Help!!! I thought hockey was a team game? Last time I looked there were six
players on each side of the red line. According to Ken Dryden,
Editor-in-Chief of the Hockey News, in Dec. 27th issue, " the race should go
to the scorer not the helper."
Dryden proposes the NHL re-prioritize. His rational: giving an assistor the
same points as a net-finder is in his words,'imponderable'. He suggests that
the goal scorer gets a point and the assistor a half point. His point: 'nary
an assist results from a creative thought' and don't bother giving him the
anecdote which came first, the chicken or the egg! He tells us which came
first: the goal of course! He even goes so far as to suggest that a new
scoring system will lead to more scoring and less fighting. Maybe he'll even
suggest we reduce players to two a piece-- goalie and scorer on each side of
the red line! He complains about the number of points you can rack up just
for passing and begs that we spare him the argument that assists deserve a
greater reward than goals, ie. Gretzky and Kariya.
Dryden points to Jagr and Forsberg being tied in the scoring race. But, Jagr
had 17 more goals than Forsberg! His labeling and catagorizing talent
obviously supercedes his love of the game! All this, just to elevate Jagr's
already super-status talent/salary level?
The amateur ranks follow suit. HE is identified as having a weaker strain of
it; the Black Bears are being described as sub-par because of the lack of it,
due to NCAA sanctions and defections. Talent is subjective. High profile
sport's teams live on labels. Labels are hard to remove. Team players like
the Panthers got there despite hockey fans or aficionados panning their
talent level--which as it turns out they have plenty of!!
Go Black Bears
Vicki Price