wetcoast
Registered User
- Nov 20, 2018
- 22,591
- 10,368
"Never" driving the bus....? I suggest you go back and watch games 4 and 5 of the 1990 Stanley Cup Final. Anderson drove the bus.
By driving the bus, I mean like being a top 3 player in the regular season or playoffs (81-82 is the only season as the Oilers were still really young but once the dynasty started yes passenger is a good way to describe him on that Oilers team, a high level passenger but still) but especially playoffs as that's why Anderson is in the HHOF
Also, his regular season being "meh" seems a bit harsh. Anderson was the 2nd Oiler, ever, to post a 100-point season, beating Messier, Kurri, and Coffey to that. Up to 1986, there was always a debate of whether Messier or Anderson was the better player. From '82 through '86, Anderson outscored Messier and Trottier and he was the 4th-highest scoring winger in the NHL (not far off Goulet).
Sure and that season was his only top 10 season.
Blair Macdonald had a 94 point season in Gretzky's rookie year as well so
I do tire of this "passenger" argument towards good players who happened to be on teams with other good players. Literally nobody who followed the Oilers from 1981 to 1990 thought of Anderson as a "passenger".
No but if you asked in the post seasons to rank who were the top Oilers in the playoffs other names come up first and when Gretzky was there his impact really trickled down to everyone else.
I use the term meh in comparison to his counting stats, if one only looked at those and never saw the Oilers play they would get the wrong impression that he would be a legit 100 point guy anywhere and that I doubt and also this was the 80s when scoring was really ramped up in the first place.There's of course a good argument against players like Anderson in the Hall of Fame, but to make it I don't think we need to post fake-news like "meh" and "passenger", which are simply false accusations.