OT: Let's Remember Some Guys

[alkurtz]

Ruman Ndur. Nigerian born D who skated in 31 games in 98-99.

His career went steadily downhill and a few years later I saw him in many games for the never-to-be forgotten Danbury Trashers of the United Hockey League.

 

[cwede]

You could probably do a list of players just from Phil Esposito's merry-go-round years as GM: Paul Cyr! Jim Pavese! Greg Bell! Jari Gronstrand!

SO many guys
(so many mistakes, like trading Tinordi's dad)

one of the most telling being '88-89 when Dean Kennedy, Ken Hammond and Miro Horava passed thru the NYR D-corps,
all wearing #6 and the Hockey News couldn't keep track,
put Hammond's photo on cover for article about journeymen D-men featuring Kennedy

Five minutes with Bob McKenzie - TSN.ca
"One time, you labeled the Kings' Dean Kennedy with the dubious title of being the NHL's "most average defenceman" and then put a photo of Ken Hammond on the cover."

 

[eco's bones]

More memories - going across the radio dial looking for hockey games. Where I was - in Ontario, up on the Escarpment, with my big radio - lots of stations with NHL hockey came in clearly. The Leafs, of course; the Canadiens, in French; the Sabres; the Wings; the Rangers; the Blues; the Bruins; and the Hawks. Remember being up all night and in to the early morning hours for the playoff game in 1971. Had the Rangers lost that game - after all that - don't know what I would have done.

I had nights going across the radio dial too. The WHA was going then too or there were minor league games too. I didn’t know any French so I never really stopped for long on the Montreal station. Things changed after I went in the service. I didn’t have the time or the inclination to be spending all night searching out hockey games and after I got out I was pretty much able to watch 95% of Rangers games and occasionally I get down to MSG.

 

[Davenport]

Remember the Big, Bad Bruins who came to New York? Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais are the best remembered, but - besides those two - there were Ken Hodge, Dallas Smith and the gentleman seen below:

Derek Sanderson.

 

[eco's bones]

Remember the Big, Bad Bruins who came to New York? Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais are the best remembered, but - besides those two - there were Ken Hodge, Dallas Smith and the gentleman seen below:View attachment 462087Derek Sanderson.

Two memories I have of Sanderson as a Ranger. Him chain smoking in a between periods of a game interview on WOR with Jim Gordon and getting suckered and beaten up pretty good by the Blues Bob Plager (another former Ranger).

 

[Davenport]

Two memories I have of Sanderson as a Ranger. Him chain smoking in a between periods of a game interview on WOR with Jim Gordon and getting suckered and beaten up pretty good by the Blues Bob Plager (another former Ranger).

Speaking of Bob Plager, who played 29 games (over parts of three seasons) with New York:

 

[CasusBelli]

Recommend FHM 7 Historical Mode (at last that’s what I think it’s called) to those who want to get more in touch with the history of the sport. Learnt about a lot of players that way — many of whom I hadn’t fully appreciated beforehand.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Loved the Ogrodnick - Kisio - Mullen line.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Remember the Big, Bad Bruins who came to New York? Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais are the best remembered, but - besides those two - there were Ken Hodge, Dallas Smith and the gentleman seen below:View attachment 462087Derek Sanderson.

Is that Steven Ogg from TWD ?

 

[n8]

Rod Langway. Born in Taiwan.

 

[cwede]

 

[Edge]

Jamie Ram

 

[TUQ]

Jan Hlaváč

Erik Christensen

Ondřej Pavelec

Nigel Dawes

Kevin Weekes

 

[Machinehead]

Jamie Ram

This made me remember Guy Hebert for some reason

 

[Edge]

This made me remember Guy Hebert for some reason

That goalie carousel in the early 2000s could be a list unto itself.

Here's 2000-2001 alone:
Richter
McLean
Hebert
Labarbera
Holmqvist
Yeremeyev

And that's without taking into account the rest of the roster:

Grosek, Forbes, Smrek, Ulmer, Gusarov, etc.

Don't get me wrong, there have been many frustrations over the couple of years. But some fans will (hopefully) never know the bleakness that was some of those late 90s/early 2000s teams. You didn't even have the hope for a brighter tomorrow.

 

[eco's bones]

Speaking of goalies. Steve Baker was a 3rd rounder for us in 1977 and played for Union College when it was still a division 3 college program. The famed Ned Harkness was his coach and there was some kind of scandal and Baker turned pro and was a Rangers backup for a couple years.

