Is it my imagination or does Taylor Razka have a lot of enemies around the OHL? For some reason other teams seem to really go after this guy, many times in a pretty dirty manner. It seems like whenever a Spirit player gets an errant elbow to the head or gets knocked goofy, it's always Razka. I can almost see the little "tweety birds" flying five feet behind him, waiting to circle his head when he gets his bell rung.

Mrs. Henderson and I have both noticed this since the Spirit acquired Razka last year from Plymouth and we were wondering if anybody else thought the same. We picked up on it almost immediately after he arrived here and wondered if he had a high-profile altercation while he was still with Plymouth, or maybe he said something derogatory about the Canadian National Anthem or something

Any thoughts?

Oh yes, I've noticed it also. It was very obvious Saturday night. Your reasoning about the Canadian National Anthem could be correct, however I think it has more to do with his tenacious style of play. He plays tough and he plays hard. If he can keep injury free, keep up his physical play and pop a few biscuits in the basket, this kid will be a 1st round NHL pick for sure. I don't know how Costa pulled off that trade but I think it was one of if not the best trade he has made.

I think Raszka hustles hard, and has good skills, and really wants to win - but he will never in a million years be a 1st round draft pick.

Ray Whitney wasn't a 1st round pick.
Ziggy Palffy wasn't a 1st round pick.
Mark Recchi wasn't.
Rob Blake wasn't.

I really don't need to go on, do I.
I could see Raszka in 2005 being at best a late 2nd round pick. Just a shot in the dark.

Rizk could be a 1st rounder this coming summer if he can find the net. Borges may not be the player we thought he would be 11 months ago. I can't see him being drafted this year, and if he is - he's a 7th rounder at best.

Nothing scientific, just guessing.

Oh my Lord, I'm gonna say it, but... I agree with Bill!!!!! That's great posts in 2 days Bill! Keep it up!

I also believe Raszka will not be a 1st rounder, I really don't see him going in the 1st 3 rounds. Rizk, I can't tell yet. I'd love to say 1st or 2nd round for him, but he needs some work & then he easily could be there. He'll get drafted for sure, but when is still the question. Borges, I don't know. He's streaky.

As far as Raszka being singled out & people running him, I also noticed that right away last season already. He's got to stay tough!

You are correct that he gets alot of abuse, however I think it's because he is a bit of a "yapper". The hit that knocked him out for the balance of last season was a clean hard body check in Plymouth. I think you are really getting ahead of yourself about his draft status. Remember is a late '86 so his draft year is '05.

Taylor is a very good player that plays hard. I have noticed that he is getting pushed around alot more but then he is doing that alot this season too which suprised me. I think it is too soon to tell about his ranking in the nhl draft but if he keeps working hard and doing what he is i think it will be pretty high. as for saying something about the anthem i dont believe he would do that. I think the other teams may be going after him knowing that he has had two concusions in the last 6 months or so and see it as a weakness. or maybe not.

Yeah, its pretty obvious they are after him but desrosiers should've done what bowman(scotty)has done in the past..MAKE UP STORIES...never tell the real reason a guy is out of the line up...

I was at that game with the fan club. Cole Jarrett elbowed him right into the head, into the boards, and he was out cold on the ice for several minutes. It was not clean.

i think everyone agrees that he is getting pushed around, however i think its his own fault. i havent seen him stick up for himself yet, ok once but that was against a goalie and if it wasnt for his one punch that connected he would of lost that fight.

to say that he may have said something about the canadian national anthem is really a low blow to him. do you know him and if so does he have a problem with canada or the song. and if you dont know him as i assume you dont, i dont think you have the right to tell people that he may be that kind of person.

as for him being a possible first round selection in the nhl draft, so far he hasnt showed me that he was worthy of a first round selection in the ohl draft, hopefully that changes i havent been real impressed with his play so far.

all i hope for is that someday he will be a GOOD overager that has a GREAT season. i just wrote this paragraph for fun just to get some responses lol.

