Q&A: Robitaille's most underrated
I asked Luc Robitaille, who played with countless Kings, who he thought his most underrated teammates were. I thought it was a good question for Luc, and I think it's worth opening up for debate among those of you who have watched the Kings for years, maybe even decades decades. Who is your most underrated Kings player?
ROBITAILLE: ``With the Kings there were a lot of guys who were kind of under the radar. Right away, the first name that probably comes to mind is Mike Donnelly. Mike Donnelly, the year we went to the Stanley Cup Finals, scored 30 goals and never played on the power play once. If you go back and look at his stats, he doesn't have a power-play goal that year. To me, to get 30 goals without seeing a minute on the power play, that's truly amazing. I thought he was an underrated player. Tomas Sandstrom was even better. I know we all thought he was good, but he was better than that, because he was a pure game-breaker. He was a very special player. I thought Mark Hardy, when he was with the Kings, was underrated, because he was a much better player than people gave him credit for. Probably one that I never saw until he left, and never realized how good he was, was Jay Wells. He was an underrated fighter too. I'm not sure everybody knew just how tough he was.''
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.
Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
@dailynews.com.
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I know he's a hall of famer, but I actually think Jari Kurri was always a bit underrated. I felt like he was always playing in Gretzky's shadow, and had he been able to be the #1 star on a team he would have put up even more amazing stats. But when you have Gretz next to you, you can kind of let him steal the spotlight, and on most nights he did.
Even before reading Luc's response my first thought was Jay Wells. That guy was tough, fearless and could throw a hip check like nobody's business. Night after night he showed up and laid it all out on the line for his teammates. Glad to see Luc mention him.
Never knew that about Donnelly. That is an amazing stat and I am curious how many current NHL players could say they had a 30 goal season and none come on the Power Play.
Ok foks ...can believe it's starting this early BUT
I can't make the hockey fest that I bought three day passes for.
I got TWO passes for the whole weekend
Anyone want em? FREE. Just buy me a beer at a game or somethin
matt
Also by the way... i got season tickets this year cause I'm buyin into the koolaid .. but i HATE going to saturday games ... so I will be giving away those tickets as well only not all at once ... stay tooned
Matt - I'll take them! Just e-mail me details: laiblin at sbcglobal (dot)net
My kids like the Saturday day games the best.
I would love tickets to one of those games if you have them.
Matt, count me in...
MATT GEORGE...
sure...!
i would love one of those passes...
ill get in touch w/rich and have him forward you my email address asap...
thanks a bunch..!
Tim .. I'm at yipshnip@yahoo.com
email me for the particulars
Hey Variable ... not sure if Tim wants one or two but if he just wants one ... you can have the other one.
He beat ya by a few minutes!
email me at the address above!
Sent you an email Matt. Thanks in advance for your generosity.
I always was a fan of Pat Conacher when I was a kid (1992-1996). That guy was not the most skilled player, but he was a gamer and did everything the kings needed without complaining. I don't think he ever had more than 28 points in a year on the 4th line, but I never saw him take a shift off. Very classy player too. He is exactly what a 4th liner should be, a guy who gives his all and knows his role as a part of the team.
Old Thunder,
I agree, Pat Conacher was one of the hardest working players I can remember, a great guy too!
I played on a few select teams with his son, Pat Jr., who played goalie. I remember we had a tournament in Calgary where he paid some of the less 'privaledged' players hotel and took us all out to this world famous steak house, he must of dropped almost 2 grand taking all us out to dinner at that place.
He's a great father and a heck of a character to look up to.
I was a big fan of Gary Sargent. The puck never got past him at the point. I am not sure he was underrated in the same boat as Jay Wells, but he also didn't date Jeannie Buss.
Adam that's a great story to hear about Conacher. I'm glad to hear that he is truly a great guy on the ice and off. If DL loves character guys, that is the model that I would shoot for.
Conacher and Shuchuck were amazing. Penalty Killing wonder, was that Paddy Conacher.
Wonder what he's up to today?
Tim Watters, as well...
That's the Old School NHL'ers.