2020-2021 NHL Thread
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
Heroic Shrimp
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https://twitter.com/SanJoseSharks/status/1384336683689070595
OldTimeHockey
Active member
Nik said:
Yeah, I'm not sure what he's really getting at there.
OldTimeHockey
Active member
Peter D. said:
I agree 100%. He's nowhere near what he previously was but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a spot on teams. No, he doesn't belong on the Leafs at $6 million. But he did pot 10 goals last year in 64 games. That's just under 15 goals in an 82 game season.
bustaheims
Active member
OldTimeHockey said:
He also produced at a reasonable rate for a player on a league minimum contract last season. This season, not so much, but signing him was still a reasonable value bet for San Jose.
Also, it's not all on him for sticking around. San Jose and the rest of the league could have easily not signed him.
bustaheims
Active member
Also, if it wasn't for a pair of lockouts, he would have broken the record in his last year as a Leaf - when he was still producing near a top 6 rate and just starting to really show signs of a significant decline..
He might have had to play longer than he should have to chase this record, but if Ovi needed to play until he's 45 years old when all he can do is camp out on his PP spot to break Gretzky's goal scoring record I'd still see it as a pretty groundbreaking achievement.
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
Also, Howe played his final 80 NHL games when he was in his 50s. Let's not pretend like he didn't stick around past his best before date. Had he not had that comeback, both Francis and Messier would have broken his record in 2004.
Peter D.
Moderator
bustaheims said:
I agree with all this.
And it's not just that. It's a testament to his durability. The game tomorrow will be his 900th consecutive game, which in and of itself is an incredible feat, let alone for someone his age. He's missed no more than 6 games in a season. He is averaging over 13 minutes a game as a 41 year old; he was averaging over 15 minutes in the previous thee seasons. Sure, his production isn't there anymore, but that's no longer what's expected of him, and it's sure not like he is not being used -- they're not just throwing him out there for two shifts to bank another game to the record.
Further to all that, he's avoided injury. He could have tweaked his groin, caught a rut twisting his knee, taken a hit that left him woozie, etc. *knock on wood*
Sure, seeing Marleau alongside Howe may seem weird. But let's applaud a guy who's forged a very good career for being able to stamp his name forever beside one of the greatest of all-time than crap on him and go as far as suggesting he should have stopped a game short as to not break the record.
He continues to love the game -- as evidenced by his interview after last night's game -- and he's obviously well respected by his teammates and opponents around the league. May he continue playing as long as his body lets him and there is a spot on a team to utilize him.
Congrats Patrick.
bustaheims said:
Howe played the bulk of his career when the NHL had 70 or fewer games in a season, only 60 for his first 4 years. If they were all 82 game seasons, no one would be close.
And before those final 80 games, Howe also had 2 full years off before 6 WHA seasons (419 games).
OldTimeHockey
Active member
Deebo said:
That's an assumption that he would have lasted as many years playing 82 game seasons.
Heroic Shrimp
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https://twitter.com/HockeyStatMiner/status/1384261495819624461
Heroic Shrimp
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https://twitter.com/hockeycontext/status/1383959181141581827
L K
Active member
It's perfectly ok to have a discussion about whether you think Patrick Marleau is still a good player. It's perfectly ok to have a discussion on whether he is worthy of a hall of fame induction. It's really not a great time to have that debate on the day he sets a record. It's tacky and you can cool your jets for 30 seconds and appreciate that he has had one hell of career. There is a reason there have only been 348 players who have played 1000 games and that is entirely because you have to be really good and really durable to do it. There are 21 players who played 1500 games.
Give him his due. That his colleagues don't call guys like Simmons out when they make horrible takes like this looks bad on the sports writers.
Give him his due. That his colleagues don't call guys like Simmons out when they make horrible takes like this looks bad on the sports writers.
Heroic Shrimp
Active member
L K said:
To be fair, I only saw and knew about Simmons' tweet because both hockey writers Greg Wyshinski and Ryan Lambert brought mocking attention to it.
Kin
New member
I feel like the thing that's being missed is that, as I sort of alluded to earlier, nobody serious thinks of "Games Played" as an especially meaningful record. It's a testament to durability and competitiveness and all that stuff but I'm a big time sports fan and I don't know if I could tell you off-hand who is the all time leader in Games Played in Basketball, Baseball or Football(I'd guess Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pete Rose and Tom Brady or Drew Brees)*. The Leafs leader in games played is George Armstrong and I know that because I'd look it up as a kid and be like "Who was George Armstrong?".
Marleau broke it and my thought was "Oh, that's nice". Some people wrote some nice articles about him. For someone like Simmons to feel the need to rain on that tiny, small parade shows just what a creep he is.
*I was 1 for 3.
Marleau broke it and my thought was "Oh, that's nice". Some people wrote some nice articles about him. For someone like Simmons to feel the need to rain on that tiny, small parade shows just what a creep he is.
*I was 1 for 3.