Hey folks, another great piece here by George Grimm. We will have two more to help round out the summer before training camp starts. And don’t forget to buy his book when it is released in September!!
Reminiscing with Bob Froese
by George Grimm
Bob Froese began his hockey journey on the frozen ponds and rinks of St. Catharines Ontario where he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a goaltender.
Bob Froese; ‘It’s funny when I was a kid I would put catalogs on my legs for pads and stuff like that but the funniest thing that I thought was pretty ingenious, I went downstairs to drain my mother’s bleach bottle which was white to make a mask. So I made little cut outs and thought it was great. I had strings tied around it to hold it on but I didn’t wear it too long before I was ready to pass out. I didn’t realize I was asphyxiating myself from the smell of the bleach. You learn fast or die young.”
Bob played his junior hockey with the hometown St. Catharines Black Hawks and moved with the team to Niagara Falls Flyers of the OHA and was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the 10th round, (160th overall) in the 1978 Amateur Draft.
After one season in the Blues’ minor league system Bob signed an amateur tryout contract and was eventually signed as a free agent by Philadelphia in 1981 and made his NHL debut at the age of 24 with the Flyers in January of 1982. He recorded his first NHL shutout in only his third game, ironically against the Rangers. As Pelle Lindbergh’s backup that season, Froese posted a 17-4-3 record with an impressive 2.52 GAA. The next season Lindbergh struggled and Froese assumed the starter’s role appearing in 12 more games than Lindbergh. However, the next season, Flyer management tabbed the Swede as their goaltender of the future and Froese was once again relegated to a backup role and often incurred the wrath of Coach Mike Keenan.
Bob Froese: “I’ve always had great relationships with any coach or any teammate I ever played with. Mike Keenan was the one guy that I didn’t have a great relationship with and I can understand it now, in fact it’s only been in the last year and a half that someone explained it to me and it makes perfect sense. I just wish I would’ve known about it sooner. But the difference between Lindbergh and I is that he was a quarter horse and I was a Clydesdale. I wasn’t supersensitive or temperamental; there are a lot of goaltenders who are but that’s part of their psyche, who they are. But what was explained to me is that I played better if I had good competition; the better the competition I had the better I played. Pelle was not like that. Pelle needed to be number one and he didn’t do well, didn’t flourish amid competition. And Mike Keenan recognized that and so Mike’s plan was to put me down and to treat me in a way that Pelle could recognize that he was number one. I just wish Mike would’ve let me in on it, it would’ve been a little bit easier for me to deal with. It was ingenious because it worked.
Mike had a lot of idiosyncrasies like a lot of people do but he was a great motivator. Sometimes he didn’t know when to take his finger off the button, but he could get teams to work hard, but sometimes only for a short period of time. I think fear is a short-term motivator but the desire to please your coach is a long-term motivator.”
In November 1985 Lindbergh died due to injuries suffered when he lost control of his customized Porsche and crashed into a wall. The goaltenders alcohol-related death had a profound impact on Bob and many of his teammates.
Bob Froese: “It was a life-changing event for me and I think a lot of us made a promise or vow, I know a lot of guys said that day that they wouldn’t drink anymore. That wasn’t a big thing in my life although I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since that day. It was life-changing as far as what I do now. I’ve been a pastor for 21 years with the same church outside of Buffalo but that day I surrendered my life to the Lord because I was afraid to die. Because I understood from growing up that when you die there only two places; you either go to heaven or hell.”
Froese was then thrust back into the starting role and led the NHL with five shutouts and shared the William Jennings trophy with teammate Darren Jensen. However after the Flyers were beaten by the Rangers in the Division Semi-finals in 1986, Keenan was unhappy with his goaltending situation and Bob lost his starting role to Ron Hextall. Bob asked for a trade around Halloween of that year and was finally dealt to the Rangers for defenseman Kjell Samuelsson and a 1989 second-round draft pick (Patrik Juhlin) on Dec. 18, 1986.
Bob Froese: “I wanted to play. I mean if you asked my teammates and a lot of people around the league I was a guy who could play. I’m not saying I was better than Pelle or Ron but I just wanted the opportunity to play and I had played with Bobby Clarke so I knew him, not only did I play with him but his last year he really took Dave Poulin and myself under his wing to prepare us for the locker room he would be leaving behind. More than anything else all I wanted to do was play because I don’t think anyone joins a team to sit on the bench
I was surprised that I was traded to the Rangers because they had John Vanbiesbrouck, and he and I were numbers one and two the previous year for the end-of-season All-Star selections. But I really appreciated Phil Esposito. I thought he was a wonderful guy to play for. I really looked up to him in a lot of ways. I thought he had a handle on what being a “team” meant and that was apparently because of the way the old Boston Bruins were. I know a lot of players appreciated him and I still hold him in high regard, not only because he was a great athlete and a great leader but he was really a person who cared about other people.
I’ll tell you, when Espo coached, you wanted to play for him. He had that character about him. That’s something that you can’t buy and you can’t teach. I think if he had put more focus into coaching we would’ve been more successful. But he also wanted to be GM and those two things are extremely hard to do. You had to be a real administrative type of person to do both and that wasn’t Phil. But he was a great motivator and sometimes if you’ve got a great coach you’re willing to go through a brick wall for the guy and that’s what Phil had. I really appreciated Phil Esposito. You play for your teammates and you play for the fans but most importantly you’re playing for that coach.
