Quote:
|
Originally Posted by FitzG
On their best day Howe or Fontinato couldn't hang with Bruins Ferny Flaman. Howe calls Flaman the toughest defenseman he ever played against. 6'3" Jean Beliveau says the only player I worry about on the ice is Flaman,when I go near him i'm always looking over my shoulder. Sportswriter Ed Fitkin writes :"There are several good fighters in the NHL but the man i'd least like to tangle with,if I was an opposing player is Ferny Flaman of the Boston Bruins. He says, Ferny is one of those pier-8 brawlers,hard as the prow on a ship and possessor of a mean streak that turns him into a no-holds bared battler." Another wrote one night Kent Douglas decided he would take on Providence Reds player/coach Ferny Flaman,a man with the reputation of having never lost a fight.Big mistake,Flaman toyed with Douglas for a sec and then gripped him by the seat of his pants and the nap around his neck and casually hurled him into the net where his skates got tangled in the mesh. Douglas never bothered Flaman again." One ex-NHL ref I spoke with said that when Flaman went at it everyone just got the hell out of his way. He held all Bruin penalty minute records until O'Rielly came along. Flaman is in the HOF and currently scouts for the New Jersey Devils. If anyone wants the articles to back this up,send me a private email and i'll send them over. Videoguy also knows well of Flaman. |
I can respect that, but let's face a few facts - I don't believe there is one of us on this site that has seen one of his fights, let alone enough of his fights to make an educated guess as to how he would have matched up with other tough guys in the league at the time . . . its essentially all hearsay . . . I've heard that both Howe and Fontinato were tough as nails . . . I just sort of plucked a couple of names out from that era based upon hearsay . . . I think it goes without saying that everyone sees fights differently, so how can we even guesstimate about how tough Flaman was when few, if any, on this site have even seen one of his fights . . .