2009-2010 was painful, watched with some people I’m glad are not in my life hung with many shady individuals
To me at least, confidently saying they win in 5 games makes me feel like you think they are the significantly better team, which is where my pause comes from. Lose Necas/Rantanen and feel they are equals? Sure. Lose that and think they’re slightly better? Maybe. Lose that and think they’re better, despite the evidence? Eh. Lose those two and think they are significantly better? Expound.
We sure about this? Their underlying numbers scream fraud. Absolutely mid at 5 on 5 offense generation A cool +24 finishing Solid defensive numbers for sure. 14 goals saved above expected at 5 on 5 in addition to that solid defense. The most likely scenario is that in the playoffs the shooting regresses to the mean and teams take full advantage of Ovi at 5 on 5 and the Caps are forced to try and trap and goalie their way through the playoffs.
Keith Tkachuk: 538 goals 1065 points 1201 games Not a sniff of the HoF Marchand: 422 goals 976 points 1090 games Most suspensions in NHL history 1st ballot HoFer
Marchand at least finished 5th in Hart voting twice, Tkachuk finished tenth once but wouldn’t say Marchand is a first ballot lock
Marchand is helped by heavily contributing to a Cup, his international success (World Juniors gold, World Championship Gold, World Cup/Four Nations) and is top 10 in career shorthanded goals. Plus his career progression will get sympathy votes.
Just one cup is disappointing considering the talent and sustained success of that org. WJC is meaningless as Canada should win more than half the time with their talent advantage. Nobody cares about World Championships with deflated rosters. 4 Nations is obviously meaningless as all Canadians told us going into the tournament. Credit to the top 10 SHG, who else is on that list?
The cup is hard to win multiple times. Canadians are about WJC and Canadians will be voting. The triple gold club is a thing so obviously there’s some attention to the WCs. It’s not Marchand’s fault the two years he would’ve been a lock for the Olympics there were no NHLers. Four Nations doesn’t move the needle much but helps sum up his international career.
I don’t really pay attention to the HOF so maybe first ballot is optimistic, but he’ll get in at some point.
Yeah the media loves him. He’s a very good complimentary player, never once being the best or most valuable on his own team. But got hart votes.
It's bad enough that cups matter so much, but it's even dumber that international success matters for the HOF
why? it’s the hockey hall of fame, not the nhl hall of fame. And would you want to expell women out of it?
fine to consider individual play in international events dumb to give people credit for being born in Canada
I agree, there is a Canadian bias and i would give way more crédit to the Russians that came over and raised the game up than they get.
It's really unfair to players from non-powerhouse countries. They can virtually never benefit from it like players from Canada, the US, Russia, and Sweden can.
I'll add that it made sense when all of the best players in the world weren't entirely concentrated in one league.
Because a short tournament isn’t a good barometer for a career achievement award. Especially when you’re a secondary player on those teams riding coattails. I just am pushing back at unquestionably being a first ballot HoFer, like the broadcast suggested yesterday.
Agreed. Like Pasta has been a better player than Marchand for a decade. But he’ll never get to stack up random tourney wins like Marchand can to add to his resume. Just because of the country he was born in.
Give Marchand the exact same career but in Nashville and we aren’t even talking about first ballot as a possibility.
sure but he will not get the same crédit that a player of his caliber would get if that player was Canadian or american. not a huge deal, but un fair
Obviously I’m not a voter but Drai is closer to first ballot HoFer for me than Marchand. But that’s based on me thinking he’s a much better hockey player, not some random achievements thanks to being a top 25 Canadian player of his age group.
I mean it’s not a huge deal when you consider nothing about the hall of fame is fair. Your NHL career depends so much on the team built around you. Plus the selection committee is already biased toward North America with over 80% of the committee being North American.
Marchand would definitely not be first ballot in 2025 given the strength of the first-time eligible pool. It’s really a strange thing for a broadcast to definitively say since it hinges so much on who else is eligible the first year he is eligible.
If 70% of the league is NA, the HoF committee being 80% doesn’t seem that far off. Actually surprised it’s that high.
not sure i agree here, it is a team sport so always tough to really calculate exactly the impact of some players but being part of a winning team is huge. It is not easy to win at that level and being part of a team that wins because you found your place to be a part of the solution is important. That being said, some things are out of your contrôle .
Another fun NHL rule/officiating incident. Winnipeg’s Appleton trucks Carolina’s Kotkaniemi away from the play. Refs completely miss it. Kotkaniemi’s bell is clearly rung. Play is stopped. Linesman tells ref he missed the interference. Turns out, Appleton’s stick incidentally hit Kot as well. Because of that they can call a 4 min minor for high sticking even though the stick didn’t cause an injury but because an injury occurred on the play.