King Sized Overreactions
So some of you I’m certain are asking “what the f*** is he talking about?!” Good question. What I’m talking about is the massive overreaction that the media has to a team winning a championship, and I have found it to be out in full force.
I’ll start with P.J. Stock, during game 5 of the final, not after. I can’t recall now which intermission it was in, I want to say it was during the 1st OT intermission. Stock, who is good on TV, but absolutely horrendous as an analyst if that makes any sense, overreacted just a TAD to how well the Carter/Toffoli/Pearson line was playing…otherwise known as “that 70’s line” (which may not be true next season, because both Toffoli and Pearson will likely shed their training camp numbers unless they love the nickname that much).
ANYWAY…Stock says he thinks that each of those players will get 80 points next season. Not that they have that ability, not that they have that potential, no…he thinks each player on that line will get 80 points next season. Sure. Probably hasn’t happened since about the mid 90’s, but now a teams 2nd line is going to go off like that are they? 7 guys in the entire league this season had 80 points, but now 3 guys on the same line on one of the lowest scoring teams in the league are going to get 80 each?
It’s a good line, they played well in the playoffs but for the love of Christ…ian Ruuttu can we settle down?! Jeff Carter has evolved from happy to be there to relentless and it is awesome to see. We all wish more guys would find that intensity in their game. But when was the last time every guy on the same line had a point per game? 96? So nearly 20 years, a line that had 2 of the greatest offensive players in league history (Lemieux and Jagr). The other guy was Petr Nedved who was the 2nd overall pick in 1990 and had a pretty damn good career even if he never lived up to expectations.
That might not be the last time, but the point is that Carter isn’t anything near Lemieux, and Pearson and Toffoli are good young players but that’s it. By Stock’s logic, Justin Williams will be the league MVP next season. They all had great playoffs, but that’s it. The team got hot offensively in the playoffs, but over Daryl Sutter’s tenure behind the Kings bench they have been one of the worst offensive teams in the league. I’ll say it right now, Jeff Carter won’t even hit 80 points next season let alone Toffoli or Pearson.
Next up I’m going to include all Conn Smythe voters in this piece. Can we please learn to differentiate between great scorer and great player? I know Williams was clutch all playoffs long and since 2006 has just had a knack to turn it up in big games. But Drew Doughty was far and away the best player for the Kings in the playoffs and it wasn’t close.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking to trash Justin Williams at all! But look at the entire picture. The weakness on the Kings is the blueline. Not that it’s bad, but it’s just not that great. Doughty is Mr.Everything for that team on the blueline. He logged nearly 29 minutes a night for this team. ES he is facing every teams top line, PP, PK, he does it all and on top of it all he has 18 points in 26 games as a D-man. Williams was a great story, but he wasn’t the best player in the playoffs, Drew Doughty without a doubt was.
Finally we have Steve Simmons. I’m sure few will disagree with this because Simmons is as unlikeable of a reporter as you’ll find. He is geeky, he is arrogant, maybe he’s actually a great guy but the way it comes across on TV and in print is that he’s a tool (although I’m nowhere near the writer he is, especially when the only word I could come up with was tool). Regardless, what happened was on the Reporters Sunday morning he said that he believes we will see the Hawks vs the Kings in the WCF for the next 4 seasons.
To steal a line from the great Cris Carter….C’MON MAN! So they’ll go 6 straight years in the WCF? Detroit and Colorado only met back to back times in the WCF, 3 times overall and that was when there was no cap and they were clearly the top 2 teams! I love both the Hawks and Kings, and do think we will see them meet up again a couple times in the next 5 years, and that could be extreme. 4 more years?! 6 straight years?!?!?!?!?!
Finally, Steve had another. Same segment, he claims that Kopitar and Carter are the best 1-2 punch down the middle in the league and there isn’t another duo close. Well….I’m not a smart man, but I could have sworn a team in the league had 2 guys who had each won a Hart and Art Ross EACH….but what do I know?
And I mean I’m a guy who thinks Malkin gets pretty overrated in this league. The guy is purely an offensive player. His biggest downfall is that he refuses to play a 200 foot game. But neither does Carter, and offensively Carter isn’t in the same league as Malkin, as much as I love what Carter has become.
Kopitar is still one of the most underrated players in the league. He’s a top 5 guy (my top 5 would be Toews, Crosby, Getzlaf, Kopitar, Datsyuk). But he isn’t Sid, and even though Kopitar might be better defensively….it isn’t by much, just watch the Olympics if you want to see how great Sid is defensively.
So I guess I’m saying to all these guys….SETTLE THE F*** DOWN!!!
What a paradox. I want to be one of these guys, yet I can’t stand how most of them look at the game…or better yet don’t look at the game, just read the stats and overreact to everything. Anyway, it’ll be done after today. Next thing is they’ll start overreacting to draft picks, trades and free agent signings and in 3 weeks Stock, Simmons, and others will be telling us all how the Blues are now the best team in the West because they’ve signed Paul Stastny or traded for Jason Spezza.
At this point all you can pretty much do is ignore these guys. Elliotte Friedman, Bob McKenzie, Tyler Campbell, there are only a few people who you can really trust to give you a good analysis of things anymore. What?! What do you mean I don’t belong with those 2?! Combined we break most of the news in the league and combined we have over a million followers on twitter.
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