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Who’s the Next Great One?

By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

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n the modern era of the NHL, goals come cheaper by the

dozen. Often teams will focus on the defensive aspects

of the game, defending rather than scoring goals on the
offensive side of the blue line. It can go two ways, one being,
“the best defence is a good offence” or “the best offence is
a good defence” both terms are different approaches with
different levels of success depending on how you approach the
circumstances. A lot of teams in the league have a stingy defence
first approach like the Minnesota Wild, and New Jersey Devils
who are known for using ‘the trap’ against their opponents,
where they have one forechecker in the offensive zone and the
other four players in the neutral zone when the puck is dumped
in. This particular style clogs up the neutral zone making it
harder for the opponent to break through. It has prevented
scoring around the league and is most effectively used for teams
that don’t exactly have the offensive talent.

Today’s NHL is a lot different than back in the Gretzky days,
when it was far easier to fire the pucks in the net. In Gretzky’s
prime from 1981-1987 he had four seasons where he amassed
over the 200 point mark and reached the 92 goal mark that has
not yet been broken. Nowadays for an NHL star to pull off
such a thing would be considered unheard of. Even if a player
reaches the 100 point plateau it’s a huge accomplishment in the
82 games that are played throughout the season. With so much
training that is ongoing, NHL players are just going to get better
and better, especially the goaltending. With most goaltenders
converting from the Stand-up style to the Butterfly style, they
are constantly improving on their game. They even have bigger,
safer, more durable and much more comfortable equipment than
the goalies had in the Gretzky era. The goalies back then looked
a lot smaller and played with a more aggressive style, coming
out of the net and approaching shots at different angles.

Technically speaking there will never be another, Great One.
It is nearly impossible to reach the 200 point mark and score
92 goals in a single season unless you are some sort of super
human.

Sidney Crosby was getting a lot of hype, even before he was
drafted into the NHL that he was going to be the next “Great
One”. If all of the changes that have occurred over the years to
the NHL are considered, than Crosby has lived up to that name.
He has accumulated 183 goals and 506 points in 371 games. His
career-high in goals came last year when he surpassed the 50
goal mark with 51 to tie for first among the NHL in scoring. But
it doesn’t stop there as Russian sniper, Alexander Ovechkin is
also a young talent who is as well, one of the best in the league
and can also be compared to The Great One. Ovechkin has
tallied 269 goals and 529 points in 396 games in his five year
career. Both Ovechkin and Crosby entered the league at the same
time, and have both changed their respected teams completely
around. They are both captains and have both been among the
top finishers in point totals for the past several years. They are
young superstars and have many years ahead of them, which
makes them prime examples of the best players in the league.

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