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I always knew Nolan was not to blame, especially since the entire team of players backed him up. But I didn't know the full story, his views on Lafontaine's health. I already had massive respect for the man, but now have even more.
@@jmr6241 When I think of how many Farm Boys and Girls were ripped up by machinery my heart breaks....it was sometimes an extremely dangerous childhood back then.
Considering that you mentioned Dan Blackburn as the only goalie in NHL history to wear two blockers, I think an honorable mention should have been given to former Montreal goalie Bill Durnan, who was the only ambiedextrous goalie in NHL history. He had specially made gloves that enabled him to catch with both hands and also hold the stick in different hands as well, which must have been a little off putting for opposing teams shooters back in the day....
I'd switch gloves each period and it confused the hell out of the other teams 🤣. I had one kid on a breakaway almost come to complete stop he was so confused. I had fun messing with the other teams. And sometimes if we had a break for an injury or something I go to the bench and switch gloves during the break. The coach would just laugh. Oddly enough I had the same record no matter which hand I went with .
Must be a Habs fan. Always talking hockey until they don't make the playoffs then rhey won't even mention hockey. Sore losers. That's why everybody else hates them lol
As a Stars fan, I want to point something out. At no point was Val Nichushkin a bust, nor should he have ever been considered one. He was completely mishandled by the organization, and especially the coaching staff. They had no idea what sort of player he was and what he was capable of. Val's best years were spent under Lindy Ruff who is a coach who prioritizes offense. Ruff wouldn't put Val on the first line anymore and so he fucked off back to Russia, and soon after we replaced Ruff with a coach who thought we could win games 1-0. Unfortunately, when we brought Val back, we had yet another coach who thought defense won games. So he put him on the 4th line, made the team dump n change every play, and gave him no chance to get his point total up. It's weird what happens when you give a powerful scoring forward the chance to score. Right now, we're doing the exact same thing to Denis Gurianov, and he will leave the team looking like a failure until another team picks him up and he has a 30-40pt season with them. Valeri Nichushkin was never a bust, and Denis Gurianov will probably follow the same path as him.
Just to be clear, Link Gaetz was not traded to the Sharks. The Sharks selected him from Minnesota in the dispersal draft splitting the North Stars between themselves and San Jose.
Nichushkin worked very hard to be a top 6 in Colorado. Fans love him, he always has time to stop after practice to sign. I wasn't surprised after he signed back with Colorado that 3 other teams wanted him, but he was very loyal to the Avs and Sakic. I call Valeri a diamond in the ruff. Some teams give up on players without doing the work. Nice video too.
As a die hard rangers fan, it was an absolute shame what happened to Dan Blackburn. He would've never been as great as Richter, but he had all the potential in the world to be a very good NHL goaltender if he didn't get injured. As for Ted Nolan, he was given absolutely zero chance to succeed coaching both the islanders and sabers when he did. I would love to see him get another head coaching job in the NHL now. I think he would be very successful coaching in today's game
How could you leave Alexander Daigle off a list like this. From "can't miss prospect" who teams wanted so bad that the tanking to get him eventually led the NHL to institute the draft lottery to "biggest bust ever" and out of the league at 25 after being traded to 4 different teams, to playing in a celebrity league for two years to coming back to the NHL to put up career highs.
He will go down as the biggest bust in NHL history, lol remember how everyone talked about him, I was stunned and kinda felt bad for him , he got stage freight and just couldn't play at the NHL level
Blackburn is such a what if for the Rangers. His numbers weren’t great in his first two seasons but the team in front of him was terrible. But because he got hurt, we ended up with Hank. If he didn’t get hurt he probably would’ve be our goalie and there would’ve been no need to call up the Lunqvist and see what the young guy had.
whats more impressive for Pat verbeek is he scoredd VERY healthy points totals and spent HUGE amounts of minutes in the box, i mean 20 years 1400+ games 1000+ points and nearly 3000 Penalty minutes, thats some good going there
@@hazardtriplezero players with barely a PIM tot here name and couldnt reach half those points and in the work of hockey where players have less thant 28 seconds average in the game now its a high total. BUT we can go with your explination its sounds WAY cooler i guess
@@hazardtriplezero Verbeek had 2900. Tie Domi at 3500. Tie Domi also has the most fighting majors with 333 and Verbeek is only 500 less penalty minutes. That is pretty impressive
Worked with Link Gaetz in Edmonton. Tough fuckin guy. He had court at the time for knocking a guy out hard enough to give him brain damage. He was always really nice towards me though, never had a problem with him.
