Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Great Debate: Gretzky vs. Lemieux





















In the world of sports, time is the enemy of greatness. As the years go by, retired stars fade in the mind and younger generations convince themselves that there is no possible way the best of a bygone era could stack up against the present's best. Time is also the enemy of nuance, and to be more bold, accuracy, when it comes to judging where stars of different eras place in the discussion of all-time greats. It becomes easier to accept the labels applied to players without delving into the different facets of their careers. That's one of the reasons why most people shrug off Gordie Howe's accolades as a product of his longevity: they remember hearing about him playing for the Hartford Whalers when he was 52 years old, and assume he was just a freak of nature who was able to hang around long enough to wrack up a boatload of career points. What they forget is the dominance he displayed in his prime.

One of the great hockey debates that suffers from this lack of attention to nuance is the unending one that occurs amongst hockey fans: Who was better, Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux? At the time he retired, the answer almost unanimously among the hockey community was Gretzky, no question. In fact, Gretzky's chief competition for "greatest of all-time" honours wasn't Lemieux, but Bobby Orr. The Gretzky/Orr debate was an almost unsolvable one given their different positions, and one that also gave birth to many myths about both players (inevitably underrating Gretzky's defensive contributions, for example). And so the attention began to shift to an easier comparison, one between the two most dominant scoring forwards of all-time, and two players who played in close to the same era: Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

The recent groundswell of support for Lemieux has emerged largely through a younger generation of fans who were fortunate enough to catch the majority of Lemieux's prime, but may have seen Gretzky only during his later years with the Kings, Blues and Rangers, in which he had evolved primarily into an Oates-like playmaking specialist. Regardless, the debate still is one that deserves consideration. Unfortunately, supporters in each camp tend to put forward arguments that are at best simplistic and, more often than not, inaccurate.

I come down on the side of Wayne Gretzky. I firmly believe that he was the greatest hockey player of all-time, although I acknowledge Mario's place in the (to me inarguable) four-person Pantheon alongside Gretz, Orr and Howe. Yet I am not dogmatic enough to dismiss the case for Mario. A casual hockey fan may look at the bare facts and say that Gretzky clearly was superior: he had nine MVP awards to Lemieux's three; ten scoring titles to Lemieux's six; four Stanley Cup rings to Lemieux's two and the same amount of Conn Smythe trophies with two. But I will acknowledge to the pro-Mario camp that it is not as clear cut as those facts would suggest. Still, when the Lemieuxites (an awkward name, but less clumsy than the Lemieuxophiles) attempt to make their case for Mario, they stumble into a few arguments that sound reasonable enough until they are looked at in more depth. Here are a few:

ARGUMENT #1 - "Gretzky played in a higher-scoring era"

Of course Gretzky had 92 goals in a season...he was facing Greg Millen!
 This may be the most frequent argument, and it is the easiest to deal with, since it can be solved simply by looking at an adjusted-scoring system and league-wide averages throughout the NHL. The Lemieuxites frame things as if Gretzky was playing against a bunch of clueless goaltenders and leaky defences during his prime, while Lemieux was suffocated by the trap era and having to face the likes of Roy, Brodeur, Belfour and Joseph every night. It is true that Gretzky's five first seasons in the league were during the league's highest-scoring five-year period, but it's not as if Lemieux missed that era altogether. When Gretzky had his remarkable 92-goal, 212-point season in 1981-1982, it was at a time when leaguewide scoring was at 8.03 goals per game. In 1988-1989, Lemieux's best statistical season, it was 7.48...lower to be sure, but a far cry from the 5.30 averages that the likes of Jagr, Iginla and Sakic had to deal with in the late-1990s and early-2000s. In Lemieux's equally fantastic 1992-1993 campaign, the top average point totals among the top 20 scorers in the league was the highest in NHL history.

When leveled out for leaguewide averages, things become murkier. In reality, Gretzky scored 1.92 points-per-game while Lemieux scored 1.88. Considering that Gretz was consistently healthier than Lemieux, it would appear to be case-closed for Gretzky. But when adjusted, Lemieux emerges with 1.70 adjusted points-per-game (henceforth referred to as APPG) for his career while Gretzky is at 1.64. More impressive is the disparity in their goal-per-game production: Lemieux is at 0.675 AGPG (adjusted goals per game) while Gretzky stands at 0.502. At this point, Lemieux supporters may be saying "See, Lemieux's average is higher...ergo, he was a better offensive player!". What they fail to see is the flaw behind argument two:

ARGUMENT #2 - "Since Lemieux's adjusted numbers were better, if they had played in the same era and Lemieux had played for as long as Gretzky...he'd be the one with all the records".

A 38 year-old Gretzky, solely a playmaking specialist, bidding good-bye to his NHL fans.
 Let's set aside for a moment debating the merits of health and longevity when considering a player's place in history. I tend to think that it does have value, even though I'll take a career with moments of transcendence (say, Peter Forsberg's) over one of plodding consistency (say, Dave Andreychuk's) any day. The longevity vs. brilliance debate belongs more in the discussion of whether Gordie Howe should be ranked higher than Lemieux (although I hate to perpetuate the myth that the only reason Howe belongs as high as he does is because of his longevity...his peak was remarkable even if it failed to reach the lofty heights of Lemieux). When it comes to Gretzky, though, some of number 99's supporters (Gretzkyites sounds vaguely Communist) use Gretzky's consistency as a trump card, saying that it should end the discussion of who was the greatest player, since with Gretzky there were no "what-ifs?". I believe this is a mistake for the pro-Gretzky camp...what they should instead focus on is what Gretzky did in the same amount of time as Lemieux.

Here is a simple fact: even though his career totals were immensely helped by his longevity, Gretzky's averages were dragged down by playing nearly 65% more games than Lemieux for his career. The trait that made Gretzky's records among the most untouchable in sports history, his consistent productivity over twenty seasons, is also the very thing that opened the cracks for Lemieux supporters to argue in favour of Lemieux's superiority.

Most hockey fans would agree that forwards' production tends to go down after the age of 30 (there are of course exceptions, but for the most part it's a reality that a superstars' production from the ages of, say, 22-30 will be greater than it is from 31-38). Mario Lemieux played 246 games after his age-30 season, 1995-1996, in which he scored 388 adjusted points (APs we'll call them), for an average of 1.58 per game. Wayne Gretzky played 595 games after his age-30 season, nearly two-and-a-half times as many as Mario. In that time, his adjusted-average was 1.26 per game (which, by the way, while not as high as Mario's average, would still be good enough to lead the NHL in most seasons. We're talking about two incredibly special talents with these guys, in case that wasn't already abundantly obvious).

Let's look at what came before those age-31 seasons. Mario accumulated 1,185 APs in 681 games, for a per-game average of 1.74. Gretzky had 1,781 APs in 949 games, for an average of 1.88 per game. Even their goals-per-game averages are remarkably close during this period: Lemieux is at 0.715 AGPG while Wayne is at 0.625.  So it's not, as some Mario supporters claim, that the only reason Gretzky dwarfed Lemieux statistically is that he was fortunate enough to stay healthy, avoid the nagging back problems that Mario was plagued with, and of course not be unfortunate enough to contract Hodgkin's disease. While they were young and in their primes, and even when adjusted for the seasons they played in, Gretzky still outproduced Lemieux on an average basis...not even factoring that he played over 95% of his team's games during that stretch while Mario played 70%.

Gretzky was more productive each game (granted, by a slim degree) and played far more games. If this were any other sport, it would be case closed that Gretzky was the better offensive player. Since no one, not even the most diehard Lemieux supporter, would make the case that Lemieux was appreciably better than Gretzky defensively, that makes Gretzky the better overall player. No one would make the case that a basketball player who averaged, say, 30 PPG, 7 RPG and 7 APG for 80 games a season during his career wasn't superior to someone who averaged 29 PPG, 8 RPG and 6 APG for only 55 games a season unless the latter player was markedly better defensively than the former (which Lemieux wasn't when compared to Gretzky). No one would argue that they'd rather have a Gold Glove-winning first baseman with an OPS of 1.000 who tended to miss 40 games a year over a Gold Glove-winning first baseman with an OPS of 1.025 who hardly missed any time at all. You wouldn't see that in most other sports. But hockey is a far more subjective game than baseball, which can be quantified almost to the tee, and perhaps a tad more so than basketball, and so once their statistical objections have fallen by the wayside, the Lemieux supporters tend to fall back on difficult-to-quantify arguments, and easily-regurgitated myths are born. Let's look at a few of them:

ARGUMENT #3 - "Gretzky had far better teammates than the no-names that Lemieux was stuck with".

The Great One celebrating one of his four championship titles.
 This is the myth that bothers me the most in the Gretzky-Lemiux argument, and it is similar to the Russell/Chamberlain myth (chronicled and refuted so well in Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball) that Chamberlain supporters use to attempt to belittle Russell's eleven titles. There is no doubt that the Edmonton Oilers of the mid-1980s are one of the greatest teams ever assembled. The roster is strewn with Hall-of-Famers. To wit: Messier, Coffey, Kurri, Fuhr, Anderson. They were all at or near their peak production levels during those years...interestingly enough, except for Messier, who's best statistical seasons (when adjusted for scoring averages) actually came with the New York Rangers.

