Fifth Avenue Forum

One game Lindros vs career Yzerman, that is...?

I don't care to, but there's a single number that could make a case for picking Yzerman for both, and that number is 155...it is not completely insignificant...

Playoff games?

Points in a single season.

Yeah, it's the highest non-66/99 total in history and it was done outside of a particularly weak time (Wars, early 80's, and on a microlevel early 00's and early 10's)...

What's more, it was done with almost no help...there were no other 100 point scorers on the team...he was just kind of dragging Gerard Galant along for the ride for a little bit there...the best outlet passer he had, by about a mile, was just Steve Chiasson - with all due respect to him...just an okay player, only once cracked 50 points, never once got even a token Norris vote...

Yeah, I pick Lindros at his peak over Yzerman in his peak even considering the 93 season. That physical dominance from Lindros until he met Scott Stewens...

But Yzerman has a monster career value.

I know the point you're trying to make, and it's very agreeable...it's just funny that even in your backing of it, there's still this twinge of, "will he even make it through this one game...?" haha

His problem was fundamental. Lemieux's was much more out of his control. When Lemieux started a game, he was gonna finish it. When Lindros started a game, you weren't 100% he could finish it...there's another feather for maybe Yzerman being the answer anyhow...plus, assuming this is a big game, Yzerman turned out to be much more clutch than Lindros...one time, stepping on Lindros's face to change his career resume...

Lindros's lone (?) point in the 1997 Final, if I recall, game with 56 seconds in game 4 of a sweep with the series already over...

I would like to see a different universe where Gretzky has to be drafted into the NHL, and how his numbers look under that circumstance.

I would like to see a different universe where Gretzky has to shoot on actual athletes and not the little brothers he went against in the 80s, and how his numbers look under those circumstance.

I would like to see Ovie against those goalies. As much as I hate to say it, but I think he's the best goal scorer there's been

I'd like to see a different universe where Howe didn't have to play a HOF goalie three nights a week...he'd have 1000 goals...you can only play the hand you're dealt...

Goaltending in the early 80's isn't good, but there are some guys in there that were better than their numbers: Liut, Bouchard, etc. we watch a compilation of Gretzky and Lemieux goals, a video where there are no saves made, and go, "look at how bad it was..." - again it wasn't great, it was one of the lower points in NHL history and the lowest since the WWII years...but everyone one else had that choice at the time, Gretzky lapped them...

And early on, it wasn't a dynamo roster either...he led the league in points and won the Hart as a teenager playing with Blair MacDonald and Brett Callighen mostly...two guys that were out of the league by 1983...

Already by 20 years old (his second season), he won the scoring race by more than 20% second place.

The Oilers team scoring was:
Gretzky 55+109=164 (+41)
Kurri 32+43=75 (+27)
Messier 23+40=63 (-12)
Callighen 25+35=60 (+13)
Anderson 30+23=53 (+4)

Legitimately lapped the second place guy on the team, and it would have been more, but he had to play with someone haha...

##

In 40 years, we'll say, "Would Sidney Crosby even be a 2nd liner in this league today...?" no one ever suspects it, but they're not living in the best the sport has to offer, but a lot of flunkies in this realm try to measure players to some constantly antiquated measure instead of trying to do it a more useful way...

NSFW (music):

Kaspy will always be one of my favorites.

What an animal. I still say the reason he blew so many guys up was because he didn’t look like he was going to have enough leverage to smear you. If he didn’t low bridge you, he came at you almost straight up and down. Not a lot of leg bend. Not a lot of hip bend. Still laid the wood to ya

Watching that highlight reel, he’s up the list as one of the best I can remember seeing at targeting center mass. Scott Stevens is up there as well, but he was a more imposing physical specimen than Kasparitis. Kaspar honed in on center mass and never missed. He wasn’t catching a shoulder or a piece of the skater, he was getting every ounce of force he had into the skaters center of gravity and put them on their ass. Unless of course he came in with the low bridge. He’ll always be one of my favorites.

I never played hockey to the point where checking was allowed so I never really learned a lot of the techniques (and let's face it, I am a small dude. Even if I learned it wouldn't really do me much)

I played football and rugby so I get tackling, but I'm still impressed at how well pros can check on ice. Shoulder checks are easy to figure out but a lot of what Kasper does in that clip with either his arms or in a hip check is amazing to me. Probably requires a **** ton of work in the weight room and a ton of time perfecting the technique

The Pens' highlight video for Kaspy was always my favorite. I'm talking back in the days of Real Media Player. The video used "Boom! Shake the Room" by Will Smith as the background music, and it was perfection. I am 100% positive that I have a copy of it somewhere, on some form of media in my house.

Awww sheeit, found it in my online backup. Enjoy, despite the 2002 potato quality:

Matt Murray with the league worst 4.82 GAA. Happy to be posting this in NPR.

Matt Murray with the league worst 4.82 GAA. Happy to be posting this in NPR.

I was going to post this last night, actually. I'm surprised that it's that low. I honestly thought it was over 5.

Matt Murray with the league worst 4.82 GAA. Happy to be posting this in NPR.

I was going to post this last night, actually. I'm surprised that it's that low. I honestly thought it was over 5.

He usually gets pulled early enough to keep it below 5

Do...do you know what GAA means...?

Yes it was just a bad joke leave me alone

I’ll admit I always thought GAA was per game, not per 60

Rat

Sunday @ 2pm on NBC - Doc Emrick: The Voice of Hockey

The program will feature more than a dozen current and former broadcasters sharing their thoughts on the now-retired play-by-play broadcaster. Emrick did interviews for the special but asked the network not to tell him anything in advance, so he can enjoy it like a gift.

“It’s like a present,” Emrick said Tuesday from his Michigan home. “They’re doing a really nice thing for me, and I would rather not ask a lot of questions about, well, what are you getting me for Christmas?”

NBC Sports got Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Martin Brodeur, T.J. Oshie and many others to weigh in on Emrick, who was the voice of the the sport in the United States before putting down the headset this past fall. Crosby says Emrick was a legend when they first met in 2005 and that “he describes exactly what you’re feeling in that moment as a player.”

*gag*