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1974 Photo of Nick "the king" Fotiu Cape Cod Cubs
Found this 1974 photo of Nick in a Syracuse Blazers program. Nick's listed as a center.
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...ck-cubsjpg.jpg |
Nice find!
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Was his nickname really "the king"? Is Jerry Lawlor aware of this?
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he's soooo handsome, top 5 alltime on looks alone
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On a line with Terry O'Reilly
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Come on... Made him a 20 goal scorer? He scored 10 in his biggest year and he only fought once that year! 60 goals in 600 plus games. Even Cherry couldn't work his magic on that type of production.
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Thats a cool pic of Fotiu (Never saw that before) and im guessing kinda rare.
Im not sure if he ever would have been a 20 goal scorer (probably not) but the guy made the NHL from Staten Island NY (not exactly hot-bed of hockey) after picking up hockey and skating in his teens -- thats really not 2 shabby guys when you really think about it Like em hate em, its a cool pic :) |
Ice Time.
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Cherry loved these types of players (Lunch Pale guys). Fotiu would have seen significant minutes as a third or fourth liner. He was a great body checker and would have worked hard. Look at what Cherry did with John Wensink. Emile Francis sufficated Fotiu with miniscule minutes and didn't dress him when he should have. I believe Fotiu would have fought more in the Bruins system as well. Imagine having your back covered all the time by O'Reilly, Jonathan, Wensink, Secord? Fotiu would have been a wild man! |
You can't project these types of things with any type of accuracy. Fotiu had many chances of being a "wild man" and simply didn't fight much... With the Rangers, Whalers, Flames... There was just never a high fight total, so that theory that he didn't play much is thin at best.
He simply wasn't that talented. He made the most of what he had to get to the show, but to suggest he would become a 20 goal scorer under another coach is a whole lot of wishful thinking for a guy who managed 10 in his best year (with one fight the entire year). I will say that for him to get as late of a start as everyone else, he did extremely well to end up in the NHL and have a long career. But he wasn't exactly a Rocket Richard out there either. Wensink always had decent numbers in the minors and was good enough to play on a team that won the Memorial Cup in Juniors (1971-72 Cornwall Royals), while always putting up big numbers in the fight department. He had a very bad back injury as well but managed to battle through it for a few years. Cherry gave him a chance and he flourished, but he always had decent numbers for a tough guy... Lots of fights only his scoring wasn't as honed. Cherry made him a weapon in front of the net and that's when the points started to really come. Having good linemates didn't hurt either. When Cherry got the axe in Boston, that was the end of Wensink (and a bunch of others as well). His back just didn't hold up and he went on to successful outside carpentry and construction businesses. |
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Have you added anything one way or the other?
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The main point wasn't about Fotiu's low fight totals Ranger fan although he himself admits he fought little. The main point was that the fact he wasn't a 20 goal scorer, and that even during his years where he abandoned fighting almost completely he only scored 10. That's a career high. And the guy that he was compared to - Wensink - scored and fought much more.
Fotiu accomplished a heck of a lot for a guy with such a late start (missed that one in your snide drive by I guess) but was never a great player. Good hitter though. Were you going to suggest Fotiu was somehow an elite power forward with high scoring and fight totals? |
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