But notice I specify that the Oilers of the mid 1980s were amongst the greatest ever. Gretzky detractors make it sound as if Wayne just walked into an already-established dynasty, as opposed to being the foundation for them, as well as the playmaker who made superstars out of players who may in other circumstances have merely been stars. One need only look at Gretzky's first two seasons as a perfect refutation of that ill-thought-out theory.

In 1979-1980, at the age of eighteen it should be noted, Gretzky led the transition of the Oilers from the WHA to the NHL by walking into the league and tying for the lead in scoring with 123 APs (137 in real life). He averaged 1.52 APPG in this season...higher than any mark that Lemieux put up in any of his first three seasons.

Of course he did, the Lemieux supporters might say...he had one of the greatest outlet passers of all-time (Coffey) feeding him, and had snipers like Messier, Kurri and Anderson to finish his own beautiful passes, right? Nope. Coffey, Kurri and Anderson weren't even in the league yet. And Messier? He was tearing the league up as an obvious Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting with a scintillating rookie season in which he put up 11 AGs, 30 APs and a -15 rating (Gretzky incidentally was a +15 on this "dynasty" team, which finished fourth in the Smythe Division with a record of 28-39-13 and was promptly swept in the first round).

The immortal Blair MacDonald.
Gretzky's best teammates that year? Blair MacDonald, Stan Weir, Brett Callighen, Dave Lumley and Dave (not Dale) Hunter. Not exactly a team that was being mistaken for the '77 Canadiens. Blair MacDonald, by the way, scored adjusted numbers of 41 goals, 43 assists and 84 points as Gretzky's linemate. So he must have been pretty decent, right? Yes, his goal-scoring talent was so prolific and had so little to do with Gretzky's unparalled passing that Edmonton traded him the next season and MacDonald was out of the league two years after that, having failed to match in his remaning three seasons his goal total as Gretzky's linemate for one season. I should just stop right now and drop the microphone, having made my case, but I'll continue.

The next season saw the arrival of Kurri, Anderson and Coffey, so Lemieux supporters may claim that Gretzky only had one season to deal with trashy teammates as opposed to the five that Mario endured. But while Gretzky was now teammates with future Hall-of-Famers, they weren't exactly playing like it at the time. Gretzky once again led the league in scoring with 134 APs and a rate of 1.64 APPG (again, 15% higher than anything Mario produced in his first three seasons). He had more than double the points of any of his Oiler teammates, with rookie Jari Kurri, his new linemate, being the second-highest scorer.

The legendary names were there, but they weren't who we came to know them as (or to be even more daring, who Gretzky helped make them be). Messier wasn't Messier...he had 51 APs and was a -12, frustrating his coaches with his defensive shortcomings, while Gretzky put up a +41 for a sub-.500 team. Anderson wasn't Anderson...he only had 43 APs. And most noticeably, Coffey wasn't the offensive force he would develop into, chipping in only 26 APs. Once again the Oilers finished with a mediocre record but fared better in the playoffs, upsetting the Montreal Canadiens in a playoff win that would set the stage for the dynasty that was to ensue in the coming years.

Things finally clicked for the Oilers the next season, as Gretzky put up truly one of the greatest statistical seasons any sport has seen, going crazy on the league with 72 AGs (a record-setting 92 in real-life) and 166 APs. Once again, Gretzky's point total was more than double any of his teammates...but at least now he was getting more support. Messier scored 39 adjusted goals. No one else eclipsed 30. Gretzky had 72. Anderson was second on the team with 82 APs. Eighty-two. Gretzky had 166. I just felt it needed repeating.

Let's call that third season a wash and not factor it into the "bad teammates" era. Even the most entrenched Mario supporter couldn't argue that Gretzky had particularly excellent, or even good, teammates in 1980-1981, and they certainly would acknowledge that the crap stew Gretzky had to work with in his rookie season was the envy of no one, even Lemieux. If Lemieux supporters point to Gretzky's Cup-winning seasons and how everyone was clicking on the Oilers team at just the right time, I don't begrudge them that. But it cuts both ways.

Lemieux with Mario Jr. (Jaromir Jagr).
Here's how Lemieux's teammates broke down. On his 1991 Cup team, he had the following teammates: Jaromir Jagr; Paul Coffey; Bryan Trottier; Ron Francis; Mark Recchi ; Larry Murphy; Joe Mullen. That's five Hall-of-Famers and two future ones (Jagr and Recchi), for a total of seven, compared to Gretzky's five with the Oilers, in case you're counting. Trottier was an aging veteran who was brought in for leadership and a checking role...he was a shell of his former self and nothing approaching a hall-of-fame level player, so let's scratch him from the list. And Jagr was a green rookie, not the dominant scorer he would become, although he did chip in with some key goals in the playoffs. But I didn't even mention John Cullen (28 AGs, 86 APs) and Kevin Stevens (36 AGs, 78 APs). Recchi led the team in regular-season scoring with 103 APs and went to town in the playoffs, as did Stevens and Murphy. Were their inflated numbers the result of playing with Mario? Impossible, as he only played 26 games during the regular season due to back surgery.

This is not to detract from Lemieux, who rightfully won the Conn Smythe award in 1991 with 38 APs in 23 games in the playoffs (44 actual points). It is simply to point out that the early-90s Penguins team were comparable in talent to the mid-1980s Oilers. There is even a case to be made the 1991-1993 Penguins are one of the greatest teams ever assembled.

The serviceable Doug Shedden.
So what of Lemieux's teammates early in his career? I am the first to acknowledge that Lemieux had little to work with...the Penguins' general crappiness is the reason that they landed the lottery pick and drafted Lemieux in the first place. Lemieux's best teammates in his rookie season were Warren Young and Doug Shedden. Ugh. Young was very much like Blair McDonald...someone who benefited for a season or two playing with a transcendent superstar and then faded into obscurity. But Shedden was almost equally as productive in the previous two seasons as he was in 1984-1985 (Lemieux's rookie season), generally falling in the 55-65 AP range. Not spectacular, to be sure, but certainly comparable (and perhaps superior) to Gretzky's teammates in his rookie season, Blair McDonald and Stan Weir. Again, I reiterate: Gretzky put up 123 APs and finished tied with Marcel Dionne for the scoring lead that season; Lemieux put up a still-remarkable 81 adjusted points. But was the talent-level of Blair McDonald, Stan Weir and Brett Callighen really enough to account for those extra 42 points?

In Lemieux's second season, with a core of Mike Bullard (not the talk-show host), defenseman Moe Mantha and Doug Shedden, Lemieux had 112 APs in his healthiest season. The next four scorers on the team averaged 55. In Gretz' second season (in which he had 134), the next four scorers on the Oilers averaged 51. Now, granted, those "next four" included Kurri, Anderson and Messier...but as I discussed before, they weren't producing at the levels we would come to expect.

Well yes, the Lemieuxites might say, but Lemieux had to deal with mediocre teammates for a longer period than Gretzky. Looking at merely the first five seasons of their careers as a sample, I might agree. Gretzky's Oilers were a young team that began to gel and improve exponentially. Kurri and Coffey in particular began to play like true superstars. Lemieux's core was Dan Quinn and Randy Cunneyworth. Quinn had been fairly productive in Calgary before joining the Pens, getting about 60 adjusted points a season. Cunneyworth was more of a 50-point grinder. Neither was setting the league on fire or destined for Hall-of-Fame careers like Gretzky's teammates. But in 1987 (after Lemieux's third season), Pittsburgh acquired Paul Coffey, giving Lemieux a weapon (a puck-moving defenceman) that Gretzky had enjoyed. It bears noting that Gretzky benefited from having Coffey on his team producing at a high level for six seasons (it was seven as a teammate, but I discount Coffey's ineffective rookie season), while Lemieux had him for four-and-half elite years.

Paul Coffey does not a team make, though, so I will acknowledge that Lemieux's Penguin teams were still lacking heading into 1989, perhaps Mario's most impressive season, in which he put up an ungodly 168 APs and made linemate Rob Brown, who wouldn't make much of a dent in the league after this season, a near-100 adjusted-point scorer. Coffey was remarkable in this season also, but other than that Lemieux only had the aforementioned Dan Quinn chipping in. So, during their respective career seasons, I will acknowledge that Mario had less to work with than Gretzky, but it wasn't by much.

As already documented, Lemieux's post-1990 teams were excellent for a stretch of three or four seasons, with Jagr in particular coming into his own. It shouldn't be forgotten that Jagr and Ron Francis were among the top point-getters of the 1990s. For anyone who thinks that Jagr's numbers were inflated by Lemieux, look toward the 1994-1995 season, which Lemieux missed, in which Jagr led the league in scoring and won the Ted Lindsay Award (then the Lester Pearson) as MVP as voted by the players. So let's say that Lemieux's early-90s days compare reasonably with Gretzky's mid-80s days.

