I'm concerned because this time I actually have access to pretty high altitude windows
Step back from the window sill please...
I'm concerned because this time I actually have access to pretty high altitude windows
So young players never improve? Players who had a poor previous season never bounce back? Are you saying that nobody will ever be as good as those who came before them?
It's not a black/white or linear situation here. If Looch hits 30 (+6), Smith nets 25 (+5), Krejci goes for 25 (+6) and Eriksson hits 20 (+10) then you've almost replaced Iginla without whatever Pastrnak/Spooner/Koko/Caron (joke) chip in.
That may not ALL happen at the same time next year, but none of it is outrageous or impossible by any stretch.
I'm concerned because this time I actually have access to pretty high altitude windows
Glad he called out Rask. The early exit is as much to blame on him as anyone else. No matter how good your team is, you need a goalie who can steal games in a long playoff run. Rask didn't do that. He's paid like a guy who should.
I love that the old players like Orr, Espo, and Park all believe that the current NHL is not offensively wide open as it could/should be. I HATE dump and chase hockey I LOVE breakways that go end to end. Give me more wide open high scoring hockey..
Well to your point Orr says in his book that getting rid of clutch and grab ended up being to the detrement of the game in that it sort of forces more high speed collisions and heavy hits rather than an offensive player having to deal with having their jersey grabbed..The problem with that is that in today's NHL everybody back checks and every team attempts to play defense without the puck.
I know some of the old timers will disagree with me here, but when I watch games from the 80's, it looks like squirt hockey. I'm shocked at how few players work to get back and help out. Instead, teams trade 3on2's until the "checking line" comes out (and then that group played determined two-way hockey, the Poulin's and Tikkanen's), but the rest of the time most of the guys coasted back hoping for a turnover that would send them the other way. You also see a lot of guys flying out of the Dzone early to try to get breakaway chances and leaving their teams temporarily shorthanded... Don't get me wrong, I also LOVED 80's hockey. Goalies had to be acrobatic back then and it was glorious to watch highlight reel saves and I loved seeing teams trading chances up and down the ice, but today's game is so much tighter. Players are guarded so much more closely. There isn't a team in the league that doesn't have some sort of trapping structure in the neutral zone, some sort of defensive zone system and a demand on players to back check. I don't know how you go back, but I'd be curious to hear some of Brad's ideas (Brad coached me for a bit so I can call him that ) on how to "teach" offense under today's tighter checking restrictions.