Ovechkin hitting 60?

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent, Jacques Plante, all exceptional goalies with great numbers with smaller gear.

[mack 44]

Folks are bemoaning the fact that scoring is down. Down from the goal glut of the Gretzky era, yes. However, the league operated for some 40-50 years before having a single 50 goal scorer or 100 point producer. People weren't bitching about the lack of scoring for those decades. But now, because people have been so spoiled by the Gretzky years, they believe that because there aren't 10 50 goal guys a season then something must be done to bring scoring up. Goals aren't the problem, excitement is. End to end play in a 2-1 game is a heck of a lot better than a 10-8, everything on is in, game.

Sidenote: I guess Mack is immune from repurcussions of being a jackass.

No, I just don't actively spout shit for no reason. I should give you some leeway on this though as you may be one of a handful of people who actually saw the NHL's progression since its inception.

[chippa13 1844]

Folks are bemoaning the fact that scoring is down. Down from the goal glut of the Gretzky era, yes. However, the league operated for some 40-50 years before having a single 50 goal scorer or 100 point producer. People weren't bitching about the lack of scoring for those decades. But now, because people have been so spoiled by the Gretzky years, they believe that because there aren't 10 50 goal guys a season then something must be done to bring scoring up. Goals aren't the problem, excitement is. End to end play in a 2-1 game is a heck of a lot better than a 10-8, everything on is in, game.

Sidenote: I guess Mack is immune from repurcussions of being a jackass.

No, I just don't actively spout shit for no reason. I should give you some leeway on this though as you may be one of a handful of people who actually saw the NHL's progression since its inception.

Your nose is growing Pinochio

[mack 44]

No, there's reason behind pretty much anything I say that you would deem without reason.

Also, that's not my nose, I just get really turned on by bitter trolling from senile people.

[Neal 41]

Mack and chippa13's love fest aside. Chippa might have a point. With no research behind this thought and nothing but my memory to rely on, it seems to me that in the 70's the 50/60 goal or 80/100 point producers were the elite. Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Marcel Dionne, Guy Lafleur. It was unusual for a team to have more than 1 or 2 elite point producers.

In the 80s it seems it was unusual to have fewer than 2 or 3. Big point producers included Bernie Nicholls, Vincent Damphousse, Troy Murray. All great players but not the elite.

[JJ Thompson94 0]

You do realize for the from 1917-18 to 1966-67 there was only 6 teams playing in the NHL, so how would you expect someone to score more than 50 goals and more than 100 points when you are playing the same teams 12 or more times?? And from 1967-68 where there was 12 teams to 1980-81 where there was 21 so than chances of someone scoring 50 goals and having 100 points would have increased which you can see by the players I stated before Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, so scoring was up way before Gretzky's time.

I'm sorry if I like see players score massive amounts of goals, but isn't that kind of the point, to score more goals than the other team. Thats like saying in baseball you don't want players to hit for extra bases or homeruns just make them swing for singles.

Yeah goaltending is apart of the game, but why does there equipment have to all of a sudden be so god damn bulky? I'm pretty sure gear these days is way more protective than it ever was and I am also 100% sure that the goalies gear could be cut way down in size without giving up protection

do you even know what an anomaly is?

Acually not true. At times there were more than 6 teams. Bunch of teams that used to exist NY Americans, Montreal Maroons... alot more teams I'm not name cause I'm too lazy to search. It original 6 because they stayed the longest and suvived every other team and for many years were the only 6 teams in the league.

Accually the NY Americans played at MSG before the Rangers. When the owner of MSG Tex Rickard saw how well the Americans drew, he created a hockey team, and being that he was from Texas he named them the Rangers. To keep it short, Rickard gave the Americans a bunch of problems, plus the Americans were horrible and really unlucky and had a bunch of money problems, but they stuck around the NHL till WWII broke out. Lost a bunch of players in the war and never came back, after the war.

Thats just one team, check out the NHL's history, really interesting and there were more than just six teams before expansion. I THINK there were only 6 teams from after WWII till expansion.

