The 92-93 San Jose Sharks - the most beat up team, EVER?

[zoli]

Man I am nearing the end of the 92-93 Sharks DVD and wow, this team was a disaster as far as the fighting goes. In just his 2nd season as a franchise, the 91-92 team was a pretty tough team with the likes of Gaetz, an impressive Odgers, and veterans like Coxe, McGill and Perry Anderson (OK, Coxe didn't do much and Anderson was boring, but still they bring toughness here). The 92-93 Sharks was a tough team in paper, leading with a very impressive Odgers (he was very good in his first season, destroying Raglan and winning fights against the likes of Kypreos, McRae, Manson, Jay Wells and many more. No beatings in his losses and very good showings against Kordic and others), a mid-season pick ups like Maley, Byers and with rookies like Doug Zmolek and Robin Bawa. Yes, they lost Gaetz but still, the team looked like he could hold his own. In reality, they sucked really bad.

So long story short, here is the list of the players they fought regularly:

Odgers: the main combatant, Odgers was able to pick up an 'impressive' 3 wins total in 19 fights. He barely beat McSorley and Peluso (a similar scrap they had in 95-96, but was a bit shorter and less decisive)and scored a clear win over Hughes. Most of the time he had boring scraps with Odjick, Pearson, Bourque or Primeau that lasted only a few seconds and not much happened. In the remaining of the fights he suffered some pretty big beatings. May boxed him up pretty good, he clearly lost against a very average Warren Rychel and suffered two HUGE beatings near the end of the season: Domi pounded him in a rare non-televised fight which was similar to the Brown-Kyte fight from the 90-91 playoff and he suffered his first KO loss from McSorley. Not only he was boring in most of the fights, he barely won and got beaten several times.

Huge disappointment, especially if you consider how good he looked in his first year.

Byers: the super HW veteran who was considered as the main guy during Nov/Dec. He won two close fights against Rychel and then what happened? Odjick kicked the crap out of him before he faced Debrusk, who absolutely destroyed him. The Hatcher was in between and was the nail in the coffin. He played just 18 games, but it was enough as he was sent down in December after the brawl filled Van-SJ game where he didn't even scrap.

Once a good HW showed he can't hang with the young guns anymore.

Doug Zmolek: possible the worst rookie season anybody had. Started his season with a Rychel jumping and then lost to him very clearly in a regular fight. Then he showed no offense against Mellanby and Dirk and stopped fighting for two months. Then returns to have boring scraps with Stern 2x and Buchberger where he threw like 6 punches total in a combined 90 seconds (yes, i counted it). Then has better showings against Kocur and Debusk in fights that he clearly lost and ends a season with a one-punch fights against Berube and Lindros (Berube knocking him out). No wins, like 10-12 losses and a couple of draws against punching bags.

The worst thing that he barely threw punches.

Maley: probably the best acquisition as he had a dandy with Marchment, a rare good fight in a Sharks team that year. He still ended his season with a one punch TKO loss to Berube though.

Zettler: what a punching bag! The guy rarely put up a fight and his best fight was when Odjick landed on top of him and started elbow him, MMA style. His showing versus Valk and Lindros was embarassing and Diduck and Iarfate also beat him up in scrums, where there were linesmen.

Evason: the victim. He turtled/got attacked 3 times with the likes of Pavel Bure!!!, Churla and Bautin. Most of the times his teammates needed to jump in. He lost his only two fair fights against McTavish! and Rob Blake!!!

Bawa, Wilkinson, More, Wood- The most promising was Dody Wood, but he barely bear Jim Paek, got hammered by Vukota, and lost clearly to Ryan McGill and Dean Kennedy. Not a performance to be proud of, honestly. Bawa had only three fights, his best perfomance against Loewen and losing two scraps against Gill and Cam Russell. A reputed tough guy with very little success. Wilkinson was back after the Berube beating, but this time he lost to Kocur and Domi while scoring a total of 0 wins in just 5 fights. More was able to get wins against such tough guys like Kevin Todd Jim Hiller. His toughest opponent was Keith Tkachuk. The guy had a pretty decent AHL fightcard, yet in the NHL he had high PM numbers and basically a nothing fightcard. Probably an older version of Bieksa, just not as talented.

And here it is: the team had unofficially 90 fights and the only bright point where the Maley-Marchment fight + the Odgers-Peluso scrap + More beating up some non-fighters. They were KOed/TKOed/KD/dropped more than 10 times + countless clear losses without showing up. Shriko-Berezan were beat up + other non fighters as well without much response. Odgers was very disappointing and the rookies, pickups were major disappointments as well.

