• Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

Sign in to follow this  
Guest blueadams

The best players YOU've ever seen...

Rate this topic

Recommended Posts

I know this is a Wings fan site so it seems biased, but Lidstrom and Datsyuk are easily at or near the top of my list. I am so thankful that these guys are/were Wings. I'd hate to watch them from afar.

Pavel Datsyuk. When you talk about players worth the price of admission...this would be my pick. I grew up playing hockey and i think it takes someone who's played to truely understand how unreal this guy is. A casual fan might think he looks slick and makes some unusual plays but we see a guy who at 5'11" may be the strongest player on the puck in the game, who's skating/balance is almost unrivaled, who's larcenous defensive play should make Bob Gainey feel like Patrik Stefan, and who's stickhandling is the best the game has ever seen.

Lidstrom. A machine. If you made a robot to play defense, you program it by feeding it videos of Lidstrom on the Power Play. This guy, at 40 years old, was voted by his peers as the best Defensive Defenseman in the game, while taking about as many PIM's as the tenacious Kyle Wellwood. That about sums it up. I beat with my stick instead of my body...because im smarter than you (and the majority of the defenseman in NHL history).

Peter Forsberg was an absolute machine. There was a playoff series between us and the Avs (we lost the series) where Forsberg seemed to score at will and seemingly beat us all by himself. Kind of like Franzen against the Avs, except we were 3 times as good as that Avs team. When he had the puck, you just knew we were screwed.

Patrick Roy. When he was on...game over. Greatest goalie i've ever seen, hands down.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hands down, Pavel. When he can even make my non-hockey fan husband sit up and say, "If I hadn't seen that I wouldn't believe it", then I know that something magic happened.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ok, so as ive only seen a Kings V Ducks NHL game over here in London, some of these names may not be too familiar to the younger fans.

Hopefully the older guys will know some of these. These guys played in the UK or were on touring teams.

TOP TEN

Garry Unger

Doug Smail

Jiri Lala (snr)

Glenn Anderson

Robert Nordmark

Doug Lidster

Laurie Boschman

Theoren Fleury

Gerald Diduck

Sergei Mozyakin

Best british player is Tony Hand, drafted by the Oilers in 1986 and should have stayed at camp but got homesick.

Coach of the Oilers at the time, Glen Sather, said the only player with a better hockey brain at camp that year than

Hand was Gretzky. Hand only played 3 games for the Victoria Cougars in the WHL before heading back home but

had 4+4 !!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Besides the Wings, I've seen the Ducks, Kings, Pens, Canucks, and Oilers, all in recent years (so unfortunately I'm not going to be able to say Gretzky for either the Oilers or Kings). The only player I was really starstruck about seeing was Teemu Selanne - he's probably my favorite non-Wing player, so it's been great to be able to see him do his thing. The next person you would expect me to say is Crosby, but I saw the Pens while he had the concussion, so no dice there. I can't even say Khabibulin for the Oil - he didn't play that night. So that leaves us with:

Teemu Selanne

Scott Niedermayer

Corey Perry

Ryan Getzlaf

Anze Kopitar

Jonathan Quick

Drew Doughty

Evgeni Malkin

Jordan Staal

Henrik Sedin

Daniel Sedin

Ryan Kesler

Hmm, a tad pathetic, but that's what I've got. This is definitely NOT a team I'd want to assemble...they wouldn't be bad, but my god, what a bunch of turds and prima donnas (except for Selanne, Kopitar, and Quick...well, at least they don't seem that way). My apologies to the Oilers - somehow Hall and Nugent-Hopkins just didn't quite make the list.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest Johnz96

You've got a fairly credible point with the goalie pads thing. However, Fedorov played just as defensively responsible as Datsyuk does, so your argument's logic holds true for him as well. Also, Fedorov played eight seasons with the Wings before winning a cup, it's not like he walked on to a Stanley cup contender and reaped the benefits (and the cups) that Mike Illitch paid for. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure Datsyuk joined a team full of Hall of Famers and reaped the benefits (and the cup) that Mike Illitch paid for did he not?

Again, I love the guy, he's wicked good, but he's not better than Fedorov.

I said goalie equipment, not just pads, even the helmets are so much bigger to protect the net, not the head

Edited by Johnz96

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ok, so as ive only seen a Kings V Ducks NHL game over here in London, some of these names may not be too familiar to the younger fans.

Hopefully the older guys will know some of these. These guys played in the UK or were on touring teams.

TOP TEN

Garry Unger

Doug Smail

Jiri Lala (snr)

Glenn Anderson

Robert Nordmark

Doug Lidster

Laurie Boschman

Theoren Fleury

Gerald Diduck

Sergei Mozyakin

Best british player is Tony Hand, drafted by the Oilers in 1986 and should have stayed at camp but got homesick.

Coach of the Oilers at the time, Glen Sather, said the only player with a better hockey brain at camp that year than

Hand was Gretzky. Hand only played 3 games for the Victoria Cougars in the WHL before heading back home but

had 4+4 !!

Tony Hand was a great player in his prime but given that he never played for the Fife Flyers I was never a massive fan, call it a childish rivalry. Mark Morrison (now coach at St Johns in AHL) was an great player in the UK, loved him.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Before the Jets left Winnipeg I was at a game where they beat Dallas 7-6 and Selanne had 4 goals and shot his glove out of the air after his 3rd goal. That is one of the single greatest performances i've ever seen by a player.

Stevie Y and Lids were insane back then too. Saw Yzerman tear the Jets apart with my dad a few times back then. Federov and Konstatinov were also amazing to watch. The Wings team from the mid 90's right before the cup wins were awesome to watch.

Haven't been lucky enough to see the new Jets team yet, but really looking forward to seeing Kane's speed and Wheeler do an end to ender. I would very much like to see Dats and Z play in the near future.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this