Star players that you never liked

[Howie Hodge]

Indeed so.

I was recruited to play for The Buffalo Blades mostly based on a lethal hip check and an unpleasant disposition on the ice.

Funny how the good old rolling hip check is now viewed by most as "dirty.'

And I had been led to believe it was because of my enduring personality....

 

[Whaleafs]

Suter
Roenick
Tkachuk
Amonte
Hull
Hatcher
Chelios
Alfredsson
Yashin
Forsberg
Koivu
Lidstrom
Kovalchuk
Jagr
Hasek
Fedorov
Sundin
Sedins
Roy
Heatley
Pronger

 

[GordieHowsUrBreath]

jagr

patrick kane

chara

lindros

forsberg

 

[rfournier103]

Eric Lindros.

Came across as arrogant, entitled, snotty, and spoiled. It's probably because Sports Illustrated and the Boston Globe painted a rather unflattering picture of him and his parents. S.I. and the Boston Globe were my main sources for sports info back in the day (we didn't have cable TV and I had never heard of the "internet"). They didn't do Lindros any favors.

Yeah, I know his reasons for not playing in Quebec, and I'm kind of glad he ended up in another division, but to me he always came across as a petulant child who got his way because he was good at a kids' game.

 

[Killion]

I was recruited to play for The Buffalo Blades mostly based on a lethal hip check and an unpleasant disposition on the ice.

Funny how the good old rolling hip check is now viewed by most as "dirty.'

And I had been led to believe it was because of my enduring personality....

.... unhuh. Lost art that. The Best All Time? In no particular order...

Ferny Flaman
Bob & Barclay Plager
Leo Boivin
Bobby Baun
Rod Seiling (so thunderous, MSG had to install special extra heavy tiles to the boards, "Seiling Tiles" )
Brian Glennie
Fred Barrett
Gilles Marotte
Doug Jarret
Bill Speer
Johnny Bucyk
Rick Ley
Don Awrey
Paul Schmyr (Term phrased after Paul.... "He got Schmyr'd". )
Brad Park
Terry O'Reilly
Larry Robinson
Denis Potvin
Curt Giles
Barry Gibbs ...... quite the list... could go on but sadly, only a few from the last few generations really.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Kyle McLaren had an insane hipcheck:

 

[Killion]

Kyle McLaren had an insane hipcheck:

Yeah, he's damn good, nails it (and them)... Konstantinov, Fetisov & Kasparitas amongst others of more modern vintage also had that check dialed in.

 

[sr edler]

Suter
Roenick
Tkachuk
Amonte
Hull
Hatcher
Chelios
Alfredsson
Yashin
Forsberg
Koivu
Lidstrom
Kovalchuk
Jagr
Hasek
Fedorov
Sundin
Sedins
Roy
Heatley
Pronger

... What a random group of players. I can't find a common thread here, Conn.

What does Koivu (Saku or Mikko?) and Chelios have in common? Both Lidström and Pronger? Fedorov? Amonte of all people?

 

[DitchMarner]

... What a random group of players. I can't find a common thread here, Conn.

What does Koivu (Saku or Mikko?) and Chelios have in common? Both Lidström and Pronger? Fedorov? Amonte of all people?

Why would you not like Saku Koivu anyway? And mentioning Mikko seems very... random for a Leafs fan.

 

[streitz]

... There's certainly a gray area there streitz, quite a big one too, depending on what you do. Throwing big hits targeting the head area of your opponent will most certainly injure your opponent, if your mission is successful (latest example Wilson/Sundqvist). And I probably wouldn't trust streitz to make the wisest or most balanced decisions or evaluations on what's best or most proper when it comes to these things.

I watched that program (it's on YT) where Stevens talks about the 03 hit and I almost felt like he was trying to insult my intelligence when he said he was happy the opponent player "got up and finished the game in the style he did" (meaning he scored on NJD, in the Stanley Cup finals). What's the point in throwing big intimidating hits if they won't intimidate your opponent? And the only thing that will really intimidate a serious opponent in that situation is the risk of serious injury. No serious player's so intimidated by a normal hit that they won't skate on that side of the zone entry.

Are you trying to pretend every hit is the same? Just like some girls are bigger than others, some type of hits are way more damaging than others. Obviously.

I'll be honest I just like seeing people get zonked. Same reason I've always watched boxing and UFC. I could care less about NHL player's health. They're millionaires and paid to entertain people, hits are entertaining, aren't they?
That being said the game has rules for late hits, charging ect to prevent unnecessary injury. If Francis had his head down, his fault.



Don't worry about my opinion though, the league agrees with you and it's turned the game into a joke.

 

[BadgerBruce]

.... unhuh. Lost art that. The Best All Time? In no particular order...

