What Is the Percentage of the Caps Winning Stanley Cup Again
There was a time in the NHL when just about all the greats eventually got their Stanley Loving cup. Conversations on the "best players to never win a Loving cup" take centred around a handful of players depending which squad y'all cheer for, with the consensus including guys like Marcel Dionne and Eric Lindros.
Still though, it's surprising how consistently the slap-up-greats of hockey'due south past have won rings. Of the top-25 all-time leading scorers, only Dionne didn't get his, with Joe Thornton still TBD. For a while it felt like Alex Ovechkin could join that unfortunate grouping, simply with enough cracks and a good team around him he eventually got over the hump, equally we've become accustomed to seeing. Whoever is on your respective hockey Mountain Rushmore – exist it Wayne Gretzky or Gordie Howe or Bobby Orr or Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby or whoever – they've got their Cup.
Notwithstanding, Ovechkin'south Loving cup felt less than guaranteed, for two main reasons: Ane, there are 32 teams now (and 31 and so). And 2, the salary cap has pushed parity to the point where it's nearly incommunicable to surround your elite talent with valuable contributors.
The days of the Avalanche adding Ray Bourque to make it happen may not be all the manner gone, but information technology's sure a lot harder to make a deal like that today. And the days of teams having the volume of superstars that the early-'90s Penguins had feels impossible, too. At that place's a lot more luck involved now.
The list of today's immature great-greats – the type of players who could conceivably climb on to the league's top all-time scorer list mentioned above – includes Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Mitch Marner, and Nathan MacKinnon. None of them were fortunate enough to be similar Crosby and win a Cup early in their careers to take some of the pressure level off. And don't look now, only these are inappreciably new players in the league anymore.
MacKinnon has been in the league nine years(!). McDavid seven. Draisaitl 8. Matthews and Marner six. Whatever y'all call back their respective career lengths volition be, we're creeping up on the halfway points – possibly past for some – with no Cups to their names.
Welcome to the era that contains all-time greats who won't win Stanley Cups.
It's like musical chairs, and information technology's clear from the actions of some of the young stars mentioned above that the frustration of still finding themselves notwithstanding standing is starting to seep through. There'south pressure to solidify their legacies, as they surely know that winning the Cup is the ultimate goal, and is the one thing that puts players over the pinnacle perception-wise. And make no mistake, these guys care about that perception, because they're wired unlike from almost players.
Most hockey players dream of simply playing in the NHL, and that'south the goal. Getting there, and staying there as long as possible, is a monumental, life-changing accomplishment. For slap-up players whom the league is never in doubt, though, chasing a Stanley Cup as a lifelong dream is the peak of the sport. Many have dreamt about that, played for it, and see it as the pinnacle of their career climb. But there's no doubt in that location'south another level for the all-time greats, the superlative-drafted, top-paid, top-praised players, who aren't just competing for a championship, but for their spot in hockey'south history.
The guys I mentioned to a higher place are pursuing the Hall of Fame, and legacies, and for one or two of them, a place on the sport's Mount Rushmore. And you tin't take your spot on that mountain without a Stanley Cup. You merely can't.
And so the competitiveness and urgency has seemingly ramped upward as these guys put the hammer downwards on their career primes. There's some feistiness they didn't show in the opening acts of their careers.
In the past 12 months MacKinnon has been fined for whipping a thespian'southward helmet dorsum at him (I'd like to insert a Nelson Muntz-esque "HA-HA" here considering that's still hilarious), he was in the crosshairs for a perceived head shot on Nolan Patrick, and he forced the NHL to put out a argument maxim "Nosotros don't think MacKinnon angrily tried to slash our official, we're pretty sure." Say what you want about MacKinnon, but you can't say he isn't heavily invested (manner too invested?) in the games he's playing lately. (Heck, his own teammates commented on his hockey obsession in the off-flavor, with the whole chickpea pasta thing.)
This season, McDavid was ejected and got a major for running Adrian Kempe from behind. In December he besides got fined for a high elbow on Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and in 2022 he was suspended two games for an illegal bank check to the head on Nick Leddy. He'due south never been a shrinking violet, but at that place's no denying he's grown a bite to his game over the by few seasons.
With Matthews, you can inappreciably paint a more clear picture of a guy who has taken abiding abuse and smiled … earlier he's started to push button dorsum. The image of him literally smiling -- showing himself equally unfazed, I guess -- through a Ben Chiarot equus caballus-collar in the playoffs final twelvemonth has summed up his full general comportment towards the abuse he takes.
He's tried to be above it all, but even the near well-intentioned among u.s. take moments where nosotros want to plough into The Joker. For context, Matthews and McDavid are both among the players who command play virtually often in the league, they both have the puck the most ofttimes on their corresponding teams, and Matthews sits 367th in penalties drawn (7) to McDavid's 41, which is commencement in the NHL.
In the Heritage Classic, Matthews went ahead and adequately viciously cross-checked Rasmus Dahlin in the ear, which earned him a chat with the Department of Player Safety, and a two-game suspension. (If you're the Leafs, you're probably more than OK with what he did at that place, and hope the images of him doing that are broadcast around the league equally often as possible so that some players see yous can't only have countless liberties on the guy without potentially receiving some damage dorsum.)
Certainly function of the frustration we see from these elite superstars is aimed at the officiating. If more players got calls when opponents hang off them, there would likely be less frustration. If they got the "star handling" the way some players do in other sports, perhaps they wouldn't feel the need to lean on "frontier justice" to deter their opponents. That'southward a real criticism, and a likely contributing gene hither.
Yet what I'm talking about isn't simply on the ice. We see frustration from these same players in the media when their teams lose. They try to put on the brave face most days, but the more losses add up, the more you can feel the player'due south want to crosscheck the media in the ear, too. They're pushing for more here, not just confronting the officiating, and it isn't coming as piece of cake as everything else may take earlier in their careers.
When you lot zoom out to their careers at large, a portion of information technology comes from this pressure to win Cups, and in a 32-team league it gets late early on these days. You can fairly argue that all of the players mentioned above take legitimate chances at winning one this season, but it'south not impossible to see the Lightning winning for a third fourth dimension in a row. It'due south not impossible to see aristocracy players Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov getting their first Cups in Florida.
And that'south the point – with the way the league is prepare-up today, aught is guaranteed when it comes to elite superstars winning Cups, or even coming close to it. At that place are too many teams at present, and besides much parity for it to be assured. It volition likely happen for a couple guys on the list above, but it'south more probable than not that some of them volition never win hockey's greatest prize.
Some of their frustration surely comes from the fearfulness of being left standing when the music of their careers stops.
Source: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/frustration-bubbles-for-young-superstars-still-chasing-a-stanley-cup/
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