Friday Night Fights: Fear the Reaper
That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my #%@# clothes.
—-Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker.
There are lots of reasons I don't like NHL Commissioner Gary Betteman. One of the big ones was the 1998 re-alignment of the NHL's divisions. It was Betteman's final step in his NBAification of the NHL. Where once there had been two divisions per conference (with actual meaningful names like Norris, Patrick, and Smythe) now there were 3 divisions per conference, and winning a division basically meant squat. But my real beef with the re-alignment was that it sent one of the Hawks oldest divisional foes completely out of the conference. It basically killed the rivalry between two Original Six teams. It meant the Hawks would now play the Toronto Maple Leafs only twice a season, at most.
The truth is, during the mid-90's, the Leafs were probably a bigger rival to the Hawks than the Blues or even the Red Wings. The Leafs had guys like Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk and Wendel Clark, who were both skilled and tough. This resulted in a lot of close games and bench clearing brawls.
In tonight's featured bout, Stu Grimson makes his return to Friday Night Fights. His first fight was short and sweet. But tonight, Grimson seems to be having one of those days at the office. You know, the copier's on the fritz, an emergency pops up on Friday afternoon, or somebody calls a meeting at 4:30pm. What's a man to do? Well, if that man is Stu Grimson, the only thing to do is attempt to kill Wendel Clark, get stripped half naked in a tussle with the referee, break free from the restraint of your head coach (Mike Keenan!) and go absolutely apeshit.
Enjoy.
—-Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker.
There are lots of reasons I don't like NHL Commissioner Gary Betteman. One of the big ones was the 1998 re-alignment of the NHL's divisions. It was Betteman's final step in his NBAification of the NHL. Where once there had been two divisions per conference (with actual meaningful names like Norris, Patrick, and Smythe) now there were 3 divisions per conference, and winning a division basically meant squat. But my real beef with the re-alignment was that it sent one of the Hawks oldest divisional foes completely out of the conference. It basically killed the rivalry between two Original Six teams. It meant the Hawks would now play the Toronto Maple Leafs only twice a season, at most.
The truth is, during the mid-90's, the Leafs were probably a bigger rival to the Hawks than the Blues or even the Red Wings. The Leafs had guys like Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk and Wendel Clark, who were both skilled and tough. This resulted in a lot of close games and bench clearing brawls.
In tonight's featured bout, Stu Grimson makes his return to Friday Night Fights. His first fight was short and sweet. But tonight, Grimson seems to be having one of those days at the office. You know, the copier's on the fritz, an emergency pops up on Friday afternoon, or somebody calls a meeting at 4:30pm. What's a man to do? Well, if that man is Stu Grimson, the only thing to do is attempt to kill Wendel Clark, get stripped half naked in a tussle with the referee, break free from the restraint of your head coach (Mike Keenan!) and go absolutely apeshit.
Enjoy.
"this is a man gone mad"
That's one of my favorite quotes when someone has just fucking lost it during a fight. I think everyone, even when you're not playing hockey, has had a moment where you've just lost it and want to just fucking punch someone.
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Marouelli sucks.
Love the music too...I remember "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" was the standard when Maggs used to go.
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You guys need to get your facts straight.
The first re-alignment of divisions took place before the 1993-1994 season. Remember when San Jose upset Detroit in seven games? That wouldn't have happened in the old system.
They finagled a couple of things, the divisions MAINLY stayed the same..They renamed the divisions the northeast, atlantic, central, and pacific. Winnipeg was in the central in those final years, believe it or not.
The divisional playoff format ended in 1993. The Hawks were behind the new format. If you guys remember, the top two squads in the campbell in '93 were the wings and hawks.
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Whoa there JD. The point of my post was to specifically criticize the 98 re-alignment for sending the Leafs out of conference. I thought my writing implied that it was the culmination of a drawn out process that took us from 4 divisions with awesome names, to six divisions with NBA names. And I had so much to drink at that point, I didn't feel like laying the whole process out in detail.
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Bettman's gotta go!!!!!
http://www.FireBettman.com
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