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RIP Bob Nevin

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Nevin was the 1st NYR captain i remember, i was 9 in '65.

In college, winter of '74-75, I was in Pittsburgh for a student 'conference'.
Hotel was across street from Igloo, Pens had Kings Sat night, I got a ticket and went.
Game ended 0-0 tie, the kind where neither team deserved to score or win, not a defensive nail-biter.

and then i had an @Amazing Kreiderman moment

After game, back at hotel, I joined other student attendees having beers in a hotel room.
After a while, I left, and walking towards elevator, there were 2 large guys walking towards me.
I blurted out "you're Bob Nevin" (he was a King by then, as was the other guy Dave Hutchison, a tall, long-haired enforcer, just joining NHL, from WHA).
We chatted, shared some NYR and 'old Garden' memories, and I invited them for a beer with the other students, they did join us, then they left after a bit.

8 became my favorite NYR #, not for Nevin, but for Vickers who was a rookie my Sr yr HS, and then Poddubny, and then Turcotte.

Some folks may have seen, at MSG, for games, my (knock-off) white Liberty jersey with 4 names on the back above #8 - Nevin, Vickers, Turcotte, Poddubny.

... Although mostly I wear my #29 Reijo jersey (blue authentic CCM)
and I gave up the family full-season seats after '17-18 season, the annual price increases were just killing me
(yes, that year, they agreed to not increase prices if missing playoffs, as they did, but I had already decided the prices had gotten too high)
 
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Nevin would have been one of those players I just missed like Dave Balon. I started with the Rangers back in the 1971-72 season. I remember having this Rise of the Rangers LP narrated by Marv Albert (which would have been somewhere in the 60's I think) and Nevin and Balon were certainly all over that.
 
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eco's bones said:
Nevin would have been one of those players I just missed like Dave Balon. I started with the Rangers back in the 1971-72 season. I remember having this Rise of the Rangers LP narrated by Marv Albert (which would have been somewhere in the 60's I think) and Nevin and Balon were certainly all over that.
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Like you my first real memories of the Rangers were from the 71-72 season with some foggy memories of the 1970 Rangers. Nevin I recall was a pretty good player and I remember liking him and others of his ilk like the aforementioned DaveBalone, Pete Stemkowski, Teddy Irvine, Billy Fairbairn, Bruce McGreggor.

I recall wondering what happened too him in 71-72 during Rangers Cup year, as I thought he just left the team for some reason and was gone. I didn't know about this thing called trading and so it took me about a year too figure out that Nevin got traded to another team...lol
 
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He was the captain when I joined the fan base. I believe I remember him playing with Phil Goyette at centre and Donnie Marshall on the left side at some point between 1968-70. RIP Captain Bob.
 
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Maximus said:
Like you my first real memories of the Rangers were from the 71-72 season with some foggy memories of the 1970 Rangers. Nevin I recall was a pretty good player and I remember liking him and others of his ilk like the aforementioned DaveBalone, Pete Stemkowski, Teddy Irvine, Billy Fairbairn, Bruce McGreggor.

I recall wondering what happened too him in 71-72 during Rangers Cup year, as I thought he just left the team for some reason and was gone. I didn't know about this thing called trading and so it took me about a year too figure out that Nevin got traded to another team...lol
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I have a Rangers notebook and one of the things in it is the Rangers trade history from the team's inception. The Rangers first trade ever for instance happens on January 1, 1927 when they trade the rights of Leo Bourgeault to the Toronto St. Pats for cash.

Nevin goes to the Minnesota North Stars on May 25, 1971 for Bobby Rousseau. I remember Bobby Rousseau very well. Oftentimes the Rangers 4C/RW--plug-in player but also first unit power play playing opposite Brad Park on the point. He was a slick player with the puck and a 4 time Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens.
 
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Someone correct me if I'am wrong. I remember a line of Donnie Marshall- Phil Goyette- Bob Niven. Is my memory intact?
 
I had the shaft of a broken Goyette stick. My mom couldn't get why I was unhappy when she threw it out ..
 