When I got there Beezer was the guy and he had done well. And goalies are naturally competitive and any goalie who says they’re not is lying – there is only one net. But it actually worked out because Beazer played the majority of the home games and I played the majority of the road games. So that’s the way it worked out at that point
I was just happy to be in a place where I felt I was wanted and Phil had done well by me as far as the way he treated me and financially and so I was happy to be there.”
Bob’s first start as a Ranger came unexpectedly on December 23, 1986, five days after being acquired from Philly. John Vanbiesbrouck was supposed to start the game but right before warmups it was discovered that Beezer’s arm and chest protector had been left at the Rangers practice site in Rye Playland and so Froese got the call. “I thought it was a joke” Froese told reporters. “It was about a minute before we went out for warmups and I was just chatting with Ron Greschner when someone came by and said some of Johnny’s pads were up in Rye and that I’d be starting.”
The Rangers beat the Devils that night 8-5. “Yeah it was a real goaltender’s duel” “Frosty” said wryly. “But the most important thing is to get the “W”. It’s like I told the guys after the game, if you get me eight goals every night, it’s going to be easy.”
In a November 1987 game against the Islanders, Bob was briefly credited with a goal when Billy Smith dashed to the bench on a delayed Ranger penalty and an errant pass by Brent Sutter flew past point man Gerald Diduck and into the Islanders’ empty net. At the time official scorer Ed Hertensten deemed that Froese was the last Ranger to touch the puck and was therefore credited with the goal.
Bob Froese: “I was just happy that the goal counted because it was a game we wound up winning 3-1. But after the game I was in the locker room and I saw it on the tape and I said that’s not my goal. And I remember Bill Torrey and Billy Smith came out and said that I wanted the goal. I couldn’t have cared less! So all along I was saying I don’t want it and Espo was telling me to keep my mouth shut because it was good for public relations. It was interesting but one of my closest friends on the team David Shaw finally got credit for the goal. I told him that he owed me because he had a bonus clause for goals.”
Because of his easygoing manner Bob was well liked by teammates and fans as well as the media and was given the Rangers Good Guy Award in 1987-88.
Bob suffered a shoulder injury early in the 1989-90 season and after appearing in only 15 games retired at the end of the campaign. He then transitioned easily into a coaching role, mentoring a young Mike Richter.
Bob Froese: “Mike and I became close friends and that’s why I eventually became the goalie coach. I left when Mike Keenan came in and I went to Don Maloney who was just a wonderful guy and I worked for him on the Island. But Mike was a phenomenal athlete and just a great goaltender. But as good a goaltender as he was I found him to be an even better person. There’s a picture that I have of me with my arms around Mike and John and part of my role was to make sure that the competition didn’t have a negative effect on Mike in regards to dealing with a veteran like John and to, in some way, protect Mike and I understood my role. I still think that Mike Richter was one of the best specimens as a goalie, he did things I only wish I could do but he was a super teammate, one of the pleasures in my life is to have known and played with a guy like that.”
Bob Froese provided the Rangers with consistent, reliable goaltending for four seasons. In 98 games with the Rangers Bob compiled a 36-43-8 record with one shutout and a 3.63 GAA In six playoff appearances with the Blueshirts, Bob went 1-3 with a 4.56 GAA. Overall in eight NHL seasons Froese posted a 128-72-20 record in 242 games with 13 shutouts and a 3.10 GAA. In 18 NHL playoff games he had a 3-9 record with a 3.96 GAA.
Bob made another transition more than two decades ago when he became a pastor. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in religion from Liberty University, then a master’s degree in religion at Liberty’s Baptist Theological Seminary and finally a Ph. D. from Trinity Theological Seminary. He has served as senior pastor at Faith Fellowship Church in Clarence, N.Y. for 21 years.
Bob Froese: “Twenty one years ago the senior elder in our church asked me if I would consider joining the pastoral staff and I thought he was nuts. I had a wonderful position working with the goaltenders and the young players and I really enjoyed it. But the more I prayed about it the more the Lord began leading me towards being a pastor. And it’s not something I looked forward to because I always joke about it, I’m not complaining but in hockey as a goalie they shoot at you from the front but sometimes as a pastor they shoot at you from the back. But it’s been 21 years and I’ve been able to get my schooling and I eventually earned my PhD and I worked at it with the same energy and the same diligence as I did in my hockey career. And there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thankful that the Lord led me to this decision.
George Grimm is the former publisher of Sportstat, The Ranger Report and columnist for the Blueshirt Bulletin. His book about the Emile Francis Era Rangers “We Did Everything but Win” is scheduled to be released in September 2017 by Skyhorse Publishing. . He currently writes the Retro Rangers column for Insidehockey.com and is working on a book about the history of Ranger goaltenders.
“Bachelor of Science degree in religion”
Now isn’t there a contradiction in terms if I’ve ever seen one.
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Fabulous George. Thank you!
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BS in Religion? That’s mandatory, I think…
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Crack of Noon!
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so now you think you’re better than us?
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A bleach bottle mask, never heard that one before.
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Great job, once again, George.
Froese was a wacky, goofy guy.
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Froese for Khjell Samuelson is right up there for one of the worst trades Edpo made.
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Thank you George. Great stuff.
