What The Hell Happened To...Jeff O'Neill?
- Thread starter Dutchess
- Start date
the halleJOKEL
strong as brickwall
bleedgreen
Registered User
I always followed O very closely. I watched him get drafted live in Hartford, and was one of (seriously) thousands who gave him a standing ovation that day. I was pissed that we caved to Pronger but didn't to oneill and had to wait a year. He was fifth overall, and the expectations were very high much like this year. In the end we rushed him by making him number one center at 19, and it took years for him to get it on track. Moving him to wing paid off huge, as in the NHL he was a much more a shooter than passer with up and down skating. Much like Geoff Sanderson he needed the right center, and in o'neills case I'm not sure he was a good enough skater as he got older to keep ahead of the play consistently enough to put up points. He never looked right after the lockout. My favorite moment was coming back from the nasty growing welt on his face to score a huge goal in the 02 run. That and coming back from stitches to his tongue in the same game.
GIN ANTONIC
Registered User
The guy could snipe. Not a great skater and had some personality issues. Hated flying for one. Still one of my favourite Canes of all time.
Anton Babchuk
Registered User
Doesn't he still play for the team? He's in like half of their promo spots. Was he in the jersey unveiling video? I turned it off after I saw Brind'amour raising the Cup for the 900 billionth time.
w e l o s t b o y s
Drawing Frog 8
Vagrant
The Czech Condor
Truthfully, O'Neill treated the game like it was still the late 80's pub crawl it was then. He didn't care much for conditioning. He didn't care for much of anything that wasn't about scoring goals and drinking beer. For as much trash as people give guys like Brendl, O'Neill was a dog in his own way. Leadership was able to reach him in time to salvage some of that incredible talent, but nobody was able to demand it of him once he became the veteran. He popped 41 genos and became unreachable.
I don't hate O'Neill.... but the fact that he didn't score 400 or more goals in this league is entirely on his work ethic and his love of the sauce. He dropped off like they used to in the early 30's back before anybody cared about working out.
I don't hate O'Neill.... but the fact that he didn't score 400 or more goals in this league is entirely on his work ethic and his love of the sauce. He dropped off like they used to in the early 30's back before anybody cared about working out.
What the Faulk
You'll know when you go
I remember he put on quite a few pounds in the few years that he was retired. I haven't seen him on TV lately so I'm not sure if he's shed any of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was still there.