Fact check, Gaetz was not traded to the San Jose Sharks, he was chosen by them in an expansion draft(well technically a dispersal draft, as part of the expansion deal, the new owners in San Jose got to claim a number of players from their old organization, the Minnesota North Stars)
Also. the definition of "auger" doesn't quite hit the mark either. The augers used in farming are contained in a pipe which is how the grain is transported from one storage to another. I mean he could have maybe possibly cut off his thumb with a ground auger, but how?
@@MortonLuvz2drum I thought there was something fishy with the thing claimed to be auger on the video. Grain transporting auger makes sense. At least the one's I've worked with, it could be quite easy to have a mishap where a hand goes into the end of the auger which has the spiral exposed for "picking up" the grain. And around my latitudes, augers are more often used to make holes into ice (for ice fishing) than into ground.
You showed a picture of an Ice auger, but pretty sure he lost his thumb in a grain auger. They are essentially the same but the grain auger is enclosed where fingers get pinched/cut off from the hand. (more common is the arm)
In 1995 I met Link Gaitz at a training camp in Eugene Oregon. I was manger for the Eugene team. Link was brought in for the Mexico City team(You read that right.) Link asked me to go downstairs for a Pepsi and I wasn't going to argue with him. Our first game Link beat the crap out of one of our guys and I had to was his bloody jersey. The whole league was dead and buried in six weeks.
@systemm2126 no man. I'm looking at it right now. Which comment are you referring to? I have a stand alone comment, not a reply. It details my one scary encounter with him. I wish him all the best. But he was a runaway party hard freight train. But I've not run into him after that day 15 years ago.
@@system_m lol! He was around 6'3" but I was 6'6". They'd been drinking and running rails for 3 days straight. I didn't hang around very long. They would have probably thrown me out the 3rd story townhouse window and then said, " Is he OK? Hey buddy, we were just having some fun!" Meanwhile, 45 feet below, I'd have multiple fractures and if lucky, would still be alive.
I was surprised to see Bryan Little not on this list. I know he wasn’t that big of an nhl player but his career ending injury was sad to see and as a jets fan still makes me feel bad for him
I knew link gaetz for a time he was making ends meet by punching drunks out and robbing them and would stay at the hope Mission in downtown Edmonton where I did volunteer work.
I watched Link Gaetz play for the Anchorage Aces in 97-2000. He was just an enforcer and he liked the beer as I worked in the bar in the lobby of the hotel the team stayed in during the season.
Your pic of an auger is technically correct but is likely not the kind of auger that took Pat’s thumb off. That would be one that is used to move grain.
Gaetz didn't get traded to San Jose! San Jose being an expansion team by the Gund Brothers were forced to take half of the shity team known as the North Stars. Sj didn't get a gift of an expansion draft like Vegas did.
Lmaooooo Tim Horton never scores more than 40 points, gets fucked up and yeets himself out a car, top 100 Hockey Players. Ted Nolan takes two garbage teams to 92 point seasons, he's a drunk with an attitude problem. Other than Nolan clearly being good at what he does, what's the difference between the two?
That was a picture of a post hole digger. The auger part is just the bit on the end. There are also much larger augers used on all kinds of different farm equipment. Also Zamboni use two augurs to push all the snow into the middle and then up into the hopper.
I live in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and it's a city along the TransCanada highway, I was at A&W restaurant one night and Ted Nolan was there with some junior team he was coaching about 15 years ago
I wonder if you could do a post on Mr Average? Gary Monahan was labeled Mr. Average, (avg height, weight, production etc). But for me Mr Average was Steve Larmer; not big, not fast, not a great shot, not flashy all he did was score a lot of goals and get a lot of assists. How did he do this, others were faster and bigger etc but he was truly something special
I'm surprised you didn't mention the hamburger incident with Link Gaetz. While playing for the Thetford Mines Prolab (LNAH) 2005, he sat on the bench for the first and second periods. During the intermission before the third period he changed out of his skates and uniform and bought a hamburger from the concession stand and ate it. The team considered this disrespectful and Gaetz was suspended for the rest of the season and earned the reputation as one of the quirkiest athletes.
Really interesting stories all of them. I somehow, despite being a teenager during the 80s, did not that Verbeek story. And I didn't realize that Nolan was the only one trying to protect Lafontaine. And based on the comments made by the Sabres, it sounds like a nice bit of racism thrown in, hauling out the vile "drunken Indian" trope. I can't believe they weren't sued for millions.
Concerning Ted Nolan I thought he was fired from the Sabres after going to the owners and suggesting he replace the then GM John Muckler. If somebody could correct,confirm or just clarify that situation for me that would be awesome. The Pat Verbeek story is very inspiring. Recovering from the “thumb” incident is one for the ages. It’s great that he wentbb by on have a long career and win a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999.
