Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Bashing Brash, Day 2

As I mentioned Monday, I am posting some Donald Brashear YouTubage this week.

Today's selection is now a piece of Garden lore. After Brashear went around harassing Jagr all night, Shanny took it onto himself to stand up for the superstar. Enjoy watching a goon get beat up by a senior citizen, then seeing him snap and sucker punch Aaron Ward:

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i enjoy reading your blog scotty but this "bashing brash" feature is annoying. quit bashing a guy that is playing on our team next year who isn't named wade redden. let him skate in our jersey before criticizing him! what kind of rangers fan are you? support the team and players until the prove they deserve any less.

Unknown said...

He has proved that he deserves less

griffie said...

Beyond that, Shanny is a carpetbagger....a guy whose greatest achievements were made with other teams. He played 140 games for the Rangers, and because he fought Brashear he's a real Ranger?

By your standards, I guess Mike York and Jari Kurri must've been real Rangers then too.

The Rangers have also employed Shane Churla, Darrren Langdon, and Nick Fotiu....do any of these guys qualify as gentle and decent men?

Anonymous said...

@ nick,

not in this jersey. he hasnt had a chance to prove anything yet! you guys are unreal!

Scotty Hockey said...

Shanahan played with the pride, demeaneor and effort that is deserving of the jersey. I do see him as a real Ranger, even if he is also a Devil, Whaler and Wing.

York, Langdon and Fotiu were Ranger products, Kurri and Churla were free agents thrown in during the dark age at the change of the millenium. And, to the best of my memory, Langdon was not suspended for any of the egregious acts that Brash has been. I can't speak for Nickie as I barely got to see him play, I defer to the old folks out there ...

Anonymous said...

What could the guy possibly do to prove himself? It's not like he's a guy who has periods in his life where he's a clean and respectable player and he's just had a few bad seasons where he was a complete and total jerk. The guy has made a career of being a dirt-bag. By definition, it is pure insanity to think that Donald Brashear will be for the Rangers anything other than what he always has been.

griffie said...

Scotty--this is the Rangers we're talking about, man...a team that is known for being a home for vets who need one more big payday before they retire. Maybe the only other team in NHL history beside the Rangers that has been such a consistent dumping ground for other teams' aging players is the Maple Leafs. This "pride in the jersey" stuff you're selling needs to be left in the MSG marketing department's trash can. There are far too many bad seasons in the Rangers' long history to warrant your belief in the pride a player should feel while wearing Ranger blue. Professionals take pride in what they do, and assholes don't. The color of the jersey ain't going to turn someone like Wade Redden around, right?

Shanny fits in with the Ranger tradition embodied by such players as Marcel Dionne, Doug Harvey, Phil Esposito, and John MacLean...he was a moderate success in the Ranger uniform. That has somehow been enhanced in the minds of Ranger fans by his outstanding career with other teams.

I would wager that any goon puts as much of themselves on the line every time they drop the gloves as a superstar does when they take a huge hit to set up a goal. Otherwise they could get killed doing what they do. Brashear is no more egregious than Tie Domi or Scott Stevens, when you get right down to it. Let the man do what he does and dry your tears over Betts' broken eye socket.

Scotty Hockey said...

Griffie - I know they are nothing more than mercenaries nowadays but if I can't fool myself into believing they care about the jersey half as much as I do, then I might as well stop watching sports.

And I agree that Shanny had moderate success, but it isn't the success that I respected so much. He was a veteran who came in with all of those other accomplishments under his belt and yet he still worked his ass off, he still went to the wall, he still did everything he could to make the team better ... You said that professionals take pride in what they do and Shanny I thought was the consumate pro. That is what I respect. It has nothing to do with his Wings' Cups or his work changing the game at the Shanahan Summit. Shanahan was a warrior and one well-worth respecting.

Anonymous said...

A broken orbital bone is not only a potentially career-ending injury, but can also leave the man blind. That's why there are RULES in the league about hitting up high, etc. This guy refuses to play by any of those rules. He shouldn't be wearing any jersey.

Sal said...

Sorry, Scotty, but I have to disagree with your statement of:

Enjoy watching a goon get beat up by a senior citizen

I suppose you mean that Shanahan is the "senior citizen".

So, when exactly did Shanahan "beat up" that goon Brashear? Was it when Shannahan's jersey was pulled over his head and Brashear hit him repeatedly? Or was it when Shanahan fell on his face and Brashear landed on top of him?

I think these MSG announcers influenced your decision a tad? Sure, all home-team announcers are "homers", but these guys make that "scratch-my-back-with-a-hacksaw" Penguins guy seem neutral.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Brashear. But I stopped being a Shanahan fan when he illegally took out Dean McAmmond out with a knee-check back in the '92 playoffs.