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No doubt Gretzky was great, but part of his greatness was the way hockey was played at the time - his greatness was as much a product of the rules as it was his

by jbob2000 8y ago

No doubt Gretzky was great, but part of his greatness was the way hockey was played at the time - his greatness was as much a product of the rules as it was his passion for hockey. He was a hockey “hacker”, he exploited (intentionally or not) all sorts of rules that forced the NHL to update them. Today’s game seems to be fairly well guarded against this, though it does still happen (they had to rule against the 1-3-1 defense recently, for example). And teams are now very well aware of superstar players and will shut them down very quickly (eg. Sydney Crosby basically getting beat up any time his skates touch the rink). It’s a better game now, but a shame that we probably won’t see hockey superstars for a while.

cknoxrun 8y ago
Watching McDavid or Crosby on the ice, live, makes it very clear that they are still absolutely in a class of their own. I think these types of players are so good that they change quicker than the game can adapt. Crosby had some trouble in his earlier years, but not anymore.
- jbob2000 8y ago
  Oh no doubt! They are good, and fun to watch. But in Gretzky’s best season, he scored 212 points. The closest anyone has gotten recently has been Ovechkin at 112. The game has changed, you couldn’t get a Gretzky again.
  - cknoxrun 8y ago
    Fair enough, that does make sense. It's hard to understand how much the game has changed until you watch an older game from the 80's, it's a different flow entirely. On an unrelated note, I am lucky to have some very cherished memories of sneaking down after bedtime and being welcomed onto my father's lap to watch Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers play. Sports can have a bad rap in tech communities, but I'll never forget the feeling of excitement (and warmth) watching those games in the dark.
  - markdog12 8y ago
    215 (163 assists alone). 4 seasons over 200. Check out the insanity: https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/most-points-in-one-season-by-nhl-players.html https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/most-points-in-one-s... (Unless you mean 212 season was best due to 92 (lol) goals)
blang 8y ago
Rule changes to level the playing field because either someone found an exploit or just got too good is moderately common across multiple sports. 1) In basketball they have widened the lane twice because of talented big men[1] 2) They also made goal tending illegal because of talented big men[1] 3) For a short period of time dunking was illegal in the NCAA[1] 4) Bob Gibson was so good at pitching that they lowered the mound 5) David Berkoff was so good a swimming underwater that Fina made swimmers come up at 15 meters (he would do 40 sometimes) [1] https://www.school-for-champions.com/sports/basketball_players_who_caused_rule_changes.htm#.W-4GxZNKiRt https://www.school-for-champions.com/sports/basketball_playe...
bliblah 8y ago
A very recent example is how the NBA changed how shooting fouls work to directly combat a technique that James Harden mastered/exploited to get fouled while shooting to the point that he (the individual) had more three point three throws than any other team in the league. [1]https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/james-harden-gets-fouled-on-3s-more-than-any-nba-team/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/james-harden-gets-foule... [2] https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/59wyb8/the-harden-rule-is-the-nba-version-of-the-nfls-catch-rule-disaster https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/59wyb8/the-harden-rule...

cknoxrun 8y ago

Watching McDavid or Crosby on the ice, live, makes it very clear that they are still absolutely in a class of their own. I think these types of players are so good that they change quicker than the game can adapt. Crosby had some trouble in his earlier years, but not anymore.

jbob2000 8y ago
Oh no doubt! They are good, and fun to watch. But in Gretzky’s best season, he scored 212 points. The closest anyone has gotten recently has been Ovechkin at 112. The game has changed, you couldn’t get a Gretzky again.
- cknoxrun 8y ago
  Fair enough, that does make sense. It's hard to understand how much the game has changed until you watch an older game from the 80's, it's a different flow entirely. On an unrelated note, I am lucky to have some very cherished memories of sneaking down after bedtime and being welcomed onto my father's lap to watch Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers play. Sports can have a bad rap in tech communities, but I'll never forget the feeling of excitement (and warmth) watching those games in the dark.
- markdog12 8y ago
  215 (163 assists alone). 4 seasons over 200. Check out the insanity: https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/most-points-in-one-season-by-nhl-players.html https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/most-points-in-one-s... (Unless you mean 212 season was best due to 92 (lol) goals)

blang 8y ago

Rule changes to level the playing field because either someone found an exploit or just got too good is moderately common across multiple sports. 1) In basketball they have widened the lane twice because of talented big men[1] 2) They also made goal tending illegal because of talented big men[1] 3) For a short period of time dunking was illegal in the NCAA[1] 4) Bob Gibson was so good at pitching that they lowered the mound 5) David Berkoff was so good a swimming underwater that Fina made swimmers come up at 15 meters (he would do 40 sometimes) [1] https://www.school-for-champions.com/sports/basketball_players_who_caused_rule_changes.htm#.W-4GxZNKiRt https://www.school-for-champions.com/sports/basketball_playe...

bliblah 8y ago

A very recent example is how the NBA changed how shooting fouls work to directly combat a technique that James Harden mastered/exploited to get fouled while shooting to the point that he (the individual) had more three point three throws than any other team in the league. [1]https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/james-harden-gets-fouled-on-3s-more-than-any-nba-team/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/james-harden-gets-foule... [2] https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/59wyb8/the-harden-rule-is-the-nba-version-of-the-nfls-catch-rule-disaster https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/59wyb8/the-harden-rule...