espo*
Guest
This is my problem with you. Now you're only going with NHL accomplishments. Kharlamov was the better player. There's no doubt about it.
I understand you North Americans don't like to acknowledge Russians that haven't played in your all mighty league (and often not even then) but come on.
It's the other way around and i can't see how you've been here this long and have'nt noticed.I can count on one hand the amount of positive comments i've seen from Russian posters regarding North American players,that's not an exaggeration either!! But North American fans comlimenting Russian players? You see it in spades here,they are actually too complimentary at times given the total lack of respect for the skill level of our players they show our guys.
The reason guys like Kharlamov,Fetisov etc are not included in most North American top ten or top 20 lists is the mystery factor for the most part.Namely,how would they have done in the nhl with nhl style game calling (where physicality is not given penalties all night) the nightly nhl pro grind and not having their individual stats padded all to get go from playing on a best of Soviet Union squad like the red Army trouncing the beJesus out of inferior squads.
i don't doubt Kharlamov and a few others MAY have been top 20 players of all time but given the circumstances of the time it's hard for a lot of us to include them. That will be no such problem in todays realities and you see fans from here praise European players all the time.The same however STILL cannot be said about a lot of Euro's views about NA players ( eastern European fans and Russian fans in particular being the biggest offenders)
I don't mind you singing the praises of Russian players,just don't be untruthful that fans here don't do the same thing because they do!!.North American fans on this site are by FAR the most objective,respectful and un-biased of any group i see here on average.Almost to a fault actually, because for the most part it's not reciprocated on the other side of the pond concerning our players,at least in one particular zone of Europe anyway.