The Mickey Ion Division Final: Cornell Big Red vs. St. Louis Eagles

[VanIslander]

Mickey Ion divisional final:


Cornell Big Red

coach Ted Nolan

Doc Romnes - Gus Bodnar - Marian Stastny
Don Smith - Bones Raleigh - Yuri Lebedev
Jack Marks- Rick Meagher (A) - Jimmy Peters
Steve Konowalchuk - Bill Clement - Duane Sutter

Dunc Munro (C) - Dickie Boon (A)
Francois Beauchemin - Skene Ronan
Randy Gregg - Darius Kasparaitis

Roger Crozier
Billy Nicholson


vs.


St. Louis Eagles

coach Bun Cook

Alex Shibicky - Marc Savard - Mac Colville
Alex Semin - Jaroslav Holik - Jason Pominville
Andre Boudrias - Paul Haynes - David Backes (A)
Baldy Cotton - Keith Acton (A) - Dallas Drake (C)

Doug Jarrett - Kris Letang
Roman Hamrlik - Brent Seabrook
Anders Eldebrink - Bob Murdoch

Wilf Cude
Arturs Irbe

​

Click to read more...

 

[VanIslander]

Post your special teams, any of your extra skaters you might want to sub-in in this series or any other information.

The format of the first post is standardized for easy, clean, equal comparison, both teams viewable without having to scroll down.

The first seed versus second seed.

Let's have a good series!

 

[Rob Scuderi]

Looking forward to it VI

St. Louis Eagles

Coach: Bun Cook

Alex Shibicky - Marc Savard - Mac Colville
Alex Semin - Jaroslav Holik - Jason Pominville
Andre Boudrias - Paul Haynes - David Backes (A)
Baldy Cotton - Keith Acton (A) - Dallas Drake (C)
Olli Jokinen, Dave Reid

Roman Hamrlik - Brent Seabrook
Doug Jarrett - Kris Letang
Anders Eldebrink - Bob Murdoch
Jack Campbell, Lou Fontinato

Wilf Cude
Arturs Irbe

PP1
Shibicky-Savard-Semin
Hamrlik-Pominville

PP2
Boudrias-Haynes-Holik
Eldebrink-Letang

PK1
Acton-Drake
Jarrett-Murdoch

PK2
Boudrias-Backes
Hamrlik-Seabrook

 

[VanIslander]

Your top line and 2nd pairing and my Bottom-6 forwards, top dman pairing and goaltending could compete against the very best!

 

[Rob Scuderi]

Cornell's definitely got a better top pair and I think we can leave it at that.

For second pairs, I think St. Louis's Jarrett-Letang pair has the advantage.

Jarrett and Beauchemin are both defensive defenseman, but I think Jarrett has the edge.

A few people questioned how much defense Ronan played and based on what I read in Trail, I think he's much more valuable at center than defense.

Skene Ronan started as a defence player with Toronto of the OPHL. When Newsy Lalonde was out of action for awhile, Skene was moved up to centre but for some reason his potential at this position was not recognized. He played defence with Art Ross at Haileybury and when they dropped from the NHA he played a few games at rover for Renfrew. He still had not shown anything that marked him as out of the ordinary.

When the Creamery Kings dropped from the league, the other teams drew lots for the Renfrew players...The end result was that....Ronan remained with Ottawa.

With Ridpath gone, Marty Walsh did not seem so good at centre this year and Ronan was given the chance to play with Jack Darragh and Dubbie Kerr. The result was that another star was born and the lightly regarded former defence player proved the best centre in the league.

From there on it talks about his scoring at center and different linemates. He doesn't seem to have played defence after his first two seasons, and he didn't do anything remarkable until moving to centre.

Letang with his brief career has played more defense than Ronan did, and accomplished more as a defenseman than Ronan did. I think St. Louis has the superior second pair.

 

[VanIslander]

Cornell will move Skene Ronan to the press box and dress Dustin Byfuglien for this series. Dustin has won the Stanley Cup as a right winger but has adjusted well to the transition to the blueline with 20 goals and an all-star game appearance while in Atlanta and scoring at a 50+ points pace per season as a defenseman over a three-year stretch. Paired with Beauchemin he should be able to get into position to take a ton of shots. He will see ice time on the powerplay, when trailing and usually with the third and/or fourth lines, allowing a defensively-skilled winger to drop back to cover for when 6'5 Buff is up ice.

