Round 2, Vote 2 (HOH Top Wingers)

MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
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What's your point? Crosby missed out on awards because he was injured, Lafleur missed out because others were better. Which year are you not agreeing with?

Was Lafleur the best player in 1975? Orr, Esposito and Dionne all got more points than him. Clarke was on the ice for 19 even strength goals against during the entire season.

Was Lafleur the best player in 1976? He scored only slightly more points than Clarke during both regular season and playoffs, while providing none of the otherworldly defence of Clarke.

Was Lafleur the best player in 1979? Both Trottier and Dionne outscored him. Considering everything Trottier added to the game besides scoring a good case can be made that Trottier had passed Lafleur at this point. I'd call it a tie for Lafleur at best.

Was Lafleur the best player in 1980? Why did Gretzky and Dionne score so much more than him then?

He was clearly an elite player throughout this stretch, but please provide any evidence to support the claim that he was the best forward for six years straight.

See post 565
 

tarheelhockey

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Feb 12, 2010
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Abel's only three 20 plus goal seasons were with emerging Howe and Lindsay. suggesting that Abel received the greatest benefit.

I think it's useful to look at them in detail to get the full picture.

1941
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |22|11|22|33
Howe |x|x|x|x
Lindsay |x|x|x|x

1942
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |23|18|31|49
Howe |x|x|x|x
Lindsay |x|x|x|x

1943
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |24|18|24|42
Howe |x|x|x|x
Lindsay |x|x|x|x

1944/45/46 - War years. Abel left for WWII, and Lindsay played partial seasons as a teenager.

Now, obviously this whole picture is complicated by the war. But I think it's reasonable to perceive Abel as a guy who was good for about 20 goals and 30 assists a year at his 'natural' level. By the time Abel returned from the war, Lindsay had worked his way up to a regular role on the team. Howe had just come on as a teenage prospect.

1947
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |28|19|29|48
Howe |18|7|15|22
Lindsay |21|27|15|42

^ Note that Abel is right around that same 20-30 mark. The points are slightly more difficult to score in the post-war NHL, but there are 10 more games on the schedule, so it's a wash. Abel's production is basically unchanged.

New coach Tommy Ivan assembles the Production Line for the following season...

1948
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |29|14|30|44
Howe |19|16|28|44
Lindsay |22|33|19|52

^ Lindsay is now a couple of years into his prime, 1948 being his best goal-scoring season and his first AS award. Note that Lindsay has very few assists. Abel is still around that same 20-30 mark.

Now, watch what happens to Abel's goal scoring AND Lindsay's point scoring as Gordie Howe matures into his athletic prime.

1949
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |30|28|26|54
Howe (40 games)|20|12|25|37
Lindsay |23|26|28|54

1950
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |31|34|35|69
Howe |21|35|33|68
Lindsay |24|23|55|78

1951
Player | Age | Goals | Assists | Points Abel |32|23|38|61
Howe |22|43|43|86
Lindsay |25|24|35|59


It seems pretty apparent that Lindsay himself wasn't the one who elevated Abel, nor was Lindsay a particularly proficient playmaker when he was the star of his line. It was Howe's presence that elevated both Abel's goal-scoring and Lindsay's assist-scoring, and probably one linked directly to the other.


Red Wings favoured the dump and chase which put a premium on the wingers corner work.

Interesting observation that helps contextualize the numbers.
 

MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
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Sergei Makarov will be first. Excelled wherever he could excel for a sustained period, exceeded realistic expectations relative to players of his generation in his 30+ years (notable feat, considering how grueling Soviet training schedule was, and while seasons such as the ones he had wouldn't factor in that much, I'm totally ready to cross the line and say they should, considering his generation and the adaptation period that came with moving in NA), resume doesn’t suffer the same apparent flaws as Kharlamov (see below), stateline looks great in best-on-best situations (maybe not on year-to-year basis, but certainly on a consistent basis).

Guy Lafleur is currently second. The nothing-then-prime-then-nothing argument seemed more and more silly when reviewing how the players of his generation did in their first years in the league. Yes, some did better. But all of those comparables were in a situation to put up numbers that look great on surface. Lafleur was not only stuck behind a guy that was one of the best at its position -- at the moment Lafleur joined and not that much in retrospective -- but he was also on a notoriously conservative franchise. Couldn’t do what Bobby Orr did, but nobody’s being held to those standards at this point. That, added to the fact he’s really the link between Orr and Gretzky, regardless of what ones might think and say, or actually write, and he was the best player on a dynasty (something that needs to be accounted when considering longevity, at least, past the 9-games format), make him stand out here. Why not 1st? Era. It’s one thing to be the best; but being the best in an era where there was really three poles of pro hockey (no offence meant to Swedish, Finnish leagues), in a league that was expanding…you obviously end up facing competition that would be a little weaker that what it should be. Had Lafleur had two elite seasons in the 80ies, as opposed to two merely very good ones, he’d probably be first. Or, actually, fourth last round. Elite goalscorer AND playmaker.

