At what point does Kucherov gain the respect he deserves?

Two4Fighting

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Oct 17, 2007
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Pending the results of the rest of the playoffs, Kucherov is at least in the conversation of the best player not named McDavid. His level of play and tangible accomplishments over the last handful of seasons up to this point in time speaks to this.

Over the last 5 seasons, he ranks 6th in total points and 2nd in PPG. He missed an entire season (2021) and still ranks that high in points. He has a sizable lead over #3 in PPG (the always underappreciated Marchand).

He won a Hart, Lindsay, and Art Ross. His 128 points in 2018-2019 is the most over the course of a full season since Mario and Jagr of 1995-1996.

Only 6 players in NHL history have more than the 34 points he had in the playoffs last season. Gretzky and Lemieux are the only players ever with more than the 27 assists he dished out.

With 22 points in 13 games so far, he is well on his way to hitting 30 points again. In NHL history, only Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, and Lemieux have reached that mark more than once in the playoffs.

If he leads this team to another Cup, nabs the Conn Smythe, and collects 30+ points again, that's a wrap in my opinion. When someone is doing things that have "only Gretzky, Lemieux, etc" attached to it, it's time to put respect on that name.

The time will have come for him to be universally ranked #2 in the game. What say you?


So, he does not play this whole regular season, then he is ready to play on game number one of the Playoffs, fully rested with no injuries and no bruises from the regular season, and now people should think he is doing fantastic in the playoffs, go figure. if you cheat, you shouldn't get any rewards for bad behavior.
 
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zeykshade

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May 27, 2011
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I tell you what, his injury healing timing is impeccable, never seen anything like it!
What'll really bake your noodle is, had the playoffs started 2-3weeks later than they did, he'd still have only been ready for game 1 of the playoffs. He came back early from rehab and it shows. he's ~75% of his normal self as far as his skating and stride go. Thankfully he's not a one dimensional player and can still play the slow it down game to F your team up.
 
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Bounces R Way

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Nov 18, 2013
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I said before his injury, which occurred in 2020. 3 of those 4 lists are dated in 2021 and the list from 2020 has crosby ranked #2 for an idea of how awful that list is.

NHL Rank: Predicting the 50 best players for the 2019-20 season

The top 50 players in the NHL: 2019-20

Those are the first two Google searches showing rankings that aren't fantasy related and he's #2 on both. Of course a guy is going to fall behind in ranking after he misses a full regular season.

Grade A research skills but you get a C at reading comprehension.

So the only rankings that are applicable in your mind come in the months directly after he takes home the Art Ross, the Hart, and the Lindsay for a season production wise not seen since Mario Lemieux's prime.

There was an entire other season after that.
 

Derailed75

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What'll really bake your noodle is, had the playoffs started 2-3weeks later than they did, he'd still have only been ready for game 1 of the playoffs. He came back early from rehab and it shows. he's ~75% of his normal self as far as his skating and stride go. Thankfully he's not a one dimensional player and can still play the slow it down game to F your team up.

Listen. The Bolts didnt break any rules. I have been defending them anytime someone said something. I think the league probably needs to look into changing the rule but nothing they did this season was against the rules. That being said you just typed a lot of dog crap. He was ready to go for the last week or two of the season and the Bolts docs didnt "clear" him to play until the post season and the only reason they did it was the cap escape. 75% my ass.

BTW my post was tongue in cheek.
 

Sinistril

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Oct 26, 2008
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So, he does not play this whole regular season, then he is ready to play on game number one of the Playoffs, fully rested with no injuries and no bruises from the regular season, and now people should think he is doing fantastic in the playoffs, go figure. if you cheat, you shouldn't get any rewards for bad behavior.


Do rested players do better in the playoffs? Why do teams that win in sweeps perform worse in the next round? Lets not pretend like Kucherov would be invisible if he had played the entire regular season. This isn't his first rodeo.

There clearly needs to be changes to the salary cap structure to make it include the playoffs somehow but that doesn't take away from what Kucherov is doing
 

Conbon

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Oct 4, 2016
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I still remember what he pulled against Nutivaara during the President's Trophy Sweep. I think he gets more respect than he deserves.
Josh Anderson really should have beat him to a pulp whether Kucherov wanted to go or not after that.
 