Some guys I saw with the Binghamton Rangers—Sergei Zubov, Doug Weight, Alexei Kovalev, Tie Domi, Darren Langdon, Corey Millen, Corey Hirsch, Eric Cairns, Rob Zamuner (who never played a game for us), Mike Hurlbut, Shawn McCosh, Craig Duncanson, Peter Fiorentino.

 

[Fitzy]

I was so excited for Yeremeyev and he ended up being such a massive disappointment.

 

[FoxyClean]

Watching a video from a 1988 Rangers game...who the heck???

 

[Fitzy]

Watching a video from a 1988 Rangers game...who the heck???

Jason Lafreniere Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

 

[cwede]

Speaking of goalies. Steve Baker was a 3rd rounder for us in 1977 and played for Union College when it was still a division 3 college program. The famed Ned Harkness was his coach and there was some kind of scandal and Baker turned pro and was a Rangers backup for a couple years.

Some guys I saw with the Binghamton Rangers—Sergei Zubov, Doug Weight, Alexei Kovalev, Tie Domi, Darren Langdon, Corey Millen, Corey Hirsch, Eric Cairns, Rob Zamuner (who never played a game for us), Mike Hurlbut, Shawn McCosh, Craig Duncanson, Peter Fiorentino.

if you saw those guys, maybe saw Peter Laviolette, too?

 

[cwede]

Jason Lafreniere Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

• 1988-Aug-01 Traded from Quebec Nordiques with Normand Rochefort to New York Rangers for Bruce Bell, Walt Poddubny, Jari Gronstrand and round 4 pick in the 1989 draft (Eric Dubois)

Espo could not resist making trades.
Rochefort was a decent depth D, this Laf had skill but was soft.
Poddubny led NYR in scoring for both his NYR seasons. Bell and Gronstrand were skill/soft-ish 4th/5th D guys

 

[eco's bones]

if you saw those guys, maybe saw Peter Laviolette, too?

I think so. I got a Binghamton hockey card of Laviolette I’m pretty sure so I must have seen him. Peter didn’t make that great of an impression as a player I suppose. I remember Don Biggs having a monster of a season. Like 140 points. He was a gnarly little f*** besides—kind of like a Pat Verbeek. Zubov got sent down to Binghamton out of training camp in 93-94. He only played a couple games—one against the Isles AHL team that I saw and then was called back up and was a major part of the Rangers Stanley Cup run that year. Kovalev in his short time in Binghamton was just a one man show. He had the puck all the time and it was kind of chaotic watching the other teams chasing him around all over the ice. No one could get it away from him. His own teammates had a hard enough time getting it from him.

Some tough customers there. Domi, Cairns, Langdon. Fiorentino wasn’t nearly as tough as those three but I don’t remember a game where he didn’t drop the gloves with somebody. It was always guaranteed fight night if he was in the lineup.

 

[Crease]

That goalie carousel in the early 2000s could be a list unto itself.

Here's 2000-2001 alone:
Richter
McLean
Hebert
Labarbera
Holmqvist
Yeremeyev

And that's without taking into account the rest of the roster:

Grosek, Forbes, Smrek, Ulmer, Gusarov, etc.

Don't get me wrong, there have been many frustrations over the couple of years. But some fans will (hopefully) never know the bleakness that was some of those late 90s/early 2000s teams. You didn't even have the hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Remember when posters here tried to make Labarbera a thing?

To his credit, Jason ended up making decent coin playing backup for crappy Western Conference teams.

 

[will1066]

Not a Ranger, but remember Curtis Leschyshyn? The man with the impossible-to-spell name?

 

[will1066]

That goalie carousel in the early 2000s could be a list unto itself.

Here's 2000-2001 alone:
Richter
McLean
Hebert
Labarbera
Holmqvist
Yeremeyev

And that's without taking into account the rest of the roster:

Grosek, Forbes, Smrek, Ulmer, Gusarov, etc.

Don't get me wrong, there have been many frustrations over the couple of years. But some fans will (hopefully) never know the bleakness that was some of those late 90s/early 2000s teams. You didn't even have the hope for a brighter tomorrow.

I recall the guys in the booth joking about how Gusarov was pronounced. Goose-uh-rov or Goo-sar-rov. Or maybe I imagined that.