Bill Cook is currently third. Just did too much for too long (considering era) to be put out of the first tier here. Deserves to get some « credit » for time loss due to war, even if most of it is problably useless due to how long his career was to begin with. All-around play too important to ignore. Brought quite a bit aside from scoring. Hart record looks okay considering era. It’s certainly not a flaw. Legitimately has at least two more AST berths at RW, possibly more, as he sometimes got the nod over players outproducing him. Below Lafleur due to somewhat average playoff output, never being considered at any point a Top-2 player in the game (the « 2 » is to include Makarov, as I think a solid argument can be made that he was indeed the 2nd best player of the world for a relevant period, while the first was an outlier). I guess I would have liked him to shine out a lil’ more versus Morenz, and as things are now, it’s not very close. The use of "currently" means I could switch him with Lafleur.

Michael Bossy is fourth. I feel like the whole case for Trottier vs. Bossy was way closer to a wash than to a foregone conclusion in favour of Trottier, which kindsof directly impact Bossy vs. Lindsay. This said, below Lafleur due to playoffs (as good as Bossy was). Career is short, but the same comment as for Lafleur : playing on a dynasty tended to reduce longevity somewhat once the playoff format got bigger. That’s basically a season and a half of playoffs in 10 years. Extremely consistent. What puts him below is non-elite playmaking and somewhat neutral non-offensive game.

Ted Lindsay is fifth. Quite consistent output (no off years in what would be considered his prime), but goalscorer-becoming-playmaker-with-advent-of-best-winger-ever… Yeah, basically. A case of « clearly third best skater » vs. « at worst third best skater » against Bossy, and I’ve made my position clear in Bossy’s part of my explanation. Ooze of intangibles still keeps him ahead of....

Alex Ovechkin. While I vehemently disagreed that he was a bad playoff performer, well, he’s still significantly below everyone ahead but Cook (Makarov obviously doesn’t really count) AND really, didn’t look good overall in international play either (not enough for this level at the very least). Yes, he has the Harts, but we can say A LOT of things on those Harts (this kinda goes against what I said to overpass earlier, but then again, that comment wasn't about injuries, which could explain Hart support). Offensive player pushed to the extreme, and his prime could be over or not, and I prefer to err on the side the prudence with modern players.

Canyon

Conacher and Mahovlich? Not much to say. I think both became available at the right time (as in, I don’t see those players as sticking out like a sore thumb), but is obviously not their turn. Right now, I tend to favor Mahovlich slightly, and I admit to have overrated him earlier. Conacher is a case of simultaneous wow-meh (at least at this level). I figure none of them are relevant at this stage.

Kharlamov? He’s last for me this round. I don’t think he’ll be relevant either, and I’m totally opened to change my views later on. But from my perspective, his case rests a lot on eye-witnessing and accounts. Which is a good basis for a case, except two caveats : depth and firsts. From my perception, he was likely the best, and the flashiest, they’ve seen. First of all, I’m not sure whether it’s attributable to the fact the depth was getting there… progressively… and was not quite there yet. I'd like to have a clearer perspective on this issue next round; again, this is too early for Kharlamov regardless of this. Add to this that his domestic record doesn’t appear to be that impressive vs. easy comparables (3M’s) and that hockey in Soviet Russia might or might not have gotten better (depth actually) between VK, BM, AM, and then Makarov, and you have somebody I'm having a hard-time ranking anywhere else than last, for now. Key word being : for now.
 
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TheDevilMadeMe

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I feel like you've made the point that goals > assists quite often in this project, especially when we were comparing Maurice Richard to Jaromir Jagr. Just a quick survey of these threads using the search feature...





^ Would this not be a show of support for Bossy, who was one of the best and most consistent playoff goal scorers ever?



^ Again, this pretty closely describes Bossy, who is basically a slightly-less-rich man's Richard.








^ Including that last one for fairness, because you did say point production was primary, but then there's that elliptical qualifier at the end...

And just so there's no misunderstanding, I'm not accusing you of anything negative here. I just feel like you've made the point over and over (primarily in support of Richard) that a winger's goal scoring totals take precedence over his assist totals. If that is the case, then it makes perfect sense to look at how two players relate in goal scoring first and then adjust to account for other factors. Which is what I was doing in the post about Bossy's and Lindsay's prime.

You know, you could have made the "Bossy was a better goal scorer" without taking random quotes of mine completely out of context and twisting them to make it seem like I argued that goal scoring is primary over point production. I've never advocated that goals in isolation tell us more than points. Just that if two players are relatively close in point totals, then it is worth looking for the better goal scorer. Scoring more goals can "bridge the gap," so to speak. You could have just used this to make the case for Bossy (and it's not necessarily wrong), rather than playing some cute "gotcha" game from last round.

You're right - I did emphasize goal scoring last round - because I felt that other voters were starting to overly rely on metrics like VsX, which treats goals as exactly equal to assists in all cases. And i think that's wrong. But it doesn't mean assists don't matter. I mean... take away assists and the only thing Gordie Howe has on Bobby Hull and Maurice Richard is a physical game and some defense, right?

Anyway, your cherrypicking of quotes completely omits any kind of playoff analysis (where Lindsay was much closer to Bossy than Jagr was to Richard). Completely omits any kind of talk about non-offensive ability. Lindsay >>> Bossy there, and while Richard wasn't any kind of defensive great he laps Jagr in leadership. Completely ignores that I (and others) believe that for discreet parts of Jagr's career, he put up empty points. Edit: Note that everything I said about Jagr/Richard here is my own interpretation of the data; I am not interested in re-arguing it, and I realize there are other interpretations of the data. I'm only bringing it up to defend myself against what is basically slander).

Double edit: My god, one of the quotes you are quoting even says that I think goal scorers should get "a little bit of a boost." :shakehead: seriously, nice spin job.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure in the last thread, I said I'd take Jagr over Richard if we were strictly talking about the regular season, regardless of all the other stuff. I didn't necessarily go into the round with that idea, but I came out of it thinking it. Perhaps you can do another search of my quotes last round to find out for sure?

______________

sorry everyone for taking this off-topic. Just felt the need to defend myself after... that thing of a post.
 
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TheDevilMadeMe

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I feel like we're taking Lindsay's point scoring completely at face value and not accounting for Howe at all, and it feels wrong.

I think Bossy is significantly better than Lindsay offensively.

Who is taking Lindsay's point totals at face value? His point totals fit right in between Bobby Hull and Maurice Richard, whether you use VsX or top 10 finishes. Nobody in this thread thinks he's that good offensively, therefore nobody is taking his point totals at face value.

Also, this is kind of playing Devil's advocate, but are we sure we should take Bossy's point totals completely at face value, considering what happened in 1979-80?

Don't forget Red Kelly...for those that want to bring up Potvin, Kelly has been shown pretty clearly to be the 3rd best offensive defenseman of all time after Orr and Coffey

Agree about Red Kelly - frankly, I think he helped Howe's numbers too.

But note that when Lindsay won the Art Ross in 1948-49, Red Kelly only scored 16 points. He wouldn't explode until the following season:

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/k/kellyre01.html

Lindsay is a tough player to evaluate, this is definitely true.

The toughest part is that in 48-49, which should have been Lindsay's year (winning the Art Ross by a decent clip with no elite offensive defenseman on the blueline, although Howe and Abel were his linemates and both were very good), Abel is the one who actually won the Hart Trophy.
 
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Dennis Bonvie

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Dec 29, 2007
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Sergei Makarov will be first. Excelled wherever he could excel for a sustained period, exceeded realistic expectations relative to players of his generation in his 30+ years (notable feat, considering how grueling Soviet training schedule was, and while seasons such as the ones he had wouldn't factor in that much, I'm totally ready to cross the line and say they should, considering his generation and the adaptation period that came with moving in NA), resume doesn’t suffer the same apparent flaws as Kharlamov (see below), stateline looks great in best-on-best situations (maybe not on year-to-year basis, but certainly on a consistent basis).

Guy Lafleur is currently second. The prime-then-nothing argument seemed more and more silly when reviewing how the players of his generation did in their first years in the league. Yes, some did better. But all of those comparables were in a situation to put up numbers that look great on surface. Lafleur was not only stuck behind a guy that was one of the best at its position -- at the moment Lafleur joined and not that much in retrospective -- but he was also on a notoriously conservative franchise. Couldn’t do what Bobby Orr did, but nobody’s being held to those standards at this point. That, added to the fact he’s really the link between Orr and Gretzky, regardless of what ones might think and say, or actually write, and he was the best player on a dynasty (something that needs to be accounted when considering longevity, at least, past the 9-games format), make him stand out here. Why not 1st? Era. It’s one thing to be the best; but being the best in an era where there was really three poles of pro hockey (no offence meant to Swedish, Finnish leagues), in a league that was expanding…you obviously end up facing competition that would be a little weaker that what it should be. Had Lafleur had two elite seasons in the 80ies, as opposed to two merely very good ones, he’d probably be first. Or, actually, fourth last round. Elite goalscorer AND playmaker.

