes (3966) , and there isn't an active player with a hope of catching up. JR

Looking at that poll, I'm glad to see how many people around here agree with me. Things are looking up. JR

I'm pretty sure that Ference won't be top pairing. My guess, based on today's roster: Smid / Petry Ference / J Schultz After that, it's the logjam at 5/6. Ference probably only gets top pairing minutes if Smid is hurt. I once saw Ladislav Smid break his own nose running himself, completely unassisted, into the glass, so anything is possible. JR

Sounds like a blast. JR

Knees were knocking under the table, I bet. lol Green knows what it's like to get your head knocked in by Ferguson, that's for sure. Awesome that he didn't offer excuses. A guy could ask Eric Nesterenko what it was like, too; took a terrible drubbing from Ferguson back in the day. JR

@J0e Th0rnton Haha... Yeah, I've seen that one, and it still makes me laugh. Is that the same guy who sprayed pictures of women on the wall and then backstabbed opposing players who stopped to check them out? JR

I agree with everything you wrote other than "weak season". They piled all of the heaviest mail bags on him, and he still delivered. But absoutely, I also don't know why he signed an extension now, either. It's one thing to sign one when you're Taylor Hall or Jeff Skinner, and you're getting mad money, but that's not the case here. JR

Yeah, it was more violent than now, but less violent than hockey in the 1910s... And 20s... Hell, the 30s, too. lol To us, the Maki/Green incident is shocking. It used to be fairly commonplace at one time, unbelievable enough. It's part of the reason that I'm always a little amused when folks talk about how players don't have the respect for each other that they used to. When was this magical time when hockey players didn't do unspeakable things to each other. One thing, though: the violence of the collisions in body checks today is almost catastrophic. They are skating so fast and are so big, and are absolutely creaming each other now. JR

Great player and, quite frankly, belongs on this list, too. JR

Yup, the famous Green/Maki stick swinging duel. Green was probably the most hated player in the NHL at the time. JR

Cleghorn really could become unhitched out there. He was the personification of mayhem. In 1923, he had to be sneaked into the Aberdeen Pavillion in Ottawa because the fans wanted to tear him apar physically. What did he do? Got into the building, skated out to centre, and thumbed his nose at the crowd. lol What's easy to lose sight of was that he was a truly great player, aside from all of the violence (remembering that it was also an extremely violent era of hockey; worse than anything ANY of us have seen). He had Norris quality seasons in 1913, 1915, 1917, 1920 and 1925. He was the bridge to Eddie Shore, the other classic combination of brilliance and brutality on defense. Even wrapped up his career on the same team, if you can imagine them on the same blueline. JR

Thanks for reading. The game has a history which is simply amazing, and is really ignored compared a sport like baseball. Think of it. Almost nobody, even people who love hockey and hockey history, know who Sprague Cleghorn and Bad Joe Hall were. Yet, right at the same time, 18-year old Babe Ruth won his first World Series over in Boston, and sports fan know plenty about that era of baseball. JR

Really? That seems strange. The Oilers still don't have that elusive top defenseman unless Justin Schultz makes a step, but that would a big step. Huge step; and one that you simply don't bet on. Looks like you see the Canucks taking a bit of a tumble, eh? JR

This is Sprague Cleghorn. He was a magnificent puck rushing defenseman. His violent and psychopathic on-ice tendencies are legendary, especially after he was traded from Ottawa to Montreal. He made it his life's goal to make their lives a misery. He broke his leg prior to the 1918 season, and ended up being arrested after assaulting his wife with his crutches. In 1923, he went after the Sens' Lionel Hitchman and bashed his face so badly that he nearly incited a riot. For that one, Cleghorn was fined $200... By his own team. The next year he followed that up by going after Hitchman again, butt-ending him in the eye, and later took out Buck Boucher's knees. One time he beat the hell out of Newsy LaLonde (a tough guy himself) so badly, and continued to pummel LaLonde after he was out cold and lying on the ice, almost causing another riot. His career was dotted by cross-checks to the head and face, spearings, kneeings, butt-ends, running opponent's faces into the boards, as well as administering some of the worst beatings in the league, which is saying something for hockey in the 1920s. Along the way, Cleghorn may have even purposely cut Boucher's face with his skates. Oh. And: JR

Yeah, it was a regular Taylor Hall love in. If he played in a major Eastern market, and not the NHL's version of Siberia, there'd be WAY more noise and news about him. JR

@brelic I'm sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that you were slamming him for lack of offense. Just that, maybe, the scale of the job he was asked to do wasn't fully seen by enough people. This kid has come exactly as advertised. From Hockey Prospectus' scouting report in his draft year: I'm a fan. I would have loved for the Oilers to grab him, but with them having the #1 overall that year, they had to go for the concensus #1. JR

I see Couterier's salary as having to do more with the fact that the Flyers don't have much cap room left to sign him and they have the leverage. I almost feel bad for him, actually. He (at a young age) gets slammed with the toughest zone starts of any Flyer, the toughest Quality of Competition, and STILL is a possession positive player... And then folks say that he doesn't bring enough offensively to warrant much of a raise. Ouch. He's been given an extremely tough job to do, has excelled at it, and due to the above, isn't getting much of a reward. JR

Yeah, a youtube clip of that one was posted before. I don't really like cheapshots, but if anybody ever had it coming, it was him. JR

Well.. You know... "Almost". lol JR