Bill Watters FUCK YOU!

Bill Watters, a central piece of one of the WORST hockey panels on television, Sportsnet's Hockey Central, has pissed me off. On top of that, viewers of that garbage TV show have compounded the problem. The problem is Bill Watters ignorance.

First, on the nightly hockey central hockey poll 62% of respondants said that Sidney Crosby will be a BETTER hockey player than Wayne Gretzky.

HEY, maybe he will. Maybe one day, 4 stanley cups, 11 scoring titles, 9 MVP's and 3000 points from today he will be a better player. MAYBE!

The point here is shit happens, ask Lemieux. All the potential and skill in the world won't let the planets align for a Gretzky type performance. The reason Gretzky was so great, among many other reasons, is because his prime (prime point production) lasted 14 years, and the other 6 at the end of his career saw him score 464 points in 407 games. That just doesn't happen, and to predict it is foolish and plain insluting to Gretzky (Watters basic point).

All of this was instagated by Bill Watters saying that Crosby had more skill, more edge and at this point was a better all around player than Wayne Gretzky (who couldn't hold a candle to Bobby Orr according to Watters). BUT my message to Bill Watters is just because this kid scored 6 points in a game this week, I think it might be a bit premature to compare him to Gretz.

But for arguments sake

My most recent stats have Sidney Crosby with 153 points in 109 games. Pretty good right?

Now for Gretzky you have to do a little bit of math to get his first 109 games, but Gretzky had 139 points in 79 games in his first season, so that is easy. In his second season he had 164 in 80 games. So that is 2.05 points per game multiplied by 30 games for 61 points added to 139 makes 200 points.

So first comparison games to games Gretzky had 47 more points than Crosby has at the same point in his career. (Gretzky had a 50 goal season in his first year in the league, tied for the scoring title and won the MVP) Watters is right - Advantage Crosby.

BUT

Simple point production is a bit jadded. Afterall, all we here about Gretzky is the incredible support system he had in Edmonton. ABSOLUTELY TRUE.

In his first season in the League Gretzky played with the following hall if famers and all stars.

Blair MacDonald
Stan Weir
Brett Callighen
Dave Lumley
Don Murdoch
Dave Hunter
Doug Hicks
Ron Chipperfield
Risto Siltanen

Actually, this is a list of the top scorers on the Oilers other than Wayne Gretzky, during Gretzky's first NHL season. Messier and Kevin Lowe were on the team and chipped in a combined 55 points. That basically means they were non factors, and rookies to boot. The rest of the cast debut the following season and performed well, but were rookies and none toped 80 points. So Gretzky and the Hall of Fame cast myth, strangely revolving around Pittsburgh again, is bullshit.

Now Sidney Crosby (doing it all alone) for his 100 point rookie season had the benefit of the following seasoned veterans and a HALL OF FAMER.

Sergei Gonchar (top scoring defensmen in the NHL for better part of a decade)
Mark Recchi (Sure fire hall of famer, 50 goal scorer, Stanley Cup Champ etc.)
John LeClair (3 time 50 goal scorer)
Ryan Malone (up and comer)
Zigmund Palffy (330 goals in 680 games, basically he could find the net)
Mario Lemieux (Never fucking heard of him)

Did they all have excellent season? NO, but at least they had talent, skill, experience and GREAT CV's. Gretzky benefitted from nothing but goon protection. The NHL made sure Crosby didn't need the same serivce. Of course he still found a way to be a cheap cocksucking dive artist. Did I mention he lived at Lemieux's house? I wonder if that smoothed the transition?

At the five year mark of his career you can judge his potential to challenge Gretzky, but now it is simply too much pressure for the kid and insulting to the Greatest Player that ever played.