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EdJovanovski said:
RIP
This guy was captain well before my parents were born lol
Do you guys have any book or dvd recommendations to learn about Rangers history?
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I would recommend talking to @Crease (who is a dick)

Two books I've read that taught me a lot about two eras I knew little about:
- When the Rangers Were Young by Frank Boucher. It's an incredibly dry read, but if you're looking to become more knowledgeable about the Rangers' first three Stanley Cup wins, it's a good resource.
- Thin Ice by Larry Sloman. Really entertaining read about an early 80s team. Unfiltered. Pure filth. Here's one quote I like from J.D. about the Islanders losing: "You don't know how much I love this. I was sitting here trying to make a tuna fish sandwich and I got a hard-on."
 
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Thirty One said:
I would recommend talking to @Crease (who is a dick)

Two books I've read that taught me a lot about two eras I knew little about:
- When the Rangers Were Young by Frank Boucher. It's an incredibly dry read, but if you're looking to become more knowledgeable about the Rangers' first three Stanley Cup wins, it's a good resource.
- Thin Ice by Larry Sloman. Really entertaining read about an early 80s team. Unfiltered. Pure filth. Here's one quote I like from J.D. about the Islanders losing: "You don't know how much I love this. I was sitting here trying to make a tuna fish sandwich and I got a hard-on."
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I had forgotten all about that book "Thin Ice" which documents that crazy, nutty,lovable and memorable Ranger team that made that out of the blue Cup run during the 1978-79 season. Forget @EdJovanovski, I just ordered it on Amazon seeing I never actually read it but had heard about it....lol

In all seriousness @Thirty One is correct, this is THE definitive book to read if you want to know what it was like being a Ranger fan back in the late 70's/early 80's and what our team was like. After you read this book, you'll see why those of us who were fans at the time still wax poetic so much about that '79 Cup finalist team.

To this day, of all the long Ranger playoff runs I've witnessed as a fan, that 1979 Ranger playoff run to the Cup finals is right there neck and neck with the '94 run it was that much fun. Beating the heavily favored Islanders in the ECF certainly helped make that so memorable no doubt.
 
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Thirty One said:
I would recommend talking to @Crease (who is a dick)

Two books I've read that taught me a lot about two eras I knew little about:
- When the Rangers Were Young by Frank Boucher. It's an incredibly dry read, but if you're looking to become more knowledgeable about the Rangers' first three Stanley Cup wins, it's a good resource.
- Thin Ice by Larry Sloman. Really entertaining read about an early 80s team. Unfiltered. Pure filth. Here's one quote I like from J.D. about the Islanders losing: "You don't know how much I love this. I was sitting here trying to make a tuna fish sandwich and I got a hard-on."
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Yeah I have both of those and they're good. Most sports books tend to be junk. The other really good Rangers book was Barry Meisel's about the 1994 Stanley Cup Rangers and the next year 1995 team.

The good thing about the Boucher book is it takes us all the way back to when the Rangers began and even a little further. The Boucher's were from Ottawa and he had two or three brothers that also made it to the NHL--George, Billy and maybe there was another. You get a picture of New York City in the 20's and 30's. Sloman's book is pretty raunchy and a fun read. He also wrote Reefer Madness a history of weed in America, the federal govt.'s destruction of the hemp industry just to pretty much have a go at marijuana smoking black jazz musicians. I liked that book quite a lot too.

Meisel's one foray into book publishing Losing the edge is the best of them. For a sports book it's really outstanding. In a lot of ways it is similar to Sloman's book but only better. Partly that's due to the evil backstabbing and manipulative Keenan and his continual feuding with Neil Smith for control of the team. There's a lot of layers to that book. One of the funnier things was Keenan early on in the 93-94 team wanting to trade Brian (you're no Chris Chelios) Leetch (who would win the Conn Smythe award that year in the playoffs) for f***ing Stu Grimson (pretty much a two bit goon--though good at it). Keenan's dislike and disdain for many of the players on that team comes out over and over--Turcotte, Patrick, Amonte, Gartner, Olczyk, Hartman and several others are treated like shit throughout. Sergei Zubov who led the 93-94 team in scoring by the way started that season in Binghamton. I know because I was at Binghamton's season opener and he was playing.
 
