When I was first getting into hockey while learning about some of the game's greatest stars, I was about six years old and growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia. Although I am no Canucks fan, I can acknowledge that my formative years took place through the best era of Canucks hockey and the team's success through that time did help me grow to love the game.
The roster was full of many all-stars such as the Sedin Twins, Roberto Luongo, Ryan Kesler, and good-to-great players, this is where Alex Burrows comes into play.
Burrows was constantly one of, if not the team's top goal scorer throughout those years in the early 2010s but was he ever a contender for the Rocket Richard? Hello No! His career high was 35, which is good but nowhere near winning a Rocket Richard Trophy.
However, six-year-old me thought the complete opposite of that, and the reason for that was likely the way Canucks players were covered back in the day in my hometown. The excitement surrounding the Canucks, especially with players like Burrows who shared a line with the Sedins, the two greatest players in franchise history, was probably a bit more hyped than it should have been because the team was so successful at that time. So it is easy to see how my perception of Burrows was probably a bit glorified.
That being said, let me make this clear, that logic doesn't just apply to Vancouver. It’s common across many media markets where with players on their teams which no doubt does skew young people's perceptions of the athletes in their hometowns.
Burrows was a great player, but was he ever a goal scorer who could compete with Alex Ovechkin to win this award on a year-to-year basis? Of course not..
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