> People compare him to Gretzky, and that's absurd. "The Great One" is the
greatest player to play in the NHL, period. Lindros has a LONG way to go to
match Gretzky, let alone qualify for the Hall of Fame.
 
All the media hype about The Presence and such crap is just ticket and
merchandise sales.  "Sports journalism" is just shilling for the corporation
-- ESPN and the glossy mags and such would pimp Damian Rocke as the greatest
player in hockey history if it meant a little more slop in their trough.
Distinguishing between the bozo talking heads and the fans, nobody in the
latter group over the age of 18 actually thinks Lindros' accomplishments
will ever match Gretzky's.
 
> I was saying that the Major Juniors are putting out talent that is garbage
when compared to the talent that was in the league when I was growing up
(the 1980's).  The fact that most teams play clutch and grab, goon-like
hockey proves that Canadian Hockey Talent is not what it could or should be.
 If the Major Juniors are going to produce most of the NHL talent, then they
should do better than they are now.  If it wasn't for the European presence,
the NHL would be in horrible shape right now.
 
Two objections to this: first, it's not as if the NHL is beholden to the
juniors for the type of talent which it draws.  Quite the opposite -- the
juniors go with the talent that it figures will move on to the pros.  So the
fault. if there is one, would still reside in the NHL.  Secondly, however,
it is way too early to know about whether the talent coming from the juniors
is any better or worse than in other eras.  We always have a tendency to
glorify the past -- ultimately it doesn't make much sense to compare between
different time spans.
 
Wrenching this back to college hockey: the same arguments can be made for
the NCAA, which after all at the top level is a de facto development league
for the NHL as well.  The scoring across all conferences has decreased and
clutch and grab seems to have increased, but does this mean the NHl is
producing garbage talent?
 
-- Greg
 
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