June 15, 2010
So You Think You’re Tough - Round Two, Match One

Strap yourselves in, it’s time for Round 2.  For those just joining us and wondering what’s going on here’s the preamble:

This got us to thinking about who is the toughest Canuck of all time?  Are there any players on the current roster that might qualify for this title?  What do you mean by toughness anyway?  Well, we’re going to let you, valued reader, decide.  Though from our perspective, it’s not just the tendency to drop the gloves and pound someone.  We’re thinking about that, of course, but also thinking about the ability to effectively play through injury, delivering devastating, but clean hits and going to the hard places on the ice and paying the commensurate price.  And, of course, things like agitating the opposition and sticking up for fallen teammates.  Bottom line, we’re looking for the kind of player that is respected by his teammates and physically feared by the opposition.

We started with 16 candidates and are now down to 8.  Surprisingly, there were a number of players that didn’t make the sweet 16, but bear some mention so we’ve been unveiling those on the honourable mention list one by one (8 so far with 7 to go).  So here we go, Round 2.

Trevor Linden - More a lover than a fighter, Trevor was tough in the fairest sense possible.  Like the only other retired sweater in Canucks history (#12 Stan Smyl), Trevor never met a check he wouldn’t finish.  While not an agitator nor instigator, he would answer the bell when required.  Check out the little tilt with public enemy number one, Sean Avery, proving above all else that Trevor was the ultimate good guy.  The enduring measure of his toughness was his legendary ‘94 Cup run performance battling through cheaps shots (Mark Messier), laying out thunderous checks and nearly willing his team to win.  Trevor handily won out over Rick Rypien in Round 1.

Ron Delorme - Chief’s ‘82 playoff pummelling of Grant Mulvey is classic Canuckicana.  A much feared fighter and good teammate, Delorme has fared not nearly as well as the Canucks’ Chief Scout, but don’t let that taint your vote.  The featured clip is a swinging slugfest against hated Flame Jamie Macoun, with Delorme as the victor, of course.  Delorme narrowly edged out Garth “The Strangler” Butcher in his first match.

View and vote here:

Today’s Honourable Mention:

Scott “Wild Thing” Walker - In his his days as a Canuck, he was a little spark plug, who much like Rick Rypien today, consistently took on much bigger players.  After leaving Vancouver, he morphed into a decent scoring ”lite” power forward.   

Round Two, Match Two will follow tomorrow.

11:51am
(View comments) 
Filed under: vancouver canucks trevor linden ron delorme garth butcher rick rypien scott walker 
June 14, 2010
So You Think You’re Tough - Round One CLOSED

Okay, we’ve milked this for long enough - we’re on to round two.  Thanks for your participation.  A quick recap of round one:

  1. Trevor Linden defeated Rick Rypien in a mismatch.  Clearly, the voters are putting more emphasis on a balanced definition of toughness as opposed to pure pugilism.  We applaud your discriminating taste. 
  2. Stan Smyl took out the much larger Jack McIlhargey in a fairly lopsided pairing.  After this battle, we envision Jack Mac wearing that neck brace he fashioned on one of the late 70’s hockey cards of our youth.
  3. Harold Snepsts destroyed Tim Hunter in our most lopsided match.  And no, we were not stuffing the ballot box in favour of our hero Harold.  Really, an ex-Flame had no business being in this contest in the first place. 
  4. Mattias Ohlund narrowly edged out Cam Neely.  This will have some eyes rolling but Mattias presumably gets credibility for his long career here.  In fact, we will go as far to say that if Ohlund were not Swedish, he’d have been a bigger fan favourite here and just might have wound up with his number hanging from the rafters.  Flame away.
  5. Ron “Chief” Delorme took out “The Strangler”, Garth Butcher, in a close match (did we say how much we loved the old school nicknames?).  We suspect ”Chief” (now the Canucks’ Chief Amateur Scout) won’t get much further.  Especially, if we get too much further in our draft analysis before his next match.
  6. Gino Odjick barely eclipsed the original “Captain Canuck”, Orland Kurtenbach, in another close one.  We’re sure this will leave some of the 70’s natives (we mean you, kenikoop) more than a little restless.  If anything, this proves that pure pugilism can win out, particularly against a faceless victim (sorry Kurt, but you’re too old for our sketchy memories).
  7. Ed “Jovo Cop” Jovanovski dispensed with Dave “Tiger” Williams proving that you don’t need brain to overcome brawn.  Perhaps just more brawn.  Or less criminal convictions. 
  8. Curt Fraser in the tightest match-up brought down Donald Brashear.  We’re surprised by this outcome, not because Fraser wasn’t fantastically tough, but because his prime was quite sometime ago and Brash was the heavyweight champ for so many years. 

We’ll start with round 2 tomorrow.  Enjoy.

11:00am
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: vancouver canucks trevor linden rick rypien stan smyl jack mcilhargey harold snepsts tim hunter mattias ohlund cam neely ron delorme garth butcher gino odjick orland kurtenbach curt fraser Donald Brashear Ed Jovanovski Tiger Williams 
June 2, 2010
So You Think You’re Tough - Round One, Match Five

Today’s contestants (including the honourable mention) were from various 80’s Canuck incarnations.  For all you readers born after that, we apologize.  Crappy teams often required an abundance of tough guys…

Garth Butcher - The first time we saw the Strangler play was for the Regina Pats against the Victoria Cougars.  To an impressionable young boy, Garth was a terrorizing force on the ice that night.  Scary looking and aptly named, Butcher was a better agitator than fighter, but wouldn’t back down from anyone.  Today’s video pits Garth aganist future tough Canuck, Tim Hunter, in a near vacant Pacific Coliseum.

Ron Delorme - The Chief’s ‘82 playoff pummelling of Grant Mulvey is classic Canuckicana.  A much feared fighter and good teammate, Delorme has fared not nearly as well as a Canuck scout, but don’t let that taint your vote.  The featured clip is a swinging slugfest against hated Flame Jamie Macoun, with Delorme as the victor, of course.

Today’s Honourable Mention:

Craig Coxe - The late 80’s were a very dark period in Canuck history (that’s saying something).  As perpetual doormats, poor Coxey had to take on every goon going.  The brave Californian learned how to skate late in life and seemingly learned to fight even later, boldly becoming the league’s punching bag.  After leaving Vancouver for the second time, remarkably, he scored the first goal in San Jose Sharks history. 

2:29pm
(View comments) 
Filed under: vancouver canuck ron delorme garth butcher craig coxe