I've never criticized a pitcher for his team's overall lack of success. Carlton's 1972 season may be the greatest of all time and his team didn't win a World Series. Let me know when McDavid can play every shift.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

I agree there is an argument to be made for Lebron/Jordan, Tiger/Jack. And as great as McDavid has been so far I dont think there is an argument to be made for him yet.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Agreed....but if this kid follows the ability of McDavid, we can rule out calling him a bust. It's really up to the GM to fill in the remaining pieces. McDavid isn't a bust...he's pretty fucking awesome and he hasn't won anything yet.

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Fair enough. He's only 26 years old.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

So you're predicting that Bedard will achieve the same level of greatness you envisioned for Daniel Palka and Doug McDermott?

Well then, now I'm really beginning to think he may turn out to be a bust after all.

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Bedard is a better prospect than Kane was and from all accounts is more driven and competitive. Bedard is the in the same tier with Matthews for best prospect since McDavid. Simply go back and look at what Bedard did this past winter in the World Juniors while being one of the youngest players there. It was historic. I expect Bedard to be a 50 goal, 125 point top 5 player in the league in his prime.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

I did think Palka looked like a top power hitter sort of like what Schwarber has turned out to be or what Burger appears he might be. A Rob Deer type. He turned out not to be.

Was I a big fan of Doug McDermott? I don't think so. I may have been trolling.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

Ok, now I have some doubts about this kid, smh

Kid doesnt have twitter. That is a parody account.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

doesnt take much to get one past Bob

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Hockey isn't like other sports. When you're granted exceptional status you are a sure thing that lives up to the hype unless they start dealing with injuries. There is no reason Bedard can't be on Crosby or McDavid's level.

As far as the Gretzky/McDavid debate. These are always annoying. Gretzky played in an era where every top scorer could skate into the zone and just rip a slap shot from the blue line with no net traffic and the goalie wouldn't come close to stopping it. Any NHL goalie who gives that up now to anyone besides the odd fluke doesn't exist because they're not in the NHL. Also the defensemen as a whole are extremely superior now. So yes, guys like McDavid are on the same level as Gretzky. McDavid would put up Gretzky numbers in the 80s and Gretzky would put up McDavid numbers today.

Bedard is bigger than Kane and has been better than Kane at every comparable level so far.

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People are expecting McDavid/Crosby tier. It might actually be a disappointment if he is only as good as Savard as crazy as that sounds.

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if it was so easy to score in the 80s then why did Gretzky routinely have 80 more points every year than the person in second place? Was Wayne the only person shooting slap shots from the blue line?


McDavid would put up Gretzky numbers in the 80s? But some guy named Mario Lemieux was getting lapped by Gretzky in scoring every year. I guess McDavid is also on a different tier than Lemieux, huh?


You should change your name to HockeyRet@rded

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And McDavid just out scored Pastrnak by 40 points. You think that's the last time he dominates the scoring race in his career? Don't play stupid like it wasn't much easier to score back in the 80's. I also never insulted Gretzky.

Also, thanks for agreeing with me about Bedard.

Now go back to blowing Trea Young.

Let's just wait and see what he looks like against NHL players. I'm not willing to say this guybwill reach Palka levels of amazingness until I see him go against the best of the best.
That being said I sure ho0e this kid fills out quickly cause he looks fragile. I get he's 17 and still will put on some pounds but damn he looks pretty smol.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

That's usually right. There are guys like Lindros and LaFountaine who I would say were disappointing based on their hype, but they're still Hall of Famers.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

I agree with Hockey Gay. Gretzky changed the game with his talent, the likes of which had not been seen. Goaltending methods changed, defense changed, offense styles to compliment that high level of play changed and are now the norm. I definitely think its fair to say any of the exceptional status guys would have mind blowing numbers in the 80s.

I think its also fair to say if Gretzky were playing today, he would still be exceptional, but not put up the numbers he did in the 80s, because every facet of the game has improved since then.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

The salary cap and expansion has greatly diluted the league, there is no way you could keep guys like Gretzky, Lowe, Anderson, Kurri, Messier, Fuhr, and Coffey together for a decade.

Many say that the 1987 Canada Cup was the greatest hockey ever played, not sure if the game will ever reach that level again.

I'm not sure about that, unless there have indeed been three or four exceptional-status players who have had a ton of injuries. John Tavares has been as advertised, he's a Hall of Famer. I'm not so sure about Aaron Ekblad.

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When you look at era-adjusted stats, Gretzky's best seasons are still the greatest seasons of all time but what McDavid is doing is not that far behind. If you go era-adjusted points per game per career, Gretzky and Lemieux are nearly identical (1.90) while McDavid is with Bossy at 1.50 in the next grouping. The only forward in the conversation all time with Gretzky is Lemieux. Arguments I've heard of how Lemieux was better than Gretzky are quite convincing but the reality is Lemieux just missed too much time.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

You guys aren’t even mentioning Ovechkin will be goals king leaving Gretzky as assists and total points king. Of course if you just take his assists he is points king.

Crosby is just a tad overrated I would say and I haven’t seen enough McDavid or Matthews. Kane in my mind is best American ever fuck Modano and Chelios.

If Connor is Kane or better I’d be more than happy.

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Elections have consequences.

Dumb hockey question here, but was Kane the best player on any of the Cup teams?

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Yes.

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Elections have consequences.

Which?

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There's a case for any of or all three, but none cut-and-dried.

2010, scoring leader all year, one point behind Toews in playoff scoring but with the Cup-winning goal. Certainly could have won the Conn Smythe in 2010 but everyone knew it was going to Toews. However, I have to say the best player that year was Marian Hossa, even if the 2010 team was a little more run-and-gun than the more two-way teams in '13 and '15 that were low-key amazing at keeping the puck out of their own net.

2013 was a full team effort from top to bottom (the league kinda stopped doing cap math, hence Fourth-Liner Michael Frolik), Kane led for the year and playoffs and did get the Smythe, but that year it should have gone to Corey Crawford.

2015, Kane was actually in the middle of a bid for a 100-point season before he went down for the year at the trade deadline. Came back for the playoffs, led the team in scoring while still hurt, but that was the year Duncan Keith carried the tattered remains of the team on his back.

So to answer your question, probably. But that's the story of the Hawks now: Kane was only good because of Toews, who was only good because of Keith, who was only good because of Hjalmarsson, who was only good because of Sharp, who was only good because of Hossa, who was only good because of Crawford, and all of them were only good because Joel Quenneville didn't call the cops when he heard a failed prospect got a blowjob from a homo.

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Yeah, Lemieux was always fighting one physical issue or another. Who knows how great a completely healthy Mario Lemieux would have been. But that person doesn't exist. Health and durability are part of the player.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

He's actually quite huge and not at all fragile. At the combine he did more pull ups than anyone. He's not small, he's just not tall. He doesn't need to fill out.

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I agree that McDavid is not far behind, but he's definitely behind him. He's not in Gretzky's class even if he is in the next tier which he definitely is.

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That's tough. He was always on the short list of best players on the team but the reality is if any of Kane, Toews, Keith, Hossa, Seabrook, and probably even Hjalmarsson are not on the team, they don't win the Cups. But to answer your question, 2010 was clearly Toews and Keith as their playoff MVP and 2015 was Keith which is one of the greatest playoff performances ever by a Dman. While Kane won the Conn Smythe in 2013 it probably should have gone to Crawford. So to answer you question I'd say no.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.