Pre-WWII Draft Semi-Finals - Montreal Victorias vs. Halifax Crescents

[BenchBrawl]

Montreal Victorias

Coach: Dick Irvin
Syd Howe-Mickey MacKay-Charlie Conacher
Herbie Lewis-Duke Keats-Gordie Drillon
Harry Smith-Marty Walsh- Archie Hodgson
Graham Drinkwater-Bruce Stuart (A)-Charlie Liffiton
Herb Russel(l)-Herb Jordan

Harvey Pulford (C)-Eddie Shore
Frank Patrick-Rod Flett
Walter Smaill-Art Duncan
Joe Power

Charlie Gardiner (A)
Frank Stocking

PP1: Mickey MacKay-Marty Walsh-Charlie Conacher
Frank Patrick-Eddie Shore

PP2: Harry Smith-Duke Keats-Gordie Drillon
Walter Smail-Art Duncan

PK1: Herbie Lewis-Mickey MacKay
Harvey Pulford-Rod Flett

PK2: Syd Howe-Archie Hodgson
Graham Drinkwater-Eddie Shore


Vs.

Coach: Cecil Hart

Baldy Northcott - Cyclone Taylor - Bryan Hextall, Sr
Paul Thompson - Frank McGee (A) - Billy Gilmour
Johnny Gottselig (A) - Dick Irvin - Mush March
Louis Berlinguette - Pud Glass - Barney Stanley
Harry Oliver, Jimmy Gardner

Lionel Hitchman - Earl Seibert
Weldy Young - Sylvio Mantha (C)
Howard McNamara - Albert Leduc
Harry Mummery

Roy Worters
Lorne Chabot

PP1:
Thompson
Taylor - McGee - Gilmour
Seibert

PP2:
Hextall, Sr
Northcott - Irvin - Gottselig
Young

PK1:
Glass - Gottselig
Hitchman - Mantha

PK2:
Northcott - March
McNamara - Seibert​

@rmartin65
@Dr John Carlson

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[rmartin65]

I meant to put some initial arguments out earlier, but alas, other things got in the way.

Ultimately, I think the Victorias walk away from this one due to a few key advantages-

1) Goaltending. Gardiner is, in my opinion, several notches above Worters in the goalie hierarchy.

2) Depth scoring. I won't contest that you have the best offensive player in Taylor, but I think once we get past him the Victorias start to look a bit better. Even with Taylor on that top line, I'm not sure if your top line is necessarily stronger than mine; Taylor>McKay, no question, but Conacher is better than Hextall and Howe is better than Northcott. On the second line, McGee is the best per-game player, but he had a short career (even for the era) and missed a lot of time. In his fourth and final season, he actually ended up 3rd (tied for second, but lost the tiebreaker on goals) on the 1906 Ottawa HC team in points (looking at all the ECAHA games and SC challenge games). Just looking at the major skaters on that team-

Name	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
A. Smith	RW	16	20.5	32	52.5
H. Smith	LW/Center	13	49	1.5	50.5
F. McGee	Center	13	44	6.5	50.5
R. Westwick	Rover	14	15.5	10.5	25.5
H. Pulford	Point/Cover	16	3.5	5.5	9

Now, we can certainly debate quality of competition (McGee and Harry Smith, while they each played 13 games, didn't miss the same three games), but I think this illustrates that either McGee was starting to lose a step or Harry Smith was a better offensive force than we previously thought. Or Alf Smith was even better than we thought (which is probably true, but McGee led the 1903, 1904, and 1905 teams by substantial margins, so I don't think that's the explanation for 1906). Unrelated- look at just how much Westwick trails the big guys. This isn't a one-off, either, this is something noticeable in several seasons.

3) Eddie Shore. He's the best player in this series, and to me, that is always something worth considering.

Bah, I have to run. I hope to be back before the voting opens up, but if not, good luck!

 

[BenchBrawl]

@rmartin65
@Dr John Carlson

I'll give until Tuesday then open voting, if that's alright with you.