The NHL has named the NHL100 as the Moment of the Decade. The NHL’s 100 greatest players were honoured in a nationally-televised gala back then.

The 90-minute gala took place last January 27, 2017. The NHL celebrated its 100th anniversary at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. There was a lot of hype building up to this moment.

Over the course of 12 months in 2017, the league was building up momentum to the NHL100. Those 12 months saw the completion of the names of the league’s top 100 greatest players of all time.

It was the first time in league history that its greatest players have been pooled together in one room. There were six active players in that list, and along with the other former players, they cherished the moment as if it will never happen again.

‘It's humbling to be here today’, honoree Mark Messier said. ‘I probably played against most of these guys. If not, then I watched them intently growing up. And if they're older than that, then I knew about them through the history of the game. I'm not sure if there's been an event I've been to since being a part of the NHL that has had a room full of so many incredible ambassadors of this magnitude’.

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‘There are so many’, said Sidney Crosby, who was one of the six active skaters on the list. ‘To see Mario (Lemieux) and Wayne (Gretzky), then to see Maurice Richard's son here representing his father. It's incredible to see the trickle-down effect and what this all means to families’.

Also, Crosby has been named as one of the players in the NHL’s All-Decade First Team. He joins an elite group with Patrick Kane, Alex Ovechkin, Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty, and Marc-Andre Fleury.

Crosby tallied 1.25 points per game in the past decade. He is first among all players with at least 400 games played in that category.

In his stint with Pittsburgh Penguins, he had 788 points on 296 goals and 492 assists in just 630 games. He is one of the game’s best, no doubt. Two players have the best lines to describe Crosby, who has played well against all teams in the NHL.

‘I don't think he gets enough credit for it’, Ryan Callahan said. ‘And how good he is with his stick defensively. You go into a 1-on-1 battle with him, you know you're not going to get completely outmuscled by him, but he's so good with his stick, lifting sticks, taking pucks’.

‘It's a guy you always got excited to play against’, Scott Hartnell said. ‘And a guy that could bring you back to planet Earth real quick with one flick of his wrist or a no-look, behind-the-back pass’.

‘He's one or two steps ahead of what you're thinking’, Hartnell added. ‘He does what he's going to do before you think you know what he's going to do. He knows where everyone is, especially on his own team. He is always a step ahead of you’.

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Words: Paul Daniel Flores

Image: PA