The One Where I Tilt At Windmills
In 2003-04, Jarome Iginla, just one year removed from a finger-dislocation condition that hampered his effectiveness the season before, bounced back to his second Hart-finalist season, garnering the Richard trophy and thoroughly rinsing the taste of the previous season out of his mouth.
Good time for a Lockout. As I mentioned before, St Louis lost out, too- but so did this guy.
The careers of Slava Fetisov and Valeri Vasiliev, collectively, span about 30 years- from the late '60s to the late '90s. Yes, we know, 81 Canada Cup & 96 World Cup/Hockey aside, Canada was the top hockey nation of that or any other era. However, the closest anyone ever came to presenting a threat to that hegemony were the 70s to early 80s Soviets. It certainly wasn't utterly uncompetitive. I don't think it's quota/set-aside thinking to say that if Canada produced double-digits top-100 players who played defense, Russia produced, oh, let's get wild and say two.
As a fan, I would happily accept the two apex years of Bernie Parent over ALL of Ed Belfour's Chicago résumé. [And, of course, Parent's non-apex years are certainly nothing for which he needs to apologize.]
The mid-70s were hockey's closest thing to a clear, sort-of competitive 1-2-3 punch between Canada, Russia, and Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia's runner-up 1976 Canada Cup showing certainly served notice to the North Americans. Of course, there were also the times Czechoslovakia topped the Soviets, too. In that '76 Cup tourney, the Canadians had eight top-100 players on their roster. In Czechoslovakia's victorious 1972 World Championship campaign, the Soviets had three top-100 players on their roster. [And, to my mind, that's almost certainly an under-count.] Is it unthinkable to suggest that the Czechoslovaks of that era had one measly top-100 player in the early to mid '70s?!? We really should have looked at Jíři Holeček and Vladimir Martinec long before this time. The fact that they'll both lose out in the numbers-game, even on my ballot, is regrettable.
Two final thoughts in passing- outside the shape-shifting cyber-halls of the History of Hockey sub-forum, Bernie Parent as a top-100 player is NOT a particularly controversial assertion. [Neither is the same assertion applied to Sid Abel, but that'll be addressed in a more "practical" post.]
One last visit to Czechoslovakia- mention was made of Martinec's three Golden Hockey Sticks, exceeded only by Jágr and Hašek. Well, we've had Retro-Smthyes and Retro-Norrises. If someone were to do such a thing as Retro-Golden Hockey Sticks, Martinec's total of three would almost certainly be crested, by someone who did not even get a stinking whiff here in this discussion.