OT: C. Johnson and S. Neidermeyer

[PuckinUgly57]

Met these two guys last week meeting a CPA for breakfast at Champagne's in Newport Beach.

Spotted them a few tables behind us, decided after the meeting I would approach them. Super cool guys, we talked hockey, kids and youth hockey, their NHL careers, etc. Johnson is the coach for the Ducks youth program, not sure what Neidermeyer is doing these days but he said he's enjoying retirement. Sat with them for about 15-20 minutes and snapped a pic with them.

Neidermeyer looked like a disheveled homeless bum, it was pretty funny. I forgot to ask him what Pronger was like to play with, wish I would have.

 

[davnlaguna]

Hey no fraternizing with the enemy
Cool that they spoke with you.
I am guessing, since you were working, you were in the suit.
That may have diverted the urge to call Homeland security on you.

 

[Psych3man]

Friend of mine is from Cranbrook, BC which is where the Neidermeyers are from and she and her mom are good friends with their mother. She takes her son back up there every year for Neidermeyers hockey camp. She got me some autographed stuff from Scott, which I treasure as he is HOF. She even invited me to his local HOF recognition in Cranbrook but I was out of the country and couldn't go. Friend says Neidermeyers are great people so I'm not surprised Puck had a good experience. He was just dressed like a good ol' small town Canadian boy....i.e. , a bum

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Hey no fraternizing with the enemy
Cool that they spoke with you.
I am guessing, since you were working, you were in the suit.
That may have diverted the urge to call Homeland security on you.

Indeed wearing a tie, best dressed of all of us, smallest bank account - go figure.

DHS would have been called if I was sporting the beard.

=)~~

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Friend of mine is from Cranbrook, BC which is where the Neidermeyers are from and she and her mom are good friends with their mother. She takes her son back up there every year for Neidermeyers hockey camp. She got me some autographed stuff from Scott, which I treasure as he is HOF. She even invited me to his local HOF recognition in Cranbrook but I was out of the country and couldn't go. Friend says Neidermeyers are great people so I'm not surprised Puck had a good experience. He was just dressed like a good ol' small town Canadian boy....i.e. , a bum

It's pretty awesome to hear stories like that, NHLers are a breed of their own. Unless you knew who these two were like I did, you could walk past them 100 times over and not know one guy is a decorated NHL HOF player, Norris winner, 4 time Cup winner, Team Canada, leader and arguably one of the top 5 defenders ever to play the game. The beauty is I will always consider him a Devil before a Duck.

I kind of felt bad for HOS, in comparison he is known as "the dude Greztky was traded to St. Louis for" more than anything. While he was a decent B6 NHL player I don't think the Kings got good value on that deal. Thus when I approached them and extended my hand, I went to him first. Maybe it's a small thing but I hope he understood that no matter what, he played in the NHL and that is a huge accomplishment even if he didn't have a career like Neidermeyer's.

And yeah, he was in dirty cargo shorts, a faded long sleeve T, flip flops, graybeard and messed up hair. I almost felt like asking him if I could buy him a meal or coffee.

 

[Kings4OT]

great stories dave/puck, I don't even remember Neidermeyer as a Duck

 

[PuckinUgly57]

great stories dave/puck, I don't even remember Neidermeyer as a Duck

They lucked out big time getting him via free agency, they held the one card that you cannot put a dollar value on - blood. If the Ducks don't have Rob Neidermeyer, I don't think he signs there and definitely not for what he did, I believe it was 4 years/$28 million ($7 million per season).

 

[Psych3man]

Forgot this part of the story: Scott Neidermeyer is good friends with Jarret Stoll, I think from when Stoll played major junior for Kooteney Ice in Cranbrook, BC. So I gave one of my Kings jerseys to my friend to give to Rob Neidermeyer who gave it to his now SoCal buddy Stoll to sign--I got it back by mail here in Chicago almost right away. Months later Stoll gets busted in Vegas. Given that Richards also got busted the same year as I put his name/number on my Stadium Series jersey, I declare myself as the Hope Diamond for Kings players. Psych gets them on a jersey, they get busted. The only thing missing was me putting Voynov on a jersey before he got drunk and fucked up his wife, his career and the Kings defense.

 

[Kings4OT]

I am going to buy and send you a Brown jersey Psych!

 

[King Mensa]

After all those years of bagging on HOS, you play mister nice guy with him? lol. Bet if you met J-blow, you'd be passive with him.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

I only really hate players when they are here on in the league. Johnson last played in LA 12 years ago, long time ago. J-Blow however, reached a level I had never seen before in terms of coach's favorites. The only place he was used properly - minimal, shielded minutes - was Philadelphia. At least they got it.

I could give 2 shits about those guys now, they still were pretty crappy players, J-Blow moreso than HOS in my opinion. At least he never got 20:00 ATOI a game for no reason.

 

[Kings4OT]

players sucking in the NHL is no reason to "hate" them, its not really their fault they don't have the talent. I wouldn't expect someone to give up a well paying career just because the team and fans know you suck but the people that matter like you....sure you could do it for the fans and team mates to make the team better, but really you and your family should be #1.

I doubt I would walk up to one of them and tell them I think they suck, it would probably come up if they asked about hockey and wanted specifics tho