Favorite "in the shadows" player from the 90s

[timelydew]

I was looking through a binder of hockey cards I collected when I was a kid back in the Nerf or Nothin' days, and came across so many awesome players I hardly think about anymore. Guys like Scott Mellanby. Stephan Lebeau (for some reason I chose to highlight him. He had a sick 92/93!). Mikael Renberg. Michal Pivonka. Robert Reichel.

 

Obviously time can forget certain guys, and even the guys that are remembered were never allowed the spotlight guys who are the modern versions of them in the league now get with social media being so prevalent, not to mention the bulked-up media coverage we're accustomed to these days. Obviously a couple guys I mentioned played into the 2000s, but I'm mentioning them because they were at their peak in the 90s. Who's your sentimental favorite? I can't really choose. 

[yave1964]

Sentimental favorite would be the grind line of McCarty/Draper/Maltby in Detroit, arguably the best 4th line of all time either they or Montreal Canadien 1970's 4th line of Doug Jarvis, Bob Gainey and Jimmy Roberts. There are few 4th lines who can take over a game, those two could with their tenaciousness. McCarty would fight at and could score and would bump up the lines to offer protection when needed and then Joey Kocur would fill in with his hands of cement on the bottom line, Draper was the best faceoff man who I have ever watched regularly and that includes everyone, Yzerman, Dionne, Federov, Datsyuk, EVERYONE. Maltby was the quiet one who only scored 10 goals a year but they always counted and he was flawless in defensive zone coverage. I don't know if they are 'in the shadows' so to speak, they are kind of famous for not being famous if you know what I mean with so many hall of Fame mates, but how many teams keep their 4th line together for a decade?

[JR Ewing]

21 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

Sentimental favorite would be the grind line of McCarty/Draper/Maltby in Detroit, arguably the best 4th line of all time either they or Montreal Canadien 1970's 4th line of Doug Jarvis, Bob Gainey and Jimmy Roberts. There are few 4th lines who can take over a game, those two could with their tenaciousness. McCarty would fight at and could score and would bump up the lines to offer protection when needed and then Joey Kocur would fill in with his hands of cement on the bottom line, Draper was the best faceoff man who I have ever watched regularly and that includes everyone, Yzerman, Dionne, Federov, Datsyuk, EVERYONE. Maltby was the quiet one who only scored 10 goals a year but they always counted and he was flawless in defensive zone coverage. I don't know if they are 'in the shadows' so to speak, they are kind of famous for not being famous if you know what I mean with so many hall of Fame mates, but how many teams keep their 4th line together for a decade?

 

 

Pound-for-pound, Kirk Maltby was one hell of a body checker.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

For me, as a very young budding, not-fully-understanding-the-game hockey fan, it has to be Rob Zamuner when he played for the Lightning in the mid 90's.

 

I remember him being a heart n soul type guy.

Never put up the attractive numbers, but talk about a Selke candidate (yea, yea, he would have never been considered given his relative obscurity and who he played for...the THEN NHL doormat Tampa Bay franchise), but he was every bit what the Selke is SUPPOSED to be about: pure defensive grit, determination, goal preventer type skater from the forward units.

 

And he routinely was amongst the top players in short handed points scored too.

 

I remember whenever the Lightning were down, I always thought, "Man, wait till Robbie Z gets ahold of that puck...he'll score one for us!".

 

Well, realistically, he wasn't the best offensive option, but to my young impressionable mind back then, he was one of the team's saviors...........and it didn't hurt that I found him to be very good looking too!

 

[timelydew]

6 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

For me, as a very young budding, not-fully-understanding-the-game hockey fan, it has to be Rob Zamuner when he played for the Lightning in the mid 90's.

 

I remember him being a heart n soul type guy.

Never put up the attractive numbers, but talk about a Selke candidate (yea, yea, he would have never been considered given his relative obscurity and who he played for...the THEN NHL doormat Tampa Bay franchise), but he was every bit what the Selke is SUPPOSED to be about: pure defensive grit, determination, goal preventer type skater from the forward units.

 

And he routinely was amongst the top players in short handed points scored too.

 

I remember whenever the Lightning were down, I always thought, "Man, wait till Robbie Z gets ahold of that puck...he'll score one for us!".

 

Well, realistically, he wasn't the best offensive option, but to my young impressionable mind back then, he was one of the team's saviors...........and it didn't hurt that I found him to be very good looking too!

 

I remember Rob well, but I don't remember him being so GQ worthy hahaha

[timelydew]

10 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Sentimental favorite would be the grind line of McCarty/Draper/Maltby in Detroit, arguably the best 4th line of all time either they or Montreal Canadien 1970's 4th line of Doug Jarvis, Bob Gainey and Jimmy Roberts. There are few 4th lines who can take over a game, those two could with their tenaciousness. McCarty would fight at and could score and would bump up the lines to offer protection when needed and then Joey Kocur would fill in with his hands of cement on the bottom line, Draper was the best faceoff man who I have ever watched regularly and that includes everyone, Yzerman, Dionne, Federov, Datsyuk, EVERYONE. Maltby was the quiet one who only scored 10 goals a year but they always counted and he was flawless in defensive zone coverage. I don't know if they are 'in the shadows' so to speak, they are kind of famous for not being famous if you know what I mean with so many hall of Fame mates, but how many teams keep their 4th line together for a decade?

That's a great answer. I think it's fair to throw them into the conversation. Unless you're a Wing fan or were watching hockey during this time, I think time has forgotten them, a bit. People know the names, but probably forget how good they were at their roles and what vital cogs they were to team success.