Enjoy watching the youngsters elevate game to new heights Slap Shots
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Cale Makar won the Heisman, he won the Tony, he won the Golden Globe, he won the People’s Choice, he won the Internet, he won the Norris Trophy and, oh by the way, he won the game on Tuesday night in Chicago, you know he did, when he pulled a car-chaseslam-on-the-breaks-and-go-into-reverse-at100-mph move while leaving Kirby Dach as a chalk outline on the ice on his way to beating Marc-Andre Fleury in overtime.
These kids — Makar, the 23-year-old Avalanche star, is eight months younger than reigning Norris winner Adam Fox — not only keep executing plays that dazzle the imagination, the larger point is that they continue to imagine them. They continue to expand the boundaries. They are no longer the future of hockey. They are the present. They are the gifts that will keep on giving for generations.
Yes, we know that it is exponentially more difficult to score goals in this NHL than it was through the 1970s and 1980s. Fifteen of the top 18 single-season goal-scoring seasons were compiled in the 13 seasons from 1980-81 through 1992-93. The concept of adjusted goals is surely a righteous one.
Yet it is impossible to accurately extrapolate from one era to the next. How many goals would Phil Esposito have scored on rebounds if the league actually called crosschecking penalties in front of the net? If you think Connor McDavid never gets a call, check out the way Bobby Hull was allowed to be mugged with and without the puck throughout the 1960s.
Don’t you wonder at times what, say, Guy Lafleur might have done playing with newera equipment, skates and sticks, operating under current training, sports medicine and nutrition standards?
Yes, back-checking was largely an optional exercise back in the day, when Dennis Maruk scored 60 goals, players paced themselves through shifts that routinely lasted up to 2:00, fifth and sixth defensemen could barely turn, but the rink was also home to physical mayhem and players were indeed responsible for keeping their heads up.
➤ All this talk about Wayne Gretzky, Alex Ovechkin and history.
But if Gretzky is the greatest goal scorer of all time, then how come he did not get a shot in the Nagano shootout? Explain that one if you can, Marc Crawford.
And if the United States were playing in the Olympics and the Gold Medal game were being decided by a Home Run Derby, would the Team USA manager have bypassed a 37year-old Henry Aaron in the competition?
➤ You can add Dallas’ right defenseman John Klingberg to the endless list of potential marquee rental properties who will be attached to the Rangers over the next 10 weeks approaching the deadline because the fact is general manager Chris Drury owns enough cap space and prized prospects to get any one (any two?) he would want.
➤ The Legacy Teams in Pittsburgh and Washington, they just refuse to go away, now don’t they?
If you’re the Penguins, though, can you make Tristan Jarry’s Terrible 2021 Playoff Adventure just disappear the way the TV folks once made Bobby Ewing’s death a figment of everyone’s imagination? Is the hierarchy really going to have the confidence in Jarry to put the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin-Kris Letang Holy Trinity’s chance of a fourth Cup in the young man’s catching hand that came in the shape of a sieve last time around?
➤ Much to my surprise, there was nothing about Trent Frederic’s clumsy hit that injured Kirill Kaprizov in Boston on Thursday that would merit supplemental discipline. Kaprizov was vulnerable while falling after becoming entangled with Matt Grzelcyk, but Frederic not only hit the Minnesota winger from the side, but also appeared to ease up so as not to drive him into the boards.
I can only surmise that in making this correct call, VP George Parros adopted the George Costanza philosophy of doing exactly the opposite of his instincts and was eating a chicken salad on rye while reviewing the video of the incident.
➤ Eighteen for Thirty. Ranking the 18 Rangers who wore No. 30 before Henrik Lundqvist claimed it for his very own:
18. Dan Olesevich (House Goalie); 17. Julian Klymkiw (House Goalie); 16. Marcel Pelletier (House Goalie); 15. Dave Dryden; 14. Sylvain Blouin (LW); 13. Gilles Gratton; 12. Don Simmons; 11. Ed Giacomin (1965-66, 3.69 GAA, sent to AHL before donning No. 1); 10. Terry Sawchuk ;9. Grant Ledyard (D); 8. Larry Melnyk (D); 7. Cesare Maniago ;6. Kirk McLean ;5. Chris Nilan (RW); 4. Mike Dunham ;3. Glenn Healy ;2. John Davidson ;1. Gilles Villemure.
➤ It is moot court time, but if Fox, Charlie McAvoy and John Carlson had been named to the Team USA Olympic roster as right defensemen with the already-tapped Seth Jones, then who exactly would the Yanks have sent out against Canada’s Tom Wilson ... Jacob Trouba?
➤ The Islanders have not lost a game in three weeks, but they still keep losing ground in the playoff race. Tough league.
➤ Finally, Montreal executive VP Jeff Gorton isn’t necessarily seeking a general manager, he is actually looking for someone to write the French language version of his next letter.
This just in: Bryan Trottier has volunteered to do the translation in longhand.