Playoff Pool Picks & 10 Facts About Jason Spezza

(Apologies for the hiatus -- new job, family stuff...)

Due to a variety of travel commitments five buddies and I had no option but to do our 2008 NHL playoff pool last night.  This added an element of risk to the selections since several playoff spots are still up for grabs and the round 1 matchups are far from clear.  Nonetheless, we made our picks. 

Joe Thornton went first overall & one brave prognosticator took Ovechkin with his first pick.  In the East, anyone wearing a Ranger jersey was much sought after.  Several Habs and Pens were also selected.  The competition for players from the Western conference was much hotter.  The picks went deep into the Red Wing, Shark, Duck and Avalanche rosters.  No Dallas Stars were selected, and Jerome Iginla was treated like the chubby kid in the schoolyard, selected at the end of the draft. 

Jason Spezza was about the 30th player selected.  Prompting some of the participants to launch into the sort of Spezza-bashing routinely heard here in Ottawa.  Being somewhat offended and perplexed by the lack of love for Spezza I took a closer look at his season and his career.  Turns out Spezza's a pretty fair young player.  Here are 10 facts supporting the argument that Spezza is among the league's elite young players.

1. Spezza was born on June 13 1983.  Please absorb that fact.  He is not a 15 year veteran, not a 10 year veteran.  He's not yet 25 years old.  He's 24.  Is it reasonable to expect him to be a fully developed, mature hockey player?  Please. 
2. He's in his 4th season in the league.  He's over the 90 point mark for the 2nd time in his career and would have easily hit 90 last year when he recorded 87 points in only 67 games. 
3. Since entering the league he's averaged over a point a game.
4. Even Spezza's harshest critics give him at least a little credit as a playmaking and the fact that Dany Heatley has had 2 50-goal season in a row, and would have had a third if not for injuries. 
5. Spezza gets criticized for his turnovers.  Does he lead the league in giveaways?  Nope.  Joe Thornton does.  He sucks.  Spezza is second.  Followed very closely by a guy named Ovechkin - he sucks too, and then Markov, also a sucker. 
6. Some point to his faceoff percentage as another weakness in his game.  He's at 50.2 percent.  Better than:  Modano, Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Arnott, Eric Stall, Evgeni Malkin (38.9%!). 
7. He's a defensive liability.  Hmmmm.  At +26 he's 10th in the league in plus/minus, which would seem to indicate otherwise.
8. Clutch goals?  Spezza has 6 game winners - the 27th highest total in the league.  Ovechkin leads the league with 11.  Roenick has 10 (huh?).  Datsyuk, Nash & Mike Richards have 6. Kovalev & Thornton have 5. 
9. Prior to entering the NHL he was the AHL's leading scorer and the league MVP.  He was selected for Team Canada in 2006.  He has played in the NHL all star game.
10. He was traded as a junior - an indication, to some, that he's "problem" player with a bad attitude.  Not so much.  According to the Wikipedia, "He was able to play for the OHL's Brampton Battalion as an underaged player for the 1998-99 season because it was his hometown team; he averaged over a point per game. He was then required to enter the OHL Priority Draft and was selected by the Mississauga Ice Dogs in the team's opening season (1999–00). Spezza became the third player to represent Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship as a 16-year-old, after Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros.