Sidney Crosby / Bobby Clarke

[TheMoreYouKnow]

The More You Know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bHJj7avd4&p=FED817AF41C43286

That is not hockey. In this particular instance (buttend to the face of Pospisil) calling Clarke a POS is rather insulting to all P'sOS everywhere.

Tell me how many games Clarke would receive in todays game for that?

That was against Czechoslovakia...4 years after the Soviets drove tanks down the streets of Prague...if that even matters.

That was pretty naughty but do you think Clarke invented the butt-end to the face? Everyone knows Clarke would get a few hundred games worth of suspensions in our day and age but he's not a player today.

If cameras had been around in the 40s and 50s to such a degree and with better quality, what would they have caught all those legends do? Here's a hint, often enough they were trying to do serious violence to each other.

Clarke was a nasty piece of work no doubt but if we start disqualifying players for that we can dismiss most of hockey's pre-80s history and players like Chelios or Messier after that as well.

 

[JackSlater]

Way too much is made out of Clarke's antics against the Soviets when rating him as a player. Yes Clarke broke Kharlamov's ankle, but people neglect to note that he also played tremenous shutdown defence that seres, often against Kharlamov, before he even broke the ankle. It's also a tiny part of Clarke's overall body of work. Clarke didn't need those incredibly dirty plays to be extremely effective.

 

[VMBM]

Russians hated the Czechoslovakians more than they hated the Canadians, and they did treat the Czech's best player, Vladimir Martinec, just like the Canadians treated Valeri Kharlamov.

I'm not sure how consistent that was, though. I've seen about 5 USSR vs. CSSR games with Martinec, and I've never noticed any great, er, gooning on him - maybe a little bit in the 1978 WC 'final' (which was a slightly nasty affair anyway).

Tsygankov did definitely take Martinec out of the game in the 1974 WC, but I'm not sure if there are other examples of this. I once read an interview with Tsygankov where he talked about the incident and he seemed quite remorseful. I don't think he said it directly but one got the feeling that it was definitely deliberate/planned.

BTW, apparently Tsygankov got a 5 min penalty for whatever he did:

Československo – SSSR 1:3 (1:0, 0:3, 0:0) 18. dubna 1974 – Helsinky
Branky: 3:20 Jiří Holík (Paleček, Nedomanský) – 33:58 Michajlov, 34:53 JakuÅ¡ev (Lebeděv), 39:21 Malcev (Michajlov, Charlamov).
Rozhodčí: Josef Kompalla (GER), Frank Larsen (USA)
Vyloučení: 3:7 (1:0) + Cygankov na 5 min.
Diváků: 8 470

ČSSR: Holeček – Machač, Pospíšil, Bubla, Kužela, Suchý, Neubauer – Paleček (Veith), Nedomanský, Jiří Holík – Martinec (Paleček), Farda, B. Å ťastný - Ebermann, Hlinka, Augusta.

SSSR: Treťjak – Vasiljev, Gusev, Cygankov, Ljapkin, Å atalov, Lutčenko – Michajlov, Petrov (Malcev), Charlamov – Malcev (Petrov), Å adrin, JakuÅ¡ev – Repněv, Anisin, Kapustin.

From the Czech Wikipedia

 

[VMBM]

I like Clarke as a player (yes, he had elite skills in almost every area), but I would probably take Crosby; he just has more going for him, and IF he stays healthy (/healthier), I don't think there will be any debate about it inside a few years.

 

[BSHH]

Clarke does not get enough recognition here for being a brilliant leader of those Flyers' teams. Crosby certainly has a lot of intagibles, too, but during the long playoff runs in 2008 and 2009, he was shadowed by other players.

However, I would take Crosby. Clarke's outstanding career is very difficult to ignore, but Crosby already has become a good defensive player and is an offensive weapon in spite of those mediocre players on his line. Thus I prefer Crosby's amazing potential.

Gruß,
BSHH