“Mike Ribeiro was more talented than Sidney Crosby!”

When you get to coach a team from the National Hockey League, you have time to analyze everything happening on the ice and former head coach Guy Boucher has been able to do just that. However, on Tuesday, he took it a step further by explaining, in French, on the air of RDS, that he strongly believes former NHL forward Mike Ribeiro was more talented than Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain and superstar Sidney Crosby. Boucher coached both players when they played junior and feels he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to their abilities on the ice. This is how he explained it, translated from French, on the air: 

“If you ask me which of the two between Ribeiro and Crosby - and I was there at all practices every day for years, with Crosby for two years old and same thing with Ribeiro - if you ask me which one was more talented, I'm going tell you right away: it's Ribeiro. But I'm talking about pure talent. Pure talent. I saw Ribeiro - and I was the one who put together the videos for the team, I saw him outlining five players at once on the ice five separate times! Think about it, you're in the juniors, you manage to outsmart five other players to go and score. I've never seen this before. I've never seen this since. Even with Crosby, even with Alexander Radulov in the junior, even with superstars, then I coached John Tavares and plenty others.” - Guy Boucher

According to Boucher, what makes Crosby a better all-around player is his work ethic and his behaviour off the ice. Boucher believes that if Ribeiro had taken the game seriously and used of the same work ethic as Crosby, he would have become the best player in hockey history. He took it a step further, comparing some of Ribeiro's qualities to none other than Wayne Gretzky.

“Mike Ribeiro with Crosby’s work ethic? The best player in history! Look, he would be the best player in history. That's because Ribeiro had strengths very similar to Wayne Gretzky. Don't go say that I think Ribeiro was better than Gretzky there. That's not what I said. But he had the ability to see and control time and space on the ice. Listen, that’s what Wayne Gretzky was all about. However, Mike is the first to say that his problem was his behaviour off the ice.”

These compliments are outstanding from the former head coach, but we all know he is all too right when it come to the mess Ribeiro made of his NHL career. 

Ribeiro played his last NHLL game back in 2016-17 with the Nashville Predators. He, who fell deeper into struggles with alcoholism once his career ended, has already admitted not having put all the necessary efforts to push his career to another level. He still managed to hang up the skates with a record of 228 goals and 565 assists for a total of 793 points in 1,074 NHL games.

Imagine what he would have become if he had taken his career seriously!