Western Conference Hottie: Rick Nash (Columbus Blue Jackets)

It was recently pointed out to me that Mr. Nash has not been getting his quotient of Hockey player lust... er... love on this blog, so I decided since HftL is a "non-discriminatory" blog of NHL hotness that I'd better rectify the situation immediately. So here he is.

IMPORTANT HOCKEY STUFF: Well, the first thing I noticed when I started writing this was the fact that he had 9 points in his last 5 games. From there on, I'll give you some of the other stuff. He has 4 World Championship medals while playing for Canada's international team, and Going into the 08–09 campaign, the Blue Jackets had gone without a playoff appearance in franchise history. Led by the newly-appointed captain Nash and bolstered by rookie goaltender Steve Mason, the Blue Jackets finished the season as the seventh seed in the Western Conference to earn a post-season berth against division-rival and defending Stanley Cup champion, the Detroit Red Wings. The series was preceded by an 8–2 rout over the Red Wings on March 7, 2009, a game in which Nash scored three unassisted goals. According to the Columbus Dispatch, citing the Elias Sports Bureau, the last player to score three goals unassisted was Maurice "Rocket" Richard (who scored four) against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on March 14, 1948. Despite the convincing victory late in the season, the Blue Jackets, were, however, swept in four games by the Red Wings. In addition to leading the Blue Jackets to the playoffs, Nash had a career season with 79 points, in addition to scoring 40 goals for the first time since 2003–04. In the off-season, on July 3, 2009, Nash signed an eight-year contract extension with the Blue Jackets worth $62.4 million set to take effect in 2010–11.I'll tell you that none of them are lower than Silver, and one is a really pretty shade of Gold. Drafted out of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) by the Blue Jackets first overall in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Nash played with the London Knights (Ontario) for two seasons, earning the Emms Family Award in 2001 as league rookie of the year. He began his NHL career with Columbus the season immediately following his draft and was nominated for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. In his second NHL season, Nash scored a career-high 41 goals to tie with Jarome Iginla and Ilya Kovalchuk for the Rocket Richard Trophy as league goal-scoring champion. Nash is also a four-time NHL All-Star.

REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF: He's 6'4 218, with a little boy grin, and big boy physique. The best of both worlds, I think. I personally am always a sucker for the ones that spike their hair. Just does something to me, I'm not sure why. Although at 6'4 I'm wondering just a little why they feel the need to do this. I suppose taller, is always better, and I'm in no way going to complain when it looks that good on him. My hormones... er... mind keeps coming back to the 6'4 part. Um, yum and as I'm sure every lady here can attest, there's nothing like looking UP at a hot guy who's also TALL. We've got this little gem from the CBJ website, and I'm sure some of the ladies who are already his fans, have other "hot little tidbits" they might want to share. I will admit that a websearch of him doesn't reveal very much. But then it's hockey in Columbus. Which seems to be a lot like hockey in Dallas, not much in the papers and such. However, I found the "Atomic Gamer" article from 2009 pretty cute... And there's always THIS...



Pretty even fight, huh ladies.