Sales, not skill deciding honor
IT IS a marketing function, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you should bear that in mind when the NHL unveils the post-Original Six Era portion of its Greatest 100 Players on Friday night in Los Angeles as part of the league’s All-Star weekend.
And as such, I would expect current toss-ups — including Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Drew Doughty, Joe Thornton, Carey Price and maybe John Tavares or Steven Stamkos — to be named at the expense of others long retired and out of the public eye.
That’s OK, it is about promoting the league. But by the way, if Price is named, then Henrik Lundqvist most certainly should be on the list of honorees as well. Current bias is one thing, Canadian bias would be another.
The first 33, selected from the league’s first 50 years of operation, were announced Jan. 1 in Toronto before the outdoor Centennial Classic between the Maple Leafs and the Red Wings, which left a couple of puzzlements.
Why Johnny Bower and not Gump Worsley, each of whom won four Cups between 1962-68, when the Gumper had the edge in games played(681-582), wins (335250) and shutouts (43-37)? Absolutely, Bower had the better goals- against average (2.51-2.88) and lost many fewer matches (195-352), but Worsley did spend his first life playing for some pretty bad teams in New York before stamping himself as a Hall of Famer in Montreal. Just a guess, but perhaps Bower was named because he still is with us and can participate in — and enjoy — the honor. Maybe that is reason enough to include the former Toronto netminder, but Worsley — who won the Calder with the Rangers in 1952-53, lost his job to Bower the following season, then reclaimed it the year after that and kept it while Bower toiled in the AHL for the next four years — should not have been excluded.
Just four defensemen were included among the first 33, which seems kind of absurd. Among the honorees was Tim Horton, the original Have Another Donut NHLer. Horton played for 21 seasons and is worthy of the utmost respect. But he was named while Pierre Pilote was somehow snubbed.
True, Pilote played just 14 seasons, the final one in 1968-69 as Horton’s teammate after 13 years with the powerhouse, but only one-time champion Blackhawks. But Horton never won the Norris Trophy while Pilote is one of four defensemen in NHL history to win it three straight years — which he did from 1962-63 through 1964-65. The other three? Oh, only Doug Harvey, Bobby Orr and Nicklas Lidstrom.
Plus, playing contemporane- ously, Horton was named a firstteam All-Star once and a secondteam All-Star three teams, while Pilote was a first-teamer five (straight) times and a secondteamer three times. But Tim Horton is a national institution across Canada, while Pilote, not so much.
I kind of figure the reason Bobby Hull wasn’t included among the first era is because the league wants to introduce him in tandem with his son, Brett, on Friday night, even though the Golden Jet’s NHL career spanned 1957-72.
But that’s marketing.
What could the Devils get from the goaltender-needy Blues in exchange for Cory Schneider? Start with a top-six forward, perhaps Jaden Schwartz, and build out from there.
Because St. Louis is not going to get through with Jake Allen, and New Jersey general manager Ray Shero’s first priority should be to stock up with assets gained in exchange for the goaltender (yes, with a no-trade, so he would have to approve it) whose timetable doesn’t seem to mesh with his team’s.
If Cam Neely wants coach Claude Julien out in Boston, which the club president has for years according to myriad individuals, then Neely is going to have to own it, and that might not quite fit into No. 8’s world view.
In all the world, there has never quite been a trade so dramatically out of whack as the 1967 deal in which the Bruins got Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from Chicago for Pit Martin, Gilles Marotte and Jack Norris.
But my goodness, did the Wild really trade Brent Burns to the Sharks for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and a late firstrounder (who became Zack Phillips) in 2011?
Has there ever been a rule in hockey so selectively applied (and illogically unapplied) as the instigator? Well, other than CBA circumvention, that is.
This just in: The Rangers have announced they intended to take Ryan Getzlaf with the 12th overall pick of the 2003 Entry Draft.