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Who is the best player you saw live?

My first ever game ---> Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens Box Score: January 23, 1991 | Hockey-Reference.com

dont think I ever saw Gretzky or Mario unfortunately in an NHL game.... but saw both Crosby and Ovie in their rookie seasons, though!

Also saw: Hasek, Roy (was at his infamous last game as a Hab!), Brodeur, Jagr, Lidstrom, Yzerman, Chelios, MacInnis, Pronger.... Also saw 2 games at the WCH 2004 (CAN-USA and CAN-SVK), so I did technically see Mario play.
 
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Fatass said:
99, 66, 4. Messier was pretty damned impressive (live) too. Saw Lafleur, Dionne too. Both great. Perrault was brilliant. Yakushev and Kharlomov were unexpectedly amazing.
Haven’t been to a game in a very long time. Might go see McDavid, McKinnon and Quinn Hughes. They look worth the ticket.
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Who looked the best live between Lemieux, Gretzky and Orr?
 
Boonk said:
When I worked at CLC here in Winnipeg I got to see a lot of the leagues talent. I have seen McDavid a few times now, and everytime he did crazy shit on the ice so casually that he looked like an AI robot from a different planet compared to everyone else on both teams. He is a literal supercomputer on skates and is unbelievable to watch in person.

Underrated shoutout to Kaprizov tho, he singlehandedly makes that Wild team and forward core somewhat relevant all on his own and was a danger anytime he was on the ice.
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Kaprizov is underrated. I think he’s better than Kucherov, very close to MacKinnon.
 
Best player I saw live was Karlsson in 2016 followed by Kopitar. Hossa and Backstrom were impressive as well.
 
authentic said:
Who looked the best live between Lemieux, Gretzky and Orr?
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Mario was on the occasions I saw him. Only saw Bobby one time. He played a lot like a hybrid between Hughes and Makar.
Wayne didn’t stand out until looking at the scoresheet after the game, when he had 5 or more points! 😂
 
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I was fortunate enough to be at the 1983 All Star Game, with 19 future Hall of Famers. No one compares to Gretzky. His instincts of where to be, and where his teammates would be, just left you shaking your head in amazement. And he made it all look almost effortless.
 
Ovechkin, Crosby, McDavid are the Big 3 for me (I was born in '95). Malkin is definitely up there as well.

Others I remember seeing often at the Coliseum were Brodeur, Jagr, Lecavalier, St. Louis. Whenever Colorado is in town I love to see MacKinnon and Makar.
 
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I was fortunate to see prime Sid, Geno, Jagr, and old Mario. The best player I ever saw live was McDavid. Dude is one of the GOATs.
 
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Mcdavid is an easy pick. The guy is the most explosive skater the game has ever seen. Guys like Mcdavid, Lafleur and Bure will always stand out due to their god given skating ability.
 
I want to use this thread to just name some cool moments I have been lucky to see from great players.

I was at Bure's skate to stick goal against Scott Bailey of the Bruins in the 96-97 exhibition season.

I was with my dad at Elias Pettersson's first game when he scored that dynamite goal on the 2-on-1 against Mike Smith. A special memory to share.

I was at Quinn Hughes' first game which was special.

I got to see Ovechkin at the height of his powers in 2009 which was really cool.
 
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Cole Hutson. He has left me the most wowed while leaving the game. (Admittedly, it’s more than likely because of quality of competition.) And I have been in attendance for Keith Tkachuk, Jeremey Roenick, Craig Janney, Rick Tocchet, Mike Gartner, Eric Lindros, John Leclair, Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Steve Rucchin, Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, Patrick Roy, Among others. (No Jagr, Gretzky, Lemieux types though unfortunately.)
 
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Mario Lemieux.
The most dominant player of his era.
I had the chance to see a lot of his junior games in Laval and it wasn’t even funny. The guy barely showed up and finished his last junior season with 282 pts in 70 games.
He was a giant, played in the worst era of ‘allowed holding and slashing ‘ by defensemen, was plagued with back injuries, fought cancer and still averaged near 2pts/ game throughout his career.
Heck, he came out of a 3 year retirement and scores 35 goals in 43 games.
I never saw Bobby Orr live, so I can’t include him , but I did see Guy Lafleur many times , same with Jagr and Gretzky, but Lemieux was something else.
 
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Mario was the most dominant player I ever saw. He simply was so much better is size reach talent skill IQ ect. Gretzky was also incredible but was not close to Mario in physical presence be so far above everyone physically. Jagr was close as he would simply take over games like no one else. Lots of players had one or two things that were really good but no one ever had Marios ability to simply do whatever he wanted.
 
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MarkusNaslund19 said:
I want to use this thread to just name some cool moments I have been lucky to see from great players.

I was at Bure's skate to stick goal against Scott Bailey of the Bruins in the 96-97 exhibition season.

I was with my dad at Elias Pettersson's first game when he scored that dynamite goal on the 2-on-1 against Mike Smith. A special memory to share.

I was at Quinn Hughes' first game which was special.

I got to see Ovechkin at the height of his powers in 2009 which was really cool.
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For me, indelible impressions were left by underdogs. As well as being a certain young age.

EDIT: Petr Klima's 1990 goal in triple OT vs. Boston comes to mind. If for no other reason than my Dad acting out of character and cheering like crazy.

"Klima scored the game-winning goal in the longest Stanley Cup Finals game in history, in the third overtime of Game 1 of the 1990 Finals against Andy Moog of the Boston Bruins despite having not played at all in the third period, nor the first two OT periods."
 
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amnesiac said:
My first ever game ---> Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens Box Score: January 23, 1991 | Hockey-Reference.com

dont think I ever saw Gretzky or Mario unfortunately in an NHL game.... but saw both Crosby and Ovie in their rookie seasons, though!

Also saw: Hasek, Roy (was at his infamous last game as a Hab!), Brodeur, Jagr, Lidstrom, Yzerman, Chelios, MacInnis, Pronger.... Also saw 2 games at the WCH 2004 (CAN-USA and CAN-SVK), so I did technically see Mario play.
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What is your favorite team? You are a great poster on this site from my city. Cheers.
 
I don’t know if he was the best, but so smooth and you could just tell he saw the game differently. Brian Leetch
 
Selanne the year he scored 76 goals was pretty special. Zhamnov was 21 and his #1C and Housely leading the team in assists with 79 was interesting when most players who rack up big goals have a top notch 1C like Mogilny did. I can't imagine how many goals Selanne could have had with a Lafontaine/Hawerchuk combo feeding him.
 
My box of ticket stubs from childhood could tell me this, but that was lost somewhere along the way. There's a good chance I caught a Lemieux appearance in a Flyers/Pens game when I was a single-digit age, but I can't say for sure.

I feel fortunate to have seen:

- Lindros
- Messier
- Jagr
- Crosby
- Ovechkin
- Forsberg
- MacKinnon
- Pronger
- Brodeur
- Hasek

all multiple times. My very first NHL game was at the Spectrum, Flyers and Rangers, where I saw 4 fights in the first period and two goals from Lindros. Saw rookie Ovechkin destroy the Flyers, saw Crosby at the Igloo during the Pens' 09 Cup run...all special stuff.

Kind of surprised I haven't seen McDavid yet. Need to do that while he still skates the way he does.
 
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