Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Please define 'Masterson'

Wes Goldstein of CBS has published his list of the top 50 NHL players for open discussion. Now I’m not real nitpicky when it comes to this sort of ranking thing, as it’s kind of a meaningless debate anyway, but I will take issue with one comment:

22. Teemu Selanne, RW: Too bad the NHL doesn’t give comeback awards. Selanne deserved it last year. He got over knee problems during the lockout and became one of the game’s most dangerous snipers again.

Uhh, didn’t Selanne just win himself a Masterson Trophy for precisely this resurgence? Yeah, yeah, maybe that trophy officially is about being a community icon (“best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey”), but a look at the previous five winners (Bryan Berard, Steve Yzerman, Saku Koivu, Adam Graves, and Ken Daneyko) pretty much indicates to me that the Masterson is nothing but a comeback award, either from injury, illness, or tragedy. Am I misunderstanding here?

Early prediction: Tomas Vokoun wins the Masterson next year, and Wes ignores that also.

[Side note: I am in favor of more trophies, by the way, but the one I would start with would be to give separate awards for the best defensive defenseman (the Norris) and the best offensive defenseman (the Orr). Right now I feel that one trophy for best defenseman confuses the two roles too much.]

At any rate, the Ducks listed were Chris Pronger (#3), Scott Niedermayer (#6), and Selanne (#22). The Sharks included Joe Thornton (#2), Patrick Marleau (#32), and Jonathan Cheechoo (#49).

And the Kings? Well, I’m sure they’re in the ‘top 50 NHL franchises’ list, but I only read the first 29.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Burn!

Earl Sleek said...

Yeah, Pronger is overrated at #3, but I think it comes from a bias to have the cup finalists represented within his top five.

Eric Staal was #4, and that was news to him also.

Anonymous said...

Well, Pronger's speed shouldn't put him in the top 5 alone. But otherwise, he's bloody good. Pronger was better in the old NHL obviously.