If you had no team, which would you choose?
Let’s have some fun and consider if you were new to the NHL and ice hockey and had to choose a favorite team, which three teams would be your choices, and why?
Imagine you don’t live in North America so location has nothing to do with the selection. Imagine you were European and had a satellite feed of the NHL but had no connections to any of the teams/players.
Personally, I would choose:
1) The Anaheim Ducks. Not only because they just won the Cup, but because as of last year they have so much young talent that will only get better. They also sport two of the three Norris finalists for top defenseman. This team has the potential to be a dynasty.
2) The Pittsburgh Penguins. They have the youngest scoring leader in NHL history with highlight reel goals/passes, a Russian who had to escape his country’s cruel oppression to play in the NHL and will (most likely) be the Calder Trophy winner for top rookie, and a plethora of young talented players that will only get better. Many North American analysts pick this team to be a real Contender for many years. Former Oilers dynasty players Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier say they see the similarities between their dynasty and this potential dynasty.
3) The Detroit Red Wings. They sport Olympic Gold Medal winning goal-scorer and Future Hall of Famer All-Star defenseman. One of the sickest shootout goal-scorers in recent NHL history who will be a part of this team’s long-term plan. A history of superb drafting (if not downright the best in recent history) and an entertaining dominant regular season despite often hearing the claims that this is the year they will falter. Recently, a long history of success, both in the regular season and playoffs (3 Cups).
Honorable mentions: The Rangers (young talent plus it’s NY), The Canadiens (young talent), The Sharks (solid all-around team), The Kings (will be great in a few years time) and the Blue Jackets (total enigma, but replete with talent that could one day take over).
So, what are your three teams and why?
73 Responses to If you had no team, which would you choose?
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I was also laughing the entire post, and even moreso with your clever rebuttle.
I think we should give him a break. English is clearly not his first language. A for effort! D- for analysis.
Good point about Calgary.
The sea of red could definetely turn some people their way. What great fans!
Well,i`m going to pick teams according to the actual kind of players that i would be looking for and no geographic/business side to it at all.
1-Pittsburgh penguins:they have the best young player in the world,they have an excellent bunch of greatly skilled young players(Malkin,Staal,Ouellet,Armstrong,Talbot,Whitney etc) and good solid experienced veterans in Roberts and Recchi,a very promising young goelie in Fleury,they are the team of the future.They even have a good enforcer.
Need to get better on defense.
2-Anaheim Ducks:as much as i hate them i have to admit they have a very strong,big and physical defense with pronger,Niedermayer,Beauchemin and O`donnell,big young offensive forwards:(Getzlav,Perry,Penner,Niedermayer) that are good defensively and offensively,they have speed and scoring talent(Selanne,Macdonald,Kunitz) and a strong goalie(not the best and not that stable but he did the job).
3-Detroit Red-wings:They have great two way offense with great passing skills and puck control along with strong skating(Datsuk,Zettenberg,Lang,Holmstrom etc),one of the best defensive squad of the NHL(Lidstrom,Schneider,Chelios,Kronwall) and depth.I would simply have to get a strong goalie(sorry Hasek is too old and not in good enough shape,injury wise)
Honorable mention would be Ottawa and San Jose as they both have strong relatively young teams and without being the best at anything(goalie,defense,offense) they are strong everywhere and may need minor adjustments to win it all.
For the record i am a sens fan.
Of course a Penguins fan responds like this. The fact is Ovechkin does more than Crosby. Yes, just look at the awards, Crosby had the better season, but I definately think Ovechkin is the more exciting player to watch. Ovechkin levels people, scores goals, dekes out the whole team, steals pucks all the time, he does everything that makes you want to see that again.
How could you not cheer for the team with the biggest legacy, the most stanley cups by a country mile and full of young talent….the habs all the way.
The only things Ovechkin does that Crosby does not is hit, get suspended (international) for dirty plays, benched and give the puck away more.
Crosby's goals this year far surpassed any Ovechkin scored.
hahaha no prob man. i would prob go with colorado. they have a good collection of young players and one of the greatest players of all time. this team needs to balance out its goaltending situation and i think they can get to that next level in the next year or two.
Giguere and Miller better than Turco ?
if you want top eight goaltenders.
Luongo, Brodeur, Lundqvist, Turco, Hasak, Kippur, Giguere, Backstrom
Millers just has a lot of wins.
Terrible save% and terrible GAA (for an all-star)
Montreal definitely has a more successful history, but I like the Leafs lore better than the Habs.
GOd i'm so glad i can't listen to them.
I figured we all knew why you posted this. So you could get off on the Pens chat.
Yeah the most stanley cups. Musta been so hard with 6 teams in the league.
how many cups do the the rest of those five teams have? 35 between them that is on;y 11 more than Montreal. Also consider this they won 10 of their 24 titles after the league expanded. Do some research before you give stupid arguments because it makes you look stupid. If you want to prove to me that this team is not the most storied franchise in the nhl gimmie some examples on who would be more suitable to fit that role.
The city of Pittsburgh is proud of their announcers and love them to death. It's part of our city's history since radio and television broadcasts began. Even our forgetful Pirates are enjoyable to listen to because of our announcers. Don't bash our entertaining broadcasters because you're jealous of our city/sport pride.
I like to think I wouldn't pick either Pittsburgh or Anaheim as I like to consider myself the type of person who wouldn't be looking to jump on a bandwagon. But not having the ability to place myself in that position its impossible to say.
May be I'd look towards a Canadian team as I tend to find Canadian coverage of games to be superior to American coverage … but that could be a personal preference developed by growing up on the Canadian coverage.
and once again Mikster proves himself a coward.
Easy, Sundin captained the gold medal winning swedish team. The same team that couldn't win on the years he wasn't captain.
There you go.
Dude seriously, I think Crosby is a great player, better than Ovechkin. However, I just think Ovechkin is a more exciting player to watch since he does more exciting moves and also just levels people. Why can't you get it through your thick skull? You shouldn't be competetive over one player, you should be comepetitive over a team. I guess you're just too upset that everybody doesn't like the team you like so you have to try to convice all to like the Penguins. I guess that's the only way you can make people like the Penguins as opposed to letting them appreciate the young talent on the team…
Toronto because I am a fan and for no other reason
Pittsburg check there roster
Montreal becasue they have passionate fans
(1. Pens (How could you not pick them as top) so much young talent, they will dominate
(2. Should be Winnipeg Predators
(3. Sharks
(Honorable mentions:
Ducks, Sens,
1) Penguins
2) Leafs
3) Flyers
1) Toronto
2) Pittsburgh
3) San Jose
If I wasnt a Leafs fan i would choose the following:
1) Detroit
2) Colorado
3) Calgary