bearfan
Ancient Mariner
Kane surpassed Sidney Crosby's 25-game streak, set in 2010-11, for the longest in the league since 1992-93. The Blackhawks' right wing has 16 goals and 24 assists during his run, and a point in 29 of Chicago's 31 games.
Post-lockout hockey, then!Funny, I consider 'modern hockey" as starting in 1976 (when I first started watching it) .. says the ancient mariner
He is definitely a great modern player. This year he is doing excellent, and certainly if we gave out awards today, he'd get a buttload of them.If he is not the best player in the league, he is certainly in the top 5.
Ovechkin used to be like that, not anymore. Max Pacioretty, Steven Stamkos are the only other finishers that I put in that category.all I know is he is about the only player I see going into the offensive zone 1 on 3 and think "we have a chance to score or at least get a decent shot on goal"
It feels like that, anyway. Part of that is that we draw from so many more countries, and part of that is we are getting more and more Americans in the league - a huge pool of skilled athletes that used to play other sports, but now more of them are playing hockey. Another big part is the emphasis on conditioning in the league, compared to even the 1980s. No more boozing and eating pizza for these guys.I'll agree with those guys, the talent level in the NHL in general is at an all time high. Some of the things these guys do is just incredible. Used to be you would have one skilled line, one semi-skilled line, and 2 lines of thugs. Now it seems most teams have 2 or 3 skilled lines (and of course there are many more teams now)