[mrusse01 0]

You do realize for the from 1917-18 to 1966-67 there was only 6 teams playing in the NHL, so how would you expect someone to score more than 50 goals and more than 100 points when you are playing the same teams 12 or more times??

Can someone explain to me how the number of teams you play factors in to your ability to score points?

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

You do realize for the from 1917-18 to 1966-67 there was only 6 teams playing in the NHL, so how would you expect someone to score more than 50 goals and more than 100 points when you are playing the same teams 12 or more times??

Can someone explain to me how the number of teams you play factors in to your ability to score points?

If you play the same 5 teams 10 times a year, you will learn weaknesses, and learn how to exploit them.

If you play 29 teams between once and 8 times a year, you see them less, you don't learn their systems or chinks in the armour as well, and you have more players/teams to focus on than a team with less players to focus on and learn.

I think that's the theory, but whether or not you subscribe to it, has merits on both sides of the argument. For example, if a scorer learns a goalie/defenses weak spots, is it not also as likely that this defense will learn a shooters habits

[mrusse01 0]

That's a terrible theory.

A) as you said, any advantages go both ways and B ) even with 6 teams back in those days I guarantee they didn't have a fraction of the advance scouting and general preperation for an opponent that they have today.

[chippa13 1844]

Dilution of talent is also something to consider when talking about the number of teams. The question on that is which side of play has the advantage and which side plays catchup.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

You do realize for the from 1917-18 to 1966-67 there was only 6 teams playing in the NHL, so how would you expect someone to score more than 50 goals and more than 100 points when you are playing the same teams 12 or more times?? And from 1967-68 where there was 12 teams to 1980-81 where there was 21 so than chances of someone scoring 50 goals and having 100 points would have increased which you can see by the players I stated before Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, so scoring was up way before Gretzky's time.

I'm sorry if I like see players score massive amounts of goals, but isn't that kind of the point, to score more goals than the other team. Thats like saying in baseball you don't want players to hit for extra bases or homeruns just make them swing for singles.

Yeah goaltending is apart of the game, but why does there equipment have to all of a sudden be so god damn bulky? I'm pretty sure gear these days is way more protective than it ever was and I am also 100% sure that the goalies gear could be cut way down in size without giving up protection

do you even know what an anomaly is?

Acually not true. At times there were more than 6 teams. Bunch of teams that used to exist NY Americans, Montreal Maroons... alot more teams I'm not name cause I'm too lazy to search. It original 6 because they stayed the longest and suvived every other team and for many years were the only 6 teams in the league.

Accually the NY Americans played at MSG before the Rangers. When the owner of MSG Tex Rickard saw how well the Americans drew, he created a hockey team, and being that he was from Texas he named them the Rangers. To keep it short, Rickard gave the Americans a bunch of problems, plus the Americans were horrible and really unlucky and had a bunch of money problems, but they stuck around the NHL till WWII broke out. Lost a bunch of players in the war and never came back, after the war.

Thats just one team, check out the NHL's history, really interesting and there were more than just six teams before expansion. I THINK there were only 6 teams from after WWII till expansion.

Actually it is true. There were only 7 teams in 1917-18 then 6 in 1919-20 after that there were 8 where they top out at 10 for most of the time before the original six, so sorry I was off by 4 teams...so there wasn't too many teams like i was trying to point out.

The more times you play teams the closer the score will be and the less amount of points you are going to score. 1) they will learn your weaknesses as well 2) you will correct those weaknesses 3) they didn't play the type of game were people tried to score a ton of points 4) they didn't even play a shit ton of games to score that many points

[mrusse01 0]

The more times you play teams the closer the score will be and the less amount of points you are going to score. 1) they will learn your weaknesses as well 2) you will correct those weaknesses 3) they didn't play the type of game were people tried to score a ton of points 4) they didn't even play a shit ton of games to score that many points

1) As a goal scorer, the more times I play a team, the easier it is for me to score on the goalie because I learn where to shoot. As well I learn which defensemen are weaker, whom it is easiest to draw penalties against, how their D system works, how they kill penalites, how they trap.....I could go on. Yes, it works the other way from a D-man's or goalie's persepective, so call it a wash...i.e it has no effect.

