ATD Redux Playoffs Round 2: Brooklyn Americans (1) vs. St.Louis Cardinals (6)

[tony d]

Brooklyn Americans

coach Tommy Ivan

Ted Lindsay - Sid Abel (C) - Gordie Howe
Herbie Lewis - Marty Barry - Bernie Morris
Zach Parise - Patrice Bergeron (A) - Ron Ellis
Rusty Crawford - Ryan Getzlaf - Bill Guerin

Victor Hedman - Earl Seibert
Harvey Pulford (A) - Harry Cameron
Vitali Davydov - Flash Hollett
Vasili Pervukhin

Charlie Gardiner
Chuck Rayner

PP1: Ted Lindsay - Sid Abel - Gordie Howe - Harry Cameron - Flash Hollett
PP2: Marty Barry - Ryan Getzlaf - Bernie Morris - Earl Seibert - Victor Hedman

PK1: Patrice Bergeron - Herbie Lewis - Harvey Pulford - Earl Seibert
PK2: Rusty Crawford - Gordie Howe - Vitali Davydov - Victor Hedman

St.Louis Cardinals

coach Lester Patrick

Reg Noble - Phil Esposito (A) - Patrick Kane
Johnny Bucyk - Pavel Datsyuk - Joe Mullen
Harry Watson - Joel Otto - Jerry Toppazini
Boris Mayorov - Mats Sundin - Phil Kessell

Bobby Orr (C) - Zdeno Chara(A)
Pat Stapleton - Alex Pietrangelo
Si Griffis - Red Dutton

Turk Broda
John Vanbiesbrouck

PP1: Bucyk - Esposito - Kane - Orr - Stapleton
PP2: Datsyuk - Sundin - Kessel - Chara - Griffis
PK1: Noble - Otto - Orr - Pietrangelo
PK2: Datsyuk - Toppazini - Chara - Dutton

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[VanIslander]

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Obviously, Patrice Bergeron will be used a lot against the Espo/Orr duo.

Having centers who are strong defensively is key to playing against Orr. Abel is very good, Barry is ok, Bergeron is as elite as they get, and Getzlaf is pretty good.

At home, Brooklyn feels fine using either the Bergeron or the Production Line against Espo or Orr. If St. Louis splits them up, Bergeron likely gets Espo, and the Production Line gets Orr. Orr can perhaps be vulnerable to getting physically pounded, and playing a high-speed, hard-hitting dump-and-chase game was the bread-and-butter of the Production Line.

On the road, where matchups are more difficult to get, I can see Rusty Crawford being shifted to C in this series to give us another very good to borderline elite defensive C. Hard to tell just how good Crawford was defensively, though there is enough on his two-way game for Ultimate Hockey to have awarded him with 3 Retro Selkes. Of course UH is just one source, written many decades after the fact. Anyway, here's Crawford's bio: ATD2020 Bio Thread

If Crawford plays C, Brooklyn's 4th line would then be Jack Adams - Rusty Crawford - Bill Guerin

(Jack Adams (C/LW) and Ron Stewart (RW) are Brooklyn's spare forwards)

TBH, I'm not sure what Coach Ivan would do here. Crawford-Getzlaf-Guerin has more overall defense than Adams-Crawford-Guerin, but the later has more defense at the center ice position.

But Ivan has a couple options. Crawford's versatility could be useful here. Another option would be keeping Crawford-Getzlaf-Guerin together, but using Crawford to take faceoffs against Espo, or to use him as the guy keying in on Orr defensively. Again, this is just to give another option against Espo/Orr - obviously, the Bergeron line will always be the primary defensive line.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Good series, @tony d

These ATD Redux teams are all so close.