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It is common today for losing teams to trade veterans on the wrong side of 30 to contenders looking for that final piece. That wasn’t the case in the early/mid 60s. The Nevin trade from the Leafs might have been the first such I remember. Andy Bathgate and Don Mckenney for Nevin. Dick Duff, Arnie Brown, Rod Seiling, and Bill Collins. I have always felt that this trade provided the groundwork for the Francis era. Seiling, probably the best player in junior hockey was the key. It took him a few years to make it, there was some question as to whether he was a forward or defenseman, but he eventually became a regular D for most of the Francis years. Very much underrated and forgotten today, he was a hybrid D in an era when you were either a stay home guy or an offensive D. Brown was a regular D for a few years at the start of the Francis era. Nevin too, was a vital cog in those first years on our second line with Phil Goyette at center and Donnie Marshall at LW. Lines seemed to stay together for years in that era. As more young players were developed, the Goyette/Marshall/Nevin line was replaced by the Walt Tkaczuk/Bill Fairbairn/Steve Vickers line. But Nevin was the young vet acquired in the trade and was such a typical Original Six player: quiet, dependable, defensively responsible in every way. A quiet leader of those early Francis era teams.
 
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alkurtz said:
It is common today for losing teams to trade veterans on the wrong side of 30 to contenders looking for that final piece. That wasn’t the case in the early/mid 60s. The Nevin trade from the Leafs might have been the first such I remember. Andy Bathgate and Don Mckenney for Nevin. Dick Duff, Arnie Brown, Rod Seiling, and Bill Collins. I have always felt that this trade provided the groundwork for the Francis era. Seiling, probably the best player in junior hockey was the key. It took him a few years to make it, there was some question as to whether he was a forward or defenseman, but he eventually became a regular D for most of the Francis years. Very much underrated and forgotten today, he was a hybrid D in an era when you were either a stay home guy or an offensive D. Brown was a regular D for a few years at the start of the Francis era. Nevin too, was a vital cog in those first years on our second line with Phil Goyette at center and Donnie Marshall at LW. Lines seemed to stay together for years in that era. As more young players were developed, the Goyette/Marshall/Nevin line was replaced by the Walt Tkaczuk/Bill Fairbairn/Steve Vickers line. But Nevin was the young vet acquired in the trade and was such a typical Original Six player: quiet, dependable, defensively responsible in every way. A quiet leader of those early Francis era teams.
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I was remembering this non-related Rangers story today. It involved the Leafs and the Blackhawks in the 60's but anyway Punch Imlach was not getting along with his star left winger Frank Mahovlich who walked off the team. James Norris met up somewhere right afterwards with the Leafs owner Harold Ballard and Norris offered Ballard $1 million for Mahovlich which back in the 60's was a huge amount of money. Probably back then the entire Leafs team was maybe making $200 grand altogether--Anyway Norris and Ballard seemingly came to a deal and Norris gave Ballard a $1000 retainer check and then Ballard went to Imlach who wasn't pleased at all. Imlach told Ballard something like 'A million bucks was nice but it couldn't play left wing for their team'. Non-plussed Ballard reneged on the deal which pissed Norris off a lot.

A lot of people don't realize that back in those days a lot if not most NHL players had summer jobs. They didn't make a lot of money playing hockey really. In the opening pages of Brad Park's Play the Man he talks about a salary dispute with Emile Francis and he's holding out for like $2500 and making somewhere around $15,000 when Francis finally gives in and Park feels victorious about sticking to his guns and he was one of the best defensemen in the league.
 
Yup...Ranger goalies would get a bonus of $100 if they posted a shutout. Everyone, fans, players, writers, made out like it was a big deal and a lot of money. I guess it was!
 
