The Official NHL Playoffs Thread

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Hopey,
You are forgetting that some LOVE competition.

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I'm not forgetting that at all. There are plenty of European hockey players who live to compete with the best in the world. Nicklas Lidstrom comes to mind.

However, there are also guys like Yashin and Mogilny, who couldn't be bothered to step it up in the playoffs. Unless it was a contract year, of course.


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To even get where they are at, they had to love the sport and competition at a young age. You can be born with all the natural talent in the world and blessed with the best hockey-frame.... but you aren't going to get anywhere close to the NHL if you don't love the game and competition.

I was also referring to the lower-end to average Europeans. Those are the guys that could be huge rock stars in their home country while making comparable, if not more, money there. That's the reason why Alex Korolyuk left San Jose. He would be around his family, be a star, and actually get paid more in Russia. Easy choice for a lot of people.

Anyways, we'll never know for sure since none of us are European hockey players. I just think it's silly this myth is so big when there's no question it comes from a few Euros that don't hit and a few that haven't done well in the playoffs. If Don Cherry was born in Russia, you'd see him go crazy after watching all the Canadian boys that don't hit and don't score in the playoffs.