John Buccigross is on crack.

This is precisely why I think the NHL did not go with renewing with ESPN and opted for the hardly-much-better Vs.


First of all, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are no longer in their NHL prime. Datsyuk is 31 and Zetterberg is 29. Those are not "prime" ages to play a nine-month NHL season (training camp to the Cup finals).

We've noted in this space for years -- hockey is a young man's game. Maurice Richard was 23 when he scored 59 goals in 50 games during the 1944-45 season. Bobby Orr was 22 when he scored 120 points and flew through the air to win his first Stanley Cup in 1970. Wayne Gretzky was 21 when he went 92-120-212 in the 1981-82 regular season. Sidney Crosby was 21 this past June when he became the youngest NHL captain to raise the holy grail.

Younger players are more energetic, more durable, heal quicker and, most important, have heightened mental clarity because younger people think only of the present, which is the key to creativity and productivity. I'm not saying Datsyuk and Zetterberg are Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden and will never win another Stanley Cup. Just realize that players get injured more in their 30s and begin a downward arc in their production.

Secondly, the Wings are probably at the end of their run. Their best players are older and their younger players are average NHL players. They continue to live off their power players and struggle with their penalty killing and goaltending. The injury to Johan Franzen is enormous. The Red Wings will struggle to score goals and that is a problem because they are not constructed to prevent them. Coach Mike Babcock may have to make some alterations to the Wings' normal style of play and GM Ken Holland may have to reach into his bag of tricks and try to find a goaltender.

The first step is a healthy Datsyuk and Zetterberg, and go from there. Detroit won't win the Central Division, but it has all season to get ready for the playoffs, when Franzen can hopefully return healthy. There is still a lot of good in Detroit, just maybe not championship good.


I don't know where to start with this. Perhaps I'll start with numbers, which were culled from the ESPN website, just to prove they have access to the same information I have.

Datsyuk's numbers last year read as such:

81 games played 32 goals, 65 assists total of 97 points. +34 with 22 PIMs, on the PP Datsyuk registered 11 goals 25 assists. Oh yeah, did I mention he won the Lady Byng trophy for the third straight season, and the Frank J. Selke trophy for the second straight season? If Datsyuk was at the end of his career, why is he putting up numbers that a lot of players in their "prime" can only dream of. Is he Ovechkin, Crosby or Malkin? No. Is "past his prime" in Pavel Datsyuk's world still better than most players career years? Absolutely.

Enough on Datsyuk, let's dissect the Swede, Henrik Zetterberg. He played in a respectable 77 games last season and put up 31 goals, 42 assists and that was good for a respectable 73 points. For those that can't figure it out on their own, that's good for just under one point per game, actually, .95 points per game if you REALLY want to get technical. Zetterberg had a +/- of +13, which for a mostly offensive forward, is pretty respectable, granted he's not Datsyuk, but not many people are, which is what made Datsyuk the Frank J. Selke trophy winner.

Are the Wings off to a slower start than usual? Is Buccigross correct in his assessment of their goaltending situation? For the time being, yes, but name the last season people thought Chris Osgood was going to have a great year. We've seen this before, and we know that Chris Osgood doesn't play like this forever, when he turns it on, he's almost impossible to beat, especially in big game situations. Which brings me to my next point. Why is it that ESPN covers hockey for maybe five minutes a day when Sportscenter has it's Ovechkin or Crosby highlight from last night's game, and they feel like they're an authority on the sport? Further more, why do people care what John Buccigross has to say? Great, he co-hosted NHL 2Night and had absolutely no connect to the game whatsoever before he started being "the hockey guy" for ESPN.

The short version of this is basically, John Buccigross doesn't know what he's talking about, and Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg still have plenty of time before anyone should write them off as "past their prime."

1 comments:

JBall said...

I'll be checking out the Detroit Alzheimers in Glendale tonight from the front row glass seats in the corner. I'll get Chris Notsogood right in front of me for two periods. I have to see these old guys in person. You know, before they up and die on us.

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