Welcome again to The Contrarian, one of the vital beloved and standard options that I write. Until it isn’t.
The idea right here is straightforward. Readers ship me statements in regards to the NHL that they imagine to be clearly true, bordering on the inarguable. Then I argue towards these statements anyway and see if I can persuade you to begin pondering the unthinkable.
Do I truly imagine any of this? Possibly, however that’s not the purpose. The purpose is I’m a sportswriter, and if I’m going to have any success on this media world, I must grasp the artwork of creating ridiculous contrarian arguments that make simply sufficient sense to be infuriating.
Earlier editions of The Contrarian have seen me make the case that Mark Messier was a great Canuck, Ray Bourque’s long-awaited championship was bad and Brett Hull’s skate-in-crease goal was actually fine. Right now, we’ve received a brand new batch of reader statements that may’t be argued. Spoiler alert: All of them will likely be.
Be aware: Submissions have been edited for readability and magnificence.
The image of flying Bobby Orr is the best {photograph} in sports activities historical past. — Prescott A.
Quite the opposite, Prescott, you knucklehead. Until you meant to sort “most overrated photograph in sports activities historical past,” through which case we agree.
The Orr photograph is sweet sufficient, I assume. It at the least captures an attention-grabbing second, as a legendary participant goes almost parallel to the ice floor. That’s neat, certain. However it’s not like “hockey participant falls down” is strictly a uncommon occasion that wanted to be enshrined on movie and drooled over for 50-plus years. Particularly once you keep in mind the small print.
For instance, why is Orr flying via the air within the first place? As a result of he was tripped. By Noel Picard of the Blues, to be particular, who determined to present Orr a bit of post-goal oopsie-doodle in what was, let’s be sincere, a little bit of sore loser shenanigans. Once more, form of a bizarre factor to determine we have to memorialize eternally.
You will have seen the key phrase in that final paragraph: post-goal. No, Orr didn’t rating the Cup-winning objective whereas flying via the air. That might have been undeniably cool, and it certain appears to be what the NHL needs us to imagine occurred. You’ll usually see the play known as being Orr’s “flying objective,” however it was no such factor. Go forward and watch for yourself — it’s a primary give-and-go play, even form of a weak objective. And Orr has each ft firmly on the ice when he scores it.
OK, you may say, perhaps the objective itself was overrated, however it was a Cup-winner, and it got here in extra time. Absolutely that has to depend for one thing, proper? I assume. Congratulations to the Bruins on sweeping an enlargement workforce. That’s proper, a sweep. Orr’s clutch second got here in a sequence his workforce was already main 3-0. Everybody already knew the Bruins would win simply, similar to they’d when the identical two groups met for a rematch two years later and Boston swept once more. Orr’s objective didn’t win something that hadn’t already been all however locked up. All he did was save everybody an additional flight.
In different phrases, the so-called best photograph in hockey historical past is simply a picture of the aftermath of a weak objective towards a nasty workforce to win a lopsided sequence towards a current enlargement workforce. It was mainly the black-and-white model of Uwe Krupp. The circumstances are so boring that we’ve all gone forward and retconned some pretend circumstances round it, simply to make the second appear worthy of a mediocre photograph.
Hockey lends itself to some superb pictures, like the opposite 99 ones here, or any of these, or this all-time beauty. Orr flying via the air isn’t one in every of them, and by no means has been.
Digital advert boards are unhealthy. — Chase S.
Quite the opposite, Chase, you ninny. The NHL’s digital advert boards are a intelligent use of know-how that improve income.
Are they excellent? No, and all of us agree that the animations generally get a bit of too aggressive; the occasional player-eating glitch is clearly unhealthy. However these issues are rare nowadays, because the league has labored onerous to discover a higher stability than what they launched with. Lately, with exceedingly uncommon exceptions, every little thing works easily, and the one individuals nonetheless complaining are individuals who similar to to complain.
Look, I’m sufficiently old to recollect a time when there have been no adverts on the boards in any respect, or the ice, or the uniforms. However these days are gone, and you’ll’t blame the NHL for determining a approach to squeeze some additional promoting income. Sure, it means you gained’t get to see adverts for some native brake-repair store you’ve by no means heard of once you watch your workforce play a street recreation. However that additional income trickles into a better wage cap, which suggests extra participant motion and (hopefully) much less probability of a lockout. If meaning I’ve to see an excessively aggressive animation occur at precisely the improper time and really feel confused for a fraction of a second a couple of times a season, nicely, I feel we must always all be proud of that commerce off.