Always liked Froese. Thank you for sharing.
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*NEW POST THAT DOESN’T SUCK AND IS ACTUALLY REALLY AWESOME*
——
wait, who said that the old thread sucked?
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Are we still allowed to Like each other’s posts for no reason in this thread?
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very well done article. thanks for sharing.
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the comments were good. the post sucked.
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Hey, Rob…guess what day it is?! That’s right! Like away!
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Hump day? Can’t be.
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I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I’d keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas
And a pillow for its head.
Then last night it ran away,
But first—it wet the bed.
– Skjel Silverstein
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I’m guessing Franson is mulling over all his offers? Rumor is Franson is going to on NHL network to announce his decision.
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Good stuff, George, as always. Thank you.
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Franson’s a skjeL of his former self.
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Nice one, Carp. Top Skjelf!
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As dumb, (and fluid), as a top 10 list of current NHL goalies is, (Hey I get it, they’re doing their job. They’ve got to talk about something in early August), I hope Hank uses this as fuel to show the world he’s got more in the tank.
Wicky, correctly noted that he and others saw the writing on the wall and realized that they should have gone with Cambot. I’d be a liar if I said I was in that camp at the time. It’s not that I would have been dead-set against it. I just assumed it was never happening because Hank was such a big part of the Rangers brand. They wanted him to be a lifetime Ranger. Retire his number. Enter the HOF as a lifetime Ranger. These of course are the wrong reasons if your true goal is to win a cup.
Talbot is 30 and will never have the career that Hank had, but he might win a cup . . . or maybe more than one. And his price tag will never be the same as Hank’s.
Hopefully, unlike Slats, Gorton is less about the brand and more about building a winner. I think he is, and despite some good moves over the past year, he’s still saddled with some of Sather’s mistakes.
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I try not to be a big brand guy but after I’ve tried so many others I gotta tell you- I need my dunkin’ doughnuts coffee
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Would you trade McDonough for Draisaitl? Mac is probably my favorite Ranger. My kid would be devastated, but he might be too pricey to resign in 2 years and Draisaitl is a 1C. Would probably have to be other pieces in a blockbuster like that.
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. . . and I broke the blog.
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No one in mgmt. even close to having the balls to have considered letting Hank go and signing the (then) unknown kid from an Alabama college, but that’s what competent visionaries do. Not saying I’m among them.
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Serpentine, Skjellie!
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Tom k broke the blog…too soon?
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Nah Wick. I admit it. It was me.
I took a wrong turn on that 6:08 post and it all went to heII.
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Tom, I’d probably make that trade given the ages of the players, but I’m not thrilled with it. Draisaitl’s even strength numbers away from McDavid are startlingly poor.
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Aren’t will all TomK Slats just keeps on giving!
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Billy Joel’s life after Christie:
‘A bottle of Rye, a bottle of Rum
Together we’ll get mondo numb
On the floor when we have had our fill
At our old redneck bar and grill.’
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We don’t make the finals in 2014 if we traded Henrik before that and once he signed the big money deal at end of 2013 he was untradable.
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Whatever happened to papa bear? That guy new his hockey.
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That is the hallmark of a horrible deal, once it’s signed, the player is over valued and untradable.
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SN
most of them are once go into free agent years in prime and beyond.
Mcd is very favorable deal currently – when resigns somewhere it will be a burden deal in years and dollars.
We dodged a huge bullet in Cally.
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I miss Norm.
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Norm, papa bear where are you?
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Is Tavares a Leave yet?
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Bob Froese was my favorite goalie pre-Richter. Nice article.
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I imagine many old fans thaw Froese play. They would have had to or he would have remained Froese.
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A an old favorite pool party game: Dunc Wilson
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I Doug that game.
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For Christmas, I got some Hanks and a Wilson volleyball.
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Carp retweeted that tweet last night and it made me cackle stupidly for way too long. My wife thought I was going crazy
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Something fishy with that Trout tweet.
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Something fishy with Carp
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I think putting Carp in the studio with Troutwig would go swimmingly
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Another great job by George. I was at that game when Froese was credited with the goal and said the Islanders were going to do something to get the goal taken away from Frosty.
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Carp, Troutwig and SalmonJoe all Pisces?
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temporarily rescued from being a HAV by the excellent George Grimm (again)
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Henrik Lundqvist is a Pisces, does that make him a Swedish Fish?
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In a sense of hockey news/talks I am totally BTD (Bored To Death).
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In a sense of hockey news/talks it is times of TODS (Time Of Deep Silence), literally and figuratively.
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6 weeks away from Camp. Get a giddyup!
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Gorton wants to get a definitive look at Tibo.
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Swedish fish? No rway.
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Grimm outlook
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There is the the Hlinka U18 tournament. There is some hockey somewhere in the world if you look really hard.
USA VS Switzerland. Here is a live link. Yes its legal but its not in English.
late in the first period USA 1, SUI-0
http://www.hokej.cz/tv/hokejka/video/2529
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Gorton’s of Gloucester? Or is that a fish tale?
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Still 1st line centerless.
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Regarding mcdonut and draistl…I’d probably do that deal because of lefty D organizational depth and lack of organizational depth at C and lack of top line talent.
