Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
You realize Reichel as a Flame was a two time 40 goal scorer and put up seasons of 88 and 93 points? Backlund's career points high is closer to Reichels career goal season than his points season. Different times and totally different roles so I just don't see how you can justify saying that. Sure it's true Reichel was only ever clutch when playing in a Czech uniform but the guy was a really good player. When you consider international play there is no doubt Reichel had a much better career than Backlund.
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Reichel was a defensive disaster. As for his goal scoring, I forget which highly esteemed sports journalist it was that said, late in his tenure with his flames, approximately: ‘The next important goal that Robert Reichel scores will be the first.’ He did score a lot of goals, but had a disconcerting tendency to score the sixth goal in a 6-1 win, or the only goal in a 4-1 loss. And he scored most of those goals in a much higher scoring era, before the Devils won their first Stanley Cup and the neutral-zone trap became generally adopted.
After Reichel returned from Frankfurt, he never again scored more than 25 goals in a season. The last three years of his NHL career, he was one of the favourite whipping boys of the Toronto fans, who sneeringly called him ‘Bob’ and made the most entertainingly sarcastic remarks about how valuable he was to their team.
The fact that Reichel scored only 8 playoff goals in 70 games played tells you a great deal about the man's play. He had a better disappearing act than Kent Nilsson, without matching Nilsson's elite-level skills.