Players Speak!

1) The Hockey News recently published a fascinating poll of players to see what the people most vested in the game had to say about a variety of issues facing the NHL today. Here are some of the hilites:

• Who is the most hated player in the NHL? 1) Sean Avery (168) 66.4% 2) Jordin Tootoo (14) 5.5% 3) Darcy Tucker (9) 3.5% 4) Jarkko Ruutu (8) 3.1% 5) Marc Savard (7) 2.7% 6) Chris Neil (6) 2.3% 7) Sidney Crosby (5) 1.9% Interesting that none of the top 6 are enforcers/fighters. These are guys who will agitate, but rarely fight their own battles. Neil being the possible exception to that
• What is an appropriate penalty for fighting? 1) 5 minutes (273) 97% 2) 10 minutes (5) 2%3) 20 minutes (3) 1% NOBODY thought that fighting should result in a game misconduct! HMMMM, we guess that the players think that fighting should be legal and NOT be penalized more than a brief 5 minute stay in the box. We agree!
• Who is the most overrated player in the NHL? 1) Sean Avery (17) 8.5% 2) Bryan McCabe and Brad Richards (16) 8% 3) Pavel Kubina (9) 4.5% 4) Marc Savard (8) 4% 5) Jaromir Jagr (7) 3.5%6) Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski (6) 3% Wow, looks like Avery hasn't made too many friends in the league. Also interesting that Mark Savard's name pops up again in an unflattering poll. Didn't see that coming.
• Would you rather see a fourth-line roster spot go to:1) An enforcer (177) 66% 2) A skilled player who can play the power play and participate in the shootout (93) 34% Another apparent pro-fighting poll result. Won't make those anti-fighting folks too happy.

2) What we took from this poll is that a vast majority of players like the status quo. On no questions did the players want a change from the rules as they are now. They don't want visors mandatory. They don't want to change the number of teams in the playoffs. They want a continuation of a point for an OT /shoot out loss. Only on the last point are we at odds with the majority(As we noted in our post: http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/03/stop-rewarding-of-losers.html)

3) Our biggest surprise is how negatively Marc Savard is looked upon by his fellow players. Not looked upon as a particularly dirty player or agitator in the Tucker/Avery mold, he apparently has rubbed more than a few of his colleagues the wrong way.

4) Of course one has to take the entire poll with a grain of salt,

• Apparently not all the players took the poll seriously, as witnessed by some voting for Josh Green and Eric Goddard(AHL?marginal NHL-ers) as 'the best player in the NHL this season'
• Only about 1/3 of the players took part in the poll and it was likely NOT a secret ballot which could have influenced the results to some degree