Bernie Nicholls improved by 72 points with Gretz's arrival
What the "Gretzky had a dynasty" camp tend to forget is only the most important development in hockey during the 1980s: the trade of the Great One to Los Angeles. When Gretzky joined the Kings, they were an untalented bunch who had just finished with 68 points in the standings, 20th in a 21-team league. Marcel Dionne had retired a few seasons earlier. Luc Robitaille was an excellent scoring left-winger, but beyond him, there was essentially only Bernie Nicholls (who had averaged about 75 adjusted points in the previous three seasons) and a past-his-prime Dave Taylor. In Gretzky's first season with the Kings, they improved by 23 points in the standings, and Nicholls blew up for 125 adjusted points as Gretzky's teammate (one point shy of DOUBLE the previous season's total). For the next five or six seasons, Gretzky played for a team that consisted of only one Hall-of-Fame level guy (Robitaille) and relied on consistent contributions from Bernie Nicholls, Steve Duchene and Tomas Sandstrom. Even when the Kings acquired Gretzky's old teammate Jari Kurri, he was far less productive than during his Oiler years. And defenceman Rob Blake, an excellent player who joined the league in 1991-1992, was still extremely green during his first few seasons with the Kings, nowhere near the Hall of Famer he would become.

The Kings didn't do much during Gretzky's tenure, just as the Penguins didn't do much during Lemieux's first few seasons. The exception is of course the 1993 playoffs, which Gretzky described as the best he ever had, leading a Kings team (again, a core of Sandstrom, Robitaille and an aging Kurri) to the Cup finals. It was a matchup against the Canadiens in what may have been two of the great examples of superstars willing mediocre teams to the finals, with Patrick Roy playing out of his mind to lead the Habs to a championship. I defy anyone to argue that that Kings team was anywhere approaching "dynastic" levels.

So to recap: we've established that Lemieux's Penguin teams from about 1991 to 1993 (three seasons) were comparable to the Oilers from about 1983 to 1988 (five seasons). That's two seasons of playing with an elite-level team that Gretz has on Mario. Both had terrible teams in the first two seasons of their career...Mario continued to have a mediocre-to-poor team for the next four seasons. Gretz endured mediocre-to-poor teams after being traded to Los Angeles, while Mario played with a consistently contending (although by no means dynasty-level) Penguin team in the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s. Making nonsense statements like "well, Messier and Kurri won a Cup without Gretzky and he never won one without them" ignores that hockey is a team game and is about as senseless as pointing out that the Penguins with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin developed into an Eastern power and eventual Stanley Cup champion after Mario retired.

Let's look at Mario's first six seasons (in which he had less-than-spectacular teammates, as his defenders always point to) and compare them to Gretzky's first two seasons with the Oilers and his first four with the Kings (which we've established had comparably uninspiring rosters):

Lemieux "Weak Teammate" Era (1984-1990): 438 GP, 289 adjusted goals, 701 adjusted points, 1.60 APPG

Gretzky "Weak Teammate" Era (1979-1981; 1988-1992): 474 GP, 235 adjusted goals, 778 adjusted points, 1.64 APPG

So when we look at how they fared with comparably non-superstar teammates, Gretzky still comes out on top. And that's not even factoring in that Lemieux's "weak teammate" era came when he was in his prime, whereas Gretzky was putting up monster numbers with the Kings at the age of 33 (he led the league in scoring with a non-playoff team in 1993-1994...I didn't even count that season in his "weak teammate" era, although I probably should have).

The "Gretzky strolled into the middle of a dynasty" argument is a myth, plain and simple.

ARGUMENT #4 - "Lemieux was the better pure goal-scorer"


Lemieux unleashing his devastating slapshot from the corner.
Here's an argument that I fully concede, and it may go towards explaining why people consider Lemieux the better player. Lemieux was the more physically dominant player than Gretzky, and a better one-on-one force-of-nature (although Gretzky is underrated in his one-on-one skills). But this does not necessarily mean that Lemieux was the better pure offensive force. It's similar to the Crosby vs. Ovechkin debate: Ovechkin is more awe-inspiring, Crosby is more effective (at least, if he remains concussion-free).

Boiling such multi-faceted superstars as Gretzky and Lemieux down to one-dimensional pegs does a great disservice to both of their skills. As time has gone on, Gretzky's pure goal-scoring ability has been forgotten. During his first eight seasons, Gretzky averaged 55 adjusted goals and twice bested 70. And as I highlighted before, Gretzky's AGPG before his age-31 season was 0.625. Lemieux's was even better at an astounding 0.715, but not by enough that it should belittle Gretzky's goal-scoring.

Similarly, Lemieux's incredible passing should not be forgotten. His assist rate is right up there with Bobby Orr for among the highest in history, bested only by Gretzky's unparalleled marks. Even during the "weak teammate" era that I highlighted, Lemieux averaged nearly an adjusted assist per game. If you watch some of the Penguins' games from the early-1990s, when Lemieux actually had teammates who could keep up with him, it was artistry to behold.

So I will concede that Lemieux was a better goal-scorer than Gretzky by a small margin, although not by nearly as large a margin as their final career adjusted goals-per-game rates would suggest (as mentioned, Gretzky's goal numbers went down as he got older). As Gretzky stayed in the league into his late-thirties, he morphed into an almost strictly passing specialist. This period may have diminished him in the minds of those who were seeing Lemieux tear up the league during that same period. We missed Gretzky's run-and-gun days...he needed to be more cerebral near the end to remain elite. What this meant is that Gretzky doubters began to think that his gaudy point totals were merely the result of getting cheap second assists on superstar-laden teams.

There's something else to be said on this point: Lemieux was the more dominant one-on-one player, Gretzky the more cerebral passer (even though each was excellent at the other's supposed specialty). This to many suggests that, in a vacuum, Lemieux was the better player. But hockey is a team game, and I would suggest that Gretzky's excellence more readily translates to winning hockey than Lemieux's did. Watching some of the Oilers' games of the early-to-mid-1980s, you see the way even journeymen on the team began to see the game differently by virtue of playing with Gretzky. They started making bold passes and seeing angles to open space that may not have occurred to them before. Gretzky's vision for the game wore off on his teammates, even if not to the level of his own genius. I'm not saying that this did not occur with Lemieux, but with Lemieux one was always in awe of his size and control of the puck, and you can see at certain moments even excellent Pittsburgh players looking in reverance at what he does.

Of course you would want Mario Lemieux as a teammate, or on your team as a fan...he's unquestionably one of the four greatest hockey players to ever live (which placement you give to him in relation to Orr or Howe is more up for debate in my mind than in comparison to Gretzky), and arguably the most talented along with Orr. But when you factor in the sustained health and consistency, the superior productivity in both assists and points and the only-slightly-inferior productivity in goals, plus the infectiousness of his vision for the game, while also dispelling the arguments that he lucked into a historically-great team and solely benefited from a high-scoring era, one has to give the edge to the Great One.

Found within this picture: the greatest NHL forward of all time.




Tuesday, April 12, 2011

#127 - Marian Hossa



Marian Hossa (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #127)

Adjusted Stats

1997-1998   Ott         7 GP     0 goals     1 assist       1 point         0.17 PPG
1998-1999   Ott         60 GP   18 goals   18 assists    35 points     0.58 PPG
1999-2000   Ott         78 GP   32 goals   30 assists    63 points     0.80 PPG
2000-2001   Ott         81 GP   36 goals   48 assists    84 points     1.03 PPG
2001-2002   Ott         80 GP   36 goals   41 assists    78 points     0.97 PPG
2002-2003   Ott         80 GP   52 goals   41 assists    93 points     1.16 PPG
2003-2004   Ott         81 GP   43 goals   55 assists    98 points     1.21 PPG
2005-2006   Atl          80 GP   40 goals   54 assists   94 points     1.17 PPG
2006-2007   Atl          82 GP   46 goals   61 assists   107 points   1.30 PPG
2007-2008   Atl/Pit     72 GP   33 goals   42 assists   75 points     1.04 PPG
2008-2009   Det         74 GP   43 goals   33 assists   77 points     1.04 PPG
2009-2010   Chi*       57 GP   27 goals   30 assists   57 points     1.00 PPG
2010-2011   Chi         65 GP   28 goals   36 assists   64 points     0.99 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1998-1999   Ott         4 GP     0 goals      2 assists     2 points      0.55 PPG
1999-2000   Ott         6 GP     0 goals      0 assists     0 points      0.00 PPG
2000-2001   Ott         4 GP     1 goal        1 assist      2 points      0.59 PPG
2001-2002   Ott         12 GP   5 goals      7 assists    12 points     0.99 PPG
2002-2003   Ott         18 GP   6 goals      13 assists  19 points     1.06 PPG
2003-2004   Ott         7 GP     4 goals      1 assist      5 points      0.73 PPG
2006-2007   Atl          4 GP     0 goals      1 assist      1 point       0.28 PPG
2007-2008   Pit          20 GP   13 goals    15 assists   27 points    1.36 PPG
2008-2009   Det         23 GP   6 goals      9 assists    15 points    0.67 PPG
2009-2010   Chi*       22 GP   3 goals      11 assists   14 points    0.64 PPG
2010-2011   Chi         7 GP     2 goals      4 assists     6 points     0.86 PPG 