But I’d be really concerned with the lack of production by draisitl w/o mcdavid
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Not to mention my 5 yr old would be pissed as hell if the rangers traded mcdonut
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I don’t think I want to see Shattenkirk on a pairing with McDonagh. Mac needs some freedom to express himself in the O zone and shouldn’t be relegated to covering up on D for Shatty. Put each of them with a D oriented partner.
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Gorton has no plan?
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Same probably goes for Shay. Team him with a good get back guy.
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Count – So great that your 5 yr old has a favorite player. And doubly great that it’s McDonagh because he doesn’t seem the type of guy to ever make you regret rooting for him.
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Plan X from Outer Space
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Rob – nice to see some dawning agreement on this issue.
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I entered Franzl’s in Valhalla on a Friday night in 1978 ..consumed many Hacker-Pschorr’s (Hockey Shorts)
I have not returned…
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Does Size Matter in the Face-Off Dot?
What do hockey teams crave?
Right handed defensemen? A good backup goaltender? A cheap scoring forward? All of those things are desired but we always hear about a big bodied centerman. A centerman to win faceoffs and kill penalties.
With teams selecting smaller players with higher levels of skill, is the big bodied centerman still a necessity? Does it still matter to have size in the faceoff dot, or just someone purely good at faceoffs, big or small?
I looked at data from the 2015-16 season across four different leagues; the NHL, KHL, OHL, and QMJHL. Across all four leagues there were 538 players to take a minimum of 200 faceoffs each. How does the NHL’s top faceoff men stand up to the rest of the world? Jonathan Toews, Ryan Kesler and Byron Froese were the top faceoff men. Yes, you heard correct. Byron Froese was the 3rd best player in the faceoff dot to take at least 200 faceoffs last season. All 3 ranked in the top 95 percentile, with Toews and Kesler ranking the 96th percentile across all four leagues. Casey Wellman from the KHL was the best faceoff man at 63.7% and the worst was Viktor Drugov, also from the KHL, who posted a 30.7% in the faceoff circle. Neither of which were any marvel in size on either spectrum, Wellman stands at 6’ 0” and weighs 173 lbs and Drugov standing at 6’ 0” and weighs in at 179 lbs.
What I found out was a shock, there was very little correlation between weight and faceoff percentage and next to no correlation when comparing height and faceoff percentage. Why is this? Why does size not matter? Skill is becoming more important than size in all aspects of hockey. In scoring ability, defensive coverage and, as it appears, with faceoffs.
This is not too justify overlooking a player just because they are big, which has become the case when searching for a skilled player. But it appears as though a big bodied centerman isn’t the dream we all thought it was when picking someone to take the defensive zone draw that has the entire game on the line.
Hockey Think Tank.
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They have a number one center. It’s Zibanijad. It’s a number three center they are looking for. Maybe it’s Miller (couldn’t, shouldn’t), or maybe it’s Andersson. If it’s DD, turn out the lights.
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Haze and Stepan 45% and 47% at the dot respectively, among the worst in the league. And that is after roughly a thousand faceoffs each. When you think that all things being equal a player should be about 50% it astounds how bad those two are.
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Not sold on Zika as #1 center.
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2018 Winter Classic Ticket prices have been released
https://imgur.com/r/ImagesOfThe2010s/78jXi
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Jack Eichel, 39% after almost 800 faceoffs. Woof
http://puckbase.com/stats/faceoff-percentage
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If the Center could at least hold his own, Nash was especially good at swooping in and picking up the garbage. Sometimes it’s a team effort.
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“Casey Wellman from the KHL was the best faceoff man at 63.7%”
See? He’s still the answer.
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Speaking from my experience with the Stadium Series games in Yankee stadium, the best value from a sightline/price perspective is the upper deck. They’re so much cheaper and I could see the game so much better than where I had originally purchased my seats (somewhere in the outfield closer to the field level). I can’t imagine spending more money on a ticket than those areas, though. It’s the experience of being there more than actually watching the game that matters. So the cheaper in the door, the better.
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Pretty good seats on my couch too. Reasonably priced, warm, good sightlines, and the beer selection is much better.
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Like infield tickets at the Kentucky Derby. Tough to see much, but being there is the bomb.
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BDL quoting The Doors even before training camp starts
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Couple of injuries like last year and Fast-DD-Grabner may be our first line
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Rob, then you miss out on the experience of cheering a Rangers goal and win with 30k+ other people. Not even a ticket to MSG gets you that opportunity.
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It’s about the experience of being there, not the game itself. The game itself is just 2 points outside. Frankly, the Stadium Series games were probably a better atmosphere than this would be because at least those were against the Devils and Islanders.
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Since the Rangers are technically the away team, are they even going to play the goal song after a Rangers goal? And yes, the answer to that question would factor significantly into whether or not I’d skjel out a few hundred dollars to go.
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Is anyone here planning on going to this shin dig?
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I think the best part of the ’12 Winter Classic was Torts’ press conference. didn’t he get fined like 25 grand for it? lol
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Rob, I don’t believe so, no. I don’t remember them playing it for the Stadium Series games.
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I think they had graphics on the board, but no horn or song. The home team’s were played.
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Can’t pull the wool over Cdubbs eyes
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Intellectual’s umbrage: ‘So you think you’re better than we?’
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You’re my boy. No matter what you call yourself, Papa.
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Since all the pitchers aren’t bitching about the juiced ball, and their inflated ERAs, you can bet the leagues have threatened huge fines for mentioning the issue publicly.
