On paper, Nieuwendyk should win this quite easily and he probably will. Since it was argued that moments in sports are big then I had to re-evaluate my vote. I honestly cannot remember one significant goal that Joe scored. Sure he had many and I remember he scored 50+ goals in his first two years and he was the last Flame to score 5 in a game but there was never any goal that stuck in my mind over time.
Plett on the other hand did have that type of goal. It was the first year the Flames were in Calgary in the first playoff series. The Flames franchise had never won a playoff series in their entire history in Atlanta. It was game 3 of a best of 5 and the Flames were up 2 games to none and game 3 went into double overtime. Lemelin was awesome for the Flames this game and I always wondered why he was replaced by Riggin in the next round.
Willie Plett, late in the 2nd OT, went up the wing and just blew a shot from just inside the blueline past Tony Esposito to win the Flames first playoff series ever. That was over 30 years ago. I can still remember how I felt before and after the goal went in.
If having this type of moment is enough to elevate a player to best in class, then I had to vote Plett. I had no moments like this with Joe.
|