Bill Cook is currently third. Just did too much for too long (considering era) to be put out of the first tier here. Deserves to get some « credit » for time loss due to war, even if most of it is problably useless due to how long his career was to begin with. All-around play too important to ignore. Brought quite a bit aside from scoring. Hart record looks okay considering era. It’s certainly not a flaw. Legitimately has at least two more AST berths at RW, possibly more, as he sometimes got the nod over players outproducing him. Below Lafleur due to somewhat average playoff output, never being considered at any point a Top-2 player in the game (the « 2 » is to include Makarov, as I think a solid argument can be made that he was indeed the 2nd best player of the world for a relevant period, while the first was an outlier). I guess I would have liked him to shine out a lil’ more versus Morenz, and as things are now, it’s not very close. The use of "currently" means I could switch him with Lafleur.

Michael Bossy is fourth. I feel like the whole case for Trottier vs. Bossy was way closer to a wash than to a foregone conclusion in favour of Trottier, which kindsof directly impact Bossy vs. Lindsay. This said, below Lafleur due to playoffs (as good as Bossy was). Career is short, but the same comment as for Lafleur : playing on a dynasty tended to reduce longevity somewhat once the playoff format got bigger. That’s basically a season and a half of playoffs in 10 years. Extremely consistent. What puts him below is non-elite playmaking and somewhat neutral non-offensive game.

Ted Lindsay is fifth. Quite consistent output (no off years in what would be considered his prime), but goalscorer-becoming-playmaker-with-advent-of-best-winger-ever… Yeah, basically. A case of « clearly third best skater » vs. « at worst third best skater » against Bossy, and I’ve made my position clear in Bossy’s part of my explanation. Ooze of intangibles still keeps him ahead of....

Alex Ovechkin. While I vehemently disagreed that he was a bad playoff performer, well, he’s still significantly below everyone ahead but Cook (Makarov obviously doesn’t really count) AND really, didn’t look good overall in international play either (not enough for this level at the very least). Yes, he has the Harts, but we can say A LOT of things on those Harts (this kinda goes against what I said to overpass earlier, but then again, that comment wasn't about injuries, which could explain Hart support). Offensive player pushed to the extreme, and his prime could be over or not, and I prefer to err on the side the prudence with modern players.

Canyon

Conacher and Mahovlich? Not much to say. I think both became available at the right time (as in, I don’t see those players as sticking out like a sore thumb), but is obviously not their turn. Right now, I tend to favor Mahovlich slightly, and I admit to have overrated him earlier. Conacher is a case of simultaneous wow-meh (at least at this level). I figure none of them are relevant at this stage.

Kharlamov? He’s last for me this round. I don’t think he’ll be relevant either, and I’m totally opened to change my views later on. But from my perspective, his case rests a lot on eye-witnessing and accounts. Which is a good basis for a case, except two caveats : depth and firsts. From my perception, he was likely the best, and the flashiest, they’ve seen. First of all, I’m not sure whether it’s attributable to the fact the depth was getting there… progressively… and was not quite there yet. I'd like to have a clearer perspective on this issue next round; again, this is too early for Kharlamov regardless of this. Add to this that his domestic record doesn’t appear to be that impressive vs. easy comparables (3M’s) and that hockey in Soviet Russia might or might not have gotten better (depth actually) between VK, BM, AM, and then Makarov, and you have somebody I'm having a hard-time ranking anywhere else than last, for now. Key word being : for now.

Not sure why he would be considered a poor playoff performer by some.

Ovechkin stands 9th in goals per game in the playoffs. Everyone ahead of him (except Richard) played in the 80s & 90s. And he's a +9 in the playoffs on teams that didn't win.
 

TheDevilMadeMe

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Sergei Makarov will be first. Excelled wherever he could excel for a sustained period, exceeded realistic expectations relative to players of his generation in his 30+ years (notable feat, considering how grueling Soviet training schedule was, and while seasons such as the ones he had wouldn't factor in that much, I'm totally ready to cross the line and say they should, considering his generation and the adaptation period that came with moving in NA), resume doesn’t suffer the same apparent flaws as Kharlamov (see below), stateline looks great in best-on-best situations (maybe not on year-to-year basis, but certainly on a consistent basis).

