Comments on: Nathan Lawson (AKA Nate the Great)

By: O'Hara Shipe

O'Hara Shipe — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:20:58 +0000

Really wonderful blog! I really enjoyed learning about Lawson’s quirks. Keep up the great writing!

By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:27:43 +0000

Watching him go through his OCD in the middle of a packed wisconsin rink is the part that made me think he was a little more off than most goalies, not the OCD in it of itself, but that he would keep doing it with 2 decks of wisconsin students shouting at him. I can see what you mean about his play style though, kinda like the evil(?) twin to Staylock.

By: rm

rm — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:59:09 +0000

Rumor has it Moulson wasn’t the “best dressed” guy at Cornell. There were reports of Doug Murray (goes by Douglas now and is a SJ Sharks defenseman) and some really tight pants. But hey, Murray lived in Sweden during his formative early teen years.

I just like seeing guys who do the 4 year college route succeed in the pros. They won’t be your star players, but they can be that solid 5th defensemen or 3rd line forward who plays a solid game, will fight for the puck along the boards and chip in with a timely goal.

Yeah, I was one of the dozen people who thought 1-0 hockey games were great .

By: jtbourne

jtbourne — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:50:08 +0000

Haha, I’ve got an articles worth on Moulson. During my 18-19 year old year, he tried out for the junior team that had already signed me. Showed up with a glossy button-down shirt buttoned down with a gold chain and slicked straight back hair. Ah, f it, I’ll start writing this as a blog.

By: rm

rm — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:38:10 +0000

Another great blog entry. Not unexpected, but Lawson just got sent down by the Isles (http://islanders.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=499538&navid=DL|NYI|home). Tavares seems to be having a good camp.. any Bourne love coming for the guy he has been setting up (Matt Moulson)?

By: JJ Vanderstam

JJ Vanderstam — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:49:58 +0000

I played with Lawson in Midget, and against him in Bantam and Junior A when he was in Olds. We lost in the Air Canada (now Telus) Cup final in Double Overtime to Steve Bernier’s team. I think Nate made like 50 saves or something, he was the only reason we made it anywhere in that game. And he just keeps getting better.

But like you said, as good as he is in the net, it is everything else that completes the package. He did the water bottle thing back in Midget too, but he was chewing tums then, not Double Bubble. Suppose that is an improvement? Always loved playing the puck, and he used to do the get down low and swing stick along ice at guy coming around the net all the time. Like all the time, possibly when there was no one behind the net too. And his “diving” and beaking was the highest of high comedy. Drove everyone nuts.

Hope he gets sone NHL starts this year.

Enjoy the blog man, keep up the good work.

By: jtbourne

jtbourne — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:17:15 +0000

Krissss, yes brotha. You guys watched him for years there. The Gatorade dump was priceless. It was the bottle labelling system that went awry, not Laws. Great reference. The Crazy One.

By: jtbourne

jtbourne — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:15:56 +0000

Naw man, those are the comments readers love. The crazy thing is, there’s not one guy you or I played with that doesn’t have that story (or in reverse) about a friend or teammate. It seems so arbitrary. We could revolutionize the game by creating a huge “hockey players in North America” power ranking, so teams could at least check the top of the list. So often a guy gets pulled up that’s the 111th best available right defenceman, but is on the right team on the right day. That’s what so addicting, and why it’s so hard to quit.

I talked to Mitch Fritz today (was thinking about using this as my blog topic tomorrow, but whateves), he just got sent down by the Coyotes. He was talking bout the possibility of him packing it in too, if that damn carrot wasn’t so big. He’d need to get called up for a month out of the next two years to justify sticking it out – at three grand a day (league minimum, pro rated, before taxes), that one month makes it all worthwhile…

By: josh ciocco

josh ciocco — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:16:52 +0000

Most interesting story I have along these lines is that of Bryan Rodney who now plays for Carolina. I was in worcestor’s AHL camp with him. Bryan had a good junior career in london and went undrafted. After juniors he went to the ECHL where he played the next 2 years. In the fall of 07 we were in worcestor, Rodney I felt looked really good and he’s a good guy too. He was cut during first cuts. He then returned to columbia on the ECHL. Worcestor was affiliated with Fresno at the time, and when I was sent down from worcestor to fresno the coaches told me they really liked Rodney and were going to try to trade for him. Well they traded for him and Rodney said cali was too far and he was not into hockey anymore and he retired. The fresno coaches then traded his rights to Elmira and Elmira was able to convince him to report. After 6 games in Elmira he had 11 pts as a Dman and got called up to albany. He finished out the season in albany and Carolina signed him. The following year he was in the lineup for Carolina for a dozen or so games. Went from retiring to being a wealthy NHL player in 1 year. Your article made me think of that, sorry for the novel.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:43:57 +0000

It was great watching Laws in college at the Sully! The pre-game ritual is a blast to watch as a fan. One thing with living in Anchorage and watching the Seawolves, whether they win, lose, or tie, you are watching the best college players in the nation.

As always JJ, your piece is a good read.