Well, after easily watching about a dozen players I wanted picked before me in this 3rd round alone, made me have to go back and research further as well as change my strategy of picking strong down the middle.
I need some offense. I've gone over and over the possibilities and decided I needed a gunner. There's 3 other picks that I mulled over a number of times but I'm going with a polarizing figure, in so many different ways, and it'll probably continue now....the Boston Mules pick RWer
Cam Neely.
1) He's a Bruin and I'm a Bruins fan. Bruins fans love tough, gritty rock-em sock-em players and I'm another one of them. Hell, the current #22 is one of the most popular players currently around here, having his own instigating t-shirt and rowdy fan club, appears in rock videos but is stll self effacing enough to crack people up in interviews....and he's lucky if he gets a half dozen goals a year. Neely is still a demi-god around these parts, (as well as having his own popular selling t-shirt around here).
2) He is still cited by a vast number of hockey insiders as the prototypical "power forward". He can skate, shoot, hit and fight with gumption. He has the heart of a grizzly. He refuses to take no for an answer and does not suffer fools or wimps at all.
3) He had 78 total fights to go with his crunchy body checks. But he was smart and restrained enough to have only 3 post season fights.....for good reason because most of all, and this was my tipping point:
4) There are only 3 players with significant playing time who have a better goals-per-game average in Stanley Cup history than him. I know he didn't win a Cup but it wasn't for lack of trying. It wasn't his fault he had a lack of depth behind him. Opponents knew this and it was a standard tactic to:
a) run Bourque and don't give him time to see the ice in front of him and force him into a mistake.
b) piss off Neely and hopefully get him off the ice.
The Bruins had a noticeable lack of depth, (which led to the vitriolic hatred for owner Jeremy Jacobs and the eventual blowback downfall of Harry Sinden for not opening the purse strings for better players), and the failure of the few quality depth players to come through in the crunch.
Yet, Neely still scored 57 goals and 89 total points in 93 playoff games, often while being hacked, mauled and cheap-shotted by one, and more often than not, two players on every shift. His battles with some of the most annoying and dirty defensive 'blankets' are legendary.
(I also don't give a rats ass about 'adjusted stats' either but he also is still 10th all-time in goals-per-game in the regular season).
It was close with those 3 other gunners, a couple who're probably a little more gifted and one of whom he shared an excellent center with....but I had to go with Neely. I watched him probably more than anyone on this board and I'm sticking with this choice.
Flame away...