Guy Lafleur is currently second. The prime-then-nothing argument seemed more and more silly when reviewing how the players of his generation did in their first years in the league. Yes, some did better. But all of those comparables were in a situation to put up numbers that look great on surface. Lafleur was not only stuck behind a guy that was one of the best at its position -- at the moment Lafleur joined and not that much in retrospective -- but he was also on a notoriously conservative franchise. Couldn’t do what Bobby Orr did, but nobody’s being held to those standards at this point. That, added to the fact he’s really the link between Orr and Gretzky, regardless of what ones might think and say, or actually write, and he was the best player on a dynasty (something that needs to be accounted when considering longevity, at least, past the 9-games format), make him stand out here. Why not 1st? Era. It’s one thing to be the best; but being the best in an era where there was really three poles of pro hockey (no offence meant to Swedish, Finnish leagues), in a league that was expanding…you obviously end up facing competition that would be a little weaker that what it should be. Had Lafleur had two elite seasons in the 80ies, as opposed to two merely very good ones, he’d probably be first. Or, actually, fourth last round. Elite goalscorer AND playmaker.

Bill Cook is currently third. Just did too much for too long (considering era) to be put out of the first tier here. Deserves to get some « credit » for time loss due to war, even if most of it is problably useless due to how long his career was to begin with. All-around play too important to ignore. Brought quite a bit aside from scoring. Hart record looks okay considering era. It’s certainly not a flaw. Legitimately has at least two more AST berths at RW, possibly more, as he sometimes got the nod over players outproducing him. Below Lafleur due to somewhat average playoff output, never being considered at any point a Top-2 player in the game (the « 2 » is to include Makarov, as I think a solid argument can be made that he was indeed the 2nd best player of the world for a relevant period, while the first was an outlier). I guess I would have liked him to shine out a lil’ more versus Morenz, and as things are now, it’s not very close. The use of "currently" means I could switch him with Lafleur.

Michael Bossy is fourth. I feel like the whole case for Trottier vs. Bossy was way closer to a wash than to a foregone conclusion in favour of Trottier, which kindsof directly impact Bossy vs. Lindsay. This said, below Lafleur due to playoffs (as good as Bossy was). Career is short, but the same comment as for Lafleur : playing on a dynasty tended to reduce longevity somewhat once the playoff format got bigger. That’s basically a season and a half of playoffs in 10 years. Extremely consistent. What puts him below is non-elite playmaking and somewhat neutral non-offensive game.

Ted Lindsay is fifth. Quite consistent output (no off years in what would be considered his prime), but goalscorer-becoming-playmaker-with-advent-of-best-winger-ever… Yeah, basically. A case of « clearly third best skater » vs. « at worst third best skater » against Bossy, and I’ve made my position clear in Bossy’s part of my explanation. Ooze of intangibles still keeps him ahead of....

Alex Ovechkin. While I vehemently disagreed that he was a bad playoff performer, well, he’s still significantly below everyone ahead but Cook (Makarov obviously doesn’t really count) AND really, didn’t look good overall in international play either (not enough for this level at the very least). Yes, he has the Harts, but we can say A LOT of things on those Harts (this kinda goes against what I said to overpass earlier, but then again, that comment wasn't about injuries, which could explain Hart support). Offensive player pushed to the extreme, and his prime could be over or not, and I prefer to err on the side the prudence with modern players.

Canyon

Conacher and Mahovlich? Not much to say. I think both became available at the right time (as in, I don’t see those players as sticking out like a sore thumb), but is obviously not their turn. Right now, I tend to favor Mahovlich slightly, and I admit to have overrated him earlier. Conacher is a case of simultaneous wow-meh (at least at this level). I figure none of them are relevant at this stage.

Kharlamov? He’s last for me this round. I don’t think he’ll be relevant either, and I’m totally opened to change my views later on. But from my perspective, his case rests a lot on eye-witnessing and accounts. Which is a good basis for a case, except two caveats : depth and firsts. From my perception, he was likely the best, and the flashiest, they’ve seen. First of all, I’m not sure whether it’s attributable to the fact the depth was getting there… progressively… and was not quite there yet. I'd like to have a clearer perspective on this issue next round; again, this is too early for Kharlamov regardless of this. Add to this that his domestic record doesn’t appear to be that impressive vs. easy comparables (3M’s) and that hockey in Soviet Russia might or might not have gotten better (depth actually) between VK, BM, AM, and then Makarov, and you have somebody I'm having a hard-time ranking anywhere else than last, for now. Key word being : for now.

I don't agree with every one of your rankings, but our similarities are closer than our differences.

I think posting explanations along with your order helps everyone a lot more than just posting a list with no explanation.
 