Career - 897 GP, 434 goals, 490 assists, 926 points, 1.03 PPG
Career-Highs - 52 goals (02-03); 61 assists (06-07); 107 points (06-07); 1.30 PPG (06-07)
Avg. (12 seasons) - 74 GP, 36 goals, 41 assists, 77 points, 1.03 PPG
Peak Avg. (00-09) - 79 GP, 41 goals, 47 assists, 88 points, 1.12 PPG, 0 Cups

Playoff Career - 127 GP, 40 goals, 64 assists, 103 points, 0.81 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 13 goals (07-08); 15 assists (07-08); 27 points (07-08); 1.36 PPG (07-08)

Accolades - None
All-Star Teams - 1-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

From 2008 to 2010, there wasn't a more comically tragic figure in the league than Marian Hossa. Penguins' fans may well have said he deserved his fate, but the impartial fan certainly had to feel more than a little sorry for Hossa. This was the trajectory during those two years: after languishing with the Atlanta Thrashers for two-and-a-half seasons, Hossa was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins to provide a scoring winger for Sidney Crosby. The experiment worked well: Hossa was second to Crosby in postseason scoring with 27 adjusted points in 20 games, and the team made it all the way to the Cup finals before losing to the Red Wings.

Nothing too tragic there, but then Hossa walked away from a mammoth contract offer the Penguins had tabled to sign a one-year deal for less money with the Detroit Red Wings, the very team that had beaten him and, in the words that would come back to haunt Hossa, "his best shot to win a Stanley Cup". After a stellar year in which Hossa joined Datsyuk and Zetterberg to form an amazing trio of the league's best two-way forwards, Detroit was back in the Cup finals against the very Penguins that Hossa had shunned. Hossa was a no-show in the Cup final and Pittsburgh shockingly won Game 7, leaving Hossa two-time runner-up and a perfect villain for Penguins' fans.

Once more, Hossa jumped to another up-and-coming contender...this time the Chicago Blackhawks, signing an enormous ten-year deal. Finally, Hossa's timing was on: the Blackhawks won their first Cup in 49 years, and even though Hossa wasn't anywhere near the Blackhawks' best player during the run, it was a huge monkey off of Hossa's back. The accomplishment of being a key player on three different teams that all the made the Cup final in three consecutive years would have been remarkable enough, but if the Blackhawks had lost in the final, Hossa would have been his own personal version of the Buffalo Bills...a hex like no one has ever seen in the modern NHL.

Although Hossa's recent team success has become the thing that most fans will remember about him, his personal achievements as a player shouldn't be forgotten. He is one of the most dominant players in the league at puck possession, making him a two-way force on par with Datsyuk and Zetterberg (although not quite as consistently spectacular). Hossa is one of the league's best penalty killers and yet still has averaged 36 goals a season and over a point-a-game in a twelve-year career. It's rare to see someone so gifted at both ends of the ice as Hossa.

For someone who has been around for a very long time, Hossa is still quite young at only 32. If he puts in another four or five seasons at about a point a game (or slightly less), Hossa will end up with around 1200-1300 adjusted career points and somewhere between 550 and 600 goals...difficult to dismiss when you consider his excellent two-way play. And he has always been a part of winning organizations: the Senators were among the league's best regular-season teams in the early-2000s, and even though they always choked come playoff time, Hossa was one of the least-culpable on the team, scoring 19 points in 18 playoff games during their run to the Conference finals in 2003 and 12 in 12 the year before. Even after he was traded to the laughable Atlanta Thrashers for Dany Heatley, Hossa helped the Thrashers to seasons of 90 and 97 points, and the franchise's only playoff appearance.

So why despite his gaudy numbers, team success, superb two-way play and Stanley Cup ring is Hossa not ranked even higher? He may be once the numbers start piling up, but there is also the matter that Hossa seems to have established that he can't be the guy when it comes to carrying a team. He's an ideal second-line right-winger or even first-liner with a team that has a superstar center (i.e. Toews, Crosby). With all of his teams, Hossa has usually been the third or fourth best player...and he seems to be fine in that role. Even with his run of three straight Cup finals appearances on three different teams, Hossa was the guy you thought about after you'd dealt with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Crosby, Malkin, Toews and Kane. And in his best seasons with the Ottawa Senators and Atlanta Thrashers, he had to share the spotlight with Kovalchuk, Alfredsson and Spezza.

Nevertheless, for a player who's gone about his business with a level of consistently good play throughout the 2000s, Hossa is deserving of a spot on my list. And more importantly for him, by being part of a championship team in 2010, he's avoided having the label of perennial runner-up attached to his legacy.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

THE PYRAMID LEADERBOARD (the only one that matters)

You may be familiar with which players are up there on the real list of all-time leaders, but now it's time to look at how the players on my Pyramid stack up against each other. Here are the career leaders among the 131 players ranked on the list (through the 2009-2010 season):

Career Adjusted Games Played

1. Gordie Howe, RW - 2063
2. Mark Messier, C/LW- 1809
3. Ron Francis, C - 1778
4. Alex Delvecchio, C - 1769
5. Johnny Bucyk, LW - 1713
6. Chris Chelios, D - 1695
7. Dave Andreychuk, LW - 1687
8. Mark Recchi, RW - 1689
9. Scott Stevens, D - 1684
10. Larry Murphy, D - 1669
11. Ray Bourque, D - 1667
12. Tim Horton, D - 1646
13. Norm Ullman, C - 1587
14. Red Kelly, D/C - 1564
15. Brendan Shanahan, LW - 1562
16. Steve Yzerman, C - 1561
17. Wayne Gretzky, C - 1544
18. Stan Mikita, C - 1530
19. Mike Modano, C - 1522
20. Nicklas Lidstrom, D - 1522
21. Doug Gilmour, C - 1519
22. Mike Gartner, RW - 1481
23. Luc Robitaille, LW - 1472
24. Paul Coffey, D - 1459
25. Al MacInnis, D - 1453

Career Adjusted Goals Scored

1. Gordie Howe, RW - 1032
2. Nels Stewart, C - 799
3. Wayne Gretzky, C - 775
4. Maurice Richard, RW - 748
5. Brett Hull, RW - 748
6. Phil Esposito, C - 741
7. Howie Morenz, C - 740
8. Aurele Joliat, LW - 732
9. Bobby Hull, LW - 720
10. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 706
11. Teemu Selanne, RW - 693
12. Brendan Shanahan, LW - 687
13. Luc Robitaille, LW - 663
14. Joe Sakic, C - 655
15. Steve Yzerman, C - 654
16. Mark Messier, C/LW - 647
17. Marcel Dionne, C - 644
18. Jean Beliveau, C - 640
19. Mario Lemieux, C - 626
20. Mike Gartner, RW - 625
21. Johnny Bucyk, LW - 621
22. Frank Mahovlich, LW - 616
23. Dave Andreychuk, LW - 614
24. Mats Sundin, C - 611
25. Stan Mikita, C - 603

Career Adjusted Assists

1. Wayne Gretzky, C - 1751
2. Gordie Howe, RW - 1339
3. Ron Francis, C - 1217
4. Mark Messier, C - 1131
5. Adam Oates, C - 1092
6. Ray Bourque, D - 1087
7. Joe Sakic, C - 1070
8. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 1034
9. Paul Coffey, D - 1028
10. Steve Yzerman, C - 1028
11. Stan Mikita, C - 1021
12. Mark Recchi, RW - 1015
13. Alex Delvecchio, C - 1008
14. Mario Lemieux, C - 947
15. Nicklas Lidstrom, D - 928
16. Doug Gilmour, C - 927
17. Marcel Dionne, C - 921
18. Johnny Bucyk, LW - 910
19. Phil Esposito, C - 901
20. Al MacInnis, D - 896
21. Jean Beliveau, C - 883
22. Larry Murphy, D - 863
23. Mike Modano, C - 860
24. Norm Ullman, C - 860
25. Mats Sundin, C - 842

Career Adjusted Points

1. Wayne Gretzky, C - 2528
2. Gordie Howe, RW - 2370
3. Mark Messier, C - 1777
4. Ron Francis, C - 1747
5. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 1742
6. Joe Sakic, C - 1724
7. Steve Yzerman, C - 1683
8. Phil Esposito, C - 1646
9. Stan Mikita, C - 1625
10. Mark Recchi, RW - 1615
11. Mario Lemieux, C - 1573
12. Alex Delvecchio, C - 1571
13. Marcel Dionne, C - 1566
14. Johnny Bucyk, LW - 1532
15. Jean Beliveau, C - 1520
16. Ray Bourque, D - 1465
17. Teemu Selanne, RW - 1457
18. Mats Sundin, C - 1452
19. Mike Modano, C - 1451
20. Norm Ullman, C - 1438
21. Adam Oates, C - 1432
22. Brett Hull, RW - 1422
23. Brendan Shanahan, LW - 1413
24. Luc Robitaille, LW - 1385
25. Paul Coffey, D - 1380

