100 games a season: Gare Joyce's puck blog

Just like being in the scouts' & press' lounge, without the bad coffee and day-old Timbits

Name:
Location: Toronto

I've written for ESPN The Magazine and espn.com the last five years. My work has made the "notable" list of the Best American Sports Writing seven times and won four Canadian National Magazine Awards. My most recent book is Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts. I've written three other sports books: When the Lights Went Out: How One Brawl Ended Hockey's Cold War and Changed the Game; Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm; and The Only Ticket Off the Island: Baseball in the Dominican Republic.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Vindication: I Know More than A Career Minor-Leaguer

How sweet. I appeared on Off The Record last year with some bulldog-faced goon who is a career AHL journeyman and, I guess, the toast of Hamilton. I was appearing, in part, to talk about Sidney Crosby, then in his rookie season. Eventually the topic of debate turned to, Crosby vs Ovechkin: Who'd you take? I said Crosby, whereupon the knuckledragger launched into a you-don't-play-the-game-you-can't-know-my-buddies-all-say-AO rant.

Results of espn.com's survey of NHLers:

"If you could pick on player to start a team ..."

TOP VOTE-GETTER: Sidney Crosby (45%).•
OTHER MENTIONS: Martin Brodeur, Devils (11%); Alexander Ovechkin, Capitals (10%); Joe Thornton, Sharks (9%); Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings (5%); Scott Niedermayer, Ducks (5%); Chris Pronger, Ducks (2%); Jarome Iginla, Flames (2%); Peter Forsberg, Flyers (2%); Joe Sakic, Avalanche (2%); Miikka Kiprusoff, Flames (2%); Roberto Luongo, Canucks (2%): Ryan Miller, Sabres (2%).

For more see:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?page=07playersurvey