So guys, this is probably the most beat up team ever, not counting soft teams ala Red Wings?

[Joser Jose]

Dougie Zmolek! Anytime my friends and I wanted to insult each other with deepest of insults we used his name. "Way to go Dougie!" or "You are such a Zmolek!". Of course, being in junior high we didn't get what a gamer he was. Dropping the mitts is dropping the mitts and respect is due when a guy does it out of loyalty to his teammates. Dougie may have lost way more than he won but he had all the heart in the world.

[zoli]

Originally Posted by Joser Jose

Dougie Zmolek! Anytime my friends and I wanted to insult each other with deepest of insults we used his name. "Way to go Dougie!" or "You are such a Zmolek!". Of course, being in junior high we didn't get what a gamer he was. Dropping the mitts is dropping the mitts and respect is due when a guy does it out of loyalty to his teammates. Dougie may have lost way more than he won but he had all the heart in the world.

Actually the Zmolek-Dirk fight along with the linebrawl (Slegr beating up Picard, Semenov wrestling Evason down and Odgers-Odjick crap fight) was captured by a fan (or the Sharks video guy) commenting on things. He called Zmolek Dougie and said things like he needs boxing lessons otherwise he will get killed. Another funny comment was how the Vancouver Euro's beat up the Sharks during the linesbrawl and calling Slegr an asshole!

This was on the Sharks 91-94 DVD that recently got available. A lot of never seen before stuff, highly recommended.

[Broons66]

LB was toast on that team with a wrecked shoulder. Super HW? At 205? Always like Odgers for the B's, although he'd rarely win one. Very willing though, character type guy. I doubt this SJ team was as bad as some of the 90's B's teams I rooted for with the likes of Banks, Potvin, Mallette, etc as enforcer...

[rondo]

Stoll isn't the first NHL player she's dated (banged) . Ryan Johnson's been there.

[kam]

Originally Posted by rondo

Stoll isn't the first NHL player she's dated (banged) . Ryan Johnson's been there.

Wrong thread dummy.

[rondo]

Originally Posted by kam

Wrong thread dummy.

Sorry fuk face

[zoli]

Originally Posted by Broons66

LB was toast on that team with a wrecked shoulder. Super HW? At 205? Always like Odgers for the B's, although he'd rarely win one. Very willing though, character type guy. I doubt this SJ team was as bad as some of the 90's B's teams I rooted for with the likes of Banks, Potvin, Mallette, etc as enforcer...

Thanks, I didn't know he had a wrecked shoulder as he played the majority of the games in November and December until he was sent down. I always thought Byers was around 210-215, which was pretty solid in the days where Probert was the biggest guy with 215-220 lbs (not counting Gaetz or the Hatchers). Anyways what I meant that Lyndon was the guy to took on the bigger guys like DeBrusk or Odjick. So his purpose was to took on the toughest while Odgers was just a gutsy guy who was around 190. And he was pretty solid in the previous season (I mean Byers) so he was a bit of a disappointment.

[zoli]

Originally Posted by solidus12

Steve Webb of the Islanders during the 96-97 season, probably had the worst rookie season ever, he went something like 0-16-3. If you wanna talk about most beat up team ever, then you might as well buy a NYR DVD and watch them get rag-dolled and pummeled all over the ice. The smurfs were some of the biggest pansies ever.

Yep, Webb is another candidate, although he had some decent showings as well and was more entertaining. Zmolek looked like an amateur out there, but I heard he just came from college so it explains that.

The worst thing about the Sharks is that in paper they had toughness, but in games they lost multiple fights in same games, turtled in many occasions, heck even Paul Coffey played a tough guy against John Carter! Another so called tough guy, a WHL prospect by the name of Larry DePalma turtled embarassingly against Dirk in the middle of the fight! Here I am talking about somewhat tough players who had miserable seasons that year. Bawa played close to 50 games and fought just 3 times, dropping two very clear decisions against Russell and Todd Gill. In every brawl they come up short. You can count the memorable fights in one hand, they were also boring.

[Gunslinger]

Originally Posted by rondo

Sorry fuk face

Don't make Kam angry or he's gonna start another "hate my job/life" threads.

[diesel]

Off the top of my head i remember a mid 90's Boston Bruins team that never seemed to win any fights. They wouldn't just lose, they would lose bad. Brent Hughes, Steve Leach, Glen Featherstone, Darren Banks, Darin Kimble, Jamie Huscroft. They were pretty awful and i remember a lot of blood loss.