I think this has been mostly covered, but here's how this looks to me. I'm saying, "hey, let's really value what their contemporaries thought", and you guys are saying to me, "look, if you like award voting, then have I got a poll you should check out!"
But this poll is just "A" piece of evidence in the grand scheme of things. It's not "THE" piece of evidence, or even the single most important piece. I'm actually pretty surprised it's held in such high esteem considering:
- It was conducted by "sportscasters and sports editors" - who? - while annual award voting was conducted by people we know for sure watched and covered hockey (or the GMs in early years? someone remind me)
- Voters were only able to name one player, meaning the final results were just ranked by their number of first place votes. While it's clear a more detailed system wouldn't have changed the winner, it would have allowed a lot more depth to the results and very likely wouldn't have looked like such a slam dunk. We can only speculate on who would have taken the bulk of 2nd and 3rd place votes, had those been an option. Binary voting systems where one person gets all the points and everyone else can pound sand, suck. NHL award voting always allowed for multiple players to be named on the ballots, leading to the detailed results we now enjoy the use of.
- NHL award voting was conducted right after the season had ended, after the voters had watched multiple games featuring the players they were voting on. This poll was conducted 10 and 14 years after the careers of Shore and Morenz had ended
- At the time that the poll was conducted, most eligible players were alive, but one very prominent one was dead, and died under tragic, heart-wrenching circumstances. I think that we've seen enough cases where romanticism comes into play for the deceased (in more than just hockey), that we can't rule that out as being a major factor. NHL award voting, of course, was conducted when all players were alive.
"If you guys like polls where 44 sportscasters and sports editors who may - or may not - follow hockey closely, each named one player the best of all-time, 10+ years after their careers were over, with one prominent player deceased, then boy, have I got some great data for you to check out! It's these votes that were conducted every year, by hockey people, immediately following dozens of hockey games, with detailed, multiple-player ballots, and no romanticism at play."
What does the better, more detailed, more first hand data tell us? Well, it's inconclusive. It really doesn't prove Morenz or Shore was better, considering the oddity that one peaked in his 20s and the other in his 30s. But it is the better data. It would be reasonable to conclude they are pretty damn close. This is no slam dunk. Saying Morenz is a must for this round, and Shore has to wait another one (or two) flies in the face of what their actual contemporaries thought of them.