The Mouth shows us some very rare regular season footage of John Davidson between the pipes for the New York Rangers. The footage is rare for two reasons, one being that video from that era is rare just by itself and the second reason being, because of Davidson’s injuries after the 1978-1979 season J.D. simply didn’t play much.
It was at this time some old skool Ranger fans may remember that J.D switched masks from his most recognizable tri-colored striped mask to his “Lone Ranger” mask. The Lone Ranger mask was only worn by J.D in TEN National Hockey League games. This making the video shown here at Ranger Crisis even rarer.
The Big man as any Ranger fan worth his medal, considers J.D a Ranger legend. However, some of his performances on the ice were comically horrible. Examples of this are shown in two games from this Treasure Trove archive. The first game shown took place on March 30th 1980 against the Red Wings and the second game is an October 9th 1980 opening night debacle against the Bruins at Boston Garden.
Be warned most of these goals that J.D. gives up are absolutely brutal.
[image: Rangers Recap: Stanley Cup Playoffs-New York Rangers at Carolina
Hurricanes]What an epic, thrilling, clutch comeback win by the Eastern
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20 hours ago
J.D was a "LARGE" man in the nets and I'm being kind LOL. There really wasn't much room to get it past him.
ReplyDeleteObviously every dog has his day and these clips prove that without a doubt.
lol@large yes, J.D had some great nights, and to tell you the truth he was my Ravorite Ranger at the time because when he was "On" he was so exciting to watch. Unfortunately I patterned my schoolyard goaltending style after him rather than Bernie Parent. So You know how that went.
ReplyDeleteJD suffered a severely pulled groin in the first game of the '79 finals and he kept it to himself. He played the rest of the series unable to kick out his leg.
ReplyDeleteWe had Wayne Thomas, a very capable backup, who had been a starter in Toronto, yet JD thought he was more important than the team, and said nothing about his injury. If you see films of that series, it's obvious that JD stunk after that first game win. He looked like he did in the video that you posted.
To me, that seriously tarnishes his reputation and legacy.
That's a great poinjt. You know I also had that idea bouncing around in my head as well. I remember him coming out after in the papers and saying he played hurt in the finals. I just cant imagine J.D being that selfish.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he thought he would be letting his team down if said he was injured.
Even though we took game one of that series against the Habs, their team was stacked and we probably would have lost anyway. But the series perhaps would have been a bit closer with Thomas In net.
Here's an interesting factoid , average age of the defensemen on The Rangers in that Cup was 23.