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eco's bones said:
Nevin would have been one of those players I just missed like Dave Balon. I started with the Rangers back in the 1971-72 season. I remember having this Rise of the Rangers LP narrated by Marv Albert (which would have been somewhere in the 60's I think) and Nevin and Balon were certainly all over that.
Click to expand...

had totally forgot about that LP
but YouTube remembers

Rise of the Rangers LP at YouTube
Pt 1
Pt 2
Pt 3
Pt 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nFHp_muqHA
Pt 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMdah7BspEA
 
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Thirty One said:
I would recommend talking to @Crease (who is a dick)

Two books I've read that taught me a lot about two eras I knew little about:
- When the Rangers Were Young by Frank Boucher. It's an incredibly dry read, but if you're looking to become more knowledgeable about the Rangers' first three Stanley Cup wins, it's a good resource.
- Thin Ice by Larry Sloman. Really entertaining read about an early 80s team. Unfiltered. Pure filth. Here's one quote I like from J.D. about the Islanders losing: "You don't know how much I love this. I was sitting here trying to make a tuna fish sandwich and I got a hard-on."
Click to expand...

I wasn't shitting, I just got "Thin Ice" delivered today and cant wait to start devouring into it. And so thanks again for even bringing up the Larry Sloman book I guess it was a week or so ago. Time and day are all the same during covid at least for me it is...lol

The cover of the book is awesome and I had forgotten all about it . On the cover is a picture in the Ranger locker room with their name plates behind them and so you have Barry Beck, Don Maloney, Ron Greshner and Anders Hedberg all standing there chilling and smiling in their casual clothes. And lying down on a bench horizontally in front of them is Phil Esposito in his Ranger unie smiling giving the OK signal.

I dunno something about that pic just brings back a flood of great memories from that great '79 Cup run by as fun a team too root for as any in Ranger history.
 
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eco's bones said:
I was remembering this non-related Rangers story today. It involved the Leafs and the Blackhawks in the 60's but anyway Punch Imlach was not getting along with his star left winger Frank Mahovlich who walked off the team. James Norris met up somewhere right afterwards with the Leafs owner Harold Ballard and Norris offered Ballard $1 million for Mahovlich which back in the 60's was a huge amount of money. Probably back then the entire Leafs team was maybe making $200 grand altogether--Anyway Norris and Ballard seemingly came to a deal and Norris gave Ballard a $1000 retainer check and then Ballard went to Imlach who wasn't pleased at all. Imlach told Ballard something like 'A million bucks was nice but it couldn't play left wing for their team'. Non-plussed Ballard reneged on the deal which pissed Norris off a lot.

A lot of people don't realize that back in those days a lot if not most NHL players had summer jobs. They didn't make a lot of money playing hockey really. In the opening pages of Brad Park's Play the Man he talks about a salary dispute with Emile Francis and he's holding out for like $2500 and making somewhere around $15,000 when Francis finally gives in and Park feels victorious about sticking to his guns and he was one of the best defensemen in the league.
Click to expand...

Not to veer off the topic, but it is of that vintage. Was the Imlach, Ballard interaction the impetus behind the 1968 blockbuster involving Norm Ullman, Floyd Smith, Paul Henderson and Doug Barrie from Detroit to Toronto for Garry Unger, Former Ranger Pete Stemkowski, Rights to Carl Brewer and the Big M?
 
Ratelleitlikeitis said:
Not to veer off the topic, but it is of that vintage. Was the Imlach, Ballard interaction the impetus behind the 1968 blockbuster involving Norm Ullman, Floyd Smith, Paul Henderson and Doug Barrie from Detroit to Toronto for Garry Unger, Former Ranger Pete Stemkowski, Rights to Carl Brewer and the Big M?
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A long time ago I read a bio of Punch Imlach but I don't remember now but Stemmer will wend his way to the Rangers after that deal so you could just as well say pre-Ranger as former Ranger. Becoming a Rangers fan in 1971-72 I remember Ullman and Henderson as Maple Leafs, Garry Unger as a St. Louis Blue and Mahovlich along with his brother Peter as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Got hockey cards of all these guys. Henderson with the last minute goal that won the Summit series.
 
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