Oh Captain, My Captain

Rogers' Sportsnet is a multi-faceted media contingent, spanning radio, TV, and more recently-- the print world. Their Sportsnet Magazine has a collector's edition out now call "The Captains: Ranking the Greatest Leaders in Hockey History." Yes, like so much Bleacher Report, the fantastic heads at Sportsnet got people together to make the ultimate list of captains all of the NHL and rank them 1 to 30. You can just tell how great subjective lists can be....

Strap in, folks-- it's about to get fun.

Alright, so they start off well enough, picking Montreal Canadiens' Jean Beliveau as the all-time top captain. Can't argue with that-- the statistics that Beliveau put up, the style of play he had, the fact that off the ice he very accommodating to the media and fans; he has to be there at the top spot because of how well-rounded he was both on and off the ice. So far, so good.

Number two on the list: Mark Messier.

The whole thing of lists is that....they'll be very subjective most of the time. This is a case where I think it holds true. Rangers' fans will always bring up 1994 and his guarantee and how he stepped up in the clutch to help bring the Rangers their first cup in 54 years. Fine, I get that and can appreciate that-- but in the history of captains, the fact he is SECOND on the list is somewhat of a head-scratcher. Especially when you at the guys in the third, fourth, and fifth spot (Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, and Steve Yzerman), I don't know how you can say that Messier is above them. Top-five?? Maybe depending on who you talk to. Top-ten?? Sure, I'll give you that if only for winning two Cups as captain.

Phil Esposito, Denis Potvin, Maurice Richard, Bobby Clarke, and Bobby Orr are the others in the top-ten, which, again-- the subjective nature of things and what they were able to do in their era with the team they had an the teams they went up against will always make the question of their positioning debatable.

Here's a shot of who is numbers 11 through 30:

The crazy thing about this is that Sidney Crosby is on this list. Sure, I don't doubt he'd be on a revisited list, but my belief that any active player should not be on the list. If you put Crosby there, why not put Jonathan Toews on that list?? The only other active player is Jarome Iginla-- but no Daniel Alfredsson or Nicklas Lidstrom or Joe Thornton or whoever??

More over, where's guys like Rod Langway, Trevor Linden, Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, or countless others. Dave Bidini, the go-to hockey musician, historian, and noted author, did an entire essay on guys who did get snubbed from this list and you could go on forever. Especially when you cut it off at 30, you know you're going to have omissions and this won't be definitive. In which case, why put it out??

The only good thing about this all is the inclusion of two women captains (Cassie Campbell [27] and Cammi Granato [30]), as well as going very old school with the likes of Eddie Shore, Syl Apps (19), Bill Cook (20), and King Clancy (26); as well as foreign innovators like Boris Mikhailov (17) and Sven Tumba (29), neither of whom played in the NHL at all-- so respect is given there.

This is an edition that's going to spark some chatter and counterpoints to each point make for each captain's position. Even so, there's sometimes where you can go off the wall in a good way or a bad way-- this instance....it could have been more of a hinderance than a help.

THN's Top-100 Hits The Mark

The latest special edition of The Hockey News is their look at the top 100 players to play in the NHL by position. You get 20 per position (G, D, LW, RW, C), which is quite the exhaustive task. In the grand scheme of things, it's a very good representation of the players who have played in the league.

However, the biggest thing that impressed me was the fact that they were able to blend the eras together. Most of the time, these sort of lists have issues when it deals with the modern day players. The modern players really get too much credit if only because they are very much instilled in our short-attention spans. Sure, you have the guys who are always in there regardless of the era, but nothing this hardcore.

For instance, THN has Terry Sawchuk as their top goalie of all-time, with Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Jacques Plante, and Dominik Hasek rounding out the top five. Also on the goalie list, George Hainsworth (9th), Frank Brimsek (12th), and Clint Benedict (16th) mixed in with Ken Dryden (7th), Grant Fuhr (13th), and Ed Belfour (18th). For a position that has had the most change in style and equipment, it's quite the fine representation of everyone involved.

Defensively, the list is very interesting, with the old school players like Dit Clapper, King Clancy, and Eddie Shore being on the list, Shore being the 3rd overall. Granted, you did have a lot of the modern guys like Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens, and Chris Pronger on the list; with Ray Bourque and Nick Lidstrom being in the top-five.

The forwards is really were the modern guys are prominent, especially in center and right winger. The left wing position is really out there, proving it's the most shallow position out there in the league. You have a nice mix of Luc Robitaille (7th), Alex Ovechkin (8th), and Henrik Zetterberg (20th); but you have the likes of Busher Jackson (6th), Cy Denneny (9th), and Sweeney Schriner (16th). The latters are ones you have to Wikipedia to find out when they actually played, as all of them were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame before 1971.

While we all know that these lists are all really subjective to who's voting on this whole thing, but the point is this: The Hockey News did it right. They actually were able to make a list like this and incorporate all the eras of the NHL and didn't really buy into the hype of the modern era being the best era of all time. It could be, but you can't disrespect the past like some outlets do when making these all-time lists.

Don't believe me?? Go ahead and pick it up on your newsstands now.