obey86
Registered User
- Jun 9, 2009
- 8,013
- 1,274
Couldn't agree more. Drives me nuts how we employ people in front of the net post-Homer. He had a gift. He was amazing at what he did. Cleary couldn't do it. Franzen couldn't do it. Bert Sr. couldn't. Sheahan, Abby and Glen couldn't do it. In fact, they didn't even know where to start.
People used to talk about Vanek in the same breath as Homer when it came to deflections, but they aren't comparable. Being net-facing, outside the blue, waiting for the puck was not Homer's game. For my money, the only other guys I saw play Homer's game and play it well were Dino and Smyth.
Homer was a gift. He may not have been traditionally/conventionally talented, but there's a reason no one has even come close to doing what he did. He was so brilliant in his form and it pretty much because of his legacy that I've warmed up to Mantha so much - we finally have another guy that can do so much without touching the puck.
I love Homer, but to be fair it also helped him quite a bit that the team actually had players who get shots through to the net that he could tip or screen the goalie on. Nearly every time a defender on this team takes a long shot it's blocked and never even makes it through.