2008/09 NHL Thread

The vast majority of NHL players who are honoured by their teams either won championships with those teams, are in the HHOF for what they did while a member of those teams, or had their careers (and, in some cases, their lives) shortened by tragedy.

My sense is that people scorn the Leafs for honouring players from the post-Jim Gregory era, given that the franchise has won jack shit in that time and no one can claim to have established HHOF credentials while with Toronto. Combine that with the Leafs' stupid policy of "honouring" numbers rather than retiring them, and what's not to ridicule??

The Canucks, meanwhile, have retired only two numbers in their entire history - Stan Smyl was the first - and both players in question at least captained the team to a conference championship. They haven't driven the whole tribute thing into the ground like the Leafs have done.

When Doug Gilmour is honoured sometime this season, that'll be four Leafs from the post-1967 era. You can't justify that when only five players who played for the four-time Cup champs in the 1960s have been honoured, and only four from the teams that won six Cups between 1942 and 1951.

Like I said, what's not to ridicule??

And it has nothing to do with a hatred of Toronto. It has everything to do with the organization's continuing failure to do things that make any frigging sense.

P.S. The New York Rangers have an equally stupid sweater-retirement policy. Adam Graves is up next, the fourth member of the 1994 champs to receive such an honour. The number of honoured Rangers who played for the 1928, 1933 and 1940 champs - zero. Yeah....that makes total sense, MSG. :

 

I posted earlier on this thread that the Rangers are going to honor Andy Bathgate and Harry Howell prior to the Feb. 22 home game against the Leafs.

Also, and I'm pretty sure you and I have had this discussion in the past, but a person with ties to the organization told me last year that public at large doesn't know about the people on the 1928, 1933 and 1940 Cup Champions; that the 1994 team is still relatively fresh in the fans' minds.

 

The 1940 championship should still be relatively fresh, considering the organization and its fans had 54 years to look back on it and wonder if it would ever happen again.

We have talked about this before, and I still believe there is no excuse for the Rangers to have honoured four people from one championship club and zero from any of three Cup winners that preceded it. No excuse. None.

 

I absolutely agree with you. The great players on the first three championship teams should be honored.

 

Did the Canucks not "retire" the late Wayne Maki's number 11 and then bring it back for Messier? In fact, I believe there was some controversy with Maki's family when that was done. Is his number 11 not recognized as retired or honoured in some way?

 

I think I remember that, too, huntsie.

 

Yes there was controversy, the canucks maintain it was just honoured not retired. Bullshit and the Maki family was not happy.

 

That sounds right.
I believe Maki's wife criticized the organization for unretiring the number and Messier for not telling the organization that he would wear another number.

 

Yup ...

http://johnnycanucklehead.blogspot.com/2008/05/luc-bourdon-we-hardly-knew-ye.html

Although Bourdon only played 36 games all tolled in the NHL, why not retire either his number 4 or 28 (since he wore both over bits of two seasons as well as number 40 at his first camp for you statheads) here? It would make up also for the bad publicity of quietly unretiring Wayne Maki's number 11 so the Messiah could wear it well as he cashed all those nice cheques here in Vancouver. Admittedly Maki was no angel as Ted Green can attest, but to unretire any player's number is bad karma.

 

Ah ... Maki was the guy who cracked Green's skull ... I'd forgotten about that, too.

 

Maki falls into the category of a player whose career/life was shortened by tragedy, as do Michel Briere in Pittsburgh, Barry Ashbee in Philadelphia, Bob Gassoff in St. Louis and Ace Bailey in Toronto, the first time a number was ever retired by a team.

But yeah, the Canucks screwed up bad when they gave 11 to Messier the Entitled without even consulting Maki's family. No one has worn 11 since Messier left, but the team should make it right by officially retiring it for Maki.

There's an interesting situation in Detroit where Larry Aurie's No. 6 was retired in 1938, although the Ilitch family refuses to recognize it. No one has worn the number, but it hasn't been raised to the rafters.

By the way, I was wrong earlier when I said Linden voluntarily stepped aside as captain for Messier the Entitled - I had him mixed up with Shayne Corson who (apparently) did that in St. Louis when Gretzky joined the Blues.

 

Wow, I had no idea about the #11 thing in Vancouver. Messier = Power Tool.