Hawkey Town 18

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Agree about Red Kelly - frankly, I think he helped Howe's numbers too.

But note that when Lindsay won the Art Ross in 1948-49, Red Kelly only scored 16 points. He wouldn't explode until the following season:

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/k/kellyre01.html

Lindsay is a tough player to evaluate, this is definitely true.

The toughest part is that in 48-49, which should have been Lindsay's year (winning the Art Ross by a decent clip with no elite offensive defenseman on the blueline, although Howe and Abel were his linemates and both were very good), Abel is the one who actually won the Hart Trophy.

49-50 is the year that Lindsay won the Art Ross, a year in which Kelly jumped up from 16pts the previous year to 40pts. Lindsay did have a solid year in 48-49, finishing tied for 3rd in points with Abel, but 14 off the lead.

In 49-50 (with a prime Red Kelly) Lindsay led the league in scoring by 9pts and the Hart went to goalie Chuck Rayner
 

TheDevilMadeMe

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49-50 is the year that Lindsay won the Art Ross, a year in which Kelly jumped up from 16pts the previous year to 40pts. Lindsay did have a solid year in 48-49, finishing tied for 3rd in points with Abel, but 14 off the lead.

In 49-50 (with a prime Red Kelly) Lindsay led the league in scoring by 9pts and the Hart went to goalie Chuck Rayner

:facepalm: to me

You're right of course.

I remembered that Abel finished higher than Lindsay in Hart voting the year Lindsay won the Art Ross, and got it mixed up with the year Abel won the Hart.

This was the Hart voting in 1949-50, when Lindsay won the Art Ross:

1949-50
HART: (108/108, 18-18-18)
1. Chuck Rayner, NYR G 36 (8-6-0)
2. Ted Kennedy, Tor C 23 (4-3-5)
3. Maurice Richard, Mtl LW 18 (3-2-5)
4. Sid Abel, Det C 10 (0-3-4)
T5. Bill Durnan, Mtl G 6 (2-0-0)
T5. Milt Schmidt, Bos C 6 (1-1-1)
T6. Edgar Laprade, NYR C 3 (0-1-1)
T6. Ted Lindsay, Det LW 3 (0-1-1)

Sure doesn't make Lindsay look all that good...

Looking through the Hart voting, Lindsay looks like a guy who regularly received 2 or 3 votes but no more. Even his 4th and 5th place finishes were with very few votes.

Yeah... Hart voting definitely doesn't make Lindsay look all that great.
 

tarheelhockey

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without taking random quotes of mine completely out of context and twisting them ... rather than playing some cute "gotcha" game from last round. ... Anyway, your cherrypicking of quotes ...
I'm only bringing it up to defend myself against what is basically slander) ... :shakehead: seriously, nice spin job. ... Just felt the need to defend myself after... that thing of a post.

I'm... kind of surprised by the tone of hostility here.

I got the impression last round that you argued rather explicitly in favor of a player whose scoring was slanted toward goals rather than assists, particularly at playoff time. I mean, you directly stated that goals are worth more than assists, in both that thread and this one.

There's nothing slanderous about that impression. It's just what I thought you were saying. When you said you didn't remember it, I literally just typed the word "goal" with your username into the search function and found the posts that I was referring to.

Maybe I'm stepping on your toes in a way that I don't even realize, for which I apologize if that's the case. I have to admit, I'm a little bit confused about what part of this you found so offensive.

completely omits any kind of playoff analysis (where Lindsay was much closer to Bossy than Jagr was to Richard). Completely omits any kind of talk about non-offensive ability.

I was kind of hoping you would make a case for Lindsay's playoffs being better than Bossy's, since you made a couple of passing references to that effect. I think Bossy's playoff case is pretty straightforward and not sure what more needs to be added beyond common knowledge.

As far as talking about non-offensive ability -- I wouldn't say it has been omitted at all. I ranked him #1 on the leadership/intangibles list that started this line of discussion, and also put his peak above Bossy's with a specific reference to his all-round game. I'm not sure I've written a post about Lindsay that didn't acknowledge his superior intangibles... not sure what else can be said in this regard?
 

TheDevilMadeMe

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6,981
Brooklyn
Annoyed because of the obvious "call out" nature of the post, and the selective use of quotes.

Anyway, back to the players, I think that just looking at Lindsay's hockey reference profile combined with what we know about his leadership, he's a very good playoff performer - only Richard, Howe, and Geoffrion seem better of his generation. But it's probably not as good as Bossy.

Anyway, all this back and forth between Lindsay and Bossy has convinced me to rank Ovechkin above both of them.
 

