Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
I would say he is closer to Lemieux.
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I'm honestly a Crosby fan, but it must seem like I just really hate the guy but....
1996 Lemieux leads the league in scoring. 161 points in 70 games, good for 189 points in 82. The next best is the person I feel Crosby is closest to in terms "player of his generation" in Jagr with 145, after that everyone else has 120 or under. That includes Sakic, Francis, Forsberg, Selanne, Lindros, Fedorov, Mogilny, Fleury, Oates, Sundin, Hull, Yzerman, etc. etc. I mean is that competition exceedingly weaker than Crosby's? I think it's a great disservice to those players to suggest it. Yet Lemeiux slaughtered them in the scoring race, after missing a season with Hodgkin's a couple years earlier.
Defenseman playing that year? Bourque, Lidstrom, Niedermayer, Chelios, Pronger, MacInnis, Murphy, Stevens, etc. etc.
But if Lemieux was on pace for 190 points, the goalies must have been terrible right? Roy, Brodeur and Hasek. Enough said.
Goal scoring that year, despite having Lemieux, was completely comparable to the year after the lockout when Crosby made his debut.
Until someone explains to me how Lemieux's 1996 season was a product of the high scoring and weak competition of the 1980s I'm going to have a hard time following along with any type of argument that suggests it, which often seems to be the case.
Then there's also the fact that Lemiux had a higher point-per-game in the 90s than 80s which is often overlooked, even if he did miss a bunch of games because of Hodgkin's and a done back. Which still didn't stop him from putting up 229 points in 170 games after the turn of the millennium as a 40 year old coming back from a 4 year retirement (forced to do so because his back was so bad he couldn't tie his skates).
Until Crosby puts up anywhere close to Lemieux type numbers, and maybe this is the year he will and I'll look foolish, I think comparing him to Lemieux is still unfair. He's got a long ways to go in my opinion. Right now let's see if he can beat Jagr's post lockout 123 points and earn his second Hart to see if he deserves to be listed with Jagr and friends when all is said and done.