It's not even lunch time and I'm already subjected to the next round of hype. Whoopie. It's been Crosby is the next Great One for years now. Last year it was Carey Price was the next Patrick Roy. Only yesterday Ovechkin got compared to Maurice Richard (which had me in a really bad mood for several reasons). Today's victim is the Columbus Blue Jacket's goalie Steve Mason.
Now look, we all know how talented the guy is and all that jazz, but what's hilarious about this article here is that it basically opens up saying that Price got anointed as the next great one too early and what do they do next? They continue on about how Steve Mason could be the next Brodeur. Talk about mild hypocrisy! Look, like I said, Mason is talented. You don't get what is it, 9 shutouts on a team like the Columbus Blue Jackets without having talent. We know, we know. But honestly. You don't got anointing 20 year-olds (or eighteen year-olds or twenty-three year-olds) as the next big deal BEFORE they do something great. In all likelihood the Jackets will make the playoffs and get booted out in round one or two (most likely in round one). Of course everyone will be making a big deal of it because Columbus has never ever made the playoffs in their short little franchise history. That's all fine and everything but how is that going to make Mason the next Brodeur? One good season doesn't mean that he's going to go breaking all the records. As I'm sure everyone knows by now, I have a thing with Brodeur anyway and I shall maintain until the end of Brodeur's career that a huge part of his success has come from the team in front of him. But that's another story.
Do I think Mason can do great things with this team? Yes. I think the Blue Jackets are going to good team in the future but you don't hear me saying "Mason is the next Roy or Brodeur and Nikita Filatov is going to be better than Ovechkin, Malkin and Crosby combined and the Blue Jackets are going to be the next Red Wings". Really. I'm not being bitter. I'm just saying "Stop the hype!" already. If/when the guys do something great then we'll talk about it until the cows come home but it's stupid and unfair to come up with all this crap before they've done anything to really deserve it. We've seen what it's done to Price. It's not pretty. And it's really unfair. Just stop it.
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5 comments:
"...and I shall maintain until the end of Brodeur's career that a huge part of his success has come from the team in front of him."
YES! Yes yes yes.
Scott-freakin'-Clemmensen proved that this year for all the doubters out there. Brodeur really is a fraud.
Hahaha. I love that blog too.
Finally, a topic we disagree upon! I'm not convinced at all by the "Brodeur is overrated, his records are due to the devils defense" thesis.
Ooo disagreement! I'll argue that one another time. In the mean time... You guys kind of missed the whole point of my rant though... *g*
His records aren't entirely due to the Devils' defense. You can't be a bad goalie and do what he's done. But topping the wins list doesn't mean he's the best ever, just maybe the most durable, and he's played on good teams his entire career.
Will this matter in a few years when he's added another 100 wins to his record? Who knows. But if I had to pick a goalie from the recent era to start a team around, it would be Hasek 99 times out of 100. Brodeur never was able to do the things Hasek was capable of. Hasek was capable of lifting a team onto his shoulders and carrying them through the playoffs much like you'd expect a star forward to do when the chips are down. Brodeur? Nah.
FWIW, I'd say the same things about Roy that I'm saying about Brodeur, so I think I should really just stop. :)
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