Matt MacInnis said:
Having made some comments in other threads about Dion Phaneuf and Sidney Crosby, I'm curious as to what people think these two players need to do in order to fulfill their hype?
Are you asking what they need to do for the general community of fans or for each of us personally?
Personally, all I ask of Phaneuf is to translate most of his game to the NHL. The thing that pisses me off the most is when a prospect looks like a man against boys in the CHL and then turns into a woman against men in the NHL.
I would really like Phaneuf talent level to translate well but I won't be too worried about him if he at least shows the same guts. And I have a good feeling he will pull it off. Anything less than a very solid, very gutsy 2nd pairing D for Phaneuf would disappoint me. (I will not use the word bust as it is extremely loaded around here).
For Crosby, he has to put up a lot of points or find ways to be effective nonetheless. I'd be disappointed if he isn't a top line forward and extremely disappointed if he isn't scoring line forward period.
Both players have a lot more upside than that but you can't really label a guy a failure just because he doesn't reach his top upside, IMO. You can still expect more out of them, though. As long as they try their best, I won't complain too much if the performances are reasonably good.
That's how I look at it.
I just realized that I haven't really answered your question, though. If they have to fulfill their hype, it has to be a LOT more than that.
Matt MacInnis said:
I'm just thinking about what has happened (in some cases) to the Sedins. High draft picks who are solidly second line players, one of which finished in the top fifty in league scoring, and playing second fiddle to one of the top five lines in hockey (Bertuzzi-Morrison-Naslund). And yet they are busts.
So what do these two future superstars have to do to avoid getting the bust label?
The Sedins' bust label is, as you know, extremely unfair.
The only explanation I could come up with is that:
1-They're kind of "gimmicky" because they are twins. Maybe some people pick on them for that.
2-They are not really agressive players nor flashy 5 foot 10 guys. Guys who are 6 foot 1/6 foot 2 (and look fairly large too) and play a smooth game without showing much physical impact sometimes fall out of favor quickly.
It still sucks. They are doing more than many young players out there. I must still admit that their style of play sometimes become a little tiring to watch. Labelling busts is still comical, though.