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Papa was a rolling stone.
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A rising tide lifts all boats. Since all of them are being inflated, they all are still on level playing field for contracts.
Plus, bigger HR numbers make for more baseball fans and more money generally. More money for the league=more money for players.
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The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees; I need money!
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Edzo has colon cancer.
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Thoughts and prayers go out to Eddie Olczyk and his family.
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Edzo has colon cancer.
—-
Pierre?!
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Too soon?![:/](https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/uneasy.svg)
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Don Baylor had a great nickname. Groove. May he rest in peace.
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Simultaneously one of the most intimidating and kind figures in all of baseball for a while. Ton of respect for Don Baylor. Still glad he didn’t ruin the ’86 Mets run. RIP
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If i win the lottery i’ll be there!! (so basically no, as its about a 1 in 13 million chance)
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The first 18 years or so of your life are like a Free Trial, and after that it’s Pay-To-Play.
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The first 18 years seem like 100 years. The next 40 seem like 5.
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…never too old to learn something new and amusing. Today read that somewhere is epidemic of Coxsackie virus (a.k.a. koksaki(ng) virus in other languages). Fascinating, no matter how you read it or pronouns…
(Don’t even try to explain your wife that you contracted it).
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Our Coccyx is a vestigial tail. Our ancestors had tails. Don’t tell your wife.
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Nice little brawl between Maple Leafers and Two-Headed Eaglers
https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/breaking-crazy-brawl-between-canada-and-russia-today?ref=cresus
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Cccp
Thanks! Nothing like a little Rudypoo in the a.m.
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Nothing but good vibes for Eddie O. Sucky situation
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Wicky said poo
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4ever, it’s all fun and games until you wake up with a rash!
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Danny Heatley wins 6.5 million after suing his agent. If you had told me Girardi and Heatley would be have two of the highest pay days this summer I would have told you to get your head away from your vistigial tail..
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Oh, good, the magnet ads are back.
I read that book: Vestigial Tales.
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CCCP – Nice find with the line brawl. It turns out that a couple of former Rangers are on Team Canada: Daniel Paille and Wojtek Wolski. It is good to see that Wolski is able to return from his broken neck.
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Stop loging into the blog through tweeter. Use a browser like all normal people.
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Crack of Noon!
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Izzy! Can you lift Carp over your head?
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Carp goes over everybody’s head.
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CCCP
i use a browser too and the magnet ads affect me from time to time
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The television.
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Are magnet ads the ones that don’t let you scroll and keep going back to the byfuglien ad? I get those sometimes on this blog. I’ve found they go away when I log in — they only seem to affect me if I am logged out.
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I don’t know. Never had an issue with those ads. I login through word press.
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word press is for pansies 🙂
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Rob yes
i never log in so can’t like a post but the lack of scrolling is what happens sometimes
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Pansies in general or just europansies Carp?
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Tweeter is for lazies.
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Twitter has to be the worst run company on the planet. The absolute worst as anyone who looks at the Stock price will tell you.
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Carp loves tweeter. He lives there.
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Manny, too. Tweeting about anti-Semitic death metal music and how much he adores it.
🙂
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Some wackjob I follow on twitter likes to tweet angrily at Fox and Friends every morning. Sad!
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I actually hate Twitter. But it’s a necessary evil. The day I retire, I kill all my twitter accounts.
and if you only follow actual “real news” accounts, it’s fairly useful. But i won’t.
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Texted with Eddie O last night. His spirits are good. Such a great guy.
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Doubly aggravating for Eddie that all this is happening during the Saratoga meet which he so well loves. Rooting for you, Edzo!
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Looks like Pirri wants to stay in North America. Hopes to land with an NHL team.
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Pirri will get offered a job as a towel boy somewhere
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Dumbest goal in the history of all the dumbest goals ever scored goes to…
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Golden rule when playing soccer as a defender, never pass back to the goalie in the direction of the goal – most goalies are worse at playing the ball than Henrik is playing the puck
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Fleetwood offered job as a caddy.
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Yesterday in hockey history, August 9th 1988, everything in hockey changed when Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings and the game has never been the same. This was the biggest trade in hockey history.
The Oilers owner Peter Pocklington was in dire straits financially and sold Gretzky for $18 million with some hockey players and draft picks included to help the transaction appear to be a hockey trade. Pocklington had theorized that Gretzky was an asset at peak value which he needed to divest himself of before his value depreciated. By selling Gretzky Pocklington could alleviate the financial pressures he was under, at least temporarily. The loss of Gretzky from Edmonton was a blow to the prestige of Canada, as it was a sign that their favorite son had grown to big for small town Edmonton, too big even for his homeland.
Relgated to being a pawn in Pocklington’s machinations, Gretzky agreed to shield him from the inevitable negative backlash from the Edmonton community by pretending that the trade was his idea as long as he could choose his destination and have Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelynski accompany him to La La land. Gretzky had already been seduced by LA’s celebrity lifestyle while hobnobbing with Alan Thicke, a fellow Canadian who had made it big in American television.
Thicke opened doors to the Hollywood glitterati for Gretzky who recognized the opportunity to be gained by playing in the huge Los Angeles market while at the same time being so genuinely heartbroken over leaving Edmonton that he wept openly at the press conference announcing the trade.
