Bouwmeester is NHL's fastest skater And other NHL '09 revelations

I'm not so sure we should rely too heavily on video game manufacturers to grade NHL talents, but since they've put the numbers out there, we might as well have a look.

Here are a few leaders lists for various attributes in the game:

	First Name	Last Name	Speed
1	Jay	Bouwmeester	95
2	Brian	Gionta	94
3	Simon	Gagne	94
4	Martin	Havlat	94
5	Scott	Niedermayer	94
6	David	Legwand	93
7	Jarome	Iginla	93
8	Matthew	Lombardi	93
9	Ales	Hemsky	93
10	Pierre-Marc	Bouchard	93
11	Marian	Gaborik	93
12	Ryan	Kesler	93
13	Patrick	Marleau	93

I say the NHL has a skate-off at the 2009 all-star game between these 13. My money would likely be on Gaborik.

	First Name	Last Name	Accel.
1	Jay	Bouwmeester	94
2	Scott	Niedermayer	94
3	Brian	Gionta	94
4	Martin	Havlat	94
5	Jarome	Iginla	93
6	Ryan	Kesler	93
7	Henrik	Zetterberg	93
8	Marian	Gaborik	93
9	Ales	Hemsky	93
10	Pavel	Datsyuk	93
11	David	Legwand	93
12	Pierre-Marc	Bouchard	93

	First Name	Last Name	Checking
1	Dustin	Brown	99
2	Zdeno	Chara	99
3	Georges	Laraque	99
4	Derek	Boogaard	97
5	Chris	Pronger	96
6	Garnet	Exelby	96
7	Dion	Phaneuf	95
8	Robyn	Regehr	95
9	Cam	Janssen	94
10	Vitaly	Vishnevski	94
11	Brian	McGrattan	94
12	Wade	Belak	94

Brown, Chara, Phaneuf, etc., are good choices, but some of the heavyweights get marks for hitting that are really related to fighting.

	First Name	Last Name	Toughness
1	Zdeno	Chara	99
2	Georges	Laraque	99
3	Saku	Koivu	99
4	Derek	Boogaard	97
5	George	Parros	97
6	Scott	Parker	97
7	Jordin	Tootoo	95
8	Jody	Shelley	95
9	Donald	Brashear	95
10	Peter	Forsberg	95

I honestly have no clue what Saku Koivu's doing on the list, but unless it's a mistake, he can bench Boogaard in the game.

	First Name	Last Name	Slap shot power
1	Zdeno	Chara	99
2	Sheldon	Souray	99
3	Chris	Pronger	96
4	Brian	Rolston	95
5	Joe	Thornton	95
6	Dustin	Byfuglien	95
7	Jarret	Stoll	93
8	Dion	Phaneuf	93
9	Sami	Salo	93
10	Fredrik	Modin	93

Byfuglien's going to be more well-known for his big shot as he plays a few more years in the league. Mostly good choices here, although I'm a little surprised at Thornton ranking this high.

	First Name	Last Name	Wrist shot power
1	Zdeno	Chara	95
2	Jarome	Iginla	92
3	Chris	Pronger	91
4	Sheldon	Souray	90
5	Joe	Thornton	90
6	Dustin	Byfuglien	90
7	Ilya	Kovalchuk	90
8	Bryan	McCabe	90
9	Alexander	Ovechkin	90
10	Patrick	Marleau	90
11	Evgeni	Malkin	90
12	Dany	Heatley	90
13	Teemu	Selanne	90
14	Mats	Sundin	90

Joe Sakic and Markus Naslund strike me as two names that could be up there. I'm sure there are others.

	First Name	Last Name	Deking
1	Pavel	Datsyuk	98
2	Sidney	Crosby	97
3	Ales	Hemsky	96
4	Brian	Gionta	96
5	Jason	Spezza	95
6	Evgeni	Malkin	95
7	Alexander	Ovechkin	95
8	Ilya	Kovalchuk	94
9	Martin	Havlat	93
10	Jussi	Jokinen	93
11	Pierre-Marc	Bouchard	93
12	Patrik	Elias	93

Yes, they can all dangle. No Rick Nash though.

