Quote:
Originally Posted by OILFAN #81
Well deserved. To do this at age 39 he deserves all the accolades. Ovechkin is a machine. I hope he gets it this year.
I wasn't alive to see him really play but I wish Mike Bossy's career wasn't cut so short. I grew up watching Mario and he was phenomenal.
Bossy:
573 goals in 752 games = 0.76 goals per game.
Ovechkin:
891 goals in 1484 games = 0.60 goals per game
Gretzky:
894 goals in 1487 games = 0.60 goals per game
Lemieux
690 goals in 915 games = 0.75 goals per game
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Players generally score more in the first half of their career than the second. So going by PPG over the whole career isn't a fair comparison. By 81/82 Gretzky had 91 goals to Bossy's 64. I don't see Bossy challenging Gretzky, but more likely in the Bret Hull kind of realm.
But yes, it's awful that Bossy's career got cut short. Especially as he was playing in the high scoring era. For me Lemieux and Booby Orr are the two players that I would have loved to see what they could have done with full healthy careers.
A fully healthy Lemieux likely challenges Gretzky for total points. A fully healthy Bobby Orr, especially playing into the ultra high scoring early and mid-80s, would have been something else. He could have potentially finished his career with 2500 points, as a defenceman. He would have blown Ray Bourque's 1579 out of the water.