I did too watch all his matches and you need a pair of glasses or you just don't want to see things. We were all raiving in the forums about how he was all over the ice creating chances and being super physical in the first playoffs. It was amazing to see. Where the f*** were you, on the moon?
Where was I? I was in my living room, watching him score four goals in ten games and then on those same forums watching people hysterically over-rate his performance, much like the guy in this thread who claimed he was one of the Canadiens "best players."
You can say he was "all over the ice creating chances" but the reality is his first NHL playoff goal that spring came after a point shot was deflected, then it hit Kotka in the crease and went in the net. He got cross checked into the net while the puck bounced off him. A bag of potatoes would have had the exact same results.
He potted a goal on a rebound in Game 2 and he had already contributed fifty percent of his entire playoff output for the team. He didn't have any more points until Game 2 of the next series, where he scored twice. First, he knocked in another rebound and then later that game, he scored his fourth - and easily best - goal cutting in front and using a Flyer as a screen for a quick wrist shot.
Was it in encouraging to see a young guy get four goals in his first playoff? Absolutely.
Was it also true that three of the four goals literally any NHL player could have scored? Also true.
Was the hyperbolic reaction back then - and now in this thread where you suggest I need glasses and might live on the moon - ridiculously overblown? Absolutely.
The fact that he followed up his four goal playoff with a five goal season seems to strongly suggest that several Canadiens fans that were "raving in the forums" maybe weren't exactly astute hockey observers?
Maybe they just saw what they wanted to see. But I can tell you this, he was dominating. He wasn't the best Canadien on the ice. And he wasn't "all over the ice creating chances."
You also praise his "physicality" yet you leave out that the result of that was him being by far the most penalized player on the team. Another piece of Fool's Gold.