June 16, 2010
So You Think You’re Tough - Round Two, Match Two

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.

Let’s keep this party going:

Stan Smyl - Back in the days when nicknames actually meant something (we’re sorry but “Kes” and “Bur” and “Hank” and “Lou” score zero on the creativity scale), “Steamer” was aptly named.  Smyl was the heart and soul of a gritty, but typically crappy team.  A borderline midget by NHL standards, “Steamer” left no check unfinished.  Ever.  We are quite certain he was the last player to lead his team in goals, assists, points AND penalty minutes in the same season.  When it came to scrapping, Smyl was cagey enough to get in close and stay there. There’s a reason his number hangs from the rafters and it’s got nothing to do with skill.  So says Mike Vernon’s glove hand.  The little clip shows Steamer coming in to defend a fallen teammate instigating a scrap with a tough defenseman 5 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier.  Smyl had little trouble with his round one opponent, the much larger Jack McIlhargey.

Curt Fraser - This gritty winger (and Smyl linemate) was a middle weight by size, but a heavy weight in punching power.  Many times he’d drop a guy with one quick punch.  One of the key players in the improbable ‘82 run.  Able to score, hit and fight; he’s the type of player the Canucks miss most right now.  This clip is one that is forever ingrained in our minds.  And it’s exactly as we remember it.  One punch and out.  Fraser took out heavyweight champion Donald Brashear in round one, apparently still a little woozy from that Marty McSorley stick to the head.

View and vote here:

Today’s Honourable Mention:

Brad May - While never a particular favourite of ours, May has carved out a long career for himself by being a willing pugilist and, at least early in his career, a decent scorer.  His recent career path has regressed into following Todd Bertuzzi whereever he goes, seemingly the George to his Lennie.  

Comeback for Round Two, Match Three tomorrow.

10:00am
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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: stan smyl curt fraser jack mcilhargey vancouver canucks Donald Brashear marty mcsorley brad may Todd Bertuzzi of mice and men 
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
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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 
May 27, 2010
So You Think You’re Tough - Round One, Match Two

No need for the preamble, you seem to understand what’s going on…

Stan Smyl - Back in the days when nicknames actually meant something (we’re sorry but “Kes” and “Bur” and “Hank” and “Lou” score zero on the creativity scale), “Steamer” was aptly named.  Smyl was the heart and soul of a gritty, but typically crappy team.  A borderline midget by NHL standards, “Steamer” left no check unfinished.  Ever.  We are quite certain he was the last player to lead his team in goals, assists, points AND penalty minutes in the same season.  When it came to scrapping, Smyl was cagey enough to get in close and stay there. There’s a reason his number hangs from the rafters and it’s got nothing to do with skill.  So says Mike Vernon’s glove hand.

This little clip shows Steamer coming in to defend a fallen teammate instigating a scrap with a tough defenseman 5 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT0qZhdbPU

Jack McIlhargey - We’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jack Mac on a number of occasions and like most tough guys, he’s a complete gentlemen off the ice.  Not a particularly big man for an NHL heavyweight, on the ice he was a crazy swash-buckling defensemen.  Like many of the esteemed Canuck tough guys, he played on horrendous teams that could have been intimidated easily most nights, particularly with, as we were told, many of the wives being tougher than their hockey playing husbands.  With McIlhargey and his fast hands around, liberties were kept to a minimum.

Here’s a quick one with Jack in his days in Vancouver taking care of legendary crazy tough guy “One Nut” Nick Fotiu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POOdWKtqN_E

Today’s Honourable Mention goes to:

Jiri Bubla - As one of the first Communist block players in the NHL, he was not your typical tough guy.  He was a devastating hip checker and incredibly strong.  If you dared engage him in a fight, he’d have you thrown to the ice in seconds - his body slams became reknowned at the old Pacific Coliseum.  The ultimate measure of his toughness was the four years he spent in an Austrian jail for smuggling heroin.  Sadly, we’ve been unable to unearth any footage of Bubla’s many misdemeanours.

11:47pm
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Filed under: vancouver canucks stan smyl jack mcilhargey jiri bubla