A Captainless Organization searches for a Captain
Posted 10:29 PM ET | Comments 6
Who will wear the "C" in Chicago this season?
It will probably be Havlat but can anyone name a team, a franchise, so lacking of captian material?
I've always liked the team that had the classic born in Canada captain like Dirk Graham, Terry Ruskowski or Tom Lysiak. Those guys knew what it took.
Who on the Hawks today can be counted on to say what needs to be said, score the goal that needs to be scored or lay down in front of a slapshot?
Duncan Keith? He will do what it takes but his game is nowhere close enough to where he can kick some verteran ass when needed.
Lapointe? Dirk Graham was no star but he was three times the player Lapointe is and it's hard to lead playing 5 minutes a night.
Havlat is the best player but Europeans make lousy captains. The have enough to worry about with the language difference. It's probably a coincidence but no team captained by a Euro star has ever won the Cup and they just aren't NHL captain material.
Havlat scored 25 goals last season and most were classics. But it was only 25, he missed a bunch of games, obviously has a low threshold for pain, and didn't produce much at all the last 10 games or so.
Will he block shots? Will he pull guys aside and tell them to step it up? He doesn't seem like that kind of guy.
The wild card is Toews but it is far too early for Toews to take over the Captaincy. Even Crosby had to wait. And there is enough pressure on this guy already. Anything short of 20+ goals, 50+ points (+/-) plus 20 and a Calder Trophy is going to be a failure the way everyone is pumping him up.
Who will be Captain? We will just wait and see. We are good at waiting. We've been waiting since 61.
It will probably be Havlat but can anyone name a team, a franchise, so lacking of captian material?
I've always liked the team that had the classic born in Canada captain like Dirk Graham, Terry Ruskowski or Tom Lysiak. Those guys knew what it took.
Who on the Hawks today can be counted on to say what needs to be said, score the goal that needs to be scored or lay down in front of a slapshot?
Duncan Keith? He will do what it takes but his game is nowhere close enough to where he can kick some verteran ass when needed.
Lapointe? Dirk Graham was no star but he was three times the player Lapointe is and it's hard to lead playing 5 minutes a night.
Havlat is the best player but Europeans make lousy captains. The have enough to worry about with the language difference. It's probably a coincidence but no team captained by a Euro star has ever won the Cup and they just aren't NHL captain material.
Havlat scored 25 goals last season and most were classics. But it was only 25, he missed a bunch of games, obviously has a low threshold for pain, and didn't produce much at all the last 10 games or so.
Will he block shots? Will he pull guys aside and tell them to step it up? He doesn't seem like that kind of guy.
The wild card is Toews but it is far too early for Toews to take over the Captaincy. Even Crosby had to wait. And there is enough pressure on this guy already. Anything short of 20+ goals, 50+ points (+/-) plus 20 and a Calder Trophy is going to be a failure the way everyone is pumping him up.
Who will be Captain? We will just wait and see. We are good at waiting. We've been waiting since 61.
Go captainless. Rotate the captaincy or sign a role player to do so. Havlat is the LAST guy you want to wear the C. If Havlat turns out to have a dynamite season while wearing the C, they'll be forced to have him keep it and then most of the hard work and waiting that the Blackhawks have done, will have been wasted. Havlat may be an offensive talent, but a leader, or go-to guy he is not nor will he ever be. It's just not in his character. The best bet is to let all the young guys develop and reach their potential and then give it to the best one there be it Toews, Seabrook, Keith or whom ever stands out above the rest of the recent draft picks of the Blackhawks. By not having a captain, it does not hurt this team, but by naming one like Havlat, could be fairly negative to this teams progress.
Interesting that a Hawks fan would dismiss European-born captains as lousy. Seems to me that Stan Mikita did a pretty good job of it during his tenure.
i dont agree about the european capitains...i look at what alfredson did in the cup finals last year and that screams to me that he is a great capitain...personaly i cant stand the guy but he proved to me that he has great hart and is a great leader..
Sundin is also a great captain, may not have lead his team to a cup victory, but still a good captain.If there's no one player who can be a captain, then don't have one, give out a bunch of A's
buffalo sadly also needs a captain ...to my dismay , it will most likely be teppo
Great European captains are few and far between. No European captain has ever won the Cup. It might change, but until then, I'll go with the numbers and stick with a guy who came from the best hockey system in the world, Canada.