John Wensink vs Nick Fotiu

[srehm1]

Originally Posted by Schultz

I talked to Nick at a local card show a few years ago and kind of did a "unoffical" interview with him. I asked him about certain fights and why he didn't fight certain players. When I mentioned Wensink he told me that they had the same agent. The agent suggested to him that they shouldn't fight each other.

oh my god! now I've heard it all!

[srehm1]

Originally Posted by ewen21

Wensink looked like Ronald McDonald. The guy was a straight up clown and in today's game he'd get slaughtered like a hog. He would have been tourtured mercilessly by players like Brashear, Worrell, Laraque and McCarthy

In this one--had they actually fought--Fotiu would have grabbed two big handfuls of his clown-like hair and headbutted him to the ice. Dead! Then Nicky would have skated by the Boston bench asking: "ya want some!?"

And screw Wayne Cashman, too!

Tell us how you really feel!

[bigjack]

Originally Posted by srehm1

Tell us how you really feel!

Fotiu went after Cashman in Boston and all Cashman did was raise up his stick into Nick's face and wouldn't fight him!

[bigjack]

Originally Posted by BaddaBing Badda Boom

BJ - am starting to think that you are some type of savant with that recall - incredible!

Recently I got a fact wrong about something but normally my recall is damn good! That was a remarkable night. George Young is hired, Donny Maloney plays his first game, and the Rangers held the Bruins without a shot in the first period!
BTW:
I was furious that the Fotiu/Wensink fight didn't come off! We have seen Fotiu in other fights spar for a while before he engaged like against Wilson, Bennett, Holmgren, and Coxe so for anyone to suggest that he was afraid of Wensink is ridiculous!
That was his style!

[srehm1]

Originally Posted by bigjack

Fotiu went after Cashman in Boston and all Cashman did was raise up his stick into Nick's face and wouldn't fight him!

More like Cashman got into Fotiu's face with his stick and elbows and Fotiu did nothing. No challenge or square off by Fotiu over it later or ever for that matter. I remember an article by stan fischler that I posted here a few times mentioning how the Bruins intimidated the "Dorothy Hamill-ish" Rangers in that game. You saw it your way and Fischler saw it another!

[BaddaBing Badda Boom]

Originally Posted by srehm1

More like Cashman got into Fotiu's face with his stick and elbows and Fotiu did nothing. No challenge or square off by Fotiu over it later or ever for that matter. I remember an article by stan fischler that I posted here a few times mentioning how the Bruins intimidated the "Dorothy Hamill-ish" Rangers in that game. You saw it your way and Fischler saw it another!

I thought that Miller29 had the dubious honor of, "NO BRUIN EVER LOST A FIGHT"

[acdcrocksno1]

Originally Posted by bigjack

Fotiu went after Cashman in Boston and all Cashman did was raise up his stick into Nick's face and wouldn't fight him!

What he really should have done is take off his gloves and have a long stand off he would have saved more face that way and still not have to face the Fearsome Fotiu

[srehm1]

Originally Posted by BaddaBing Badda Boom

I thought that Miller29 had the dubious honor of, "NO BRUIN EVER LOST A FIGHT"

Did you just say that? Did you just say that??

[Johnny Pie]

Originally Posted by GOON 21

Wow thats a EPIC pic, from the stance to Brad Park being the photo, tom linseman Leon Stickle in the pic and the whole bruins bench stabding up and Cheevers with that awesome mask

F()KING AWESOME PIC






PS - And dont start up with that "ooo they didnt fight for X reason - we dont know, just enjoy the pic guys, --- Now would a actual fight have been better? of course we all would have liked it, but its still a great pic


Great job of finding the pic

I know how much you enjoy my pics. I posted this long ago
you must have missed it.A Little bit closer.
Wensink obviously scared.

[Johnny Pie]

Seriously I have always thought these two to be very similar.
Great big reps,one from the minors the other the WHA. A few
big wins for Wire vs Wilson and Battleship. Some disappointing losses
H. Bennett etc. Fotiu lives off the Wilson and Holmgren bouts. Their
reputations far exceded their fighting. They did intimidate teams and had that
wow factor. Wensink played and scored much more but they are alike
in the fistic department.

[bigjack]

Originally Posted by srehm1

More like Cashman got into Fotiu's face with his stick and elbows and Fotiu did nothing. No challenge or square off by Fotiu over it later or ever for that matter. I remember an article by stan fischler that I posted here a few times mentioning how the Bruins intimidated the "Dorothy Hamill-ish" Rangers in that game. You saw it your way and Fischler saw it another!

That ain't what happened at all. Cashman and Schmautz hid behind their sticks and the linesman!

[srehm1]

Originally Posted by bigjack

That ain't what happened at all. Cashman and Schmautz hid behind their sticks and the linesman!

Here is the article. It's only written by Stan Fischler but what does he know? He doesn't post at HF.com...

