The Pittsburgh Confluence will get their 2nd pairing started with a player who posted some pretty amazing usage and playoff numbers throughout the 1960's and was, IMO, the backbone of the Montreal D on their 60's dynasty.
With Potvin-Savard up top, he can be sheltered a bit more from the absolute toughest match ups while being able to log heavy minutes in all situations (see below for usage breakdown). It's not often you can get a Dman at this stage capable of playing both special teams units well above average and log easy #3 minutes.
JC Tremblay, D
His usage numbers were off the charts impressive:
Special teams roles - 1960-2017
Regular season PK usage (2nd all time post 1960 for players w/>500 games played)
-6% above league average while logging 2/3 of his team's penalty kill over the course of his career:
| Player | GP | SH% | TmSH+ | $SHP/82 |
| Jacques Laperriere | 691 | 76% | 0.90 | 2 |
| J.C. Tremblay | 796 | 66% | 0.94 | 1 |
| Marcel Pronovost | 636 | 66% | 0.96 | 1 |
| xxxxxxxx | 604 | 65% | 0.88 | 1 |
| Bobby Orr | 657 | 62% | 0.78 | 6 |
| xxxxxxx | 836 | 60% | 1.08 | 1 |
| xxxxxxx | 1071 | 59% | 0.95 | 1 |
| Serge Savard | 1040 | 58% | 0.82 | 2 |
| Ray Bourque | 1612 | 58% | 0.88 | 2 |
| xxxxxx | 854 | 57% | 0.77 | 1 |
| Chris Chelios | 1651 | 57% | 0.85 | 2 |
| xxxxx | 615 | 57% | 1.01 | 1 |
| Tim Horton | 1010 | 57% | 0.92 | 2 |
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Regular season ES usage (tied for 5th all time post 1960, just marginally behind Orr, Horton, Pilote, Laperriere)
| Player | GP | $ESP/82 | $ESGF/82 | $ESGA/82 | R-ON | R-OFF | EV% |
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| J.C. Tremblay | 796 | 25 | 101 | 78 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 45% |
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-Again, you can see the impact he had while on the ice w/the even strength goals for vs against splits.
Here is a look at how much Tremblay was used during the playoffs:
Special teams roles - playoff data (1960-2017)
Playoff PP usage:
59.3%
Playoff PK usage:
57.7%
Playoff ES usage:
46.4%
Playoff even strength "R-ON/R-OFF" ratio
| J.C. Tremblay | 108 | 1.45 | 0.99 | 0.45 |
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-Those are incredibly good splits for an ATD defender. Only Bobby Orr and one other undrafted ATD regular sees greater than +45% in the green.
Here are some quotes from folks like
@Sturminator @overpass @TheDevilMadeMe who did a wonderful job highlighting Tremblay's skills on the ice, specifically putting down the notion that he was some sort of liability defensively based on his softer reputation.
From the Top 200 project:
Top-200 Hockey Players of All-Time - Round 2, Vote 14
Sturminator said:
↑
Red Fisher said:
Joe Pelletier said:
Fisher, Red. The Gazette. Montreal, Que. [Montreal, Que]17 Oct 2009: D.1.
JC Tremblay's playoff stats are really, really good.
Leading playoff scorers 1965-1969 (Montreal wins 4 Cups in 5 years):
Jean Beliveau 63 points, +11
xxxxxx 42 points, +13 (forward)
JC Tremblay 41 points, +35
Henri Richard 40 points, +7 (with very little PP time)
xxxxxxxx 40 points, +3 (forward)
xxxxxxxx 39 points +5 (forward)
Leading playoff scorers 1965-1969 among defensemen:
JC Tremblay 41 points in 59 games
Pierre Pilote 20 points in 39 games (for Chicago)
xxxxxxx 13 points in 60 games
-Nobody is remotely close to Tremblay in terms of lifting their offensive output in the postseason during this time frame.
TDMM:
@seventieslord highlighted how good his scoring numbers were with a playoff version of VsX: Tremblay joins Denis Potvin to give Three Rivers a pair of absolute money players (overall and offensively speaking) when it comes to postseason hockey.
NHL Playoff VsX, 1918-2016
| | | Name | | | VsX5P |
| 1 | Denis Potvin | | | 442 |
| 2 | Bobby Orr | | | 423 |
| 3 | Paul Coffey | | | 405 |
| 4 | Nicklas Lidstrom | | | 404 |
| 5 | J.C. Tremblay | | | 368 |
| 6 | Larry Robinson | | | 365 |
| 7 | Al MacInnis | | | 360 |
| 8 | xxxxxxxxx | | | 339 |
| 9 | Chris Chelios | | | 329 |
| 10 | Brad Park | | | 328 |
| 11 | xxxxxxxx | | | 323 |
| 12 | Chris Pronger | | | 322 |
| 13 | xxxxxxxxxx | | | 313 |
| 14 | Ray Bourque | | | 308 |
| 15 | Doug Harvey | | | 306 |
| 16 | Brian Leetch | | | 303 |
| 17 | Pierre Pilote | | | 301 |
| 18 | xxxxxx | | | 297 |
| 19 | Scott Niedermayer | | | 296 |
| 20 | Duncan Keith | | | 290 |
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