Ferny Flaman
Bob & Barclay Plager
Leo Boivin
Bobby Baun
Rod Seiling (so thunderous, MSG had to install special extra heavy tiles to the boards, "Seiling Tiles" )
Brian Glennie
Fred Barrett
Gilles Marotte
Doug Jarret
Bill Speer
Johnny Bucyk
Rick Ley
Don Awrey
Paul Schmyr (Term phrased after Paul.... "He got Schmyr'd". )
Brad Park
Terry O'Reilly
Larry Robinson
Denis Potvin
Curt Giles
Barry Gibbs ...... quite the list... could go on but sadly, only a few from the last few generations really.

Nice to see Bucyk on your list. Few people today think of him as a banger, but good God, when he decided to stick out that big can ....more than a few Charlie horses with “Chief” tattooed in the centre of the bruise.

 

[FrozenJagrt]

Never liked Teemu Selanne. I couldn't tell you why. When I think about it objectively, I know there is very little reason for me to dislike him. There was no incident, nothing said or done to make me dislike him. I just... Didn't like him.

Hated Alfredsson. Aside from the fact that I'm a Leafs fan and I was just a kid when he came to the league, he did a lot of things I couldn't stand. Some dirty hits, the shot at Niedermayer in the playoffs, just came across as a bit of a rat to me. I'm not proud to admit this, but I cheered pretty loud when Mark Bell laid him out. Of course, having suffered several injuries myself and with the wisdom of age coming in, I can't ever applaud a player getting hurt now, but I definitely did back then.

Hated Cujo too. Leaving Toronto because he wanted to win a cup when the Leafs were already legitimate contenders didn't sit right with me. Seemed dishonest. If he had admitted that it was because of money, or a desire to play for Detroit, or because of his issues with Pat Quinn then I would have been fine with it.

 

[Howie Hodge]

.... unhuh. Lost art that. The Best All Time? In no particular order...

Ferny Flaman
Bob & Barclay Plager
Leo Boivin
Bobby Baun
Rod Seiling (so thunderous, MSG had to install special extra heavy tiles to the boards, "Seiling Tiles" )
Brian Glennie
Fred Barrett
Gilles Marotte
Doug Jarret
Bill Speer
Johnny Bucyk
Rick Ley
Don Awrey
Paul Schmyr (Term phrased after Paul.... "He got Schmyr'd". )
Brad Park
Terry O'Reilly
Larry Robinson
Denis Potvin
Curt Giles
Barry Gibbs ...... quite the list... could go on but sadly, only a few from the last few generations really.

Good list! Arnie Brown and Mike Robitaille are about my only adds off the top of my head...

 

[The Panther]

I'll just chime in to say that I think Scott Stevens was awesome, and I have no problems with the way he played the game.

I agree with Streitz (possible for the first time ever!) that the Kariya hit was late, and therefore it should have been severely penalized and Stevens should have been tossed for it. The referee just made a mistake. (It was also a rare instance of Stevens taking out a guy who was way smaller than he was).

But besides that, I have no issue with any of Stevens' big hits, nor did any of the leading players of the time. Those hits were 100% within the rules of the era he played in, and with rare exceptions he wasn't going out of his way to take out non-physical, finesse players -- he hit big, strong men who lived and died by the sword (Lindros, for example).

I never saw Stevens hack a guy down with a stick to the face (like Suter) or send a guy head-first into the dasher with his arms (like Chelios).


btw, someone said on the previous page that "Stevens ended Lindros's career" with his famous hit. He didn't end Lindros's career. Lindros played 274 games after that, including an All-Star level season in 2001-02 when he went +19 on a -39 team.

 

[Killion]

Good list! Arnie Brown and Mike Robitaille are about my only adds off the top of my head...

Interesting that you'd have picked up on Arnie as he went about his business out there with the Rangers in a pretty quiet fashion. A Defencemans Defenceman. I remember him playing rather sporadically, just a handful of games with the Leafs who owned his rights, went to St.Mikes & played for the Buzzers & Majors, then for the Marlies, hot prospect & a guy I'd hoped to see sticking around.....

Unfortunately, wasnt to be what with the Leafs deep on Defence & winning Cups, and in a trade that still doesnt make sense today, Brown along with Rod Seiling, Dick Duff, Bob Nevin and Bill Collins traded to the Rangers for Andy Bathgate & Don McKenney. Indeed, even after 7yrs in NY when asked about it, Arnie said he'd have rather played out his career as a Leaf and in Toronto as he'd been a big fan of the team growing up in Apsley, just north of Peterborough, was in many ways "born to wear the blue & white", key player with St.Mikes, Leafs really high on the guy as he was a proto-typical Leafs Type Defenceman. Solid, stay at home, bone cruncher.

Got injured early including his first year at St.Mikes then a shoulder seperation first year of pro.. with that depth, Horton & Stanley etc well.... But still. Seiling, Brown, Nevin & Duff for essentially Andy Bathgate? Loved Andy but c'mon here.... anyhoo..... we now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

...... "Star Players that you Never Liked"......

