As much as I hate to say it being a Ranger Fan, I always annoyed at the long fuses possessed by Fotiu and Beck. I'm sure Islander fans can relate with Clark Gillies. I always admired Bob Nystrom because he always was up for the Ranger games even as he got older and Gary Howatt was a little nut who was also intense. On the MSG website, Stan Fischler is ranking the top 15 metropolitian fighters and agreed that Fotiu was too nice of a guy and really had to be pissed to want to hurt someone. I remember calling Stan once at his home and asking him about Nick and mentioning his lack of fire and he agreed. He felt that if Nick had two things: the fire of a young
Bob Probert and a coach like Don Cherry, he would have been an animal. His best year was 1978-79 and who was his coach, Freddy Shero. He goes to Calgary as an old man and Badger Bob Johnson who liked fighters was his coach and in 1986-87 Nick had 145 PIM'S in only 42 games. Stan felt that Herb Brooks ruined Nick as an enforcer. Remember one year Brooks had Nick down to 90 PIM'S in 72 games and Don Blackburn in Hartford also wasn't a fighters coach. If Nick played for Al Arbour, Don Cherry, Roger Neilson or especially Glen Somnor, forget about it. Freddy Shero told Stan Fischler that Fotiu was the strongest player he ever had even stronger then Beck and Holmgren and the best boxer but was just too nice a person. So in terms of effectiveness Nick loses major points because he was not doing his job. George McPhee replaced him as the number one enforcer in 1983 with the Rangers because McPhee had that fire and guts! Unfortunately George was 170 lbs and had a bad back but he was tough.