Prospect Info: [2024 - 21st] Michael Hage, Chicago Steel (USHL), Committed to U of Michigan

bsl

Registered User
Oct 9, 2009
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Nieds did for sure, so did Nick Lidstrom and of course.. Bobby Orr, on those old awful skates with no support.. incredible. I'm always in awe of the old timers in that awful gear, who look wonderful even by today's standards.
Apparently Orr skated barefoot in his skates.
 
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HuGort

Registered User
Jun 15, 2012
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I have seen all the great skaters of their respective times since the mid 1950's: Hull, Keon, Cournoyer, Orr, Perreault, Niedermayer, Gartner, Fedorov, Bure, etc. The best skater I ever saw was Coffey. I never thought I would live to see a better skater than him. Then I saw McDavid skate. And it's not even close. All I can say boys and girls is: if there's ever a better skater than McDavid, let's all hope and pray that he plays for the Canadiens.
Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?
 

ChesterNimitz

governed by the principle of calculated risk
Jul 4, 2002
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Who is best skater you ever seen on Habs?
In my long history of following the Canadiens these are the players who I believe were the team's 'best' skaters, both of their respective eras and irrespective of their eras: Cournoyer, Gainey, Malakhov and Richer.

Honourable Mention (at their peak) : Backstrom, Lafleur, Robinson, Chelios, Courtnall, Petry, Matheson.

Just my opinion.
 

HuGort

Registered User
Jun 15, 2012
21,815
10,793
Nova Scotia
In my long history of following the Canadiens these are the players who I believe were the team's 'best' skaters, both of their respective eras and irrespective of their eras: Cournoyer, Gainey, Malakhov and Richer.

Honourable Mention (at their peak) : Backstrom, Lafleur, Robinson, Chelios, Courtnall, Petry, Matheson.

Just my opinion.
Murray Wilson was fast skater. Newhook is good skater. Anderson is too. We have a lot of speed on Habs
 
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Favster

Registered User
Jul 21, 2013
2,409
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Montreal
In my long history of following the Canadiens these are the players who I believe were the team's 'best' skaters, both of their respective eras and irrespective of their eras: Cournoyer, Gainey, Malakhov and Richer.

Honourable Mention (at their peak) : Backstrom, Lafleur, Robinson, Chelios, Courtnall, Petry, Matheson.

Just my opinion.
Good list. Paul Byron might be the fastest straight line skater ever on the Habs. He could fly at his peak.
 
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ChesterNimitz

governed by the principle of calculated risk
Jul 4, 2002
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Murray Wilson was fast skater. Newhook is good skater. Anderson is too. We have a lot of speed on Habs
No doubt. Murray had elite straight forward speed but had the turning radius of the HMS Queen Elizabeth II. Those 1971-1975 era teams had several players that would be fast by even today's standards. Players like Chuck Lefley and Frank Mahovlich,

We had many elite skaters over the past 70 years. We didn’t win 24 Stanley Cups because we were slow.

One of the best skaters I ever saw was Serge Savard before his two devastating leg injuries. His potential was really displayed in the 1969 playoffs when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy. But for those injuries, this Hall of Fame player, may well have equaled or surpassed Orr's brilliance.
 
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HuGort

Registered User
Jun 15, 2012
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Nova Scotia
No doubt. Murray had elite straight forward speed but had the turning radius of the HMS Queen Elizabeth II. Those 1971-1975 era teams had several players that would be fast by even today's standards. Players like Chuck Lefley and Frank Mahovlich,

We had many elite skaters over the past 70 years. We didn’t win 24 Stanley Cups because we were slow.

One of the best skaters I ever saw was Serge Savard before his two devastating leg injuries. His potential was really displayed in the 1969 playoffs when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy. But for those injuries, this Hall of Fame player, may well have equaled or surpassed Orr's brilliance.
Cournoyer could blend the speed with the shot. He had that quick short stride acceleration.
 

Boris Le Tigre

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Jan 9, 2007
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Straight line speed, russ courtnall was electric.

In terms of turning on a dime, I'm having trouble thinking of someone better than hutson.

Kovalev had some real tricky feet as well especially for his size.

If the NHL kept statistics on over-skating the puck Courtnall would be the all-time leader. Courtnall was just faster than the puck a lot of the time.
 

Estimated_Prophet

Registered User
Mar 28, 2003
11,158
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Bobby Orr is the most talented player ever with Mario Lemieux.

Yes more than Gretzky and Mcdavid

That is a silly statement imo....I have watched all 4 and making these comparisons is a waste of time. There is literally nothing that anyone can definitively say that Orr had over McDavid or vice versa due to different equipment, training, nutrition and the enormous disparity in quality of competition.

McDavid is unquestionably at the apex of speed and the ability to do things at top speed. Orr was never pushed to such limits as he only needed to be faster than his excruciatingly slow counterparts who made up the vast majority of the league. We will never know if Orr would have been able to reach these limits and the question is uninteresting because it is impossible to answer.

All four are imo in the same class and that is as far as the conversation should go, as it is such an entirely subjective and bias driven topic.
 
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