Captain Bowie

Registered User
Jan 18, 2012
27,139
4,414
Annoyed because of the obvious "call out" nature of the post, and the selective use of quotes.

Anyway, back to the players, I think that just looking at Lindsay's hockey reference profile combined with what we know about his leadership, he's a very good playoff performer - only Richard, Howe, and Geoffrion seem better of his generation. But it's probably not as good as Bossy.

Anyway, all this back and forth between Lindsay and Bossy has convinced me to rank Ovechkin above both of them.
How "extremely pro-modern" of you. :laugh:
 

seventieslord

Student Of The Game
Mar 16, 2006
36,163
7,300
Regina, SK
How "extremely pro-modern" of you. :laugh:

Ranking players on their merits as opposed to just based on when they played, isn't being "pro modern".

Rather than send a silly little snipe in his direction, the honorable thing to do would be to respond to the points made last night. Based on the evidence presented, are you convinced about the wchl? If not, why?
 

Say Hey Kid

War, it's just a shot away
Dec 10, 2007
23,937
5,698
ATL
Ovechkin:

Strengths: Good regular season offense

Weaknesses: Poor defense, poor clutch playoff scoring (not playoff ppg), poor playoff leadership, has never taken a team to the Conference Finals.

Conclusion: There's no way he should go top 18 in this project. :)
 

VMBM

And it didn't even bring me down
Sep 24, 2008
3,814
763
Helsinki, Finland
This made me think about how many all-star selections Makarov would have had if Jari Kurri had stayed in Europe for his entire career. Well we know that Makarov made the all-star team in the 1982 and the 1989 World Championships while competing with Kurri. But what about the time in between? Does prime Kurri steal any of prime Makarovs all-star selections during that time? Well considering that Makarovs scoring finishes during those four tournaments (83, 85, 86 and 87) was 1st, 1st, 1st and 2nd, Kurri would really have had to play at the very top of his ability to have a chance of stealing even one or two of Makarovs all-star selections. So even if Makarov would have had to compete with a prime Kurri throughout most of his own prime he would still most likely have ended up with between 6 and 8 all-star selections. My bet would probably be that he still would have 8. We can never know for sure of course.

I really doubt Kurri would've had a big impact on the all-star selections, unless he had been truly exceptional. Namely, Finland still did poorly at the World Championships in the 1980s - only once we qualified for the final round (1986). It would've been hard to select a player to the all-star team from a team that finished 5th/6th or something like that - unless, like said, he would've been out of this world. But Kurri was usually at least 'good', when he did play for Finland, though.

Makarov still had pretty tough competition at RW some years as it was. Between 79-83 for example.

79: Boris Mikhailov, Helmuts Balderis, Vladimir Martinec, Marian Stastny
81: Guy Lafleur, Lanny McDonald, Mike Gartner, Jiri Lala, Vladimir Martinec, Viktor Shalimov, Nikolai Drozdetsky
82: Jiri Lala, Jari Kurri, Dino Ciccarelli, Mike Gartner, Viktor Shalimov, Nikolai Drozdetsky,
83: Jiri Lala, Dave Taylor, Mike Gartner, Helmuts Balderis

I agree however that Kharlamov had tougher competition from regular WHC-players (players who played pretty much every tournament).

True, during Kharlamov's prime/peak there were no NHL players at the World Championships, and his biggest rivals were from his own team & Czechoslovakia (aforementioned Firsov, Yakushev plus Kapustin, Jiri Holik etc.). However, those Canadian (super)stars rarely performed at their own level in the WHCs; for example, Guy Lafleur was poor in 1981 (1 point in 7 games, I think). Not all were so impressed even with Wayne Gretzky; when reading some of the old media coverage of the 1982 WHC, the Finnish writers are really hard on him (he underperformed during the first part of the tournament). The tone changed a little bit in the medal round, when Wayner had some big games, but they still opinioned that there were many better Russian players in the tournament. (Gretzky got an all-star berth, but Shalimov was selected as the best forward.)

Sure, a couple of Canadians won the best forward award, but I happen to believe that those selections in 1978 and 1979 (Dionne & Paiement, respectively) were IIHF Directorate's way of kissing Canadian butt for Team Canada's 'good behavior' - in contrast to the crap that happened at the 1977 WHC. That is NOT to say that Dionne and Paiement did not play well, but there's no way Dionne was better than Ivan Hlinka or Helmuts Balderis in 1978 or Paiement as good as Mikhailov and Makarov in 1979. Yes, I'm rewriting history & proud of it! :rant:

PS. Seems that Kharlamov doesn't get much consideration during this round. Hopefully there's more discussion on him in the next round.
 
