What makes a hockey player great?

[tidal_waves16]

So I've been thinking a lot about the whole concept of Beerability. (For those of you who haven't heard of this wonderful way of thinking about hockey, you should all go and read this intro to it on The Backhand Shelf.)

A lot of what I've realized is that most of my favourite players don't have very much beerability. Like, can you imagine sitting

Comments

[hockeysaurus]

Hmmm this is interesting and I want to explore it more! Does Fuckyouability fluctuate? Especially in terms of playoffs. Like, Michael Ryder's fuckyouability against Montreal was EXORBITANTLY high, but against Tampa, it was low, but David Krejci's was high (he scored all the points.) Kesler does not ALWAYS have high Fuckyouability, only against certain teams.

Or is it something constant, measured by how they carry their team overall always? I think a fluctuating scale might be what you're going for, otherwise - I mean, Malkin HAS sort of put the team on his back this year with Crosby out. But he's always super good. What about a guy like Stamkos, who basically flung himself headfirst into the playoffs despite his body getting completely abused?

Basically: talk to me more about this! :D

[tidal_waves16]

HAha, i'm still not entirely sure of how to measure someone's fuckyouability. I think you're right in that it's probably a fluctuating metric, but I think there are some players that just generally have really high fuckyouability.

Also, I think it's not just playing fuckyouability, but rather an overall assessment of a person's character. Like, initially, I was thinking that maybe Claude Giroux would be a candidate for having high fuckyouability, but then he's just too nice of a guy to be up there with Kesler. I feel like it's really more of a combination of fierce competitiveness, being somewhat of a dick, and just general intensity.

Maybe?