Career Adjusted Points Per Game

1. Mario Lemieux, C - 1.70
2. Wayne Gretzky, C - 1.64
3. Sidney Crosby, C - 1.50
4. Alexander Ovechkin, LW - 1.40
5. Peter Forsberg, C - 1.36
6. Bobby Orr, D - 1.36
7. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 1.33
8. Evgeni Malkin, C - 1.30
9. Joe Sakic, C - 1.22
10. Eric Lindros, C - 1.22
11. Mike Bossy, RW - 1.22
12. Phil Esposito, C - 1.20
13. Jean Beliveau, C - 1.18
14. Howie Morenz, C - 1.17
15. Gordie Howe, RW - 1.15
16. Pavel Bure, RW - 1.15
17. Bobby Hull, LW - 1.14
18. Dany Heatley, LW - 1.14
19. Marcel Dionne, C - 1.13
20. Teemu Selanne, RW - 1.13
21. Joe Thornton, C - 1.12
22. Ilya Kovalchuk, LW - 1.11
23. Syl Apps, C - 1.11
24. Brett Hull, RW - 1.09
25. Paul Kariya, LW - 1.09

Career Adjusted Goals per Game

1. Howie Morenz, C - 0.70
2. Alexander Ovechkin, LW - 0.69
3. Nels Stewart, C - 0.69
4. Mario Lemieux, C - 0.68
5. Bill Cook, RW - 0.67
6. Pavel Bure, RW - 0.64
7. Mike Bossy, RW - 0.63
8. Charlie Conacher, RW - 0.62
9. Maurice Richard, RW - 0.60
10. Bobby Hull, LW - 0.60
11. Ilya Kovalchuk, LW - 0.58
12. Brett Hull, RW - 0.57
13. Aurele Joliat, LW - 0.57
14. Sidney Crosby, C - 0.57
15. Phil Esposito, C - 0.54
16. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 0.54
17. Teemu Selanne, RW - 0.54
18. Dany Heatley, LW - 0.54
19. Eric Lindros, C - 0.52
20. Gordie Howe, RW - 0.50
21. Wayne Gretzky, C - 0.50
22. Bernie Geoffrion, RW - 0.50
23. Syl Apps, C - 0.50
T24. Jean Beliveau, C - 0.49
T24. Jarome Iginla, RW - 0.49
T24. Evgeni Malkin, C - 0.49

Career Adjusted Assists per Game

1. Wayne Gretzky, C - 1.13
2. Mario Lemieux, C - 1.02
3. Peter Forsberg, C - 0.97
4. Bobby Orr, D - 0.96
5. Sidney Crosby, C - 0.94
6. Evgeni Malkin, C - 0.81
7. Adam Oates, C - 0.79
8. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 0.79
9. Joe Thornton, C - 0.77
10. Joe Sakic, C - 0.76
11. Pavel Datsyuk, C - 0.72
12. Alexander Ovechkin, LW - 0.72
13. Brad Richards, C - 0.71
14. Paul Coffey, D - 0.70
15. Eric Lindros, C - 0.70
16. Ron Francis, C - 0.68
17. Jean Beliveau, C - 0.68
18. Stan Mikita, C - 0.67
19. Bobby Clarke, C - 0.67
20. Bill Cowley, C - 0.67
21. Steve Yzerman, C - 0.66
22. Marcel Dionne, C - 0.66
23. Phil Esposito, C - 0.66
24. Daniel Alfredsson, RW - 0.66
25. Gordie Howe, RW - 0.65

Adjusted Goals Scored per season during Peak Average

1. Howie Morenz, C - 75
2. Nels Stewart, C - 67
3. Bill Cook, RW - 63
4. Phil Esposito, C - 59
5. Bobby Hull, LW - 56
T6. Gordie Howe, RW - 55
T6. Brett Hull, RW - 55
T8. Wayne Gretzky, C - 54
T8. Alexander Ovechkin, LW - 54
T10. Charlie Conacher, RW - 53
T10. Aurele Joliat, LW - 53
T12. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 50
T12. Mike Bossy, RW - 50
T12. Maurice Richard, RW - 50
15. Ilya Kovalchuk, LW - 47
T16. Mario Lemieux, C - 46
T16. Teemu Selanne, RW - 46
T18. Jarome Iginla, RW - 45
T18. Busher Jackson, LW - 45
T20. Jean Beliveau, C - 44
T20. Marcel Dionne, C - 44
T22. Guy Lafleur, RW - 43
T22. Luc Robitaille, LW - 43
T24. Jari Kurri, RW - 42
T24. Dit Clapper, D/RW - 42

Adjusted Assists per season during Peak Average

1. Wayne Gretzky, C - 103
2. Bobby Orr, D - 76
3. Joe Thornton, C - 75
4. Adam Oates, C - 72
T5. Phil Esposito, C - 71
T5. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 71
7. Peter Forsberg, C - 70
8. Mario Lemieux, C - 69
9. Ron Francis, C - 66
T10. Sidney Crosby, C - 64
T10. Stan Mikita, C - 64
T10. Bobby Clarke, C - 64
13. Andy Bathgate, RW - 63
14. Joe Sakic, C - 62
T15. Guy Lafleur, RW - 61
T15. Paul Coffey, D - 61
17. Marcel Dionne, C - 60
T18. Gordie Howe, RW - 59
T18. Bryan Trottier, C - 59
T18. Peter Stastny, C - 59
T18. Bill Cowley, C - 59
T18. Doug Gilmour, C - 59
T18. Martin St. Louis, RW - 59
T24. Steve Yzerman, C - 58
T24. Denis Savard, C - 58
T24. Mark Messier, C - 58

Adjusted Points per season during Peak Average

1. Wayne Gretzky, C - 157
2. Phil Esposito, C - 131
3. Jaromir Jagr, RW - 121
4. Gordie Howe, RW - 115
5. Mario Lemieux, C - 113
6. Alexander Ovechkin, LW - 111
7. Howie Morenz, C - 111
8. Bobby Orr, D - 108
9. Stan Mikita, C - 105
T10. Joe Thornton, C - 104
T10. Guy Lafleur, RW - 104
T10. Marcel Dionne, C - 104
13. Sidney Crosby, C - 103
14. Joe Sakic, C - 101
15. Bobby Hull, LW - 100
T16. Peter Forsberg, C - 99
T16. Andy Bathgate, RW - 99
T16. Mike Bossy, RW - 99
T19. Steve Yzerman, C - 98
T19. Teemu Selanne, RW - 98
T21. Adam Oates, C - 97
T21. Jean Beliveau, C - 97
T23. Martin St. Louis, RW - 95
T23. Nels Stewart, C - 95
T25. Eric Lindros, C - 94
T25. Bill Cook, RW - 94

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

#86 - Andy Bathgate

Andy Bathgate (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #86)

Adjusted Stats

1952-1953   NYR        21 GP   0 goals     2 assists     2 points       0.07 PPG
1953-1954   NYR        23 GP   3 goals     3 assists     6 points       0.26 PPG
1954-1955   NYR        82 GP   29 goals   29 assists   57 points     0.70 PPG
1955-1956   NYR        82 GP   27 goals   67 assists   94 points     1.14 PPG
1956-1957   NYR        82 GP   36 goals   67 assists   103 points   1.26 PPG
1957-1958   NYR        76 GP   39 goals   62 assists   100 points   1.32 PPG
1958-1959   NYR        82 GP   50 goals   60 assists   109 points   1.33 PPG
1959-1960   NYR        82 GP   32 goals   59 assists   90 points     1.10 PPG
1960-1961   NYR        82 GP   35 goals   58 assists   92 points     1.13 PPG
1961-1962   NYR        82 GP   34 goals   67 assists   101 points   1.23 PPG
1962-1963   NYR        82 GP   42 goals   56 assists   98 points     1.20 PPG
1963-1964   NYR/Tor* 83 GP   25 goals   75 assists   100 points   1.20 PPG
1964-1965   Tor         64 GP   20 goals   36 assists   56 points     0.88 PPG
1965-1966   Det         82 GP   18 goals   38 assists   56 points     0.68 PPG
1966-1967   Det         70 GP   10 goals   28 assists   37 points     0.53 PPG
1967-1968   Pit           82 GP   24 goals   48 assists   72 points     0.88 PPG
1970-1971   Pit           80 GP   16 goals   30 assists   46 points     0.57 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1955-1956   NYR        5 GP     1 goal      2 assists     3 points      0.60 PPG
1956-1957   NYR        5 GP     2 goals     0 assists     2 points     0.40 PPG
1957-1958   NYR        6 GP     5 goals     3 assists     7 points     1.21 PPG
1961-1962   NYR        6 GP     1 goal       2 assists     3 points     0.50 PPG
1963-1964   Tor*       14 GP   5 goals     4 assists     9 points     0.68 PPG
1964-1965   Tor         6 GP     1 goal       0 assists     1 point      0.18 PPG
1965-1966   Det         12 GP   6 goals     3 assists     10 points   0.79 PPG

