Mike Bossy vs Pavel Bure who's the better goal scorer all time?

[Boxscore]

All-time, clearly Bossy.

At their absolute best? Closer, but still Bossy.

More exciting to watch while doing it? Bure x100.

 

[VistamarCroissants]

Imagine Pavel Bure in his prime, slotted into the high-flying, star-studded New York Islanders lineup of the 1980s.

With his blistering speed and sniper’s instinct, how many goals would he have scored alongside the likes of Trottier, Bossy, and Gillies?

It’s a chilling thought for anyone who lived through the 1980s NHL.

PS. That makes you wonder: could the Oilers’ glory days have been cut short?

 

[sr edler]

Bure's bloated usage on those late stage FLA teams is well known, but probably balanced out career wise by his usage on those early VAN teams where Pat Quinn liked to balance his line-up, roll all 4 lines and play Bure regularly with guys like Semyonov, Craven and (Dixon) Ward.

Similarly to what he (Quinn) did later in Toronto where Sundin didn't get as ludicrous minutes as late stage Messier but instead had to hover around with Domi.

This is also a big reason why star players on one-line teams made such a bank in 92–93, like Turgeon (Isles), Selänne (Jets), Mogilny & Lafontaine (Sabres) and Robitaille (Kings) whereas star players on more balanced like Calgary (Fleury), Vancouver (Bure) and Quebec (Sakic) had to share duties with a potent second punch.

 

[Hobnobs]

Bure's bloated usage on those late stage FLA teams is well known, but probably balanced out career wise by his usage on those early VAN teams where Pat Quinn liked to balance his line-up, roll all 4 lines and play Bure regularly with guys like Semyonov, Craven and (Dixon) Ward.

Similarly to what he (Quinn) did later in Toronto where Sundin didn't get as ludicrous minutes as late stage Messier but instead had to hover around with Domi.

This is also a big reason why star players on one-line teams made such a bank in 92–93, like Turgeon (Isles), Selänne (Jets), Mogilny & Lafontaine (Sabres) and Robitaille (Kings) whereas star players on more balanced like Calgary (Fleury), Vancouver (Bure) and Quebec (Sakic) had to share duties with a potent second punch.

I'd say he did give his stars minutes. It's just that he usually used them with 4th liners instead of just having hte whole 1st line out there.

Take Sundin in 02 for example. Sundin got more minutes than any forward at ES and PP. He primarly played with Höglund and Renberg or Roberts and Mogilny but then you have him playing 3-4 minutes with like Tucker, Domi, Healey, Valk and McCauley.

In this regard Quinn was a weird coach. I owuld understand having your star center with younger guys as a sort of a mentor thing and to give young guys some experience and a chance to prove what they can do. Having Sundin out there with 3rd and 4th liners is just a waste.

 

[MadLuke]

I'd say he did give his stars minutes.

There is a difference between being number 1 on your own team and getting good minutes for a stars, someone will be the number one on any team, need to be one.

In 2002:

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Sundin was 47th among forward for ev toi per game, getting Shawn McEachern minutes, in total ice time per game he was 55th.

For a 30 years old that look like could be a bit of an horse and did play 21 minutes like a star not so long ago and was 12th in the nhl in points from 00 to 02, without an other big center on the team, that can feel low.

had to share duties with a potent second punch.

Hull-Shanahan recently talked about, , that said not sure about Yzerman-Fedorov... Yzerman had quite the year and that Wings had Sheppard, Carson for a while.. they were the numbers 1 offense in the league, cannot be not quite balanced. I was going to say Jagr-Francis on the pens (second best offense) had quiet year relative to what they could do, but again what about Lemieux season considering the potent second punch.

Maybe when the gap is big enough (lemieux vs jagr line or Yzerman fedorov at the time, did not change how it went versus the sundin-sakic....)

 

[overpass]

In this regard Quinn was a weird coach. I owuld understand having your star center with younger guys as a sort of a mentor thing and to give young guys some experience and a chance to prove what they can do. Having Sundin out there with 3rd and 4th liners is just a waste.

The point of Quinn's line management was that forwards don't get pigeonholed as "3rd and 4th liners". Everyone gets to play. It's a mindset and motivation thing to get the most out of everyone. Part of this line management style is that the top guys played some shifts with the 4th line types, rather than sending out the 3 worst forwards together and getting them off ASAP before they get scored on.

Quinn's 98-99 Leafs were the perfect example. The trend around the league was to maximize the scoring opportunities for the top line, have a third line of checkers, and play the fourth line as little as possible. Quinn let his whole lineup play, got offensive contributions from everyone, and the Leafs scored 74 more goals than the previous season and led the league by 20.

 

[Hobnobs]

The point of Quinn's line management was that forwards don't get pigeonholed as "3rd and 4th liners". Everyone gets to play. It's a mindset and motivation thing to get the most out of everyone. Part of this line management style is that the top guys played some shifts with the 4th line types, rather than sending out the 3 worst forwards together and getting them off ASAP before they get scored on.

Quinn's 98-99 Leafs were the perfect example. The trend around the league was to maximize the scoring opportunities for the top line, have a third line of checkers, and play the fourth line as little as possible. Quinn let his whole lineup play, got offensive contributions from everyone, and the Leafs scored 74 more goals than the previous season and led the league by 20.

It's also a good reason why he never won.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Is it?

Hell, the closest he got was when one of those fourth liners hit the crossbar with a few minutes left in game 7 of the Final.