Mark Recchi is the greatest Flyer of all time

JojoTheWhale

Lusting Stromboli
May 22, 2008
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Striiker

Former Flyers Fan
Jun 2, 2013
90,152
156,671
Pennsylvania
But "greatness" to me means accomplishment, fame, importance... and by that measure Clarke (and Ruth, and Howe, and Brown, etc...) are the greatest players of their respective teams.
But what’s a bigger accomplishment, being a top player in the modern NHL or someone winning championships/MVPs in a rec league?

:)

I’d rather be among the best of the best than the best of trash.
 
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Kermit the Prog

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Feb 10, 2010
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there is a small percentage of players involved in contact sports that could survive playing their respective sport the way all these games were played prior to 1980 much less thrive.

slapshot didn’t overplay the violence in hockey, it offered a different view of it. The rules and violence in 70’s football makes today’s game look light touch football. Basketball? Ha!

Just like Dave Semenko gave Gretzky a playing surface free of fear by savagely beating any player who even looked at Gretz the wrong way, modern sports has become the equivalent of rhythmic gymnastics. Sure it takes amazing talent… but, come on. My high school school soccer team was more intimidating than some current nhl hockey teams. If a contact sport removes intimidation from the game then we might as well not keep score and have a panel of judges give each team a rating and whoever rates higher, wins the game. lol. Maybe we could attach ribbons to their uniforms. That would probably look amazing.

I'm friends with Krzysztof Oliwa, and let me tell you, when I was a younger and more active young man, I thought I would be able to navigate around NHL goons or at least tie up one long enough for the linesmen to step in, I can categorically tell you there ain't no way in hell that would be the case. You'd get bruised just having him walk past you on the street.
 
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Gregor Samsa

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Sep 5, 2020
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Recchi is firmly in the Gagne tier for me. They’ve got a decent shot to be top 10 Flyers of all time but as others have said, there are at least 6-8 much much better players
 
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Striiker

Former Flyers Fan
Jun 2, 2013
90,152
156,671
Pennsylvania
I'm curious if you believe the top young players of the league are better then the top young players from !5 years ago.
The clear gap in talent is between the current guys and the guys from like 50 years ago. I’m not suggesting every few years the talent level rises significantly.

I’d break it down into rough eras, without clear defined start/end points. For example…

Clarke played in The Plumber Era, which was when the skill level was in the dirt and an AHL team from today would smoke them.

Then guys like Gretzky played in The Pre-Goalie Era where you could score absurd amounts of points because goalies were a joke and the net might as well have been open.

Now we’re in the modern NHL where talent and goaltending both exist.
 

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