A few days ago, my old friend Jamie Fitzpatrick considered my case for Brett Hull's place as the best American hockey player ever:
Hull focused almost exclusively on one dimension of the game: shoot and score. That's a heck of a dimension, but it doesn't get him into the top five.
Really? Because last I looked, it was enough to get him in the top three of goal scorers all time. When you look at that list, the only names you see above Hull are Howe and Gretzky. That puts Mike Modano 228 goals behind Hull.
To imply Hull was a "specialist" makes him sound like he spent 19+ seasons as the NHL equivalent of a field goal kicker. In essence, it's a lot like when Buddy Ryan said the only thing Cris Carter could do well was "catch touchdowns".
