Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
You're right, there's way more skill now. What you're maybe not giving enough credit to, though, is just how ruthless the game was back then.
I'm not sure McDavid makes it out of preseaon in his first year if he's in 1985. Same with Mac and Sid.
Iggy, though... Iggy would have scored 70 every single year from like 82-87, before settling down into a nice comfortable string of 50 goals seasons for the next five or six years.
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I don’t know about the ruthlessness. There was the code where sideshow fighters like Probert would fight other fighters, but the skilled guys would more or less move above freely. The bench clearing brawls and stuff took place but today’s player is so much better than they were back then. The sport was in its infancy back then at the pro level so I get why it was the case. They could hold the puck for ages. Today you hold it for two seconds max. It’s so much more fast paced and a much higher bar.