Career - 1237 GP, 440 goals, 785 assists, 1219 points, 0.99 PPG
Career-Highs - 50 goals (58-59); 75 assists (63-64); 109 points (58-59); 1.33 PPG (58-59)
Avg. (16 seasons) - 77 GP, 28 goals, 49 assists, 76 points, 0.99 PPG
Peak Avg. (56-64) - 81 GP, 37 goals, 63 assists, 99 points, 1.22 PPG, 1 Cup

Playoff Career - 54 GP, 21 goals, 14 assists, 35 points, 0.65 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 5 goals (57-58); 4 assists (63-64); 10 points (65-66); 1.21 PPG (57-58) 

Accolades - MVP Award
All-Star Teams - 2-time 1st-team, 2-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

For all of the Original Six stars on my Pyramid, one thing that struck me is how few New York Rangers there are. The Montreal Canadiens are certainly well-represented, as well they should be considering the ungodly amount of championships they have won. The Maple Leafs and Red Wings, both successful franchises before expansion in 1967, also have a good chunk of stars. And even the Bruins and Blackhawks have some of the best players of all-time representing them. But the New York Rangers have almost no one who starred for them from between 1935 and 1970. One of the rare exceptions is Andy Bathgate.

Bathgate is one of the best right-wingers of the pre-expansion era, but his career was constantly upstaged by two right-wingers who were stealing headlines ahead of him: Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard. Despite having the two greatest right-wingers playing at the same time as him, Bathgate managed to forge his own hall-of-fame worthy career, winning an MVP award in 1959 and a scoring title in 1962. His run from 1955 to 1964 is one of the greatest of any forward: he was one of the top five scorers in the league in each of the nine seasons, and averaged 99 adjusted points.

Bathgate's legend would be greater (perhaps more in line with, say, a Dickie Moore or a Bernie Geoffrion) if he had only been fortunate enough to play for more of a contender, as opposed to a New York Rangers team that was famously one of the doormats of the Original Six era (and continued without a Stanley Cup until 1994). He was the Ernie Banks of hockey: a superb player on a team with a massive championship drought. During Bathgate's run with the Rangers from '56 to '63, the team's record was a pedestrian 171-231-88, for a winning percentage of .439. That's Hartford Whalers territory.

If there was something noteworthy for Bathgate during his tenure with the Rangers (beyond his remarkably consistent production), it's the fact that it was Bathgate who was indirectly responsible for one of the great innovations in hockey history: the goalie mask. After missing a shot and being mockingly booed by the Montreal crowd, the normally-calm Bathgate was upset and fired a high slapshot at Habs' goalie Jacques Plante, whose face was busted open. Plante returned to the game with a mask on and the goaltending position was changed forever. It's interesting that it was this bit of viciousness that changed the game, because Bathgate was rarely dirty. For a big man, he hated cheap physical contact...like Mike Bossy twenty years later, he believed the ice rink was a canvas on which beautiful offensive plays should be painted. He wrote an article entitled "Atrocities on Ice" that pointed out the epidemic of spearing and slashing that was creeping into the game (Exhibit A in my argument that the old-timers claim that there "used to be respect in the game" is hogwash).

Mercifully, Bathgate was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the middle of the 1963-1964 campaign, in which he was having yet another top-five campaign. He chipped in 9 playoff points in 14 games, including a great Cup finals series in which he scored a critical breakaway against Terry Sawchuk, as the Leafs won their third consecutive championship and Bathgate got his one and only Cup ring. Bathgate would play five more seasons (eventually ending up on the expansion Pittsburgh Penguins as their initial star attraction), but he didn't come close to producing the numbers he did during his run with New York.

We'll remember his as one of the most unsuccessful successful careers in hockey history...not quite at the Marcel Dionne level of tragedy since he did get his name on the Cup, but as a predecessor to the Hawerchuks, Stastnys and Sundins of the world, one of the first marquee names on a perenially mediocre team. He was unlucky to be on the Rangers and unlucky to be in the shadow of Howe and Richard. Bathgate perservered anyway and emerged through the adversity as a universally-respected right-winger whose career still stands up as one of the best of the Original Six era.

Monday, March 21, 2011

BUT WHAT ABOUT?

Now that the Pyramid (which you can view here: http://hockeypyramid.blogspot.com/2011/01/greatest-players-of-all-time-definitive.html) stands completed (although always shifting...some players will move up or down depending on how the rest of their careers pan out), there comes the question of why certain people were left off. As I already explained, Dino Ciccarelli was my cutoff point...if I felt your career wasn't as good as his, you were off the list. Here are some of the players who I debated including, but didn't quite make it, divided into three categories:

Bubble Guys Who Probably Won't Ever Make It:

Claude Lemieux - Three Stanley Cup rings and known as one of the most clutch playoff performers of all-time, but the regular season numbers just aren't quite there. If you let him in, now you're opening the door for the Johan Franzens of the world. Would I want his career over Ciccarelli's? Yes. But at some point, you need to look beyond the fact that Lemieux was fortunate to play with some very good teams.

Clark Gillies - Often derided as one of the worst players in the hall-of-fame, Gillies actually had a decent peak as a left-winger. He was twice named the league's best left-winger, and of course was a key part of the Islander team that won four straight championships. But the stretch of excellence wasn't nearly long enough.

Wendel Clark - Described by a friend of mine who's a Leaf fan as "the Jarome Iginla of his day". Umm, no. Good player, galvanized the city...but check the numbers, and his lack of credentials.

Lanny McDonald - A beloved player, a great ambassador for the game, he scored 500 career goals (before adjustment...in real terms, it'd be around 420) and finally won a Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames. But McDonald wasn't a key contributor on that team, even though his leadership was valuable. Great ambassador, but just falls short.

Keith Tkachuk - In the mid-90s, seem destined to be putting together a great career as a power-foward LW. But disinterest kicked in, then weight gain, and by the end he wasn't nearly as productive as his potential would have suggested. Doesn't quite make it.

Curtis Joseph - The toughest call...he almost made the Pyramid. Perenially one of the five to ten best goaltenders in the league, but was never named to a year-end all-star team. Also may have been the greatest 1st-round goaltender in the history of the playoffs, and the worst 2nd-round one.

Bernie Nicholls - Had two amazing seasons in 1988-1989 and 1989-1990. Yet the fact that he was traded right after the 1989 season tells you all you need to know. Aside from that, his gaudy numbers are mostly a product of playing in the 1980s. One of the most forgettable 70-goal scorers of all-time.

Bernie Federko - Essentially what I said about Nicholls, except for the 70-goal scoring part.

Mike Richter - Wrestled the title of preeminent "big game" goalie away from Patrick Roy briefly around 1994, when he won a Stanley Cup and then stoned Canada in the World Cup in 1996. Still, the peak was a little too short to earn Pyramid honours.

John Vanbiesbrouck - Like Richter, wracked up a ton of wins and even a Vezina trophy. But he seemed to choke come playoff time, aside from his great 1996 run with the Panthers. Can't quite give him a nod.

Rod Langway - One of the best defensive-defenseman of all-time, a punishing hitter who for three years in the mid-1980s won two Norris trophies and was considered the league's best D-man. Still, considering he was defensively-minded and there aren't a lot of numbers to go on, some team success would have been nice. In the end, Langway comes up just short.

John LeClair - Essentially the same career trajectory as Tkachuk, although at least LeClair got a Stanley Cup ring.

Doug Bentley - A good stretch that occurred mostly during World War II when the league was watered-down. Never won a Stanley Cup in the Original Six either, which hurts his case.

Lorne Chabot - One of the better goaltenders of his era, but it was an ultra low-scoring era, so points deducted.

Chuck Gardiner - Made three year-end all-star teams, but far too brief a career, and as with Chabot, played in a completely low-scoring era.

Markus Naslund - Spent three years in the early 2000s as arguably one of the best forwards in the league, and even took home a scoring title. But the crappy start and finish to his careers, and the fact that he never made it past the second round, keep him off the list.

Joe Mullen - Almost a carbon-copy of Ciccarelli's career trajectory, only with one first-team all-star appearance and three Stanley Cup rings. So why isn't he in? The final numbers are just a tad too mediocre, and given that he played for sixteen seasons, his career totals don't quite justify inclusion. Tough call, though...one of the closest to making it.

Paul Henderson - Put it this way: if Brenden Morrow had scored "the goldennnn goallll!" instead of Sidney Crosby, would that make Morrow a hall-of-famer? I think not. And Henderson wasn't even as good as Brenden Morrow. Brutal career numbers, very little team success in the NHL, was fortunate to score an iconic goal. Give it up Cherry, Henderson's out!

