| BY: KYLE ANDERS The Coolest Game on Earth The NHL is now a completely different league than it was 20 years ago. In 1990, it was more similar to 1980 than it was to 2000. When I was a youngster growing up in the 1980s, I would often come across the NHL box scores in the newspaper. The previous nights' games all had scores 9-6, 4-5, or 7-3. Today, it is common to see the 1-0, 2-1, and 3-0 score lines. Rarely do you see more than five goals scored by a team in one game. This change in goals scored is evident by today's offensive stars. Jarome Iginla, a shoe-in for the Hart Trophy, scored a league-high 52 goals, 11 more than the second place goal player. Iginla also finished with a league-high 96 points. This in a NHL that saw Wayne Gretzky score 200 points a season for three years in the 1980s. It has grown from a game of offensive outbursts to critical passing. This in order to get the goal in the three or four legitimate scoring chances you get per period. The rest of the game is spent hitting, forechecking, and killing off penalties. The days of Gretzky are over now; anybody who can score is a commodity player. How does Marian Gaborik, THE MAN, fit into the current NHL scheme. The 20-year-old Slovakian had the greatest margin of improvement than any other second year player. He finished with a two-year NHL total of 102 points. In the 2001-2002 season, he finished with more goals than NHL stars Joe Sakic, John LeClair, Joe Thornton, and Jeremy Roenick. He had more points than pereenial scoring threats Tony Amonte, Bill Guerin, Owen Nolan, Theo Fluery, Brett Hull, Patrick Elias, Ziggy Palffy, Joe Nieuwendyk, Paul Kariya, and Jason Arnott. Other notable stats for the Minnesota Wild's frnachise player include his team-high +/- rating of zero. This on an expansion team that let in a few more goals than it scored. He registered more shots than Jaromir Jagr and Mike Modano (another note on Jagr: Marian's +/- was higher). Marian was the offensive leader and had the team high in goals scored, +/- rating, shots, and phone numbers retrieved from female fans. The 100-point scorers of the early nineties now struggle to put up numbers in a defensive-minded NHL. Pavel Bure, Joe Sakic, and Jaromir Jagr all finished with sub-100 seasons after putting up such rediculous numbers as first and second year players. The only second-year player to score over a hundred point in one season since 1995 is Paul Kariya. Is Marian Gaborik like Paul Kariya? Sure, both came into their own on expansion teams and have shown immense offensive talent as youngsters despite a defensive NHL. Kariya has not starred in the NHL recently, due to a series of unfortunate injuries, but he is still the only recent comparison to THE MAN. Gaborik and Kariya both now play in a league that has not produced a 100-point scorer in 2 of the last 3 years. Jarome, currently the best (statistically) player in the NHL, scored just 82 points in his first two-years in the league, 20 less than Marian Gaborik's total. Bottom Line: Gaborik is the best second-year player, and the best player at his age. We'll see what Ilya Kovalchuk does in his second year... The Czech is in the Mail Marian Gaborik was born in Czechoslovakia in 1982, but his nativity is listed as Slovakian because of the 1993 political split. But for the purposes of the above heading, we'll consider him a Czech (damn political turmoil). THE MAN was snagged by the Minnesota Wild in the 2000 NHL entry draft, the best decision ever made by the organization (besides hiring Coach Jaques Lemaire). Marian has led his team in goals scored for two straight seasons and continues to bolster the offense with his explosive speed. If Marian is not playing, you notice immediately how the pace of the entire game slows down. Key for next year: Extend his contract! Pay THE MAN with gold bars if you must. Note: "Czech, please", was also considered for the above heading. More Assists than Goals Despite what www.sirmarian.cjb.net co-founder Timothy Pohland says, assists are a better indication of total offensive output than goals. THE MAN finished 2001-2002 with 67 points and 37 assists, solid. The simple reason assists are more important than goals on a stat sheet is because there are generally more assists rewarded per game than goals. The more goals you create shows just how important you are to your team. Goals certainly do not hurt though. Damn that Andrew Brunette Andrew Brunette was the biggest addition to the 2001-2002 Wild squad. He stole Gaborik's thunder by finishing with a team-high 69 points. Because of this, Andrew ripped Gaborik out of one of the most prestigious groups in the history of hockey. Wayne Gretzky and Dale Hawerchuk were the only players to the lead their team in scoring their first two years on the team. Notice that those players did not start on expansion teams, and THE MAN did. The future is bright…add two more assists to Gaborik's 2001-2002 point total and you have the brightest possible future and certianly the best-ever prospect to come out of Slovakia. The Flow THE MAN's base salary was just over a million dollars this year, but he added 3.3 million dollars in incentive bonuses. The incentive bonuses include goals, points, ice-time and point-per-game average. Marian is now so wealthy that he could go to the local Best Buy and purchase like, 100 DVDs, not to mention a DVD player. The Hardware In 2001-2002 Marian took home NHL player of the week, was selected to play in the NHL YoungStars game, and was voted team MVP by Minnesota Wild Management. He also took home the Pontiac-GMC Star Award, given to the player who got the most points in the Wild post game "Three Stars" selection. He was No. 1 star 17 times, second star twice and third star seven times. Notable: Marian won the accuracy contest at the Wild skills competition (4 targets out of 5 shots) and came in a very close second in the puck control relay. Marian was also considered for an invite to the 2002 NHL All-Star game in Los Angeles, but his spot was given to Ziggy Palffy of LA for some reason (Marian had 26 more points at the time of selection!). Kyle Anders welcomes comments at ande0547@tc.umn.edu. Back to SirMarian. |
| SirMarian: 2001-2002 season in review...and other stuff too |