	First Name	Last Name	Defensive awareness
1	Nicklas	Lidstrom	96
2	Zdeno	Chara	95
3	Chris	Pronger	95
4	Sergei	Zubov	95
5	Peter	Forsberg	95
6	Scott	Niedermayer	95
7	Chris	Chelios	95
8	Mike	Peca	95
9	Adam	Foote	94
10	Stephane	Yelle	94

I don't know that Chelios belongs here, although "awareness" is tough to define. Lidstrom should probably receive 100.

	First Name	Last Name	DUR
1	Olli	Jokinen	99
2	John	Madden	98
3	Brad	Richards	98
4	Patrick	Marleau	97
5	Vaclav	Prospal	97
6	Scott	Gomez	96
7	Marian	Hossa	96
8	Ilya	Kovalchuk	96
9	Cory	Sarich	96

The amazing, unkillable Olli Jokinen hasn't missed a game in more than five years. He's missed seven games since 1999.

Now here are the lowest of the lows, where players don't want to fall in. I'm only looking at skaters, of which the game apparently includes 721.

Only one skater registers under 70 for speed: Flyers defenceman Mike Rathje, who's a 65.

	First Name	Last Name	Accel.
1	Luke	Richardson	65
2	Mike	Rathje	66
3	Mike	Sgroi	66
4	Brian	McGrattan	67
5	Raitis	Ivanans	68
6	Reed	Low	68
7	Derian	Hatcher	68
8	Joe	Rullier	69
9	Jassen	Cullimore	69
10	Derek	Boogaard	69
11	Darren	McCarty	69

No speed demons there, that's for sure.

	First Name	Last Name	Checking
1	Kristian	Huselius	57
2	Markus	Naslund	60
3	Brad	Zancanaro	60
4	Martin	Kariya	60
5	Mike	Ribeiro	60
6	Petr	Prucha	60
7	Patrice	Brisebois	64
8	Eric	Perrin	64
9	Dean	McAmmond	64
10	Marek	Svatos	64

Huselius is apparently worse at checking than all of the career minor leaguers in the game, including Mr. Zancanaro, who I've never heard of. He was apparently one of the top defensive forwards in college hockey when he played for Boston U, however.

	First Name	Last Name	Toughness
1	Stu	Barnes	58
2	Kristian	Huselius	59
3	Markus	Naslund	60
4	Brad	Zancanaro	60
5	Martin	Kariya	60
6	Dean	McAmmond	63
7	Eric	Perrin	64
8	Marek	Svatos	64

They're no Saku Koivu!

Under slap shot power, only Daniel Tjarnqvist registers under 70. I'm not sure why.

	First Name	Last Name	Defensive awareness
1	Daniel	Tjarnqvist	64
2	Brad	Zancanaro	65
3	Mike	Sgroi	65
4	Chris	Ferraro	65
5	Olivier	Latendresse	65
6	Josh	Prudden	65
7	Reagan	Rome	65
8	Curtiss	Patrick	65
9	Chris	Harrington	65
10	Reed	Low	65

The game doesn't like the Avs' newest addition.

Chris Ferraro hasn't played an NHL game since 2001-02. Some other solid ECHL and CHL fellows in here for some reason.

	First Name	Last Name	Durability
1	Mike	Rathje	50
2	Josef	Marha	55
3	Bryan	Berard	55
4	Carlo	Colaiacovo	55
5	Sami	Salo	55
6	Rhett	Warrener	58

Rathje can't buy a break. Meanwhile, Marha's been an iron man for Davos the past seven seasons.

Barry Melrose Rocks has the blogger ratings, and pegs yours truly as the most offensive out there. Need to work on the agility though.

Hockey Blogging '09 sounds like potentially the worst video game release of all-time.
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