Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
Almost to a man this 2004 team was bigger and stronger and grittier (and less skilled) than Bouwmeester, Butler, Wideman, Smith, Brodie, Tanguay, Cammalleri, Hudler, Cervenka, Backlund, Baertschi, Stempniak
In a skills competition 2013 >>>>>>>> 2004
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2004 team was way more SKILLED than current team.
2004 skill is VASTLY underrated because of the style of the game those guys played.
Jarome Iginla was pretty skilled, you have to be skilled to lead NHL in goals, don't you? 2013 team just doesn't have anyone even remotely close to leading NHL in goals.
Martin Gelinas, a former 7th overall pick, had two 30+ goals seasons in the dead-puck era. Allegedly "skilled" Jiri Hudler has career high of 25. Super duper skilled Mike Cammalleri also has two 30+ goals seasons, but they were in the "new NHL" era. Mind you, overall Cammalleri was scoring at better clip than Gelinas, but it also has a lot to do with new NHL opening space for an undersized shooters like him.
Craig Conroy wasn't all that skilless, was he? Much like Gelinas, his game was more about speed, defense and grit, but he still had a fair amount of skill. He had 3 20+ goals seasons. Again, Hudler has 2, Stajan has 0, Backlund has 0. Backlund is young, but I don't see how he is more skilled than Conroy was.
Ironically, Chris Clark has scored 30 goals while Alex Tanguay never did (I know it's more of a fun fact than valid argument, but it's tells you something nonetheless). Sure playing with Ovechkin helped, but Tanguay had Forsberg as his center.
Chuck Kobasew went on to have three 20-goals seasons and he was on 2004 fourth line. Chris Simon was bottom-six player in 2004 and he has 29-goals season. He had decent hands and good shot. Lombardi was fourth line center and he has 20-goals season under his belt as well.
On defense you have Jordan Leopold who currently has 64 goals in 608 games. The uber skilled Jay Bouwmeester has 71 goal in 746 games. Leopold has better goals-per-game.
All in all, I just don't see 2013 team as being tremendously skilled, they don't have in-their-primes Huselius, Tanguay or Cammalleri anymore. If Curtis Glencross is your leading goalscorer, you might be not as skilled, as you think you are. Shootout record doesn't indicate a lot of skill either. Meanwhile, 2004 team had good amount of skill, that was spread over the whole line-up (Kobasew, Lombardi, Clark, Saprykin, Simon in bottom six). They were lacking top-end center and pure LW sniper, but so does 2013 team.