Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDevilMadeMe
I must have missed this one. I watched all of Lindros' career, and actually saw quite a bit of him as a divisional rival. And he never reached the level that Sakic hit during the 2000-01 regular season (Hart Trophy in a landslide), carried through to the 2001 playoffs (easily led the champs in scoring) and 2002 Olympics (MVP), before finally slowing down in the second half of 2001-02 due to all that hockey.
IMO, it's probably the posters younger than me who thought of Lindros almost as a folk hero who are more likely to vote for him.
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He was actually better in the second half of 2001-02 than the first half, but yeah, from 1999-2004, he's got a top prime. Look at him relative to other centers:
1999
Forsberg: 30 G, 97 PTS in 78 Games
Sakic: 41 G, 96 PTS in 73 Games
Yashin: 44 G, 94 PTS in 82 Games
2000
Modano: 38 G, 81 PTS in 77 Games
Sakic: 28 G, 81 PTS in 60 Games
Yzerman: 35 G, 79 PTS in 78 Games
2001
Sakic: 54 G, 118 PTS in 82 Games
Allison: 36 G, 95 PTS in 82 Games
Weight: 25 G, 90 PTS in 82 Games
2002
Sundin: 41 G, 80 PTS in 82 Games
Sakic: 26 G, 79 PTS in 82 Games
Demitra: 35 G, 78 PTS in 82 Games
2004
Sakic: 33 G, 87 PTS in 81 Games
Lang: 30 G, 79 PTS in 69 Games
Richards: 26 G, 79 PTS in 82 Games
Maybe it's not the best era for healthy centers, but being within a point of leading centers in scoring five times in six seasons is a pretty consistent prime. He could realistically be a five-time 1st Team All-Star without anyone batting an eye.