Great players win rings PERIOD
Exactly, so the benefit of the doubt should be given, until we’re talking about a McDavid in his 30s who hasn’t even participated in a Cup Final. And even then, anyone with an ounce of rational critical thinking should be able to analyze his career with context. Bourque was still the second best defenseman ever, pre Stanley Cup. Winning it changed nothing, besides having a warm fuzzy sports moment and his own personal journey and goals fulfilled.
I guarantee if these boards existed in 1990, you wouldn’t take the same stance with Mario as you do with McDavid.
Mario made the playoffs once and played 11 playoff games during his first 6 seasons in which all but 5 teams made the playoffs.
He missed 54 games in his 7th year, but the team was finally good enough to weather his absence until he made his season debut in late January and obviously, he led them on a historic playoff run.
Luckily, his team did more than tread water for the first 4 months of the season because if not, his entire storyline changes. He would miss the playoffs for the 6th time in 7 seasons and the timeline shifts in a way we’ll never know. He played 90 out of a possible 160 games in the regular season during the 2 Cup years.
The Oilers are not making the playoffs in two seasons where half the teams make them if McDavid misses 44% of the games.
I say none of this to discredit Lemieux (he’s my second favorite ever), but you got to call a spade a spade sometimes.
Try not to be such a slave to the sweater once in a while.
Players as great as McDavid usually gets theirs in the end. And if they don’t, well, people should understand what he was drafted into.
Zero regular season and playoff success doesn’t stop players like Barry Sanders from being considered the greatest (or one of) at their position. The same should hold true for McDavid. Gretzky and Lemieux have that position locked up forever. McDavid can be the 3rd greatest C with time though. We understand how bad his situation is and while things should get noticeably better for next season with cap space, people should be able to step back and think more critically than the regurgitated talking points of shock jock radio.