Kings owner Bruce McNall knew that in order to make Gretzky the biggest star in the non traditional southern California market, he needed to pay him like a star and offered him $3 million per year, the equal of Lakers star Magic Johnson. Gretzky countered with $2 million, more than double what he was being paid in Edmonton, as long as McNall would spend the difference on making the Kings a better team. Either figure was outrageous for a hockey player at that time. The Gretzky trade opened the door for the NHL’s sunbelt expansion as Gretzky’s presence in LA propelled hockey’s popularity in the United States to unprecedented levels.
Unfortunately, his salary led to an escalation of salaries league wide which caused financial problems for NHL teams in Winnipeg and Quebec which both soon followed Gretzky south of the border. The Oilers had kept their 1980’s team together at bargain prices by convincing the players that they were a special team that should have a long shelf life together. Once players saw the cold hard reality of Gretzky being sold off for cash, Paul Coffey along with Mark Messier, Kevin Lowe and others engineered their own departures from Edmonton.
As a result, the NHL today is a league of high salaried players who earn more money than most corporations and play in a free agent salary cap league where players change teams frequently and are loyal only to themselves and their earnings.
Yes, the Gretzky trade changed everything for better or worse. Winnipeg eventually got their team back as will Quebec once the exchange rate equalizes and the Canadian dollar trades at or close to par. It’s taken 20 years to get a perspective but the trade shows that on or off the ice, no player has ever affected the leagues business model the way Wayne Gretzky has.
Vintage hockey.
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“As a result, the NHL today is a league of high salaried players who earn more money than most corporations and play in a free agent salary cap league where players change teams frequently and are loyal only to themselves and their earnings.”
Greedy players! Don’t they know all that revenue should go to the owners who should have complete control over them and their movement and who deserve their full loyalty!
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“…earn more money than most corporations?” And what does THAT mean?
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Stop picking on me!
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That’s what the lazy Fender Stratocaster said.
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Lazy Fender Stratocaster? Is he on tweeter?
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Amazing. Bring Kleenex.
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Heave Ho!
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I don’t know why I am still thinking about this, but it’s weird that in a story about an owner literally selling a player for cash to the highest bidder, which describes the player as “an asset at peak value which he needed to divest himself of before his value depreciated,” the takeaway is that the players are greedy and unloyal now.
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I don’t know why the NHL doesn’t do this player nickname weekend thing like baseball does. Just think of all the great NHL nicknames out there: Glasser, Boyler, Kleiner, Nasher, Staalser
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Topo, Marshmallow, Purple, McDonuts, Hanka, SkjeL, Beat Wide, OPG, TRS, Hated One, THE, Enigma, Couch, Machine, Opie The Victim, Bazooka Joe, Zika, Dime A Dozen …
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We have BY FAR the best nicknames in the NHL.
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Too damned bad we lost Opie the Victim, nickname- wise.
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Hockey players used to be loyal… few still are….You can count them on one hand.
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Ryan Callahan comes to mind. Kid had it all… organizational loyalty, big city life, big bank account… pissed it all away for extra few bucks.
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I think players who are not superstars should be thankful to the team that drafted them and treated them well up to the point that they are misused or abused or nickel and dimed, and then all bets are off. Goes both ways. Donuts, for example, gave us a big discount last time out.
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CCCP
would have been a disaster contract if Cally stayed here. Likely would have been bought out already with cap hit on books for years to come.
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Skjely Skjely bo belly fee fi FO felly, Skjely.
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Alex
Brutal contract. I agree… but the Rangers were willing to pay to keep Callahan. He had the keys to the city. As soon as they asked Cally to play a certain role to help the team he bitched out.
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yeah, he wanted out so badly that the tipping point was Slats refusing to give him a NTC.
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Did you guys see the Yankees third-base coach take a header last night. Today, LOL, this:
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Yeah he wanted to stay so badly that he asked for the thing that guaranteed his ticket outta NYC… on top of the truck load of dough.
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Carp you forgot Beep Beep!
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And now he’s just “what’s that guy’s name?” playing on “what’s the name of that team?”
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The Undertaker and Richie Rich (Secretariat). The Moopses.
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Shampoo boy.
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Useless 🙂
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“Like rain falling on oceans – useless, useless.”
Jack Kerouac
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Auntie, Cambot, Hags . . .
Do coaches get nick-names too? Double-Bubble
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AV>Avoiding Victory
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‘The European Vacation’ has to be one of the best.
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The Chinese Fireplace
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Double Bubble is Bazooka Joe.
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Gum Ball Vinnie!
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Coach Veggie-terian.
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Gerund, Dam Boyle, Norris-Stralman, G.A.G Klein
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Time Out, 1 minute left, Blueshirts trailing 5-3
Arniel: “You go there and you go there and you go there. I stay here and pray to * St. Jude.”
* the Saint of Hopeless Cases
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AV “What is Staal Holden over there?”
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AV = Anal Veggie
(:
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Too deep?
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wicky broke the blog.
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Puhgeaux
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De-Klein.
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“You gotta know when to….” Holden
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Shuffleboard (Staal)
Miller High Life
Kampfer the human Mothball
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I miss Machine 😐
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Catcher in the Rye
VC
Big Wolf
Pumpernickel
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Beast Mode Boyle. Marshawn Lynch completely stole that nickname.
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Of the Zotto.
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That piece of Cooke, Carcillo.