Nolan was fired because of anti-Native bias,plain and simple he was blackballed. Hockey was an ugly little Fraternity. He is still a Coach who can produce winning results. He is just what Toronto needs.
How many things can you get wrong in a video before it's intentional? MacArthur played 23 more games in his career after the Sieloff incident, including all 19 of the senators playoff games. Sieloff himself played another NHL game, something you even showed when talking about how he scored a goal in his only two games he ever played! The Blackburn segment missed loads of context around his 02-03 season, but he probably wouldn't have played in the NHL in 04-05 even if they played that year due to not having a glove hand. That being said he might have played in 05-06, had he not strained his MCL in training camp and subsequently retired. Also how the hell do you get a hand injury on your shoulder? Ted Nolan didn't go straight to the Sabres after his OHL career, you even show it on screen. Not only that, but you seem to put all the blame on the Lafontaine incident while completely ignoring the entire Hasek saga. Hasek (the only star player on the team) said he wouldn't return if Nolan was the coach next year, and that along with a toxic locker room resulted in not only Ted being all but fired but the GM getting the ax after being named executive of the year. Gaetz wasn't traded to the Sharks he was drafted by them in the expansion draft. But thats not as insulting as saying his 1992 accident gave him "career ending brain damage," when he played minor league hockey all the way until 2007. That story about the hotel TV? That happened when he was in the minors. His NHL career likely ended due to the fact that he was absolutely insane and had a paticular love for the bottle. But don't let him know I said that. I don't want him to find me. Val wasn't second for the Conn Smyth, he was second to last getting only 3 votes for third place. Why you even need to say this, when Nitchuskin has consistently gotten top 20 in Selke voting I have no clue. That's an earth auger. Verbeek had his accident with a grain auger. Both are just helical screws though. That being said, how does this make it a weird career? He had a weird accident, but it didn't affect his career at all.
There was a guy in the thirties who was dragged out of a bar to play goal for the Blackhawks. I don't remember all the details, but I think it was a playoff game and I'm pretty sure they won.
Random addon: Pat Verbeek actually got a stanley cup ring with the Red Wings in 2002 also. He played enough games to be eligible for his name on the cup but he actually got hurt 2/3 through the 01-02 season and at his age decided to retire, and then they won the cup. BUT, I'm from Detroit and I know for a fact when the rings were handed out, he got one, and it's pretty easy to look that up if you want to as well.
@@danajooks9677 This is 1 of those weird things that most people would never know if they just googled stats! There's been a few situations like this over the years. Vladimir Konstantinov actually got his name on the Stanley Cup in 1998 after the accident for example, they petitioned the league for it, considering he was under contract and only unable to play because of injury, and it was such a tragic accident, I'm sure they were happy to allow it!
gaetz definitely has all the signs of brain damage. I met him 6 months ago in a bar in northern bc. I'm no doctor but he's for sure taken some shots. Didn't know about the car accident though. There's an epic fight you can find with him and probert that goes the distance. Worth checking out.
Missing Link Gaetz. A brian injury would be quite serious as he had few cells to spare. In the 2003 playoffs Valeri Nichushkin left the Avs due to “personal reasons”, which turned out the be a drunk girl in his hotel room in Seattle. Yes, he is married and not to her!
I laughed when he said "Blackburn injured his hand..." just as the screen is highlighting "he injured his shoulder..." 😅 How does this guy not know what an auger is? Talk about living under a rock... more likely it was under the main floor of his mom's house... 😆
I may be wrong but I don't think so? The first story. My thoughts is that if you are unable to take a hit because of prior injuries (head injuries) you should probably not be playing hokey. He got hit during play and the other guy got black listed? Was he even penalized for the hit? I mean 2 goals in 2 games and black listed for hitting some guy that can't take a hit? That's wrong.
you make it sound like that was it for Link Gaetz, guy still kept goonin' it up in professional and semi-pro leagues for another 15 years after that "career ending brain damage".
wow that's what happened to ted nolan. i remember he got fired from the sabres after a playoff season under weird circumstances, but didn't know it was because he was actually trying to protect lafontaine. major screw job. but that was the hockey mentality for a long time
The story of Ted Nolan is one of simple racism. In two head coaching stints, he absolutely proved he belonged behind the bench in the NHL. Unfortunately, racism and prejudice against Aboriginals in Canada is even more prevalent than what Native Americans in the States face. I’m extremely happy that Teddy didn’t let the Old Boy system break him. He made a moral stand and forgot about the NHL. In a twist of glorious fate, Ted and his wife got to enjoy the thrill of their son becoming an NHLer and Stanley Cup champion. Ted Nolan will always have my utmost respect and admiration.
