yave1964 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Mike Gartner has held the record for fastest skater in the skills competition for longer than Dylan Larkin has been alive. No longer. Â "I didn't even know I won until I heard the crowd go crazy," Larkin said. "I couldn't see the scoreboard or anything like that." He actually slipped in the third turn but dug in his skate to keep from going down, and he seemed to slingshot out and gain speed, besting Gartner's record by a quarter of a second. "I think it is a fun thing, a celebration of how my year is going," he said of the record-setting performance. "I was able to just kick back, relax, meet the guys and have as much fun as I can. It's a no-pressure, fun weekend.I've always been a good skater, but as I have started working out and gaining strength, I think my speed has taken off," he said. "I've always had a really good first three or four steps." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Was it a fair time or did they give the players a full head of steam to start it just so they could have something to bring attention...anything, toward this game nobody cares about? I recall Tie Domi winning a fastest man competition once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I'll just copy/paste my comment from the shoutbox: --- Not that this competition means anything, and not having a go at Larkin, but he beat Gartner's record........ with a headstart from the blueline instead of from centre. Not exactly a fair comparison there. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 @JR Ewing Ya, Domis was similiar to that. If they want to call him fastest this year...all on a level field, that's fine. Calling him fastest alltime, when athletes are in better shape with better gear, and giving him a head start is just bs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 4 minutes ago, JR Ewing said: I'll just copy/paste my comment from the shoutbox: --- Not that this competition means anything, and not having a go at Larkin, but he beat Gartner's record........ with a headstart from the blueline instead of from centre. Not exactly a fair comparison there.  I actually watched about 15 minutes worth of the skills competition before the stench of over-the-top gimmicks made me flip it off. My thoughts: Maybe Larkin's nickname can now be "The Flash". Who knew that Gartner was the previous record holder, and from 1996?  Wow. I didn't pay attention to where he started from, but if the NHL cheated, that's a load of BS and Gartner's record should stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 20 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said: I actually watched about 15 minutes worth of the skills competition before the stench of over-the-top gimmicks made me flip it off. My thoughts: Maybe Larkin's nickname can now be "The Flash". Who knew that Gartner was the previous record holder, and from 1996?  Wow. I didn't pay attention to where he started from, but if the NHL cheated, that's a load of BS and Gartner's record should stand. It IS a load of BS. And then look at where Gartner started from:  Larkin gets a run-up from the blueline to build up steam, while Gartner gets to start at centre. Just to be clear, I'm not having a go at Dylan Larkin: he doesn't set the rule or call it a record or anything like that. Once again, it's the NHL being bush league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Agreed. This is the NHL desperately trying to create history rather than let it happen itself. If they're going to maintain data on who is best all time, they need apples to apples comparisons. They can't change the starting position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 The thing that really blew me away was Gartner was 36 years old, a geezer by any standard and blue line, red line, whatever it took twenty years to break it. Gartner gets an unfair amount of grief as a good but not great player who was a compiler of stats, but wow to set a speed record at that age that held for two decades? Good on him.  I don't care about the All Star skill competition other than it was cool to see Larkin so happy, so blown away to be there with all the stars. Last year he was in college, now he is a rosy cheek kid who is having a magical year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 4 hours ago, yave1964 said: The thing that really blew me away was Gartner was 36 years old, a geezer by any standard and blue line, red line, whatever it took twenty years to break it. Gartner gets an unfair amount of grief as a good but not great player who was a compiler of stats, but wow to set a speed record at that age that held for two decades? Good on him.  I don't care about the All Star skill competition other than it was cool to see Larkin so happy, so blown away to be there with all the stars. Last year he was in college, now he is a rosy cheek kid who is having a magical year.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the NHL had an all-star skills competition prior to the 1990's. The concept of a skills competition is a relatively new one compared to the all-star game itself which dates back for decades.  In any event, yes it was nice to Larkin do well, but it's good enough that he won the fastest skater competition, even if he didn't technically beat Gartner's all-time record. For years and years, Al MacInnis would win the hardest shot competition -- yet he never beat Al Iafrate's hardest shot of all time (105 mph), which stood for almost two decades before Zdeno Chara finally beat it.   Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyercanuck Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 @WordsOfWisdom  And it's the same thing...MacInnis and iafrate were using wood sticks...not composite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 7 minutes ago, flyercanuck said: @WordsOfWisdom  And it's the same thing...MacInnis and iafrate were using wood sticks...not composite.  Something the NHL should be using today.  But I digress...   I think I'll do a frame by frame of the video, using Larkin's starting point at the blue line as his finish line, and see just how fast his lap actually was and whether he would have beat Gartner's all-time record without the NHL cheating. ie: Standing start to finish, one complete lap.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 On January 31, 2016 at 4:34 PM, WordsOfWisdom said: Â Something the NHL should be using today. Â But I digress... Â Â I think I'll do a frame by frame of the video, using Larkin's starting point at the blue line as his finish line, and see just how fast his lap actually was and whether he would have beat Gartner's all-time record without the NHL cheating. ie: Standing start to finish, one complete lap. Â Â I think not. 0.2 seconds is less than the time it takes to skate from the blue line to the center line. Larkin's stumble cost him that. Had he not stumbled on the third turn, he had a chance. He'll have more chances, and I HOPE that the NHL will bring the old format back just to let him try to break it apples-to-apples. Â Having said that, I've got to give the league credit for this year's ASG format. It was the best format, and all 3 games showed us the best in both offense and goaltending. So whereas I agree that giving Larkin a headstart is an unwelcome contrivance, the 3-on-3 elimination format is a welcome one in my view. Made the ASG better than I can remember seeing it probably since I was a start-struck kid. And for ANYBODY who likes to see good goaltending, the last game was a fantastic display of that. Luongo put on a clinic for his 10 minutes. Quick was right behind him. You never really see that in ASGs. Not like that, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagerMeister Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Preposterous, Its like they want younger generations to underappreciate the players from previous generations... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 On 02/02/2016 at 0:23 AM, SpikeDDS said: I think not. 0.2 seconds is less than the time it takes to skate from the blue line to the center line. Larkin's stumble cost him that. Had he not stumbled on the third turn, he had a chance. He'll have more chances, and I HOPE that the NHL will bring the old format back just to let him try to break it apples-to-apples. Â Agreed. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluPuk Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I can't believe I agree with something you wrote, @JagerMeister. Are you sure that's how you feel?? Â Â As an aside, if the "fans" are willing to accept whatever the NHL spews out, they will get what they deserve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagerMeister Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 24 minutes ago, BluPuk said: I can't believe I agree with something you wrote, @JagerMeister. Are you sure that's how you feel?? Â Â As an aside, if the "fans" are willing to accept whatever the NHL spews out, they will get what they deserve. With how people talk about players from previous generations? absolutely. I've seen a comment saying Gretzky would be Brooks Laich if he played in the NHL today... Youngsters need to inform themselves on the history of the game before making absurd comparisons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagerMeister Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 29 minutes ago, BluPuk said: I can't believe I agree with something you wrote, @JagerMeister. Are you sure that's how you feel?? Â Â As an aside, if the "fans" are willing to accept whatever the NHL spews out, they will get what they deserve. Also...since when did we never agree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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