 

[VanIslander]

Suter
Roenick
Tkachuk
Amonte
Hull
Hatcher
Chelios
Alfredsson
Yashin
Forsberg
Koivu
Lidstrom
Kovalchuk
Jagr
Hasek
Fedorov
Sundin
Sedins
Roy
Heatley
Pronger

A ton of Americans listed,... then a ton of Europeans,... then three Canadians added at the very end.

Odd.

 

[TheMule93]

Literally any star that isn't in my team I hate when they score against the wings

 

[sr edler]

Never liked Teemu Selanne. I couldn't tell you why. When I think about it objectively, I know there is very little reason for me to dislike him. There was no incident, nothing said or done to make me dislike him. I just... Didn't like him.

Selänne came across as a pretty opportunistic player to me. I remember seeing a locker-room interview from the 93 playoffs (on YT) where a VAN player (I think Dixon Ward) straight out called him that word ("opportunistic"), and that they needed to watch him carefully because of it (and he only scored in 2 out of 6 games as a result of it). I think that could be a quite big reason why his numbers dropped quite a bit in the playoffs as compared to the more gaudy regular season showings, because in the playoffs there’s not as much room for that type of approach.

He wasn’t necessarily bad in the playoffs though in his prime and had pretty good stats on a bad team (ANA) consistently going up against strong opponents (DET).

So, I never really disliked him per say, sometimes I just gets annoyed when people regurgitates tired old stereotypes without proper context regarding one of my favorite players ever (I think you know who I’m talking about here), without proper usage context and/or contemporary winger comparison.

btw, someone said on the previous page that "Stevens ended Lindros's career" with his famous hit. He didn't end Lindros's career. Lindros played 274 games after that, including an All-Star level season in 2001-02 when he went +19 on a -39 team.

I think what people mean when they say that is that he was never the same player afterwards. Which could probably be true, I dunno. Lindros isn’t my particular field of expertise.

Stevens certainly ended a young promising players career in Shane Willis though. Yes, Willis played one more NHL season (or 92 games), but was obviously not the same player afterwards, not close.

I must say it’s a bit odd to see this exact line of reasoning, i.e. "he played x amount of games after the hit", from someone who constantly complains about Suter ending Gretzky’s and Kariya’s careers, because as far as I know they also played a lot of NHL games (hundreds) after said hits/assaults.

I agree by the way that Suter’s displays were disgusting but one of your favorite players ever had very similar displays of slightly out of bounds physicality (I think you know who I mean).

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

It was a rare mistake by Francis and Stevens hit him hard and clean. He was lining him up for a shoulder check and there was no hint of him headhunting on that play

And yet he hit him in the head.

 

[frisco]

M.Richard
H.Richard
Dryden
Lafleur
Clarke
Lindros
Roy
Bure
Kariya
Ovechkin
Forsberg
T.Fleury
L.McDonald
MacInnis
Gilmour
Shanahan
Yzerman
Nieuwendyk
Shutt
S.Niedermayer
Neely
LeClair
Spezza
Stamkos
Burns
Karlsson
Brodeur
Hextall
Joseph

It's a long list. Not a lot of active guys.

My Best-Carey

 

[sr edler]

Bure

Pavel or Valeri?

 

[Killion]

M.Richard
H.Richard
Dryden
Lafleur
Clarke
Lindros
Roy
Bure
Kariya
Ovechkin
Forsberg
T.Fleury
L.McDonald
MacInnis
Gilmour
Shanahan
Yzerman
Nieuwendyk
Shutt
S.Niedermayer
Neely
LeClair
Spezza
Stamkos
Burns
Karlsson
Brodeur
Hextall
Joseph

It's a long list. Not a lot of active guys.

My Best-Carey

Frisco, why would you "dislike" all/any of these players? I could see MAYBE Patrick Roy, Ron Hextall, Bobby Clarke & Eric Lindros... but c'mon here.... The Richards? Steve Yzerman et al?.... Maybe you simply "disliked them" as opponents who dashed your teams dreams of glory which is being just a tad subjective no? Cam Neely? Steve Shutt? You kiddin me?

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I'll be honest I just like seeing people get zonked. Same reason I've always watched boxing and UFC. I could care less about NHL player's health. They're millionaires and paid to entertain people, hits are entertaining, aren't they?
That being said the game has rules for late hits, charging ect to prevent unnecessary injury. If Francis had his head down, his fault.



Don't worry about my opinion though, the league agrees with you and it's turned the game into a joke.

This is why football players shouldn't be allowed to play other sports.

 

[Nick Hansen]

I've never heard anyone say anything bad about MacInnis. In fact, he's rarely ever mentioned on here despite a very impressive career.

 

[streitz]

This is why football players shouldn't be allowed to play other sports.

I don't get it. Did Scott Stevens play football?