Western Conference Hottie REWIND: James Neal (Dallas Stars)

In light of a reader bringing to HftL's attention a charity calender featuring a certain young Dallas Star who has graced the pages of HftL in the past, I thought I'd take this Wednesday to go back and see how the promising rookie has grown and developed!!!!!

Mr. James Neal [previously on HftL] did finish around the 2nd place mark in rookie scoring last year. While the Stars failed to make the playoffs, they didn't do it by not having any offense as Neal's accomplishment will attest.

This year, he's got a little bit of a different situation down there in Dallas. It seems he's made the top line with scoring machine Loui Eriksson [previously on HftL] and the one and only Brad Richards (who's finally not broken in some way) [previously on HftL]. These three make up the Stars' top line, and (believe it or not) one of the most productive lines in the NHL.

In addition to a splendid scoring touch (which for the readers of HftL, can mean so very many decadently dirty things [evil grin]), he is quite the physical player. He hits hard and has a great ability to knock an opposing player off the puck, grab said puck, streak down the ice and put it in the net. Don't get in a fight with him or you'll be sorry [Link here] and watch out when he hits you. The results can be catastrophic...



With all that said, I personally don't see anything dirty about that hit. He's a really big, strong guy, and he was only going for the puck. Yes, I defend my guys, I'm a loyal fan. (in addition to having a near fatal case of the sweats for a particular blue-eyed redhead). While I know that I am prone to defending guys who play for the Stars (see in the past, Steve Ott, who rarely starts anything except verbal battles), I have looked at this very, very abstractly (Yes I did). All he did was hit him and, yes, the way he fell on the ice was shocking, scary, and even I thought the poor guy might be dead. But all he did was hit him.