Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
Being un-Canadian has definitely hurt Kopitar in comparison to Toews.
Kopitar has two cups and the same PPG average over his career as Toews as well as being used in a two way role.
He doesn't have World Junior and World Senior golds because he hasn't played on a national program that is the best in the world. The "Toews is a winner" mantra is almost exclusively why Toews is regarded as well as he is. A lot of other players cannot hope to match those types of "individual accomplishments" solely because of where they were born.
There is obviously a pro-Canadian bias in the media, which is fine because they are just catering to their fan base, but we shouldn't pretend that it doesn't exist.
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I would say being slightly less than Toews has resulted in him being slightly less rated as Toews.
He has a slightly lower regular season and play-off PPG average. He has 2 cups to 3, 0 Conn Smyth's to 1. He is less physical and not as good on FO's.
It isn't like people treat Kopitar as a run of the mill guy. He is slightly less than Toews so he gets ranked in the 5-15 area, rather than the 1-5 area nothing wrong with that.