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T.J. Miller
Nick Rash
Fast(h)
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So what’s the nickname for Ruff?
Ruffy? Ruffer? Ruffty? Ruffinov? Ruh-ruh?
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Or Useless 2.0?
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Lucky Lindy?
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Lindberg Baby
Little Italian Kid from Norway
Release The Kreider
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Del Porno
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El Zotto
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Wicky
Be careful!
http://homebreaking.com/uncategorized/kid-dies-after-xbox-one-launches-disc-out-to-slice-his-throat
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Bloch Ness Monster
Arti Party
HaGoonlin
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Big Game Brass
Brass Bonanza
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Cccp
Duly noted. I’ll contact shampoo boy and see if he has one of his old throat protectors laying around that he might let me have.
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Former Future Ranger Zach Parise
Future Former Ranger Derek Stepan
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Hagar
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Rosy Cheeks
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The Bahama bomba
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That’s why I own PS4 🙂
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Rupper 3:16
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Woywhatever
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Hanka Hanka Burning Love
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“211 thoughts”
It is pretty generous calling some of these thoughts
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Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! NEW POST?!
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“Tough Ruff”. Had enough.
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” Lindies Ruffles have Ridges”
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Cccp
I know, I’ll take my chances with flying discs before I buy PlayStation and support isis 😉
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http://nypost.com/2015/11/16/isis-using-playstation-4-to-communicate/
😉
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Cccp and his playstation broke the blog.
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Pageau
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Isis also used words to communicate… uh-oh! 😛
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FIRE WORDS!
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Words is useless. can’t get him out of the hot tub.
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“Your GAA is higher
like the voices of a choir
or the scream of Rick Jeanneret
the pucks keep fillin’ the net
burnin’ Hank
just a hanka hanaka burnin hank
just a hanka hanka burnin hank”
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No ISIS talk, please. we’ll be in a nuclear war with North Korea before they ever get to us anyhow : x
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We’ll all be glowing like the pucks on Fox sports games back in the day…
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We will have the best nuclear exchanges. Absolutely tremendous
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MotZ
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Cotton Stuffing
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Cotton Stuffing will remain my favorite for eternity.
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The Good One
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Skjei Skjei bon
Lovers say that in France
When they talk of romance
It means he’s oh, so good!
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The Good One is my all time favorite!
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Can Someone who follows college hockey, and prospects please tell me about Aleander Kerfoot? Is he an NHL caliber player? He is a center who is going to be a FA on August 15. Devils draft pick. Went to Harvard.
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The game is kerfoot
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I don’t know if Kerfoot is an NHL player, but I believe he’s been spotted in the woods a few times.
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If he’s spotted in the woods, he must be a leopard.
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Not Big Foot Gravy,
Kerfoot is his name, and he plays hockey. It’s not Harry and the Hendersons.
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If he’s a jazz guy he performs at The Spotted Cat.
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He played sports for the Crimson, not to be confused with the Crimson Tide.
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The dude is the cat’s pajamas!
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Zibanejad got 27 million? Who negotiated for the Rangers, John Kerry?
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Kerfoot’s coming?!
Will have to start working on a nickname. That’s a tough one. I got nuthin.
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Kaput
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Just came to me.
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It’s been quiet, there must be something kerfoot
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No Doritos
No Gatorade
Secretariat
Those were all good
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All good nicknames
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Le Pageau part deux
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Someone may have mentioned secretariat already
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I know what’s kerfoot, it’s after 1700 east coast time. No one wasting company time on the blog so it gets quiet.
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Some of the nicknames and verbiage used here is fantastic. Some boneheads deserve kudos for their originality and creativity.
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Ménage à Pageau
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He’s not coming, Tom.
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Sundin?
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My podiatrist’s name is Kerfoot.
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Did anyone mention DelZaster yet? That was one of my favorites.
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“Dragon Slayer” he help bring the Cup!
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HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS!
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Is this thing on?
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Good afternoon Boneheads! I come today with a question that may have no answer. Is there any reliable way to watch NYR games online *without* a pre-existing cable subscription (condition? lol) I split my time between the metro area and lands further north and until now have had access to a slingbox tied to cablevision. Unfortunately, that will not be availabe to me this winter. My limited googling seems to indicate a big middle finger to NYR fans who do not want to subscribe to cable tv. It is not even clear to me that Center Ice carries MSG broadcasts at all (per wikipedia). I am sad.
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No? Ok
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Oops, sorry beezle
And cccp would be the best to answer your question
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Unless you have friends of questionable moral fibre that have firesticks of the jailbreak variety 😉
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Beezle, not sure how the MSG Go app works, but that might be an option.
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We all know you don’t associate with people like THAT, Wick…
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jail broken fire sticks…smh…What’s this world COMIN’ TO??!?!?!
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beezle,
i subscribe to the NHL app and watch most games on my computer. It is pretty good and you can always watch games again or later if you miss them. When games are on TV: MSNBC, NBC, NHL it is blacked out on the website. i have cable so it doesn’t bother me, but if you don’t have cable i am sure it is pretty frustrating.
CCCP had a link i used a few times. I wouldn’t depend on it though. It is someone rebroadcasting the game.
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Wife’s at a babyshower which means I’m home with the dog drinking a beer and watching Christine (on my firestick)
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Speaking of beer, where in the hell is Cooscoos?!
