Quote:
Originally Posted by GoIggy
Look at Neal's numbers without Geno. Geno in 09' cup run was amazing, and he actually plays good defense.
I'm the biggest Sid fan there is, and I'd take Sid 10 times out of 10 because the guy is a freak and every time he touches the ice he's at his absolute best while Malkin can be a headcase at time, but when he's in his "beast mode" he's pretty ridiculous. Both of their "best years" match up pretty well with each other. I would take Sid at his best over Geno, but its not a huge margin.. When you take into consideration that Geno usually isn't at his best it become a wide margin
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With regards to Neal--he needs a talented center. Be it Malkin or Brad Richards, he always performs best with a strong playmaking center. Given that he had about 5 periods on Sid's wing, I'm not going to say he wouldn't score well on that wing as well, given time to develop chemistry. I can't say Richards is in the same realm as Malkin, but Neal did just fine with him. Neal is a typical goal-scoring winger, of course he's best with an elite center, opposed to say, Brandon Sutter.
Malkin is close to Sid offensively, and that's about it. Sid is more responsible in every other aspect of the game. Malkin can rarely win a faceoff if his life depended on it. Sid has worked on that until he's a very respectable faceoff man--I have a hard time believing Malkin has even attempted to work on that, given how awful he still is at it. Where they really, really differ is how they play when they're off their game. Sid when not scoring is still winning faceoffs, playing responsibly, still making an effort. When things aren't going well for Geno, he's completely and totally off his game. He takes bad penalties, he can't win faceoffs, he makes bad passes, he looks disinterested.