Last edited:

bobholly39

Registered User
Mar 10, 2013
22,323
15,021
Ovechkin:

Strengths: Good regular season offense

Weaknesses: Poor defense, poor clutch playoff scoring (not playoff ppg), poor playoff leadership, has never taken a team to the Conference Finals.

Conclusion: There's no way he should go top 18 in this project. :)

Your bias is cute.

He is also tied for 4th all time - all positions combined - for most hart trophies in nhl history.
 

Hardyvan123

tweet@HardyintheWack
Jul 4, 2010
17,552
24
Vancouver
Not sure why he would be considered a poor playoff performer by some.

Ovechkin stands 9th in goals per game in the playoffs. Everyone ahead of him (except Richard) played in the 80s & 90s. And he's a +9 in the playoffs on teams that didn't win.

The thing is that often people let perception get in the way of the facts.

Guys get reputations, good and bad, and all too often people starting believing in them too much and don't look at the whole picture for them.

This tends to also be more true here of people we never saw play, we can and sometimes do dismiss perception of modern players because our eyes don't register the perception and there is all too much reluctance to use the same bar or "critical eye" on players we have never seen.
 

amnesiac

Space Oddity
Jul 10, 2010
13,745
7,584
Montreal
Ovechkin:

Strengths: Good regular season offense

Weaknesses: Poor defense, poor clutch playoff scoring (not playoff ppg), poor playoff leadership, has never taken a team to the Conference Finals.

Conclusion: There's no way he should go top 18 in this project. :)

I love how some people think it only take ONE player to "carry" a team to the Cup, especially in today's 30-team parity ridden league. Hockey is probably the most team oriented sport out there. This isnt the NBA where you play more 95% of the game.

Even then 31G 61 pts in 58GP is over PPG if my math is correct, and pretty damn good considering this is a DPE. Cant blame Ovie for how his team was built (poor D and goaltending).

Ill take him and his 3 Harts over Bossy (who was considered the 3rd best on his team!). Had Ovie played on a dynasty in the 70s/80s he wouldve/would be scoring MORE than Bossy and won 4+ Cups, no question.
 

Hardyvan123

tweet@HardyintheWack
Jul 4, 2010
17,552
24
Vancouver
Ovechkin:

Strengths: Good regular season offense

Weaknesses: Poor defense, poor clutch playoff scoring (not playoff ppg), poor playoff leadership, has never taken a team to the Conference Finals.

Conclusion: There's no way he should go top 18 in this project. :)

:shakehead is about the only appropriate response to the above.

Any evaluation of players that doesn't have AO in the top 18 wingers of all time would have serious logical flaws, even if AO had a Marcel Dionne type of playoff metric (which he obviously doesn't).

Obviously Glenn Anderson should be top 10 using your metric eh?
 

MXD

Original #4
Oct 27, 2005
50,811
16,548
I love how some people think it only take ONE player to "carry" a team to the Cup, especially in today's 30-team parity ridden league. Hockey is probably the most team oriented sport out there. This isnt the NBA where you play more 95% of the game.

Even then 31G 61 pts in 58GP is over PPG if my math is correct, and pretty damn good considering this is a DPE. Cant blame Ovie for how his team was built (poor D and goaltending).

Ill take him and his 3 Harts over Bossy (who was considered the 3rd best on his team!). Had Ovie played on a dynasty in the 70s/80s he wouldve/would be scoring MORE than Bossy and won 4+ Cups, no question.

Once again, the whole 3rd best on team that is repeated like its canon... Is everything but canon. Also, as you said yourself, the Isles were a dynasty, and one of the reasons why they were a dynasty was superior players.

And the whole Isles would have won more cups appears highly speculative, considering which teams they'd have to beat to get those cups...

Again, I'm not saying AO was bad in playoffs. He just wasn't as good as the reminder of the top-10,/Cook and Makarov notwithstanding.
 

Captain Bowie

Registered User
Jan 18, 2012
27,139
4,414
Ranking players on their merits as opposed to just based on when they played, isn't being "pro modern".

Rather than send a silly little snipe in his direction, the honorable thing to do would be to respond to the points made last night. Based on the evidence presented, are you convinced about the wchl? If not, why?

First of all, it was a joke, so relax.

Second of all, is that what you are really accusing me of? I placed the more modern players high specifically of when they played (even though, to me, Lafleur and Bossy certainly aren't "modern", they're old-timers). Even after I went exchanged several posts with TDMM giving my reasons of why I had the players where I did.

I'm sorry if not going through my reasons again is not honourable. And I don't really appreciate being accused of being biased and not doing my research considering the amount of time of my summer I have already given to this project, and will continue to do so.
 

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