Quote:
Originally Posted by srehm1
Was Hoyda a spot picker? He only played two full seasons and 24 games over the next 2 years after that. In that time he managed to "find" Clark Gillies, Garry Howatt, Willi Plett, John Wensink, Bobby Nystrom, and Al MacAdam. Not only that but he actually fought them and did better in his bout with nystrom then oh, I don't know, guys like maybe larry playfair and Nick fotiu. it's funny but at no time did Fotiu hold Hoyda accountable for his antics against the Rangers. Never went after Hoyda for pummelling poor old eddie johnstone and never did anything to him for beating on ron duguay as well. Nor bud stefanski, either. Hoyda was on the ice when fotiu went after bam bam cunningham. fotiu never went after him for trying to throw a punch over the pile during that same preseason dust up. what kind of enforcing/policing is that?
Also, lets not make Johnstone into some kind of pacifist. Johnstone was small but he was also a spark plug who didn't back down an inch. He certainly was no shinking violet, that's for sure. Hoyda played the role of broad street bully well and fit in with that team despite having both Holmgren, wilson, and Bridgman on the roster as well. Hoyda could not play a lick but had he been able to actually play, would have had a nice career for himself fighting all the leagues toughest guys. Like any tough guy from that era, he has a deryk smith or a mike forbes sprinkled intermittantly on his resume'. they all did.
as for the topic of this thread, I'm not sure if Hoyda fits the criteria of all time cops on the beat. I can think of several who would rate higher. hoyda had just two full seasons to judge him on. |
Fotiu obviously had no opportunity to defend Johnston because he did not dress for the game.
My contention is, would Hoyda have done this with Fotiu on the ice? I think not.
I know for a fact he wouldn't have gone after him 3 times and it wouldn't have been John Davidson pulling him off Johnston, it would have been Fotiu after one time.
Yes Johnston was a feisty player, one alot of teams would have liked to have. If you'll recall, this fight happened at the end of the year in April, hardly a chance to seek revenge but that wasn't Fotiu's M.O anyway. He was a defender, not an attacker and that is what people confuse about him.
The Duguay fight happened the next year and if you recall Fotiu was kind of busy fighting Jim Cunningham three times with three or four flyers surrounding him waiting to jump in. The opportunity to intervene in the Duguay fight was not there as you might suspect because they were up the other end of the rink.
Duguay's injury could have happened to any player and I would hardly call Duguay a lady binger either.
Hoyda left that fight and made his way down the other end to join the other 3or 4 flyers to surround Fotiu. That is when he bravely popped Fotiu over the referees and other flyers.
If you recall, Fotiu headbutted Cunningham, so wasn't the owness on Hoyda to seek revenge for that? He came to the flyers as the heir apparent to
Dave Schultz, wore his number 8 in fact. He had a very big rep coming out of Juniors as the best fighter in the draft that year.
So what happened later that year? Fotiu fought the flyers two Heavyweights,
Paul Holmgren and
Behn Wilson (Who I consider the best All-Time fighter in the NHL).
What did Hoyda do against the Rangers that year?
The next season Fotiu was traded to the
Hartford Whalers for the next season and a half, as Hoyda's role diminished with the flyers over the next two seasons.
The fact is the two never fought.
On that we agree.