isn't it true that currently there are more NHLers from the Edmonton area than any other city/region in the world? it was true recently (in the last decade). not positive if it is still true.
Edmonton - over a million people, but still a pretty good call. 50 NHL'rs from there, according to Quant... pretty good for a Western city. Nice starting lineup, too
Messier-Bucyk-Iginla
Phaneuf-Niedermaier
no goalie
good, but I have to again look at Ornskoldsvik as not too far behind this line (nowhere near the depth, though) and note that at 28,000 residents, it is 40 times smaller.
Some of the smaller towns, too - like Viking, blow this away per capita.
Quanthockey uses the birth city as the qualifier so satellite cities without hospitals are not represented individually but as part of a region.
Indeed.... I noticed some players born in Richmond Hill, even Willowdale and then North York before they had hospitals of their own werent included in Toronto, but are now part of the GTA. Im assuming same for GMA however, the bottom line is that Toronto is indeed a far superior "spawning ground" than Montreal ever was, is or could be when it comes to Hockey, Lord Stanley of Preston... Sir Charles Darwin. Elementary Penguin singing Hari Krishna, Man youve shouldve seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
Indeed.... I noticed some players born in Richmond Hill, even Willowdale and then North York before they had hospitals of their own werent included in Toronto, but are now part of the GTA. Im assuming same for GMA however, the bottom line is that Toronto is indeed a far superior "spawning ground" than Montreal ever was, is or could be when it comes to Hockey, Lord Stanley of Preston... Sir Charles Darwin. Elementary Penguin singing Hari Krishna, Man youve shouldve seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
Yes, far superior. The numbers dont lie.
The same satellite city problem exists in Montreal. Fairest would be a fixed radius from Yonge and Bloor compared to Peel and Ste Catherine.
Of course we could compare All-Time All Star Teams or trophy fish - Montreal, to minnows - Toronto, where Montreal wins without much challenge.
Of course we could compare All-Time All Star Teams or trophy fish - Montreal, to minnows - Toronto, where Montreal wins without much challenge.
Im afraid youve got me on that one, though if I was permitted to source from all of Ontario, we'd have a serious game on our hands. Firewagon Hockey. As it is, Im afraid Id be left deploying the LWL & NZ Trap, a rather difficult task when facing the likes of Richard & Lemieux, but doable.
Im afraid youve got me on that one, though if I was permitted to source from all of Ontario, we'd have a serious game on our hands. Firewagon Hockey. As it is, Im afraid Id be left deploying the LWL & NZ Trap, a rather difficult task when facing the likes of Richard & Lemieux, but doable.
Martin Brodeur in goal with Doug Harvey and Ray Bourque as defensemen with a first line of Dickie Moore, Mario Lemieux and Maurice Richard is a solid start to any team.
Martin Brodeur in goal with Doug Harvey and Ray Bourque as defensemen with a first line of Dickie Moore, Mario Lemieux and Maurice Richard is a solid start to any team.
Im thinking that trio up-front wouldnt be in for a Sunday afternoon skate against the Conacher boys, Durnan in net, a sober Howie Young and lets say a Mike Pelyk or Bart Crashley back on the Blue-Line C58.
Evgeni Nabokov
Nikolai Antropov
Alexander Perezhogin
Konstantin Pushakrev
Konstantin Shafranov
Vitaly Kolesnik
Vitali Yeremeyev
Anton Khudobin
Dimitri Patzold
One industry or boom towns tended to such cycles. Industry or boom leaves and the families do likewise leaving for areas with jobs.
I'm wondering if this is a pattern as hockey has 'modernized' over the past 30 years. Are there less players coming from small towns and more coming from larger cities now? Is this because organized training has taken the place of pure opportunity on ice? I suspect so. It certainly would account for some of the lack of creativity we see now in the NHL. Personally I attribute that more to the systems coaches employ these days that restrict creativity than to organized training.
I'm wondering if this is a pattern as hockey has 'modernized' over the past 30 years. Are there less players coming from small towns and more coming from larger cities now? Is this because organized training has taken the place of pure opportunity on ice? I suspect so. It certainly would account for some of the lack of creativity we see now in the NHL. Personally I attribute that more to the systems coaches employ these days that restrict creativity than to organized training.
30 - 50 years ago you had small town youth hockey associations across Canada. Since then the small town associations have been merged into large regional youth hockey associations. Roughly a 15-20 to 1 ratio in parts of rural Quebec.
Upside is that the teams get more quality ice time without weaknesses in the coaching. Talent plays with and against talent.
The creativity is slowly coming back,Sidney Crosby, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, John Tavares, Nathan Mackinnon, Connor McDavid,Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin,just some of the talented creative Canadian forwards plus a solid core of puck moving defensemen.
NHL is quickly filtering out the slugs - accelerated by the lockout.
Coaching has to change somewhat to reflect the disappearing slugs.
