Every fanbase has a guy or two that the homers have decided is untouchable and you're not allowed to say a word against him or you get swarmed. We've got a few. I'm old, I'm cranky, and I've watched real hockey players, so I'm starting this and I'll take the heat.
My answer is going to make people mad and I don't care: we wildly overrate effort. Not a specific player, the whole category. This board falls in love with any kid who back checks hard and forgives a multitude of sins because he plays with heart. Heart doesn't score. Heart doesn't move the puck out of your own zone under pressure. We've handed lifetime passes to a couple of guys whose entire scouting report is tries hard, and tries hard is the floor, not an achievement.
Now give me a name and defend why the love is out of proportion. Or come at mine. Either way.
the overrated thing on this board isn't a player it's the idea that the power play is one tweak away. we've overrated the talent of our top unit for three straight years. it's not a structure problem you fix with a whiteboard, the personnel just isn't as scary as you all believe and admitting that is apparently illegal here.
HARD DISAGREE ON THE HEART THING GRUMPS. THE REASON THIS TEAM EVEN COMPETES SOME NIGHTS IS THE COMPETE LEVEL OF THE YOUNG GUYS. YOU CAN'T TEACH IT AND CONTENDERS ARE BUILT ON IT. CALLING EFFORT OVERRATED IS THE MOST OLD MAN TAKE I HAVE EVER READ AND I MEAN THAT WITH LOVE.
@GrumpyInGrosse said:we wildly overrate effort
This is a better take than the replies are giving it credit for, and the data backs Grumps more than the homers want. Effort correlates with fan affection far more than it correlates with results. The guys this board canonizes for compete often have ugly underlying possession numbers, and the quiet skill guys who don't visibly hustle frequently drive play better. We reward the visible exertion because it's easy to see from the cheap seats. It's a real bias. Grumps is right.
@fenwickfan said:the quiet skill guys who don't visibly hustle frequently drive play better
ok the possession point is fair i'll give you that. but you're never gonna convince me a room full of skill guys who don't compete wins a single playoff series. you need BOTH and this board correctly values the thing that's harder to acquire in free agency. fight me politely.
I'll offer a synthesis because you're both half right. Effort is necessary and insufficient. Grumps is correct that this board treats it as sufficient, hands out lifetime passes for it, and uses it to excuse genuinely poor results. Eddy is correct that a skilled team with no compete gets bullied out of the playoffs. The error isn't valuing effort, it's terminating the evaluation at effort. Tries hard should open the conversation about a player, not close it. That's the actual overrated thing here: we let heart end the argument.
As a guy who plays, effort is the easiest thing in the world to fake for a shift and the hardest thing in the world to sustain for a season. The grumpy old man is right that we overrate the highlight back check and underrate the boring guy who's in the right spot every single shift and never has to sprint to recover. The sprint looks like effort. The positioning looks like nothing. The positioning is the actual work.
grumpy and the analytics guy agreeing is the seventh seal opening. genuinely thought i'd die before i saw it. the lord is testing us.
well now i'm suspicious of my own take if the spreadsheet crowd agrees with me. but danM put it better than i did and i'm man enough to admit it. tries hard opens the conversation, doesn't end it. that's the whole point. i've been saying it cranky for years and the kid said it clean in one sentence. fine. good thread. don't tell anyone i said that.