Saturday, July 30, 2011

Happy Trails Aki Berg!

Aki-Petteri Berg has called it quits on professional hockey. While most thought he did that as soon as he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has now officially retired from pro hockey after five years in Finland. Drafted 3rd overall at the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings (try and read that without laughing), Berg's popularity in the NHL grew when he was traded to the Maple Leafs in 2001 for Adam Mair and a 2nd Round Pick which was used to select a player who we will not name.

Always quiet, always unspectacular, Berg was an underachiever who became the target of boos from Maple Leaf fans for his inabilities on the ice - the guy couldn't even bleed! Often caught standing still or out of position, Berg was labelled a pylon for his inconsistent man-to-man coverage and his endowment to let players beat him easily on the outside with speed. In fact, we call the pylons at work "Aki Berg's" in honour of his defensive stature. Always the fan favourite, Aki Berg retires after 606 NHL games, in which he had 15 goals and 70 assists for the Kings and Leafs.

Here are some Aki Berg dangles the hockey world will miss:

 
Posted by Dirty Dangle at 7:56 PM

7 comments:

  1. Chris.July 30, 2011 at 9:49 PM

    Im surprised he played that many games. While I did hate watching him play, he did have those flashes of mean streaks where he would lay a guy out and actually use his size which made me happy to see. Overall though, a plug.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 30, 2011 at 11:51 PM

    I almost pissed my pants when Aki lost the puck in that video

    ReplyDelete
  3. JereJuly 31, 2011 at 11:59 AM

    Bye Bye Aki
    Size and skill, He just couldn't put it all together.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BradJuly 31, 2011 at 9:52 PM

    So I just arrived back in Australia and I find out THIS happened. Shit, the city must have been party central.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownAugust 2, 2011 at 9:14 PM

    Does this mean my Berg Rookie card is now worth more than .02 - thought not.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Scorpio Sports ManAugust 4, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    My cousine told me the day he was traded to toronto that we got Blake.
    I still don't know how he mistook Atki Berg for Rob Blake.

    Still he wasn't as bad as people made him out to be.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousAugust 8, 2011 at 9:58 AM

    @Laura

    I have Berg's rookie card. With him being a 1st round pick I thought it would be worth something at some point. But ya nnnnnooooo

    ReplyDelete

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