Ovechkin hitting 60?

[UMWhockey 0]

60 in today's NHL i think is just as impressive as 70+ in the 80's and early 90's. The goalies move better and are only three times larger then they were before

[cxo 0]

It shouldn't be that way though. It's impressive, not to take away from Ovie, but there should be at least a guy or two pushing 60, even if they don't hit it, every season. It shoudn't become an anomaly.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Players who have scored 60:

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8053960

[habookus 1]

Players who have scored 60:

http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8053960

Who is Dennis Maruk???

Edit: Upon further review, this guy had a pretty solid career hitting 136 pts one year, and I've never heard of his name. I also never knew Cleveland had an NHL team!

[cxo 0]

I'd say he was a great nominee for 1 hit wonder, but he had 50 just the season before.

Dennis Maruk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Maruk

[chippa13 1844]

The scoring heyday of the 80's was an anomoly for the league. The league went just fine for decades before ever having a 50 goal scorer and 100 point producer. The way I see it, there was a generation that was spoiled by the Gretzky era and nothing more.

[mattzilla 0]

theres no way hes a one hit wonder.

he played 888 games and put up 878 points. thats pretty consistent.

[Chadd 916]

60 in today's NHL i think is just as impressive as 70+ in the 80's and early 90's. The goalies move better and are only three times larger then they were before

I'd even say 60 is like 75-80 from the late 80s. In addition to the improvement in goalies, systems are much better than ever before.

[chk hrd 164]

one thing I like is that Ovechkin is just as excitited by scoring his 60th goal as he was for scoring his 6th, plus he usually seems more excitited about his team mates scoring than they are. You can see how much he loves the game of hockey and how he just loves to play.

[mattzilla 0]

its true, that kind of enthusiasm is contagious. You can see the whole team is lovin it right now.

[aarondevera 0]

one thing I like is that Ovechkin is just as excitited by scoring his 60th goal as he was for scoring his 6th, plus he usually seems more excitited about his team mates scoring than they are. You can see how much he loves the game of hockey and how he just loves to play.

when ovi scores, he reminds me of pavel bure, back in the day.... always celebrating like it's his first. maybe a russian thing? lol

kovalev, on the other hand, always plays it cool.

[UMWhockey 0]

theres no way hes a one hit wonder.

he played 888 games and put up 878 points. thats pretty consistent.

maybe not a one hit wonder, but you have to compair thoes numbers to what the era was. Just like how power numbers in baseball need to be taken into the context of the time they reached

[cxo 0]

theres no way hes a one hit wonder.

he played 888 games and put up 878 points. thats pretty consistent.

...Which is exactly why I retracted the statement in question.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

The scoring heyday of the 80's was an anomoly for the league. The league went just fine for decades before ever having a 50 goal scorer and 100 point producer. The way I see it, there was a generation that was spoiled by the Gretzky era and nothing more.

actually there was a lot of players scoring big numbers before Gretzky...ever heard of Phil Espoisto, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, Brian Trottier, Mike Bossy, Bobby Orr? If I am not mistaken those fine gents were putting up some real impressive numbers and there was at least a 100 point season every year since 1968 and the years before that I believe were pre-expansion era if I am not mistaken

[chippa13 1844]

No shit there were 50 goal scorers and 100 point producers before Gretz, however, it was a handful, one or two a season, not a dozen or so players a year.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

I don't get what you are trying to argue by saying there was a generation spoiled by the Gretzky era. People who have been watching hockey from way back in the day watched players score 50 or more goals 20 times before Gretzky and some one scored over 60 eight times.

Scoring has always been a part of the game, it's what the fans want and it's what the league needs to draw that fan base back.

Take away Gretzky from the game, just don't even think about him right now and look at the leading scores then. The game had people scoring over 60 goals in every season (except the 83-84 season) up until 96 with the exception of the shortened season in 94.

I just don't understand what you are trying to say

[chippa13 1844]

That much is obvious.

[mack 44]

Penguinsfan, don't bother trying to even argue with chippa on this. chippa has no basis for about 99% of the shit he says and just says it to be argumentative. Once he's called out on it for not backing anything up, he runs off and the thread is vanquished of douche.

[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.

[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?

[pantherfan 0]

... but isn't that kind of the point, to score more goals than the other team...

Some would say the idea is to concede less then the opposition.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

Well when you really think about it, the whole object of the game is to put the puck in the other team's net. Right?

[lee92 2]

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?

I don't think goaltending equipment is the problem. When you look at the 90's when players like Lemieux, Jagr, Bure, Selanne, etc. were racking up 50-60 goal seasons, goalies gear was larger than it is today. I don't think the league should penalize and handicap goalies with smaller gear because they've improved faster than players have. It just doesn't make sense to shave goalie gear because goalies are better now. Goals are down because the influx of 4th liners throughout the NHL, and a lack of exceptional talents. Players should just work harder to improve their game rather than have the league penalize goalies for being better.

[UMWhockey 0]

the upper body equipment is about twice the size of what it used to be..... I don't think anyone is really complaining about the leg pads

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

If goalies are better and faster today then cutting down the size of the gear shouldn't be to much of a problem for them. I really don't think them being faster has a whole lot to do with how much of the net is covered by their gear.