Each NHL team’s most memorable hockey name
By C.L. Kohuss
New York Rangers: Jeff Beukeboom
The New York Rangers are so littered with incredible names throughout team history, we had to make an actual cut-off point for the honorable mentions. That list would be going forever.
But to settle on Jeff Beukeboom is not to settle at all. He spent a lot of time in the NHL as a d-man (804 games), winning three Cups with the Edmonton Oilers before winning another with the New York Rangers in ‘94. It also isn’t surprising that he loved to hit and he loved to fight. Because when your last name sounds like a diesel truck company, of course you do.
Everywhere Beukeboom went, fans loved him. He didn’t score a lot of points (it wasn’t his game), but he was a competitor willing to do whatever necessary to either protect his teammates or drive the crowd wild.
To that end, there were certainly some opponents who weren’t fans of his name. I mean, what is a “Beukeboom,” really? Is it a nuclear weapon? Some kind of industrial strength fan? A new flavor from Ben & Jerry’s? Apparently it was like a Rubik’s cube for Matt Johnson, who got so frustrated with it one game he decided to just punch Beukeboom in the head.
That resulted in a concussion, and it was basically the end of Jeff’s career. For some reason Johnson continued to play though, for another six seasons. An oddity considering the left-winger averaged about seven points a year. He did average three penalty minutes a game though, so that’s money well spent? We have no clue.
Honorable mentions: Andy Aitkenhead, Russ Courtnall, Pete Babando, Shane Churla, Bernie Geoffrion, Marcel Dionne, Mike Richter, Mark Messier, Hank Goldup, Ehrhardt Heller, Bronco Horvath, Orville Heximer, Craig MacTavish, Kevin Shattenkirk and Mats Zuccarello