I believe the comment about the Canadian National Anthem was made in jest, you know, sarcasm - as in 'what could have made everyone so mad at him? must have been something really bad like talking about someone's mom or bashing the Canadian National Anthem, or running over someone's puppy', etc. As far as your last paragraph, McCarty, why try & stir up trouble again? That's behind us & everyone has moved on.

this took me along time to write this, as im trying to not make this into a mud slinging post. im just trying to express my feeling over two post that i feel were wrong. if anyone disagrees with me then i will be more then happy to listen to them and try to better explain myself.

im sorry gearsfan i didn't mean to make anyone upset, i just though with others joking around about being wrong on predictions and agreeing with others for the first time that everyone is over it and i hope they are i love nothing better then a debate over issues that people are passionate about.

to everyone else the gearsfan thinks noone on this board is mature enough to get over past issues, and if something from the past is brought up then everyone will be upset again and start slinging mud at each other. now i know that your not saying that gearsfan but do you see how wrong that is to say that you may be saying that when your not. this is my point about saying that taylor may have said something when he really probably didnt.

this is a young man that is trying to make something out of himself and for people to say that he may have said something that he probably never did is terrible. im hoping that there is no more commits about anyone on the team making anykind of remarks about anything or anyone unless they can prove that it has been said.

last year the beezer got in trouble over commits he made. i am in no way saying that this is same situation as that one because what he said was terrible and it doesnt even come close to this but when you say something like what was posted your making him out to have issues with something he probably does have.

i know ill get slammed for the last paragraph. i know there is a big difference between that and this. but it is unfair to say that he may have a problem with canada.

personally i love the canadian nation anthem, however i aboslutely HATE the montreal canadian fans for making the scene they did when they played our national anthem when we were at war. i guess thats why i have such strong felling over this.

gearsfan this is no personal attack on you, i dont even know you. i just dont think its right to say that someone said something when we dont even know if he did, and everyone else if you took offence to the paragraph about overages im sorry.

Hey, McCarty!! Did you look back over the posts? First of all, the MODERATOR of this forum you are ripping apart is SaginawGENSfan, which I guess you could assume from that that they are a Gears fan also, but get it right. Now that I have cleared that up, do you realize that someone else is the one that mentioned the Anthem thing at the beginning? It sounds to me like GENS fan was trying to explain it for that person and blow it off before someone else raised hell about it. By the way, wouldn't it have been stupid for him to rag on that Anthem anyway considering a lot of his teammates come from Canada and the OHL is the ONTARIO hockey league? That is why GENS fan wanted to clear it up, so nobody took it the wrong way. Now don't hate me for this post, but I love to help explain things a little better for those who don't understand....that is, when I do understand it well enough.

Umm, McCarty, I don't know what to say other than what Newfan77 said. All's good, bud!

yes im sorry i did realize the mistake of gearsfan after i posted it out i ment no disrespect to you gensfan. evidential im wrong on this whole taylor thing once again sorry i will not commit on it again.

McCarty, sorry if I was a little harsh. I was just trying to explain things better. I hope we can all still get along. And by the way, we all make mistakes so don't feel too bad.

Sorry to stir up such a mess with a tongue-in-cheek comment about the Candian National Anthem. For the record I love the country, the people and the song: Great beer, great hockey, pretty darn good strip clubs, too! I also sing both anthems at every game. I was hoping the smiley face would alleviate any allegations of mud-slinging. Also, for the record - I have never heard Taylor Razka dogging the Canadian National Anthem. I have never heard anyone say someone said he dogged that song. I never even heard a dog say he dogged that song. I was just tryin' to add some humor.

Thanks for all the answers. Now I can go back and tell Mrs. Henderson that we're not loco, and other people have also noticed Taylor taking a beating.

SaginawGensFan - thanks for bailing me outta that mess while I was away.

Peace.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Did this thread get blown out of context or what! McCartysux, I don't think you are wrong about Taylor, nor do I think I am wrong or anyone else. This is all speculation and if one can give their perspective without the fear of getting bashed by someone else than the purpose of this board has been served. Maybe Taylor will end up in the UHL (heaven forbid). State your position and move on. I didn't jump all over Bill because he said Taylor would never in a million years be a no. 1 pick, Bill's a moron and I don't expect anything better from him (Just kidding Bill!)<--- HUMOR!!! As for the Canadian National Anthem thing, I think that got blown way out of proportion. It was obviously a joke, hence the smiley face. And you were right, I am gonna rip you on the similarity between what Beezer said. No comparison whatsoever, not just the comment itself, but the fact that we all know for certain that he said it whereas, this was purely speculation and joking speculation at that. So in summary, you don't have to "never comment on it again", we are all here to comment on anything and everything, we all just need to be respectful of what our fellow posters are posting.

boy do i feel dumb i did not know that this was all joke, it wasnt that obviouse to me. but that ok now i know that a smiley face means to not take the post seriously.