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Written by Ryan
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Tuesday, 09 February 2010 13:09 |
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Not all of the Top 50 Scorers in the NHL will be in action this Winter Olympics, basically because Canada is limited to 20 skaters. What do I mean? What I mean is that the freaking NHL is dominated by high scoring canucks. Of the top 50 scorers in the NHL here's the breakdown by country and points:
Canada - 1,403
USA - 366
Russia - 356
Sweden - 303
Czech Rep - 104
Slovakia - 69
Slovenia - 62
Finland - 51
Poland - 47
Now I'll be the first to admit that this stat has absolutely no statistical (as in the college class) significance when not weighed by player, but it's still fun to look at. Over the years there have seemingly been a number of occasions to point at the decrease of Canada's death grip on the NHL, and the sport of hockey in general. But I have to admit that the boys up north are still uncontested when it comes to the number of top level talents in the sport.
While over the years the superstar dynamic has shifted so as to included players from Russia, Sweden, and Slovakia, but no country can even come close to matching the depth of talent coming from the US's taiga top hat. Last draft almost 50% of the players drafted were from Canada. In 2008 it was over 57%. In '07 just under 50%. Of the more than 20 countries that represent the National Hockey League. The percentage of actual players in the league seems to be mirroring the draft so I can't really see any sign at all that Canada's dominance will truly be dominated even in the next couple decades.
Which is probably why I wondered if I lived in the wrong country yesterday when I saw 6 NCAA Basketball buzzer beaters on Sports Center (not Centre) ranked above Ovechkin's Sunday afternoon 4 point game on the weekend's Top 10 Plays.
Yeah we can beat them in the '96 World Cup, yeah we beat them in the World Junior Tournament that just passed, yeah we smoked them 6-5 in the World Baseball Classic last March, but Hockey is their sport.
And it will continue to be even after we beat them at Olympics in a week and a half.
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