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Espn Espy Awards 2009

The 2009 ESPY awards for Best NHL Player?

No surprise in any of these guys;
Best NHL Player
Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguins
Pavel Datsyuk Detroit Red Wings
Evgeni Malkin Pittsburgh Penguins
Alexander Ovechkin Washington Capitals

Who do you think truly deserves this award? I know we all hate ESPN because they know jack S#!t about Hockey or the NHL, but who will win it?

if ESPN had any semblance of hockey appreciation…

it’ll be Crosby. similar answer to a similar question…

yes, we’ve seen this question over and over. in contrast to some of the other answerers, i’ll throw the following thoughts out for consideration. after reading them, i think it’s quite clear who is the best:

- a great deal of Malkin’s success comes from being around Crosby. Is Malkin still good? absolutely. But take Crosby’s vision and passing away (plus the “distraction” he makes for the opponent), and Malkin’s numbers will drop significantly. (mental note… cross off Malkin from the list).

- Ovechkin is more of a pure scorer, but he also plays w/ reckless abandon at times. he doesn’t have the intangibles that Crosby has. furthermore, he is easier for a team to shut down than Crosby. Ovechkin can only hurt you one – dimensionally. put a good defensive forward, and defencemen pairing on him no matter where he is on the ice, take away his “time and space” (yes, i know, i know), and you’ll see his production go down. he also doesn’t seem to have an impact on the players around him. they produce similar results whether he’s on the ice or not, or being shadowed or not. in fact, they might even do better. generally speaking, because they’ll have more space. (Fedorov, Semin, Backstrom, Green).

- To drive this point home, let’s look at the other side of the Ovechkin / Crosby “coin”. how did Detroit (arguably one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, both positionally, conceptually, and puck possession) approach limiting Pittsburgh? well, they focused on Crosby, vice Malkin. w/ a similar mindset figuring that if you can limit Crosby, then you can limit Malkin as a result. Crosby has incredible vision, is a strong skater, and most importantly, has a higher intelligence of the game. he’s a great passer, and is a good scorer. he raises the level of production of most around him. if Detroit had shadowed Malkin, then Crosby would’ve still got his points, both scoring goals, and assisting to the other role players on the Penguins (Guerin, Sykora, Gonchar, Fedetenko, etc.). Last but not least, to further drive the point home, what is ironic, is that this strategy only worked marginally at best. Crosby learned from last year, and showed that Detroit’s approach was in vain. it worked at times, but failed (disastrously) at times. Detroit wasn’t able to shadow Crosby, and yet do the REAL challenge of having defensive posture to those other Penguins remaining on the ice. Lanes were opened up. Breaks occurred. Traffic in front of net.

and the rest is history.

for now, Crosby is the best. if Ovechkin (or Malkin) want to contend for that title, they will have to significantly develop their game, and become more than one dimensional. Watch as Crosby continues to adapt to the game better than the other two, who are more pure scorers. Crosby will have a huge impact on the league, not just now, but FOR THE LONG HAUL providing he stays healthy. Ovechkin and Malking MIGHT have a significant impact on the leage …. for a while, but will have to make significant adaptations if they will impact the league consistently over time.

If you remove any of these players from the team, the one that would hurt most is Crosby. Washington still has stars. Not as good? sure. But still good. Take away Malkin, and the Penguins are still dangerous, because Crosby makes everyone better. Take away Crosby, and Malkin has too heavy a load on his shoulders, and won’t be able to effectively and appropriately share the offensive load.

$0.02

one man army Ovechkin – so who are Green, Semin, Backstrom? bunch of no-namers which no other team wants, right? oh wait, maybe the Red Army has at least a few Privates or higher.

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