THE SPORTING NEWS, April 30, 1977

Speaking out on hockey - By Stan Fischler

Team You Love to Hate

Bruins Regain Roughneck Image

NEW YORK - Teddy Green, the biggest and baddest, would approve.
When the big, bad Bruins were at their biggest and baddest in 1970, 1971, and 1972, they were the most hateful team in hockey.
They also were the best.
In 1970, they beat St. Louis so easily to win the Stanley Cup that many Nervous Nellies were tempted to call out the Humane Society to protect the beleaguered Blues.
In 1972, Bobby Orr and his battalion of boppers mauled the New York Rangers in six games and then carted the Stanley Cup around Madison Square Garden ice in disdain for the home crowd.
THEN, ALONG came the World Hockey Association and - poof! - the big, bad Bruins were scattered to the winds. Derek Sanderson danced to the Philadelphia Blazers; Gerry Cheevers galloped to the greenbacks of Cleveland and Teddy Green carried his spear to the New England Whalers, among others who deserted the Boston ship.
Those of us who loved to hate the Bruins were crushed to the core. We were sad because we thought we'd never again experience the deliciously spicy pleasure of booing Boston.
But we were wrong.
The 1977 Bruins are as irksome - if not as good - as their cup-winning predecessors. Sure, Terrible Ted Green is gone, but in his place skates a persnickety kid named Mike Milbury , out of Colgate University no less.
NOT ONLY IS Milbury rough in the Green tradition, but he is getting rougher by the month. Milbury already has wiped out Eddie Shore's Bruins' record for jail sentences (165 minutes in 44 games 1927-28) and shows no sign of reform.
The new Bruins don't have Johnnie (Pieface) McKenzie for corner ice mugging any more, but they don't need him. Not when they have a Dead End Act orchestrated by Dave Forbes and Bobby Schmautz .
But that's just the tip of the Bruins' sharp canine teeth. They've also got some new molars that crunch and crack like pile-drivers. One of them is a bushy-haired broth of a boy named John Wensink who appears to eat sub-compact cars for breakfast.
THE OTHER skating piranha is Stan Jonathan , a rather innocent looking imp who enjoys toppling such skating skyscrapers as Jerry Korab , Josh Guevremont and Borje Salming. Once in a while, Jonathan will even score a goal.
As ruffians, however, these chaps are mere Fauntleroys compared with the baddest Bruin of them all, Wayne Cashman.
Now that he has reached the advanced age of 31, Cashman could be expected to take life rocking chair easy, the way his former linemates Ken Hodge and Phil Esposito have learned to do so well on Broadway. But that's not Cashman's style. Wayne retreats from nobody.
IF THERE WAS any doubt about Cashman's fearlessnes, it was put to rest one night this season during a Rangers-Bruins game in New York.
The Bruins had been mopping up the ice with the Dorothy Hamillish New Yorkers until Coach John Ferguson dispatched heavyweight Nick Fotiu to the ice. At 6'2" 210 pounds, Fotiu is a former amateur boxer who was hired, among other things, to maintain decorum among the Blueshirts' foes.
At the time, it would have been prudent for Cashman to cool his act, but Wayne realized that a quick confrontation was in order and he immediately supplied Fotiu with a large assortment of elbows, crosschecks, and sneers.
FOTIU DIDN'T run, but neither did Cashman, which in this case was very important. Wayne declared war, organized his assault and then held his ground.
This was a strategic victory for the Bruins because Fotiu had nobody by his side to back his attack while Cashman had Forbes, Wensink, Schmautz, Milbury, Terry O'Reilly , and Gary Doak , among others, to supply the best contemporary intimidation this side of Philadelphia, and sometimes better.
What gives Boston the edge, of course, is that wild, old pudgy man in the nets, Gerald Michael Cheevers.
He occasionally uses his big goal stick to stop pucks, but that appears secondary to his machete-like, goal-stick swings in an endless effort to keep the enemy at least 50 yards away from his crease.
WILD MEN such as Cashman, Wensink, Forbes, Schmautz and Milbury are like a convoy protecting their unarmed flagship, Jean Ratelle, who is playing like Jean Beliveau.
Put 'em all together and you have the reason why the Bruins did the third smartest thing possible in the past five years when they unloaded Bobby Orr.
The second smartest thing was giving Carol Vadnais the gate and the first - what else ? - was dumping whining Phil Esposito.
It has been fashionable this month along Broadway to point out that Esposito was the Rangers leading scorer in 1976-77. Forget it. The number that counts is his plus-minus - Minus 27 - worst on the entire hockey club.

Funny how people can see the same thing-yet have completely opposite interpretations of it! You saw it one way, Stan saw it another! What can ya do?

[GOON 21]

Originally Posted by srehm1

Here is the article. It's only written by Stan Fischler but what does he know? He doesn't post at HF.com...



Funny how people can see the same thing-yet have completely opposite interpretations of it! You saw it one way, Stan saw it another! What can ya do?

What does that article say exactly? It says that the Bruins were a tougher team and the Rags had basically Fotiu, i think we all kinda know that on some level, maybe not as much as bigjack lol - but hockey fans kinda know this


srehm you realize that articles regarding righting and physical hockey are not 100% accurate either, there are plenty of cases were writers were not factually correct on some fights -- just saying

[Fight Fan]

Originally Posted by mikebflorida

Can't resist can you? Your obsession is unhealthy.

Wensink is overrated. If he was a Canuck or King, nobody would have ever cared.

I'd put my money on Nick in this matchup. He was never aggressive but only fools rush in and Nick perfected that. Great defensive fighter.

Too bad it never happened. Wensink was "scared".

Yea because we all know Fotiu isnt overated or anything. If any of these two guys are overated its Nick.

[srehm1]

Originally Posted by GOON 21

What does that article say exactly? It says that the Bruins were a tougher team and the Rags had basically Fotiu, i think we all kinda know that on some level, maybe not as much as bigjack lol - but hockey fans kinda know this


srehm you realize that articles regarding righting and physical hockey are not 100% accurate either, there are plenty of cases were writers were not factually correct on some fights -- just saying

Yeah, it also states that Cashman didn't back down from fotiu as well.

As for the bolded part: I agree with you but the posters on this site aren't always factually correct either.