Gator21 wrote on Wed, 15 January 2020 20:46

CrudeRemarks wrote on Wed, 15 January 2020 11:35 Adam wrote on Wed, 15 January 2020 11:21 I was at last night's game. Here's my thoughts: many hockey fans have a bias towards players who look like they work hard, whether they are effective or not. Agreed. Ryan Smyth was garbage. Lol this is a joke right!? You’re a garbage poster if u actually believe this

You do have to admit, he was dramatically over-valued in Edmonton. I mean, he was a good player, but if he played on the Oilers in the 1980s, he's a third liner on those teams.

The funny thing is that he was never the best player on the Oilers in his time here, but he's still remembered as more of a hero than the guys who were the best players over those years. The media here loved him and knew his family and always gave him friendly press. While Smyth himself isn't particularly clever, I do think that his wife was pretty savvy and tried to keep him in the public eye as much as possible - if he went to visit an old lady turning 100, there was always going to be a film crew capturing it as she ran her hands through his flowing locks. And then he just seemed to try hard, which is all you need to do to be loved in Edmonton - it should really be about results, but for some reason, if you lead the team in scoring but don't look like you're pumping your legs hard every shift (Penner) or Rishaug and Spector publicly question you not staying out to dick around after practice (Hemsky) or you get carved by Kevin Lowe for getting paid bonus money that you earned by hitting targets (Comrie) then you're remembered much less fondly. It's still baffling why there's people out there who'd sooner honour Ryan Smyth than Doug Weight - who was the much better Oiler...

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireLowe #FireBobbyNicks #FireKenHolland #FireKeithGretzky