ForumNamePending

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Mar 31, 2012
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I didn't realize he was lacking in "respect".:dunno: He has won a Hart and made multiple end of year all-star teams, so the media certainly respects him. He has won a Lindsay, so other players respect him. Around places like this I think he is generally regarded as the best winger in the game, so fans respect him. If people haven't been slobbering over him enough recently, him missing the entire regular season probably has a lot to do with it... Out of sight out of mind, and all that.

The dude is clearly inner circle elite, and I think most people have no problem recognizing that.
 
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BurnabyJoe7

Derek Ryan is a top 6 forward change my mind
Apr 12, 2019
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So the only rankings that are applicable in your mind come in the months directly after he takes home the Art Ross, the Hart, and the Lindsay for a season production wise not seen since Mario Lemieux's prime.

There was an entire other season after that.
Well in this case yes because I mentioned pre injury. What other rankings do you suggest using since I mentioned "prior to injury"? Rankings typically come out at the beginning of each season and he wasn't even ranked in several lists for 2020-2021 (ie. Still No. 1: Connor McDavid tops Top 50 NHL Players list for fourth straight year - TSN.ca ).

Remember, I said he was ranked #2 in several lists before his injury to which you provided rankings dated in 2021, which was completely irrelevant. Carry on.
 

BurnabyJoe7

Derek Ryan is a top 6 forward change my mind
Apr 12, 2019
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Why would a player slide down rankings because he's injured? Would someone no longer consider McDavid number 1 if he spent a season on LTIR? Do you just arbitrarily slide him 5-6 spots just because?
I'm arguing he was #2 and should have remained there. Obviously recency bias comes into play if that wasn't a rhetorical question and when other players improve. If McDavid was injured for a full season it wouldn't surprise me to see him fall in rankings for the following year, although I would disagree on that and still have him #1.
 

pearljamvs5

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Jun 19, 2011
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...uhhh....Weird topic after he didn't play one game an entire season when his team was favorites to repeat, then is immediately in game shape for game one of the playoffs.
 

User9992

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Feb 27, 2016
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...uhhh....Weird topic after he didn't play one game an entire season when his team was favorites to repeat, then is immediately in game shape for game one of the playoffs.

Lightning wouldn't be favourites without Kuch. Kuch makes them favoutites to the SC.
 

Bolt32

Registered User
Aug 24, 2004
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Honestly speaking I believe that if he was a good ol Canadian boy, a lot of people would argue that hes actually better than Mcdavid. I'm personally starting to question it myself, is he actually? I think right now, he is the best in the world. When its all said and done for both of their careers, it will be interesting to compare the two. As of today though, I think hes the best in the world.
 

Video Nasty

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Mar 12, 2017
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So, he does not play this whole regular season, then he is ready to play on game number one of the Playoffs, fully rested with no injuries and no bruises from the regular season, and now people should think he is doing fantastic in the playoffs, go figure. if you cheat, you shouldn't get any rewards for bad behavior.

Pretty sure that the crux of the topic has nothing to do with this. His current playoffs is brought up as support to all the fine work he has over the last 5 or so years, not the end all be all. Hope that’s even clearer now.
 

DFC

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He's probably, but not definitely, the 2nd best forward in the game. Not sure if he's the second best player because it's really, really hard to judge him vs. Hedman. Apples and oranges.
 

DFC

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What'll really bake your noodle is, had the playoffs started 2-3weeks later than they did, he'd still have only been ready for game 1 of the playoffs. He came back early from rehab and it shows. he's ~75% of his normal self as far as his skating and stride go. Thankfully he's not a one dimensional player and can still play the slow it down game to F your team up.

He's the best stand-still player since Mario. I don't think it's even an argument.
 
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DFC

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Sep 26, 2013
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...uhhh....Weird topic after he didn't play one game an entire season when his team was favorites to repeat, then is immediately in game shape for game one of the playoffs.

Don't let the numbers fool you. He wasn't at 100% in the first two rounds. Even now, he's not quite up to speed.
 
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pearljamvs5

Registered User
Jun 19, 2011
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Don't let the numbers fool you. He wasn't at 100% in the first two rounds. Even now, he's not quite up to speed.
Just because he wasn’t at his best doesn’t mean he doesn’t get the respect he deserves. People are just skeptical about how he missed an entire season, but was healthy “just in time” to play in game 1 of the first round. ‍
 

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