Mike Brophy

Sportsnet has given me one more reason to switch my primary sports braodcasting channel to TSN, all because of analyst Mike Brophy and his ignorance towards the Canucks, but disguising himself as someone who has actually watched a Canucks game.

Brophy is the typical East coast hockey fan who doesn’t realize that in hockey, stats aren’t everything.

He said last night on Sportsnet Connected that Sidney Crosby deserves the Hart Trophy more than Roberto Luongo does.

Now, when I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, they should at least back it up with some concrete facts that are actually relevant.

First of all, Brophy pointed out that Crosby is a 19-year-old who has single-handedly taken his team on his back into the playoffs.

I’m not taking anything away from Sid who whs amounted a league leading 108 points, but he did have the help of Evgeni Malkin, who is currently holding down the 17th  spot in the NHL scoring race with 78 points, six more than any Canuck player.

Along with Malkin, Crosby also plays with great veteran experience alongside Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi and John Leclair, then he’s got the league leader in short handed goals in Jordan Staal, and a great young goalie who is turning into a budding star in the league in Marc-Andre Fleury.

So while it’s probably safe to say that Crosby is the most talented player in the league, it’s also safe to say that he hasn’t done it on his own.

So there’s a point Brophy is wrong on.

Then he said it’s not just Roberto Luongo winning games for the Canucks, it’s the great team defence. Wrong again, Brophy.

 Yes, the Canucks played impeccable defence wednesday against Nashville, but earlier in the year the defence has been shotty, and along with that, there hasn’t been much offence. So do you want to know why the Canucks  have been in more one goal games than any other team in the league? It’s because of Luongo’s pure talent and willingness to win games that keeps his team in every contest.

In the few games that Luongo hasn’t played in, the Canucks were only able to win two of them, and in both games Danny Sabourin had to play stellar hockey which was shown in the game against Anaheim where he had to kcik aside 38 shots, further proving how valuable goaltending is to the Canuck.

Then Brophy said that another reason that Luongo shouldn’t win the Hart trophy is that he’s never been in the playoffs, and once again reiterated the fact that Crosby is only 19 and that he brought his junior team to the Memorial Cup finals.

I guess Brophy needs a refresher on the criteria that a player must fulfill to win the Hart Trophy.

It is awarded to the player deemed most valuable to his team than any other player in the league.

Not the most skilled player for his age, not who’s been to the playoffs before, and not who did what in junior. It’s about right now and what the player has does this season.

While Crosby is a very legitimate candidate for MVP, the award is much more sutiable to go to Luongo.

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