I will get to the Brendan Lemieux suspension - at least the concept of it, since nothing will be handed down until the league resumes play - as well as the K'Andre Miller signing and impact of the CDC announcement today of cancelling all events for 50 or more people for the next eight weeks. Each one of those topics may end up its own blog or two separate blogs. But I thought the below tweet from IB, regardless of your view of him, was interesting and a fun exercise.
Before I get to that, one point I did want to make is that hopefully teams are paying their hourly and event staff. It took twitter to shame the Winnipeg Jets into doing so. We see what players like Sergei Bobrovsky in the NHL and Zion Williamson in the NBA are doing in terms of donating money to help part-time employees. Winnipeg not doing so initially ended up as a spirited debate in my twitter feed between a few people. To me, the mere fact that this had to be a question is kind of distasteful as I thought it would be a no brainer.
Create the best NHL team you can from 1980-2020 for a one game must win!
Create the best NHL team you can from 1980-2020
— IB 🔌 24 (@incarceratedbob) March 16, 2020
1 Game Must Win!
Bossy - Gretzky - Ovi
Selanne - Mario - Jagr
Sakic (moved to wing) - Trottier - Hull
Adam Graves - Messier - Clark Gillies
Potvin-Lidstrom
Leetch-Scott Stevens
Larry Murphy-Chelios
Patrick Roy/Martin Brodeur
The "problem" with the above is that is are you building a superstar team or a true team, meaning checking line, third pair defense etc. In addition, think of the names left out, and this is just a short list: Yzerman, Selanne, Kariya, Crosby, McDavid, Bourque, Coffey, Larry Robinson and Hasek, It's almost an impossible exercise to create just one team, so let's make it slightly easier.
First, create two teams, but your fourth line has to have the ability to be a checking line. Second, your third pair defensive has to also be a shut down pair. Third, and this where it gets a bit easier, I am breaking up the 40 years into 20 year blocks. The ranges are 1980-2000 and the 2001-2020, select your teams from players whose primes were in those blocks. I am working on mine, looking forward too see yours.