The entire “playoff on Thanksgiving” factor is a delusion, and at the least one workforce that was out of the playoffs yesterday will find yourself making it. — Nate M.
Quite the opposite, Nate, you ignoramus. Whereas the traditional Thanksgiving knowledge — that groups which can be exterior a playoff spot on the U.S. vacation gained’t be capable to claw their approach again into the race — isn’t some kind of infallible rule, it is going to be this yr.
That’s for 2 causes. First, U.S. Thanksgiving is late this yr, that means we’re just a few video games additional into the season and there’s much less runway forward for groups that must battle again. However extra importantly, the present 16 groups on the skin are the fitting ones. None of them need to make it.
Connor McDavid and the Oilers are at the moment out of a playoff spot. (Steven Bisig / Imagn Pictures)
Let’s run down the listing. The Sharks, Habs and Hawks are all rebuilding, and barely even making an attempt to remain within the race. The Flyers are solely barely higher. The Ducks and Blue Jackets have been good tales thus far, however they’d be joyful simply to play significant video games within the new yr, and that’s their probably ceiling. The Penguins and Predators are disasters. The Senators try to dig out from the identical November fade they’ve yearly, and the Red Wings have been caught in impartial since Steve Yzerman took over in 1972. The Kraken used up all their flukey playoff luck two years in the past. The Blues simply fired their coach after 22 video games, which tells you ways nicely their season goes. And Utah has already remembered that they’re the no-name Coyotes.
Who does that go away us with? Three groups: The Islanders, Sabres and Oilers.
Am I utterly certain the Islanders gained’t make it? No, as a result of that is what they do — fade into the background, watch as everybody counts them out after which sneak into one of many final spots on the finish of the season. However between accidents and the obvious lack of a brand new coach bounce in Patrick Roy’s first full season, I don’t suppose they’ve the juice. They’re finished.
The Sabres are in the most effective form of any of those groups and truly already maintain a spot based mostly on factors proportion, that means they’re solely on the “exterior” as a result of the schedule-maker has given the Bruins extra video games. They’re additionally the Sabres, so who’re we kidding? They’re finished, too.
And the Oilers … um … (remembers the idea of this column )… they’re unhealthy, you see. The goaltending is sinking them, and that’s definitely not one thing you may repair with solely cap house and three months to work with. Their depth forwards aren’t scoring, and people types of slumps by no means final lower than a full season. Connor McDavid has been merely nice and never otherworldly, as a result of he’s already peaked as a participant and is now in decline. Add all of it up and there’s simply no approach the Oilers are clawing again from the huge (checks notes) one-point deficit they’ve constructed up. They’re finished.
It’s over. We would as nicely begin the playoffs immediately as a result of we already know the 16 groups making it. You learn it right here first.
Regardless of what different fan bases say, the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t in actual fact get an excessive amount of media protection. — Steve T.
Quite the opposite, Steve, you goofball.
And don’t suppose I don’t get what you’re doing right here. You realize I’m a Leafs fan, and so that you suppose it’s going to someway be painful for me to must argue that the Leafs get an excessive amount of consideration. However right here’s the twist: I don’t must play-act the contrarian position right here in any respect, as a result of I agree. In fact they do! I wholeheartedly concede that the workforce will get far more protection than it deserves. Everybody who complains about this isn’t improper.
Everyone knows the ugly particulars by now. No championships since 1967, no journeys to the Closing in the identical timespan, only one playoff spherical gained within the cap period, just one division win since 2000 and that one was pretend … that’s not the resume of a workforce that must be entrance and middle in every little thing the league does. I don’t know the way usually the Maple Leafs need to be headlining Hockey Night time in Canada in the course of the season, however I’m fairly certain the quantity isn’t “roughly 95 p.c.” In case you’re a fan of one other workforce and also you suppose the Leafs are overexposed, congratulations, you’re proper.
However in fact, it’s 2024, and no person can simply be proper about something and go away it at that. No, as an alternative we get these different fan bases shifting onto the following stage of contemporary discontent, which is performative confusion. Why does this workforce get a lot media protection? A few of you may’t fairly determine it out.
And that’s the place you lose me. Look, the Leafs have a large fan base, in all probability the biggest within the league. That’s it. That’s the entire story. That massive viewers hasn’t been earned; it’s an accident of historical past and geography. However it’s actual, and in case you can’t determine why that viewers interprets to extra protection than your comparatively tiny fan base will get, then I’m unsure I may also help you.
