Best net front presence ever?
no
i don't think homer was better than phil esposito, tim kerr, andreychuk, ciccarelli, etc.
NHL-goaltenders reacting to NHL is Back and Homer is retiring on the same day:
hilarious
i saw that on the main board's gif thread.
Absolutely. Holmstrom became synonymous with the Wings power-play and everybody knew it. Watching different feeds on Center Ice, it was a constant talking point on how the PK would have to make sure the goalie could see the puck.
On interesting fact from the NHL.com write up:
"his 122 power-play goals are third in team history"
What an accomplishment! With all the amazing players that have been in Detroit, Holmstrom was easily one of the better power-play guys.
from hockey-reference.com:
yzerman: 202
lidstrom: 132
holmstrom: 122
fyodorov: 117
shanahan: 115
zetterberg: 84
ogrodnick: 77
gordie howe: 76
datsyuk: 67
larson: 67
delvecchio: 63
PP goals (and SH goals) have only been officially recorded since '64 season.
ted lindsay, for example, scored 335g here, but is listed at only 1 PP goal, b/c he played only 1 season here (at age 39) after '64.
i wonder how many gordie howe had in reality. he scored almost 800 goals here. from some studies posted on the history of hockey board, howe was one of the most productive PP players of his era. i think he played at the front early in his career, but on the point later in his career, probably especially after red kelly left.
delvecchio also played the point, but i think it is very unlikely that only 63 of his 456g were on PP.
norm ullman was not a big scorer on PP, but it is very unlikely that only 31 of his 324g with DRW were scored on PP.
wikipedia has howe at 211, but i don't know if that is right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Detroit_Red_Wings_records
same problems exist for SH scoring. howe was one of the very best SH scorers of his era, but officially has just 11 SH goals.