Yeah I have to agree.
Maybe Sid is stronger on the puck strictly talking about power than Gretz but it was still harder to actually take the puck from Gretz.
And Mario, maybe Sid is faster but stronger on the puck...not even remotely. Mario used to routinely have two guys hanging off him, still make a move and bury the puck top shelf.
Not to turn this thread into something different, but the point I was trying to make is that it wasn't specific abilities that separated Gretzky and Lemieux from the rest of the superstars.
If you ranked players then in terms of speed, size, conditioning, etc - neither 99 or 66 would out-score the other superstars in any category. They simply THOUGHT the game at a higher level than everyone else. That was the biggest SEPARATOR among the others.
Crosby is as highly-tuned a hockey player, athletically, as anyone. But it's his brain for the game that separates him from other highly tuned athletes today.
Gretzky couldn't win a puck battle, he was the ultimate perimeter player. He wasn't "strong on the puck" like John Tonelli in the corners, but he was elusive and shifty and seemed to have 3-4 options open to him at any point in time. And he carried the puck A LOT!
Lemieux played perimeter hockey too, except you're totally accurate that he held on to the puck as long as HE WANTED. The combination of size, reach, stickhandling was too much for defenders.
To reiterate, the context of the statement was that 99 & 66 wouldn't be hindered much (if at all) IF YOU ASSUME that players #150 (and beyond) are so much BETTER today. I acknowledge they are bigger, faster, stronger humans, in better shape, but that's not enough to convince me that it would slow down those two superstars in any significant way.
These highlight reels are pretty amazing. I mean, Youtube can make Linus Omark look like Gretzky too, that's something we see more and more every June before the draft....the highlight reel. But in Gretzky's case, it really looks like the opponents aren't trying. He really made the game look easy. The goalies look like they are not trying or just awful. He kept opponents "off-balance" better than anyone I've ever seen. Mario did the same, especially in tight on goalies and defenders, appearing to move in slow motion.