(However undoubtedly preserve descending on each Leafs article, tweet, TikTok or radio phase and commit your complete day to angrily interacting with it, that can actually present them.)
Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar will go down because the second-best middle/defenseman duo of all time, barely behind Gretzky/Coffey. — Sean M.
Quite the opposite, Sean, you dingbat. First, your identify is dumb. And second, your query is … nicely, truly, it’s fairly attention-grabbing. Let’s do that.
Proper off the bat, you’re lacking two of the best duos of all time: Phil Esposito with Bobby Orr and Steve Yzerman with Nicklas Lidstrom. The Bruins combo utterly rewrote the report ebook within the Seventies, redefining what offense may imply. And the Detroit pair gained three Cups collectively whereas taking part in for twenty years for a century-old franchise. I feel you may truly argue both of these pairs is forward of Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey.
Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar skate off the ice after Makar scores a power-play objective towards the Dallas Stars in final yr’s playoffs. (Jerome Miron / Imagn Pictures)
From there, we are able to take a look at different legends to see if there’s a companion that matches. Ray Bourque by no means had an elite middle stick round lengthy sufficient to qualify, with apologies to Adam Oates, and I don’t suppose Larry Murphy (or post-Oiler Coffey) is nice sufficient to get Mario Lemieux on the listing. We don’t actually discover a combo within the Seventies Habs dynasty, but when we need to return to the Fifties then Jean Beliveau and Doug Harvey definitely qualify. And talking of dynasties, we have now to incorporate Bryan Trottier and Denis Potvin.
Ultimately, I feel my high 5 so as could be: Esposito/Orr, Beliveau/Harvey, Gretzky/Coffey, Yzerman/Lidstrom, Trottier/Potvin. Honorable mentions to Mark Messier/Brian Leetch, Patrice Bergeron/Zdeno Chara and Sidney Crosby/Kris Letang, if just for longevity. That’s a tricky listing to crack for MacKinnon and Makar, as good as they’ve been, so let’s verify again in a decade or so.
That was a superb query, Sean, thanks for sending it. I’m sorry I known as you a dingbat. Nonetheless a dumb identify, although.
There’s no approach the Penguins can come again to make the playoffs, so they need to begin a complete rebuild. — Andy M.
Quite the opposite, Andy, you flapdoodle.
Your downside is that you just’re ranging from an unspoken however flawed premise, which is that a very powerful objective of a sports activities workforce is to finally win. If that was true, then certain, the Penguins ought to blow all of it up, together with buying and selling any and all of their longtime stars. Backside out, add some picks and prospects and cross your fingers that the ol’ Penguins lottery luck kicks in as soon as once more. In case your objective is to have the most effective report potential 5 years from now, that’s the one rational approach ahead.
However that’s not the objective, or at the least it shouldn’t be. Not in Pittsburgh. As a result of in uncommon instances, there’s a objective within the sports activities world that’s even larger than successful: Being traditionally nice.
Look, successful a championship is cool, and flags fly eternally. However not all champions are created equal, and there’s a better tier that solely a small variety of groups will ever attain. And when a workforce can get there, it lives eternally. We’re speaking in regards to the Wayne Gretzky Oilers, the Invoice Russell Celtics, the Joe DiMaggio Yankees or the Tom Brady Patriots. These are the groups that ascend to a better airplane. As a fan, you’re fortunate to get to root for even one in your lifetime.
And certain, you may argue that Crosby’s Penguins are already there, given the watered-down period they play in. However even when they’re, it’s a must to preserve going. There’s at all times one other step. Yet one more championship modifications the dialog, and so would another after that.
In case you’re fortunate sufficient to get to this degree and there’s any probability in any respect of another run — even one in 1,000,000 — it’s a must to take it. You squeeze completely each drop out of this stone, and then you definately squeeze some extra simply to verify. Each nice dynasty should finish, and most finish badly, however the level is you by no means select to finish it. You journey it for so long as you presumably can, as a result of the chances are stacked that you just’ll by no means get the chance once more.
Father Time is undefeated, and parity comes for us all within the NHL. The rebuild will occur in Pittsburgh as a result of finally, it must. However that isn’t a second Kyle Dubas or Fenway Sports activities Group must be making an attempt to summon till there’s no different possibility. For now, you will have Sidney Crosby, a trio of championships and twenty years of the most effective recollections your fan base will ever have.
You could have an obligation to historical past right here, and that trumps your plans for the longer term. Squeeze that stone.
(Prime photograph of the Bobby Orr statue exterior TD Backyard: Paul Marotta / Getty Pictures)