Players Who Were Dominant In an Era That's Too Old for me to Judge:

George Hainsworth
Georges Vezina
Clint Benedict
Newsy Lalonde
Joe Malone
Cy Denneny
Babe Dye
King Clancy

Players Who May Make the Pyramid Next Time:

Roberto Luongo - Has had the mantle of "next great goalie" handed to him for seemingly the past six or seven years without doing anything to earn it. Has never won a Vezina trophy or been past the second round of the playoffs (granted, for the first few years of his career he was saddled with awful teams). I could see the Canucks winning a Cup soon, though, and if they do, Luongo earns a spot on the Pyramid.

Marc-Andre Fleury - Has won a Stanley Cup, been one of the winningest regular-season and playoff goaltenders of the past few seasons, yet seems perenially underrated. He's still remarkably young, and could end up surprising many by finishing his career very high on the all-time wins list. I see him making the list soon.

The Sedin Twins - Certainly not Pyramid-worthy until about two seasons ago, when their games both took off. Henrik won the scoring title in 09-10, Daniel is leading in 10-11, and the Canucks are one of the best teams in hockey. If they can only add some playoff production to their resume, they could make it in a few years. And if they continue to produce at these levels for another four or five seasons, they're on for sure.

Mike Richards - One of the most complete two-way forwards in the game, and one of the winningest also. All that's missing from his resume is a Stanley Cup ring. The production isn't mind-blowing, but you get 75-80 points, great leadership and amazing defence. 'Nuff said.

Jonathan Toews - Pretty much a lock to make the Pyramid in a few more years, especially with a Stanley Cup ring, Conn Smythe and Olympic gold (in which he led Canada in scoring) on his resume. As with Richards, the production is more in the 75-80 range, but that's nothing to sneeze at when you're talking about one of the premium two-way forwards in the league. The heir apparent to Steve Yzerman.

Patrick Kane - More one-dimensional than Toews or Richards, but he does have that Cup ring, as well as electrifying scoring touch. Will probably make the list in a few more years, so long as he takes it easy on cab drivers.

Steven Stamkos - Already off to an incredible start to his career. We may be watching a special goal-scorer developing.

#125 - Mike Vernon

Mike Vernon (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #125)

Adjusted Stats

1982-1983   Cgy     2 GP, 0-2-0, .000 win%, 103 min, 9 GA, 5.25 GAA
1983-1984   Cgy     1 GP, 0-1-0, .000 win%, 11 min, 3 GA, 17.01 GAA
1985-1986   Cgy     18 GP, 9-3-3, .700 win%, 944 min, 41 GA, 2.62 GAA
1986-1987   Cgy     55 GP, 31-22-1, .583 win%, 3031 min, 153 GA, 3.03 GAA
1987-1988   Cgy     66 GP, 40-16-7, .690 win%, 3654 min, 178 GA, 2.93 GAA
1988-1989   Cgy*   53 GP, 38-6-5, .827 win%, 3011 min, 110 GA, 2.18 GAA
1989-1990   Cgy     48 GP, 24-14-9, .606 win%, 2865 min, 125 GA, 2.62 GAA
1990-1991   Cgy     55 GP, 32-19-3, .620 win%, 3199 min, 157 GA, 2.94 GAA
1991-1992   Cgy     65 GP, 25-31-9, .454 win%, 3731 min, 197 GA, 3.16 GAA
1992-1993   Cgy     62 GP, 28-25-9, .524 win%, 3643 min, 168 GA, 2.77 GAA
1993-1994   Cgy     47 GP, 25-17-5, .585 win%, 2731 min, 121 GA, 2.67 GAA
1994-1995   Det      51 GP, 32-10-7, .724 win%, 3087 min, 134 GA, 2.60 GAA
1995-1996   Det      32 GP, 21-7-2, .733 win%, 1855 min, 68 GA, 2.21 GAA
1996-1997   Det*    33 GP, 13-11-8, .531 win%, 1952 min, 83 GA, 2.56 GAA
1997-1998   SJ        62 GP, 30-22-8, .567 win%, 3564 min, 170 GA, 2.86 GAA
1998-1999   SJ       49 GP, 16-22-10, .438 win%, 2831 min, 125 GA, 2.65 GAA
1999-2000   SJ/Fla  49 GP, 24-18-3, .567 win%, 2791 min, 129 GA, 2.77 GAA
2000-2001   Cgy      41 GP, 12-23-5, .363 win%, 2246 min, 135 GA, 3.61 GAA
2001-2002   Cgy      18 GP, 2-9-1, .208 win%, 825 min, 45 GA, 3.24 GAA

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1985-1986   Cgy       21 GP, 12-9, .571 win%, 1229 min, 52 GA, 2.53 GAA
1986-1987   Cgy       5 GP, 2-3, .400 win%, 263 min, 14 GA, 3.27 GAA
1987-1988   Cgy       9 GP, 4-4, .500 win%, 515 min, 26 GA, 2.98 GAA
1988-1989   Cgy*     22 GP, 16-5, .762 win%, 1381 min, 45 GA, 1.94 GAA
1989-1990   Cgy       6 GP, 2-3, .400 win%, 342 min, 16 GA, 2.82 GAA
1990-1991   Cgy       7 GP, 3-4, .429 win%, 427 min, 18 GA, 2.52 GAA
1992-1993   Cgy       4 GP, 1-1, .500 win%, 150 min, 12 GA, 4.93 GAA
1993-1994   Cgy       7 GP, 3-4, .429 win%, 466 min, 23 GA, 2.91 GAA
1994-1995   Det        18 GP, 12-6, .667 win%, 1063 min, 36 GA, 2.04 GAA
1995-1996   Det        4 GP, 2-2, .500 win%, 243 min, 11 GA, 2.60 GAA
1996-1997   Det*      20 GP, 16-4, .800 win%, 1229 min, 38 GA, 1.85 GAA
1997-1998   SJ          6 GP, 2-4, .333 win%, 348 min, 16 GA, 2.69 GAA
1998-1999   SJ          5 GP, 2-3, .400 win%, 321 min, 14 GA, 2.67 GAA
1999-2000   Fla         4 GP, 0-4, .000 win%, 237 min, 14 GA, 3.66 GAA

Career - 807 GP, 402-278-95, .580 win%, 46074 min, 2151 GA, 2.80 GAA
Career-Highs - 66 GP (87-88); 40 wins (87-88); .827 win% (88-89); 3654 min (87-88); 2.18 GAA (88-89)
Avg. (16 seasons) - 49 GP, 25-15-6, .580 win%, 2814 min, 131 GA, 2.80 GAA
Peak Avg. (87-95) - 56 GP, 31-17-7, .622 win%, 3240 min, 149 GA, 2.76 GAA, 1 Cup

Playoff Career - 138 GP, 77-56, .579 win%, 8214 min, 335 GA, 2.45 GAA
Playoff-Highs - 16 wins (twice); .800 win% (96-97); 1.85 GAA (96-97)

Accolades - Jennings Trophy, Conn Smythe
All-Star Teams - 1-time 2nd-team
2-time Stanley Cup Champion

It's funny that Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood were the goaltending tandem for the Red Wings in the mid-1990s, and that they are ranked right beside each other on my Pyramid, because essentially Osgood's career is Vernon's shifted ten years later. Go ahead, look for yourself. The similarities are there, both in the rhythm of their careers and in the ways in which they were viewed.

Both played for teams that were stacked and suffered from the "well anyone could win with those teams" syndrome (lest we forget, the 1989 Flames team is one of the greatest ever assembled...they're just not often discussed because they came after the Oilers dynasty). Both earned second all-star team honours during a season in which their teams went apeshit and tore through the league (the '89 Flames in Vernon's case, the '96 Red Wings in Osgood's). Despite winning a Stanley Cup early in their careers, both Vernon and Osgood were criticized for subsequent early playoff exits. And both battled through towards the end of their careers to earn the respect of fans with postseason runs that made people think "Hey, maybe this old dude wasn't such a bad goalie after all".

If you want to earn a free pint from a drunk who knows hockey but not in the encyclopedic sense, bet him that he won't be able to guess the Conn Smythe winner for the Red Wings' 1997 Cup (their first of the modern era). They get only one guess. He won't guess Yzerman, because he'll know that since you've made the bet, it can't be the obvious one. Fedorov? Nope. Shanahan? No. Lidstrom? No. That's right...it was Mike Vernon, the beleaguered goaltender who wasn't even the team's #1 option heading into the playoffs. Mike Vernon, who just two years earlier had been criticized for his playoff performance as the Red Wings were swept in the Stanley Cup final by a less-talented Devils' squad, with Martin Brodeur soundly outplaying him. Vernon made up for all of his past shortcomings in the postseason by going 16-4 with a sparkling .927 save percentage.

