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The NHL’s Most Interesting Name: Wrapping up the 2000s

Things are going to start getting real next week, as the decades are finished with the 2000s and we move into a fantasy tournament for the ages. The 8 teams will be ranked by their percentage of the vote achieved within the wrap-up for their decade, and much like the NHL playoffs the 1 will play the 8, 2 the 6, and so on. Each contestant will receive his due in regards to our learning about the player's career (to this point, in some cases). So let's get this mother wrapped up…

Our purpose…

hockey history is chock full of names that can pique a person’s interest, whether it’s because it’s unintentionally funny to the English sensibility (Petr Pohl), almost regal (Normand Rochefort), or lends itself to entertaining wordplay (Darius Kasparaitis). The criteria for our ‘most interesting names’ is a bit loose, in that the name can strike you as any one of the above descriptors, or all of them, but ultimately you are going to vote on the name that ‘strikes’ you the strongest.

The final 6 from the 2000s…

  • Espen Knutsen – Great name, great guy, who’s had a rough time dealing with a tragedy that he had no control over. What gets lost in the shuffle is that he was a very good player across his years in the NHL and SEL.
  • Branko Radivojevic – Rod-ih-voyo-vitch. I used to think it was Rad-ih-vo-yevik, which would have been way cooler (to me).
  • Reto Von Arx – I don’t know what else to say about this excellent name. This is him saying something. Hope it’s not dirty, so fair warning…NSFSW (Not Safe for Scandinavian Work).
  • Jonathan Cheechoo – I like trains.
  • Cal Clutterbuck – I don’t know why, but his name feels like it should be that of a rich uncle in a movie.
  • Bubba Berenzweig – A fitting capstone, the alliteration and the “Bubba” combine to make a tough dark-horse candidate.

This looks like a pretty close group, I'll be interested to see where we go with them…

Option Votes
Espen Knutsen 4
Reto Von Arx 17
Branko Radivojevic 1
Jonathan Cheechoo 1
Bubba Berenzweig 6
Cal Clutterbuck 7
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