2) See # 1

3) That has nothing to do with the number of teams you play.

4) If you are suggesting they played less total games, you are correct. But again that has nothing to do with your claim that the more times you play the same team, the less points you will score.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

Usually the more times you see someone the closer the games will be and the less scoring will be done either by one team or both

and it does have something to do with the number of teams you play....the less teams that are in the league the more high caliber players there will be it won't be flooded with shitty talent.

[Patrick67 1]

I 2nd Penguinsfanatic... the more you play the same team the closer the games will be.

And the D-men learn the tricks and moves of the forwards, so advantage d-men.

On the topic of goalies and forwards from my experiance (i.e. IMO) it takes the forwards 2-3 games to get to know the goalies while the goalies need a coulpe more, and then from then on it's a deadlock.

[Xi Retlah iX 0]

Actually, he wanted to name them the New York Giants. But the press nicknamed his team "Tex's Rangers" n it stuck.

When the owner of MSG Tex Rickard saw how well the Americans drew, he created a hockey team, and being that he was from Texas he named them the Rangers

edit: added the quote.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Back to the topic at hand, ovechkin sets the caps single season record for goals with his 61st to put them 2-1 up over the canes tonight, passing Dennis Maruk

[RadioGaGa 162]

Back to the topic at hand, ovechkin sets the caps single season record for goals with his 61st to put them 2-1 up over the canes tonight, passing Dennis Maruk

Now Dennis Maruk becomes the answer to a great trivia question.

[budro727 0]

ESPN.com lists that as his 60th goal?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=3101

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

Like they would know anything about hockey, all they care about is football, basketball and baseball. Even though hockey put ESPN2 on the map

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

Well did anyone notice that the last time 60 was scored in a season was almost the last time a team scored over 300 goals. The Sabers had 308 last year and Detroit and Ottawa had 305 and 314 respectively in 05 and that doesnt even compare to the 95-96 season where Pittsburgh had 362 Detriot had 325 and Colorado had 326. I just think that there is some connection there lol

What happened for the sudden drop off of scroing? Besides the great players retiring

[dangle 0]

Well did anyone notice that the last time 60 was scored in a season was almost the last time a team scored over 300 goals. The Sabers had 308 last year and Detroit and Ottawa had 305 and 314 respectively in 05 and that doesnt even compare to the 95-96 season where Pittsburgh had 362 Detriot had 325 and Colorado had 326. I just think that there is some connection there lol

i fail to see the connection. the last time someone scored 60 goals was 1996... the last time a team scored over 300 goals was last year

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

Buffalo only had 308 compared to bigger numbers being put up by other teams decades prior, even Detriot and Ottawa's totals from 05 wouldnt even come close. Teams were putting up close to 320+ goals a season and they werent the Edmonton Oilers either lol, I know there could be no correlation but then what lead to the sudden decline in offensive production

I'm not trying to argue here I'm just kind of thinking out loud. Since we all know that the GMs pretty much control the changes that take place they should take a long hard look at Ovechkin and what he brings to the table. Watching someone score like he does hasn't been seen in a while ya know, it brings an excitement back to a league struggling with the competition of other sports. I think they need to figure out what went wrong or more so what they did wrong and fix it but I dont know, just thinking out loud again

[chippa13 1844]

Scoring is down in the NHL? You know what else I heard, the world is round and revolves around the sun.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

i thought it was the sun that revolved around the earth

[wildebeest 0]

Like they would know anything about hockey, all they care about is football, basketball and baseball. Even though hockey put ESPN2 on the map

The only time ESPN cares about anything that's not the NFL is when the NCAA basketball tournament is on. Do they keep Dick Vitale in cryogenic stasis for 10 months out of the year so they can trot him out every March and April to annoy the living hell out of anybody that's not stone-deaf?

For real, though. Between the pre-game talk, the post-game talk, the next-day analysis, the combine coverage, the draft talk, the minicamp coverage, the training camp coverage and the trade deadline coverage, I'm surprised they have time to talk about anything else. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the arrest and trial coverage...

I can't wait for the National Felon League to experience its inevitable drop in popularity.