2008/09 NHL Thread

For what, a month of sobriety?

 

He's absolutely right.

 

That's was my initial thought. Then I went to the Hawks website and learned he played seven seasons in Chicago, so obviously the organization decided that his name must be mentioned with the Hulls and Mikitas and Espositos.

http://blackhawks.nhl.com/team/app?page=HistoricalPlayerDetail&pkey=8450561&service=page

 

I don't disagree. There are plenty of great Rangers--someone's got to explain to me why Brad Park has not had a night honoring his career--that should be experience what Giacomin, Gilbert, Messier, Richter, Leetch and Graves have experience and what Howell and Bathgate will experience.

 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/02/ovechkin_crosby_mcguire_and_th.html

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201058.html

 

Don't forget Jean Ratelle.

 

Him, Vic Hadfield, the Patricks, Emile Francis, Ching Johnson. So many great Rangers.

 

Which Esposito? The one who started his career in Chicago or the one who ended his career there?



Neither one of whom won a Cup in Chicago, either.....although they were Stanley Cup champions in consecutive years - and Tony got his ring first. Strange but true.

 

Because I'm a sucker for history, I think it would have been great if MSG could have gotten Gordie Howe for tonight and had him pose with Lou Fontinato.

The Garden was able to get Mikita and Mahovlich, among other contemporaries, to show up.

 

Fontinato would have wimped out if Gordie had shown up.

I suppose they could have asked Gordie's brother Vic to show up. Vic played 33 NHL games in the 1950s, all with the Rangers, and was a teammate of both Bathgate and Howell......and Fontinato, whahahaha..... ;D

 

It was that great Rangers management team. Pass on Gordie for Vic.

My pops was at the Fontinato-Howe fight game. He said that Fontinato was the premier tough guy in the league; that no one fucked with him. He remembers the place going crazy when the two squared off, then it was dead silence as everyone got a good look at Fontinato's nose smeared all over his face. "That was it for Lou Fontinato. He wasn't the league's toughest guy after that."