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Chris Neil - 1,000 games the hard way

December 9, 2016, 11:42 AM ET [7 Comments]
Jared Crozier
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Tomorrow afternoon at the Staples Centre in LA, Ottawa Senators winger Chris Neil will suit up for game #1,000 in his NHL career. The fact that he will become the 306th player to reach the milestone is impressive enough.

He will be only the 53rd player to play 1,000 games with a single franchise, joining former teammates Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Phillips to do so as Senators. He will also join, should he remain a Senator for the remainder of his career, about 25 other names who played more than 1,000 games and played their entire career for a single franchise.

Neil was never an all-star, won't end up in the Hall of Fame, and probably won't get his number retired by the Senators I will leave that last door open a crack). He has a reputation among fans of other teams for being a borderline (or sometimes outright) cheap player, but has never been suspended, which is a feat in itself for a guy who will soon surpass 2,500 career penalty minutes as well, and with a couple of fights in game 1K he could hit both milestones on the same night.

Guys that have done the job Neil has done for 15 years don't usually last that long. The curb in fighting has meant a reduced role for the tough guys, but the fact is Neil has always been more than just a goon. For a period of time he was looked at as the benchmark for a guy who fights, but can also take a regular shift.

And a couple of summers ago, Neil was written off by many people, including myself, as a guy who the game had passed by. Credit to him, he showed up to camp in 2015-16 having shed weight and was probably in the best shape of his career, and it showed. He played in 80 games last season and hasn't missed a game this year, and there haven't been any rumblings like there were two years ago about him being to slow an ineffective to play the game in the best league in the world. He hasn't lit the world on fire offensively, but he never did. What he provides, and still does, is something that is lacking on a lot of the roster, and that is a compete level that you know you are going to get every night.

He is a guy who plays on the fourth line, doesn't complain about a thing and knows what his role is. He has toed the line between fair and dirty at times in his career, but like I said before he has never been suspended so it wasn't that bad in the eyes of the league given the standards at the time.

Even off the ice, you never hear stories about him getting into any kind of trouble, and anything that I have heard about personal interaction with him has been nothing but positive.

The number of players who have played 1,000 games with one team and amassed 2,500 PIMs it a pretty short one - Ken Daneyko. Neil will join that club

You can say what you want about his ability, his style of play, and the waving to the fans after a fight which has been known to be an annoyance to Sens fans as well as opposing fans over the years. You may or may not like that there is even such a role to be played in the game, but you have to respect that he has put some hard miles on his body in his 1,000 games and deserves all of the accolades that come with reaching such a milestone that not many tough guys get to.

Congratulations on your milestone game, Chris. Just remember, Phillips scored 2 goals in his 1,000th game to make it memorable. Maybe a Gordie Howe hat trick for Neil?
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