If you are reading this article right now in the middle of the offseason, you probably already know that hockey is the best sport on the planet. Everyone has their own reasons why they feel that way, but at his postseason press conference, Mitch Marner shared one of the most compelling explanations while answering a question about something completely unrelated.
I think our game, out of all the sports, is one where you can’t do anything by yourself. You really can’t. I think you need five people to be on the right page a lot of time for a lot of things to go your way and be right. -Mitch Marner
The world of sports is built on the backs of superstars. From Babe Ruth to Michael Jordan, Leo Messi to Tiger Woods, Tom Brady to Mohammed Ali, just about every sport props up the best players, and they become the entire story surrounding every event.
In hockey, that’s not the case, and it’s getting further and further away from it every single season. Neither team that participated in the Stanley Cup Final had a single player among the 23 who received Hart trophy votes. Neither the Golden Knights nor Hurricanes had a player in the Top 5 of the Vezina, Selke, or Norris either. It’s far from a new phenomenon, too. The last time the league’s most valuable player went on to win the Stanley Cup was in 2001.
Many sports tout themselves as team sports, but they all pale in comparison to hockey. Football is all about the quarterback. Basketball is always dominated by the best player on each team. Baseball is barely even played as a team, rather more so as a series of one-on-one events. And soccer, well, just look at the World Cup, the superstars have led the charge every step of the way.
Hockey requires excellence from every player on the ice each and every time a team scores a goal. We count success equally for the person who put the puck in the net as the guy who touched it two passes ago. Team chemistry, line chemistry, partnerships, and communication between the goalie and defense are prerequisites to being competent, let alone excellent.
One of the most enjoyable parts of VGK’s run to the Cup Final was watching Marner put to bed the critics about his postseason performance. Every step of the way, though, he pointed at everyone else on the ice with him as the reason for it. He did that because he knows it’s true.
The supporting cast around Marner fit him better than it did in Toronto. That’s not to say the players he played with in Vegas are better; instead, it’s to say they were able to gel better as a team. Marner’s successes were largely born out of the triumphs of William Karlsson and Brett Howden.
“You can’t do anything by yourself” was such a simple line by Marner yet it’s so profoundly accurate, and it’s also why hockey stands alone amongst all other sports. It’s truly a team game, and it’s the best team game in the world.
Emmanuel
Its a flawed argument because its based around trophy/award nominations which are political in many cases.
Both teams reached the final for the oldest of reasons, defense wins championships and you need a lotta luck and the big guys come through and breakthrough performances from support players.
Carol
I thoroughly enjoyed this article. It’s incredibly accurate, and I appreciate Marner’s consistent habit of acknowledging his teammates’ contributions.
hdbiker7851
To believe otherwise that it is not the TEAM that wins is purely ridiculous and Marner stated it extremely well. It would benefit all players to think along the same line. That is not to suggest they don’t however, often actions speak louder than words.
Emmanuel
How do you account for bad teams then?
Theyre not getting excellence from every player?
But the good teams are getting excellence even from the bottom six/3rd pairing?
If every player is contributing excellence why are benches shortened at the end of the game?
Why didnt this TEAM effort materialize during the so-so regular season?
Marner is just saying what hes expected to say, he might as well say “were taking it one game at a time”.
Ragnar
Volleyball. Also, in football, the defensive side is always a success or a failure based on the entire unit.
Enjoyed the article, and agree with it.
Michael Shevlane
The best sport is the most popular one. Soccer. (Love hockey though).
TS
Michael, Idk about soccer. I’ve watched FIFA the past few wks, never watched PRO soccer before now. What Ive seen is a bunch of fakers and whiners, embellishing every little tap as if they got clubbed with a bat!! Every play, every touch, and the players throw themselves to the ground, writhing in pain, when the replays clearly show little to no contact!!
This isn’t a Sport— it’s an acting gig!!
Hdbiker7851
Did it ever occur to you that even the bad team players are performing up to their potential under the circumstances they are faced with?
Pistol Pete
Yeah good to have Marner here for the rest of his career. He’s a great player and a team guy. He’ll get his Cup here even if it takes McDavid or Matthews to help the team do it. The only thing I see getting in the way of either of those guys coming here is if McDavid opts for Toronto and Matthews stays there on that account. Of course Edmonton winning the Cup in the next two years will change things for McDavid as would Toronto for Matthews, though neither seems likely.
Going back to the previous article on a prospective Dylan Larkin trade to Vegas, Steve Yzerman is truly between a rock and a hard place. The only good outcome for him other than pulling off a blockbuster trade, which seems unlikely because none of the teams on Larkin’s list can afford the assets, is for Larkin to reverse his position and embrace staying with the team. Having your captain wanting a trade before the season begins is just not good for the locker room. Hopefully Larkin holds steady on wanting the trade and Yzerman concedes a trade for less than he wants and hopefully it is with the VGK!
TS
This is one of many reasons why Hockey is the only sport i watch faithfully. Most sports are shows of individual players’ skills, their ability to hit homers, how many TD’S the QB throws, how fast or how good their shots are.
Hockey is a game of the collective group on ice..any one of the players can, and do, score. Any player, O or D, can hv an impact, and it takes them all to make that possible.
Gotta LOVE Hockey!!
Dr. Gene Scott
Marner shows how his low IQ fits right in with hockey fans…there is a reason they are the lowest paid and lowest watched players and major sport in America…
Emmanuel
Doc, that was my point, but expressed in gentler words.
Marner speaks like a middle manager in a failing corporation, banal.
Its just slop for a shrinking boomer fanbase.
C’ya (maybe) in the new season.
Out.
TS
Dr. Scott,: Well, aren’t YOU a delight!
And you are posting on this HOCKEY site because…???????
Dave
Uh, that isn’t really wrong…hockey is a regional sport at best
TS
But hockey is watched in every region in the country. Doesn’t that make it a national sport?
Dr. Gene Scott
Emmanuel gets it…he gets proper punctuation too…