2023 Jim Coleman Conference Final: Guelph Platers vs Nova Scotia Voyageurs

[Theokritos]

Guelph Platers (@BraveCanadian & @TheDevilMadeMe)

Coaches: Anatoli Tarasov & Arkady Chernyshev

Vladimir Krutov - Wayne Gretzky (C) - Boris Mikhailov (A)
Brad Marchand - Peter Stastny - Mickey MacKay
Sergei Kapustin - Darryl Sittler (A) - Daniel Alfredsson
Doug Mohns - Nicklas Backstrom - Blake Wheeler

Duncan Keith - Pierre Pilote
Carl Brewer - Fern Flaman
Sergei Gonchar- Red Dutton

Jacques Plante
Henrik Lundqvist

Spares: Shane Doan (RW/LW), (Mickey MacKay, C), Doug Mohns (D)

Power Play 1:
Vladimir Krutov - Wayne Gretzky - Boris Mikhailov - Sergei Gonchar - Pierre Pilote

Power Play 2:
Brad Marchand - Peter Stastny - Darryl Sittler - Daniel Alfredsson - Duncan Keith

Penalty Kill 1:
Mickey MacKay - Brad Marchand - Duncan Keith - Fern Flaman

Penalty Kill 2:
Wayne Gretzky - Vladimir Krutov/Boris Mikhailov - Carl Brewer - Red Dutton

Penalty Kill spare:
Nicklas Backstrom - Daniel Alfredsson, Doug Mohns

Original roster post: ATD 2023 Roster Thread


Nova Scotia Voyageurs (@Habsfan18 & @Transplanted Caper)

Head Coach: Hap Day

Sweeney Schriner-Stan Mikita (A)-Bernie Geoffrion
Roy Conacher-Peter Forsberg-Larry Aurie
Bob Gainey (C)-Dave Keon-Dirk Graham
Zach Parise-Mats Sundin-Tim Kerr
Blair Russell, Milan Novy

Larry Robinson (A)-Serge Savard
Guy Lapointe-Vladimir Konstantinov
Gus Mortson-Kevin Hatcher
Moose Vasko

Johnny Bower
Roy Worters

Power Play 1:
Schriner - Mikita - Forsberg
Geoffrion - Lapointe

Power Play 2:
Conacher - Sundin - Kerr
Hatcher - Robinson

Penalty Kill 1:
Gainey - Keon
Robinson - Savard

Penalty Kill 2:
Graham - Aurie
Lapointe - Konstantinov

Original roster post: ATD 2023 Roster Thread

Click to read more...

 

[Habsfan18]

Good luck to @TheDevilMadeMe and @BraveCanadian on what should be a great series, and congratulations on making it to the conference finals.

The Voyageurs will have our work cut out for us, as we’re taking on a Wayne Gretzky lead club. But if someone is going to stop the Platers, we feel as if Hap Day and his trio of strong two-way C’s matching up against Wayne and Stastny, and our overall game on both sides of the puck can be a good candidate to do so. We feel we’ll have a fairly significant advantage on D, and we’ll have to lean on that to limit the offensive effectiveness of that 1st line. Clear advantage in the net to Guelph. Coaching is fairly even.

It’s been a busy time for me, but I have a few days off work coming up here and I hope to be active in this series.

Our elite shutdown line of Gainey-Keon-Graham will be tasked situationally with shadowing that Gretzky line and making life miserable for them. Based on results, it would have successfully worked in the series against Richmond with Mario, so the hope is that it works again here. I know it’s not as easy and simply saying “go and stop Wayne from being Wayne” but we feel if there’s a single line in this league who has a chance to do that, the Voyageurs in Hap Day’s system has it. Of course we know we can’t play our checking trio against that top line in every single situation, but if we jump out to a lead or if it’s a close game, Hap does have that option to send them out. Pair them with Big Bird and Serge and that’s a bitch of a unit to play against.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Good luck to you as well @Habsfan18 & @Transplanted Caper.

First impressions:

You have built a strong defensive team by re-uniting the big 3 and having forwards like Gainey, Keon, and Graham in the lineup. On the flip side we have an offensive advantage overall.

Obviously, we went a different route and played to our biggest strength: Gretzky.

We emphasized building 4 lines that run through their talented centers (in Soviet fashion) to take advantage of the flexible tactics of Tarasov & Chernyshev while ensuring we had enough sandpaper and defensive responsibility to allow for that creativity.

A real contrast here between our teams - we eschewed the old-fashioned 3rd checkling line that fell out of favour a while back in the ATD for a lack of offense, and you doubled down on it with defensive stars. We feel we can comfortably roll four lines (again in Soviet fashion) without too much of a break up of our momentum.

Both coaches appear to fit their rosters and game plans quite well.

Pretty significant advantage between the pipes for us. In a draft this small, Bower would be at the low-end.


Should be a good one!

 

[Habsfan18]

Gretzky certainly gives you an advantage on the offensive side, and you’re playing a free-wheeling Soviet style system while we’re in more of a defensive and two-way system under Hap Day.

That being said, we’re not strictly a defensive club and I don’t think the offensive advantage is as noticeable as it may appear at first glance.

Let’s have a look at 7 year VsX scores for our offensive players:

Gretzky - 155.6
Stastny - 88.4
Backstrom - 87.7
Sittler - 85.7
Marchand - 84.7
Alfredsson - 82.3
Mikhailov - ?
Krutov - ?
MacKay - ?

Vs

Mikita - 107.8
Schriner - 91.3
Forsberg - 90.3
Geoffrion - 89.9
Conacher - 85.2
Sundin - 82.1
Keon - 74.3
Aurie - 71.6
Parise - 70.9

I’m not a big “fancy stat” guy, as I’ve said in the past, but this shows that we do have players who can put the puck in the net. Yours is missing three players in your top 6 (maybe someone can help me out with those numbers if they’ve ever been posted in terms of what their scores would be expected to be?) but these numbers above show that while although you have a significant advantage in top score with Wayne, we have the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th highest scores with Mikita, Schriner, Forsberg and Geoffrion. And let’s not forget the Voyageurs could expect some decent offensive production from the backend as well with Robinson, Lapointe, Hatcher and Savard having those abilities.

I’m certainly not claiming we’d win in an offensive firewagon run and gun style series, but I don’t think our offensive abilities should be slept on either, even if defense and strong two-way abilities are the name of our game. Hap Day has some strong goal scorers and playmakers at his disposal.

And yes, obviously Plante vs Bower is a clear advantage for Guelph. But Bower just has to be simply good enough to not lose the series for Nova Scotia, and he’s playing behind a defensively strong club.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Not sure how to rank MacKay/Mikhailov on a VsX basis at all, but based on his best-on-best showings, Krutov would be very solid on a 7 year basis for sure.