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At the Jersey shore with this crappy weather. Not much else to do except open my 3rd beer.
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It’s sunny and 80 degrees on Greenwood Lake, Booby. Shoulda vacationed by me. coulda saved 1500 bucks..
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The link I posted during the season is *ALWAYS* reliable. I will post it when I get home.
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RIP
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/former-senators-gm-coach-bryan-murray-dead-74/
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Here is what I found on Kerplunk, er Kerfoot from the Hockey’s Future web site:
“Kerfoot is blessed with a tremendous amount of natural offensive skill. His best attributes though are his on-ice vision and hockey sense. His elite-level puck skills are evident in the fact that he is both a good passer and finisher. While he continues to work on his skating, he is still quick and elusive. Despite being undersized, Kerfoot battles all over the ice and is not afraid of physical play. Despite working hard in the weight room, the centerman needs to continue focusing on his health to limit the potential for injuries.”
He is not that big (5-10/178) and I read some conflicting reports on his ability to play the physical game. He scored a career-high 16 goals and 45 points in 36 games as a senior. Given that he was Jimmy Vesey’s teammate for Harvard for three years, the Rangers might have an inside track on him. You sign enough prospects and eventually you get enough that can stick.
Also, allow me this editorial comment – cancer sucks! Cancer got my Mom when I was 15, my wife and her sister (both in their mid 50s), a brother-in-law (late 60s), a co-worker who died at 79 from prostate cancer that spread to bone cancer, and last night I found out that a close friend’s sister-in-law has liver cancer (she’s a couple of years older than me). Unfortunately, there are many, many more people that I have lost (and almost lost) through the years to cancer.
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agreed Anthony
http://nypost.com/2017/08/12/fans-are-never-satisfied-and-thats-not-a-bad-thing/
does he read this and other ranger blogs?
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Beezle
Email me @ odessitbk@msn.com for the link for ALL Rangers games. Right now you Jets game is on 🙂
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Man, American football is unwatchable. Never liked that sport. Standing, walking, pile-ups of fat dudes… what’s the point? and ONE game a week?! whaaa? WEAK!
Rugby all day, baby!
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Total insanity.
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/red-wings-denounce-use-of-logo-at-white-nationalist-rally/ar-AApVm77?li=BBnbfcL
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Carp- Did you see this article in The NY Post by Mike Vaccaro? See? All fans are like this. Yet you somehow expect us Boneheads to be different.
http://nyp.st/2vOHDWY
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Nevermind, Carp- Alex already has it covered. Maybe I should be a little more observant.
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” It is not even clear to me that Center Ice carries MSG broadcasts at all (per wikipedia).”
Living here in NC, I have Center Ice. They usually have broadcasts from both teams so you get to pick which feed you get. Of course, I always pick the Rangers feed because who would want to miss the stellar commentary of Salmon Joe?
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Beezle, if you live out of market of the tri-state area, the NHL Game Center app should let you stream the games that are locally broadcast only. Unfortunately you would be blacked out of the games that are on NBC or NBC Sports.
If you live in market you might be out of luck without a cable subscription.
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http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/fred-garvin-male-prostitute/n8669?snl=1
Enjoy some nostalgia on this Sunday, kids!
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Trump broke the blog.
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Trump is also the reason my framing lumber for this addition is going to cost me an extra 2 g’s…
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Still on my European vacation, but have been keeping up with the HAV. In fact flew Air France so France was in the air. Their safety announcement is like one of their commercials minus the swings. Lots of airy music and everything is tres chic.
You guys have some outstanding gibberish going and I hope they sign Kerfoot just so we can give him a knick name.
May go to Geneva ,but, I hear a Brandon Pirri sighting is unlikely. I guess his yodeling lessons didn’t go well. That’s a Joe Juneau reference for those old enough to remember him. I’ll be back in time for the Traverse City roster announcement and some P TO signings for training camp. Keep up the good work.
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Good morning, boneheads!
Bad news- summer is almost over.
Good news- summer is almost over. Training camp is around the corner.
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Man… we gonna suck this year.
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The blog? Or the team? 🙂
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Tomorrow is Kaput, Kerplunk, something is Kerfoot Day!
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Lottery Pick CCCP?
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ilb
Both!
Pete
Yes, plz!
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TANK IT! TANK IT! TANK IT!
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I hate summer. Kids should get winter off from school, you know when it’s actually fun to go outside.
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Speaking of winter….game of thrones 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
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Game of thrones 👎👎👎
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LOL
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Slow day at work. Hoping you guys can pick it up a little to make the day go a little faster. If not, I will be forced to put Grabner on the 4th line.
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So, BDL. Is Kerfoot coming?
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Dwight King to KHL.
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Chiasson still out there.
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He’s not coming.
I would offer Chiasson a PTO. Jimmy Hayes too.
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Winter on the way; multiple geese sightings (overhead, not on the fairway) this week.
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Why is he not coming, BDL? There is a pretty wide open spot at center. Plus the Vesey connection.
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Bdl
I would also offer both of them a pto
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Just some fun making ilb. I have no idea if Kerfoot is coming. Though I am starting to believe that Andersson has a center spot to lose.
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Gerund. LOL. That was one of the greatest ever.
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*NEW (GOOD BECAUSE IT IS GEORGE GRIMM) POST*
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