Just Getting Caught Up
by Travis
1/26/07
Now that we’re through the NHL all-star break and taking a look at the top sixteen teams, seven are from non-traditional hockey regions. In the Eastern conference Atlanta in 3rd, Carolina in 6th, Tampa Bay in 7th, and over in the West we have Anaheim in 2nd, San Jose in 5th, Dallas 6th, and the League leader coming into the break with the best point total overall from that hockey hot bed of Tennessee, yes those Nashville Predators???
What does this tell us about the state of the NHL? Not much but I bet you didn’t know until you read this article. Because unless you are a hockey aficionado you miss these details especially on ESPN’s highlight reels which show 2-3 second snippets of big hits and rocket shots with the ever so brief score of the games, lucky if you get a full 30 seconds of hockey in their hour long Sportscenter shows.
Can you blame them, hockey is a struggling sport much like it was before the Great One (Wayne Gretzky) joined the league and made his 1st all-star game at age 19 and went on to score 137 points that season.
Why is that stat important, you ask? Well hockey may have found it’s next savior in the wonder kid Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburg Penguins. Like Gretzky he is in the All-Star game at 19, leading the league in points, on pace to be the first one to score 150 points in a season since his boss Mario Lemieux who by the way was also 19 in his first all star game. Not only does he lead the league in points but 2/3rds of those points are assists meaning he doesn’t care who scores the goals for his team.
The questions still left unanswered at this point are:
Can he reach the 150 point plateau?
Can he sustain those numbers over the long haul?
Even if he does will it help hockey reach the heights bought to it by the Great One?
I don’t know the answers, but while he did play in the all-star game Wednesday night full of high hopes, it was the veterans who stole the show highlighted by Joe Sakic’s four assists.
Travis is a contributing Writer for AJS
