The 5 Most Overrated Players of the 2010-2011 National Hockey League Regular Season –Part 2
Continuing our discussion about the most overrated players during the National Hockey League’s (NHL) 2010-2011 regular season, we will talk about the upper three ranked players as the most over hyped about hockey athletes.
In the previous part, Jarome Iginla was named as the fifth in the list due to his inability to lead his team, Calgary Flames, to their second consecutive postseason and the rookie of the year, Jeff Skinner, of Carolina Hurricanes came in at fourth place
for the same reason.
What makes a player overrated?
Simple, it is not that they are not talented and well rounded in the game of hockey, but it is the incapability to lead a team to a championship, which is the true and only way of being called a champion.
Now, continuing the list.
3. Marc-Andre Fleury (Goalie, Pittsburgh Penguins)
Whenever Pittsburgh Penguins would win, there would be all praises for Marc-Andre Fleury, but whenever they lost, it was straight right mocking of the same person for being so inconsistent in his performance.
The 26-year-old certainly deserves credit for getting his team into the playoffs for the past five seasons, but during the last two, where has he ended up, getting eliminated in the first round or early in the second.
When facing Pittsburgh, teams were not as intimidated by the goalie as they were by the players, and in any NHL team, that should not be the case at all.
With an attacking power like Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin, who were present in the regular season, Fleury should have been the top goalie in the league, but comes in at number 14 with a .918 saves percentage.
2. Brenden Morrow (Captain, Dallas Stars)
Since we are talking about the previous regular season and not an overall history of the player, Brenden Morrow would be worth mentioning as one of the most overrated players of that time frame.
Morrow is one of the best captains in the league and without a doubt has led his team to a Stanley Cup in the past, but now he is more like a plastic statue.
Comparing Morrow with other captains, his stats just do not match up.
A team like Stars has missed the playoffs for three times in a row now and his captaincy is not getting them anywhere.
The 25th overall pick of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft only put up 56 points in the last regular season, 33 goals and 23 assists, and 46 in the season before that, 20 goals, 26 assists.
Comparing him to captains like Jarome Iginla of Calgary and Henrik Sedin of Vancouver, both are doing 80-plus points a season, which puts Morrow at a huge disadvantage.
Now, Stars also lost its star centre, Brad Richards, without whom, it will certainly be interesting to see how Dallas will perform next season.
1. Zdeno Chara (Captain, Boston Bruins)
Another captain on the list, Zdeno Chara, the Slovakian monster was truly a monster during the regulation season. This might be one of the most shocking entries on the list, since Bruins did win a Stanley Cup this time around, but Chara has been given a
title which he has not shown.
The regular season did not show much scope for Bruins during the playoffs, but both are totally different and cannot be compared.
Chara played his defensive style, but he got too confident of himself. He thrashed Montreal’s Max Pacioretty and severely injured him and disabled him from continuing the season with Canadiens.
Pacioretty’s injury seriously hampered his team, but still Montreal managed to fight until game seven in the first round. Had he not been injured, the situation could have been totally different, and Chara was not the rainmaker in the situation.
Tim Thomas was the man who played his position in the net and remained the top goalie throughout, not only the regular season and playoffs, but if it was not for him, Boston most probably would be fighting to make it even to the top eight of the Eastern
Conference.
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