Monday, November 10, 2008

Wendel Moment #11 - Clark vs. Neely

On November 22, Wendel Clark's #17 will be raised to the rafters as the team honours its former captain and arguably the most popular player in franchise history.

In the lead up to that night, Down Goes Brown will feature a countdown of Wendel's Top 17 Greatest Moments.

When I was a kid growing up, there were three hypothetical fights that everyone debated endlessly even though we knew they could never actually happen:

  • Batman vs. Superman
  • Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan
  • Wendel Clark vs. Cam Neely

Remember a few months ago when they turned on the Large Hadron Collider and some people were genuinely worried that it could cause the universe to implode onto itself? That's what people thought might happen if Clark and Neely ever fought.

Cam Neely, of course, was a monster badass. He spent most of his career throwing crushing bodychecks, scoring whenever he wanted to, and destroying anyone foolish enough to drop the gloves with him. He was completely unstoppable.

In short, he was a poor man's Wendel Clark.

If Clark and Neely ever did meet, the theory went, the resulting fight would include so much pent-up awesomeness that it would blind anyone who looked directly at it, kill anyone on the ice at the time, and probably last until the earth was swallowed by the sun.

Or, you know, it could be a two punch fight that ended with Neely turtling for the first and only time in his career. One or the other.

Wendel Clark just kicked your ass, Seabass!




12 comments:

  1. I love bringing this up to my Bruins fan friends, along with a healthy dose of "Turtle Turtle" a la that stupid master of disguise move for good measure

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  2. + 1 million for calling him Seabass. Awesome.

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  3. crap..i forgot about this one. I still cling to the slapper off Cujo's face, but you're right. Cam Neely was a serious bad ass back in the day. It must be some kind of government conspiracy and cover up that this amount of awesome isn't more well known. I keep thinking I know how awesome Wendel is, but then you post these clips and I realize, he's twice as awesome as I originally thought. I can't stop saying awesome...

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  4. Wait, Neely was coming to the rescue of someone in that clip?

    You'll notice that no one else thought that they were awesome enough to come to Neely's rescue.

    "shit, if Neely got two-punched and had to turtle they'd need to send their condolences via telegram if I went over there."

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  5. Wait, Neely was coming to the rescue of someone in that clip?

    It gets even better. The first few frames show #22 of the Bruins laying dead on the ice, presumably because Wendel has killed him.

    But watch the end of the fight, right around the time that Neely is grovelling and grabbing at Wendel's legs. Who skates by -- hey, it's #22!

    Apparently his thought process went like this: "Wendel is mad. Stay down. Stay down. Wait, he's pummelling Neely, now's my chance, make a break for the bench!"

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  6. Neely still had one of his gloves on!

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  7. Wendel Clark is the Chuck Norris of hockey!

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  8. As disgraceful as Neely's performance was in this fight, is there any Wendelmaniac out there who doesn't have Cam Neely in his top ten list of all-time favorite players?
    Cam's a distant #2 on my list, but also miles ahead of #3.

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  9. actually guys, i know you think wendal is agod, but if you watch the whole fight the actual fight. wendal clark sucker punches the bruins player that is down. then neely skates up wendal and wendal already has his gloves off sucker punching neely. neely had both gloves still on take a look. neely didn't turtle the linesman got on top of him and neely couldn't move. neely was pissed!!! my money would go on neely if htey actually faught but this wasn't a fight...guys watch the whole video and not the 13 second feed you get on here, just to point this out i have both neely and clarks fight tapes and clark always get as a jump on a guy. known pretty well as a dirty fighter. read probert and kocur's book called :bruise brothers" neely was highly more respected fighter

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  10. "neely had both gloves still on take a look"

    And yet he's still swinging his gloved fists viciously...

    The proper way to react to a teammate getting hit (whether clean or not) is to do as Clark did to McSorely.

    1) Drop your gloves
    2) Make eye contact as you skate to your opponant
    3) Perform amateur bare-fisted surgery on his face

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  11. You people are delusional if you think that fight was some definitive arse kicking. It lasted about 5 seconds and consisted of one good swing that knocked both guys off balance and they fell to the ice in a pile. I read all the comments before looking at the clip -only to see it end before any of the aforementioned events really had time to actually take place. Make an appointment with your optometrist already.

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  12. a) classic sucker punch move from clark, a true badass but someone with an equally true streak for bullshit on the ice
    b) if you're honestly saying you'd take wendel clark over cam neely you're crazy enough to be a leafs fan and maybe crazy enough to be Leafs GM

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