Category: Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

50 Years of Misawarding the Conn Smythe

The awarding of the Conn Smythe in 2015 to Duncan Keith felt like a dose of sanity, he was well deserving of it. Unfortunately, since the award’s introduction in the mid ’60s, it hasn’t always been so obvious and oftentimes the writers responsible for voting for the award have picked odd, sometimes even terrible winners. …

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

The Annual Hockey Hall of Fame Complaint for 2015

First of all, congratulations to the deserving inductees. The problem is, as always, that the Hall of Fame inducted players who both deserve to be in it, and players who do not (or, in this case, not yet). So congratulations to Nicklas Lidstrom, a player who, I have argued elsewhere, might be the 2nd best …

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

Is Alex Ovechkin the Greatest Pure Goal Scorer of All Time?

A few weeks ago, Alex Ovechkin joined some elite company, he became only the fifth player in NHL history to score 30 goals per season in his first 10 seasons. More recently, he joined even more elite company, he became only the sixth player in NHL history to score 50 goals six times. Now while …

Basketball, Hall of Fame, Sports

Dirk Nowitzki Changed Basketball

As you may know, the other day Dirk Nowitzki became the only player in NBA history to reach 25,000 points, 10,000 boards, 1,000 blocks and 1,000 made 3-pointers. As others have noted, there have been good-shooting bigs before, but since the 3-point line was introduced, there has never been a player to combine size, scoring, …

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

The 2013 Hockey Hall of Fame Class

First off, congratulations to the inductees. I think all the NHL players are deserving. I remain rather confused as to why only 3 NHL players were inducted this year when one could argue there were other deserving players (cough Lindros cough). But just for shits and giggles lets go over the men who were inducted. …

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

The Best Defense is a Good Offense: the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association and 57 Years of Screwing the Pooch on the Norris Trophy

The Best Defense is a Good Offense On Lidstrom’s retirement, I hypothesized that he might be one of the three best defencemen in NHL history. I did this based on one thing: Norris trophy wins. But the more I thought of it, the more I thought that was ridiculous. The PHWA had just awarded two …

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

The Hockey Hall of Fame Bias towards “Last time we won the cup was…”

The more I went through previous Hockey Hall of Fame admissions for a previous blog entry, the more I became aware of a pattern: the sheer number of inductees who played for a franchise’s last cup winner. Memory is an extraordinarily powerful force and it seems like the memory of a franchise’s “last great team” …

2011, Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

It’s time to start calling Iggy future hall of famer Jarome Iginla

Last night Iginla reached 1000 points for his career. This might not seem like all that much, especially given the large number of people who have achieved this mark since the 1980s. It puts him 77th all-time. He achieved this in more than 1103 games, making him slightly less than a point-a-game player, 103rd best …

2011, Hall of Fame, Hockey, RIP, Sports

RIP Rick Martin

For the second time in as many years the Hall of Fame has been exposed for not honouring someone in time. This time the death obviously wasn’t expected, but that doesn’t make it any better. First, they ignored or avoided the opportunity to put Burns in during his lifetime. I really don’t pay attention to …

Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

Gilmour vs. Muller…and why Mats belongs

Some time in September I had nothing to do and a friend had mentioned that he thought Gilmour as unworthy as the Hall as Muller. So I decided to pursue a numbers argument. I never published it (I must have pushed the ‘save as draft’ button instead) and I remembered it when I was thinking …