Friday, April 07, 2006
Chris Higgins deserves fame
We don't have a lot of famous professional athletes at Yale. We are still pretty excited about Calvin Hill and Dick Jauron. Eric Johnson was the nearest thing to vicarious athletic fame the we have had in the last 10 years. For those of you unfamiliar, Eric Johnson was a very successful WR at Yale who converted to TE, because he was too slow to play wide receiver in the League. He was a favorite of Bill Walsh and had some success in his early years. He has been hampered by injuries recently.
But we had in our midst a bona fide athletic star who received comparatively little recognition.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=2883&hubname=nhl-canadiens
Chris Higgins was ECAC player of the year in 2002-2003 for Ice Hockey. That year has was also the 14th overall selection in the NHL entry draft. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. Chris is an american product from upstate New York which makes him a rarity in professional hockey.
He left Yale after his sophomore year and played for the Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL for 2 seasons. 2004-2005 had no NHL season due to a labor disagreement. In his rookie season in the NHL this year chris has 21 goals and 14 assists. His play has improved as he has adjusted to the speed of NHL play. He has 20 points in 19 games since the olympic break.
He is generally considered to be 5th in the Rookie of the Year competition. This is an unusually deep year for rookies because of the strike which pushed back the rookie seasons of Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals and Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames to overlap with the first season of pre-anointed Canadian (whiner) Sidney Crosby.
So take a moment and be proud of Chris. He may play in Montreal which means you will never hear about him unless he starts talking to his goalposts, but he is famous to legions of Canadians. He is not a physically outclassed underdog like Johnson, but a legitimate star with tremendous upside.
But we had in our midst a bona fide athletic star who received comparatively little recognition.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=2883&hubname=nhl-canadiens
Chris Higgins was ECAC player of the year in 2002-2003 for Ice Hockey. That year has was also the 14th overall selection in the NHL entry draft. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. Chris is an american product from upstate New York which makes him a rarity in professional hockey.
He left Yale after his sophomore year and played for the Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL for 2 seasons. 2004-2005 had no NHL season due to a labor disagreement. In his rookie season in the NHL this year chris has 21 goals and 14 assists. His play has improved as he has adjusted to the speed of NHL play. He has 20 points in 19 games since the olympic break.
He is generally considered to be 5th in the Rookie of the Year competition. This is an unusually deep year for rookies because of the strike which pushed back the rookie seasons of Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals and Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames to overlap with the first season of pre-anointed Canadian (whiner) Sidney Crosby.
So take a moment and be proud of Chris. He may play in Montreal which means you will never hear about him unless he starts talking to his goalposts, but he is famous to legions of Canadians. He is not a physically outclassed underdog like Johnson, but a legitimate star with tremendous upside.
# posted by 8yearoldsdude @ 10:56 AM 
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Chris Higgins will be really good. I saw him play earlier in the season when the Canadians played the Sabres.
Aren't you glad that hockey's back? The rule changes have really improved the game, speed-oriented teams (like my Sabres, or the Ottawa Senators) are kicking ass, and great scores like Jaromir Jagr, now that they finally have room to skate and aren't being held all game long, are lighting up the scoreboards. I wish I had a team here in Wisconsin to support -- with no local team, there are never any games on tv.
Aren't you glad that hockey's back? The rule changes have really improved the game, speed-oriented teams (like my Sabres, or the Ottawa Senators) are kicking ass, and great scores like Jaromir Jagr, now that they finally have room to skate and aren't being held all game long, are lighting up the scoreboards. I wish I had a team here in Wisconsin to support -- with no local team, there are never any games on tv.
jaromir jagr can kiss my, and every other resident of the DC area's, ass. He is the randy moss of hockey. He seemed to score pretty well in the old system for the Pens
Okay, perhaps Jaromir was a bad choice, but that TYPE of player is doing uniformly better this year, and that is a positive trend for hockey. As for Jaromir, the Randy Moss analogy is appropriate.
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