Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Catalyst

I mentioned it earlier, but here's a look at ESPN.com's "New Classic: The Catalyst" (a.k.a. Mike Green):

Click image to enlarge

To understand the magnitude (perhaps silliness, truth be told) of Pierre LeBrun's comparison, take a look at Paul Coffey's career numbers. Positively staggering. There's simply no way to put into context something like the fact that in 1985-86, Coffey had 48 goals, 90 assists and had a plus-61 rating in 79 games while last season, the entire Caps blueline had 34 goals, 114 assists and a plus-36 rating... in 492 man-games.

Now, no one's saying that Mike Green is or ever will be Paul Coffey - Coffey is a three-time Norris Trophy winning Hall of Fame defenseman with four Stanley Cup rings. But there the two of them are together, with "Green enthralling us with his best Coffey imitation," and that in and of itself is high praise indeed.

I have a question, though - if Mike Green is such a world-class puck rusher, why can't he crack LeBrun's roster for Team Canada?

3 comments:

Hooks Orpik said...

The way he skates and rushes the puck up the ice Green certainly reminds me of the closest thing to a Coffey-esque player of this generation...Of course, different eras so the stats will never be comparable but skillset wise it's there.

Anonymous said...

To read and contemplate a comparison like this is staggering.

"Is this the f*$#&ing year?!"

Anonymous said...

I find the mirror image quality of the photos used in that image to be absolutely staggering- it's actually scary.

If you flipped one of those images in Photoshop I bet the feet, arms, angle of the faces, stick position, and even puck position would line up almost perfectly.

Of course it's obvious that was the point of them using those particular images, but still.... Wow.