Again, the comparisons to Osgood are hard to ignore. Both goaltenders have won two Stanley Cups as a starter, one in which they were integral, another in which they were merely passable. And both played well in leading their team to the Cup finals in a losing cause...in Vernon's case, he led the Flames to the 1986 Cup finals as a rookie, matching up with his longtime rival Patrick Roy in the first of what was to be many classic head-to-head duels (Vernon bested Roy in 1989, then again in 1997 as the Red Wings defeated their rivals the Avalanche). Of course, the most famous Roy/Vernon battle was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5D7iHruPFI. You had to love those Wings/Avs games.

Again, as with Osgood, I say this: Mike Vernon wasn't a goaltender who made your jaw drop at his excellence. He wasn't as remarkably acrobatic as Curtis Joseph or as positionally sound as Roberto Luongo, nor was he a workhorse like those two. Like Osgood and some of the other goaltenders on this Pyramid, he was lucky to play for some excellent teams. But as his 77-56 career postseason record attests, despite his shortcomings, Vernon came through when it mattered. He won, and in the end, that's what a goaltender's job is.

#124 - Chris Osgood

Chris Osgood (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #124)

Adjusted Stats

1993-1994   Det     40 GP, 22-8-5, .700 win%, 2153 min, 97 GA, 2.71 GAA
1994-1995   Det     32 GP, 24-9-0, .727 win%, 1857 min, 72 GA, 2.33 GAA
1995-1996   Det     50 GP, 39-6-5, .830 win%, 2933 min, 104 GA, 2.12 GAA
1996-1997   Det*   47 GP, 23-13-9, .611 win%, 2769 min, 112 GA, 2.42 GAA
1997-1998   Det*   64 GP, 33-20-11, .602 win%, 3807 min, 163 GA, 2.57 GAA
1998-1999   Det     63 GP, 34-25-4, .571 win%, 3691 min, 174 GA, 2.83 GAA
1999-2000   Det     53 GP, 30-14-8, .654 win%, 3148 min, 141 GA, 2.69 GAA
2000-2001   Det     52 GP, 25-19-4, .563 win%, 2834 min, 142 GA, 3.00 GAA
2001-2002   NYI    66 GP, 32-25-6, .556 win%, 3743 min, 183 GA, 2.93 GAA
2002-2003   NYI/Stl  46 GP, 21-17-6, .545 win%, 2525 min, 144 GA, 3.41 GAA
2003-2004   Stl       67 GP, 31-25-8, .547 win%, 3861 min, 172 GA, 2.68 GAA
2005-2006   Det      32 GP, 20-6-5, .726 win%, 1846 min, 86 GA, 2.81 GAA
2006-2007   Det      21 GP, 11-3-6, .700 win%, 1161 min, 49 GA, 2.54 GAA
2007-2008   Det*    43 GP, 27-9-4, .725 win%, 2409 min, 95 GA, 2.37 GAA
2008-2009   Det      46 GP, 26-9-8, .698 win%, 2663 min, 148 GA, 3.33 GAA
2009-2010   Det      23 GP, 7-9-4, .450 win%, 1252 min, 69 GA, 3.31 GAA
2010-2011   Det      11 GP, 5-3-2, .600 win%, 629 min, 33 GA, 3.11 GAA

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1993-1994   Det      6 GP, 3-2, .600 win%, 307 min, 12 GA, 2.30 GAA
1994-1995   Det      2 GP, 0-0, --- win%, 68 min, 2 GA, 1.56 GAA
1995-1996   Det      15 GP, 8-7, .533 win%, 936 min, 32 GA, 2.02 GAA
1996-1997   Det*    2 GP, 0-0, --- win%, 47 min, 2 GA, 2.68 GAA
1997-1998   Det*    22 GP, 16-6, .727 win%, 1361 min, 53 GA, 2.35 GAA
1998-1999   Det      6 GP, 4-2, .667 win%, 358 min, 15 GA, 2.58 GAA
1999-2000   Det      9 GP, 5-4, .556 win%, 547 min, 22 GA, 2.38 GAA
2000-2001   Det      6 GP, 2-4, .333 win%, 365 min, 18 GA, 2.89 GAA
2001-2002   NYI     7 GP, 3-4, .429 win%, 392 min, 20 GA, 3.09 GAA
2002-2003   Stl        7 GP, 3-4, .429 win%, 417 min, 20 GA, 2.92 GAA
2003-2004   Stl        5 GP, 1-4, .200 win%, 287 min, 15 GA, 3.20 GAA
2007-2008   Det*     19 GP, 14-4, .778 win%, 1160 min, 31 GA, 1.63 GAA
2008-2009   Det       23 GP, 15-8, .652 win%, 1406 min, 48 GA, 2.06 GAA

Career - 756 GP, 410-220-95, .631 win%, 43281 min, 1984 GA, 2.75 GAA
Career-Highs - 67 GP (03-04); 39 wins (95-96); .830 win% (95-96), 3861 min (03-04); 2.12 GAA (95-96)
Avg. (17 seasons) - 44 GP, 24-13-6, .631 win%, 2546 min, 117 GA, 2.75 GAA
Peak Avg. (95-03) - 55 GP, 30-17-7, .617 win%, 3181 min, 145 GA, 2.74 GAA, 2 Cups

Playoff Career - 129 GP, 74-49, .602 win%, 7651 min, 290 GA, 2.27 GAA
Playoff-Highs - 16 wins (97-98); .778 win% (07-08); 1.63 GAA (07-08)

Accolades - 2 Jennings Trophies
All-Star Teams - 1-time 2nd-team
3-time Stanley Cup Champion

Chris Osgood never quite got the respect he deserved, and it's likely he never will. He was the backstop for a Detroit Red Wings team that had such top-to-bottom organizational excellence and such a sound defensive system that it seemed inevitable that they would be one of the best teams in the league even if their goaltending was average. When the Red Wings won a Stanley Cup or 60 games in the regular season, it was in spite of Osgood. When they lost early in the first or second round, it was his fault. For a goaltender lucky enough to be in one of the best situations in hockey, Osgood also was in one of the unluckiest in terms of getting individual accolades.

Like the man right behind him on the Pyramid (Mike Vernon), there's no way I would make a case for Osgood being one of the twenty best goaltenders to ever play the game, even though he's one of only sixteen goaltenders to make my hall-of-fame list. It would be a difficult argument trying to prove that Osgood was a better goaltender than Roberto Luongo, Mike Richter, Curtis Joseph, Henrik Lundqvist, Miikka Kiprusoff, and probably about another seven or eight goalies who have passed through the league in the last twenty or so years. But Osgood has had one of the best careers, by virtue of playing for Detroit.

Osgood and Vernon's careers have been like the hockey equivalent of Andy Pettitte's in baseball. In fact, the similarities are eerie between Osgood and Pettitte. Both were recognized as runner-up for the best at their position early in their careers, in the mid-1990s (in Pettitte's case, it was as Cy Young runner-up to Pat Hentgen...in Osgood's case, it was as Vezina runner-up in 1996 to, get this, Jim Carey). Both then won championships but didn't earn much respect because of the view that "anyone could win a boatload of games on the Yankees/Red Wings". Both went to other teams and proved that they weren't solely dependent on playing for excellent squads (it's forgotten that Osgood took a doormat Islander team to the playoffs, then had an excellent first full year with the St. Louis Blues). And then both returned to their original teams and eventually started earning fan respect with playoff performances that defied their age.

Look, Billy Smith is ranked a good fifty spots higher than Osgood, and his regular-season numbers are just as underwhelming. One of the main reasons Osgood may be underrated is that although he is associated with the Red Wings' Stanley Cup wins, he was only the main goaltender for two, while Mike Vernon was the Cup winner (and Conn Smythe winner) in 1997 and Dominik Hasek was the go-to goalie in 2002. The feeling is that, since the Red Wings could win Cups with any goaltender, the fact that Osgood won two is somewhat less impressive. Whereas Fuhr and Smith are immediately identified with their teams, Osgood wasn't always "the man" for the Red Wings.

But the thing is, in every year that the Red Wings have won the Cup, their goaltending has been excellent, whether it's Vernon, Osgood or Hasek. That's why I think Osgood finally started getting his due in the back-to-back runs the Red Wings made in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, when the Wings won the Cup, Osgood took over for an enigmatic Dominik Hasek and had a sparkling 1.63 adjusted-GAA and .930 save percentage in the playoffs. The following season, he had a dreadful 3.33 adjusted-GAA in the regular season, but won 15 games and had a .926 save percentage in the playoffs as the Red Wings came within one win of yet another Cup. Osgood clearly showed that, like Fuhr and Smith, he didn't need to be at his best for a great team in the middle of January, but was perfectly capable of stepping up when needed in the postseason.

With over 400 wins now and two Stanley Cups, it will be hard to keep Osgood out of the hall-of-fame. Many won't want him there, and will point to the fact that he was almost never considered one of the league's top five (or even top ten) goaltenders from season to season. I point to his 74-49 career playoff record and his postseason save percentage, which is eleven points higher than his regular season mark and getting into the area of a Martin Brodeur. Did Osgood benefit from playing for an excellent team? Yes. But it's fair to say that he helped them more than a little when the chips were down.