Skates well for a man his size and owns terrific offensive savvy and a heavy shot. Can log big minutes on defense, or play the role of power forward up front. When he's on, he makes a huge impact in a game.

 

[Rob Scuderi]

Good switch, I think Letang still gets the nod though.

For third pairs, Murdoch and Gregg are defensive minded guys. Murdoch was a top pairing guy with the Kings and Gregg seems to have mostly been a third pairing guy. Murdoch have a little more offense than Gregg. I'd be more comfortable with Murdoch playing higher up the lineup and Gregg seems more like a bottom pair specialist. I think Murdoch has the advantage here.

Kasparitis and Eldebrink weren't similar at all. Kasparitis is an agitating presence and Eldebrink is an offensive defenseman. Eldebrink was a two-time Swedish league MVP and one-time WC all-star. I think he's a bigger question mark than Kasparitis who's a bottom pairing guy, but Eldebrink has more upside.

I think St. Louis has the advantage in third pairs.

 

[Rob Scuderi]

Doc Romnes vsX scores: 95, 73, 67, 61, 51, 50, 40 / 7 year weighted score: 67.94
Alex Shibicky vsX scores: 80, 75, 74, 63, 55, 49 / 7 year weighted score: 67.27

Romnes played on three teams making the Stanley Cup finals finishing 1st, T4th, and T5th on his teams in points.

Shibicky played on two teams making the Stanley Cup finals finishing T2nd and T3rd on his teams in points.

Romnes is the better playmaker and Shibicky the goalscorer. Romnes has the edge here, but Shibicky did lose years to the war.
---------------

Savard vsX scores: 92, 84, 80, 74, 68, 60, 56 / 7 year weighted score: 77.56

Bodnar vsX scores: 83, 81*, 71*, 70*, 58, 58, 57 / 7 year weighted score: 71.27

*war years, 1944-1946

Bodnar has good vsX scores, but three of them came during the war years. Savard had the best 7 year weighted score of anyone in the draft, regardless of war year seasons. I think he's the better center.
---------------

Marian Stastny vsX scores: 64, 61, 38 / Your bio says he finished top 10 in CSSR league scoring 4 times including a 1st and 3rd place finish. He finished 7th in the 1978 WC and 5th in the 1980 Olympics.

Mac Colville vsX scores: 70, 64, 64, 56, 49, 42 / 7 year weighted vsX score: 58.59

I think Stastny is definitely the better offensive player here. There's little on either's intangibles aside from the quote about Colville's role on the Bread Line. Unless there's something not in Marian's bio I'm missing.
---------------

I think Savard is the difference maker on these two lines. He's possibly the best center in the draft and Bodnar's 2-4th best seasons came during the war years.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Ronan never played rover?

I came very close to voting "Ronan AS A DEFENSEMAN" as one of my "five players who don't belong in the MLD," but saw something mentioning Ronan playing rover. And while rover seems to have been closest to a modern C, it's not crazy to consider rover similar to an offensive defenseman too. But maybe that wasn't a credible source (I don't remember where it was)

 

[Rob Scuderi]

Ronan never played rover?

I came very close to voting "Ronan AS A DEFENSEMAN" as one of my "five players who don't belong in the MLD," but saw something mentioning Ronan playing rover. And while rover seems to have been closest to a modern C, it's not crazy to consider rover similar to an offensive defenseman too. But maybe that wasn't a credible source (I don't remember where it was)

Outside of 3 games at rover with Renfrew, Trail says he was a center and lists his linemates for every season from his Ottawa years on.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Cornell wins in 6

Stars:

1. Roger Crozier
2. Kris Letang
3. Mark Savard

Marian Stastny and Jaroslav Holik also played well.

 

[VanIslander]

I humbly accept the win against a surely equal opponent. Shibicky, Holik, Boudrais, Cude would have all made my squad if I'd have the chance. (I'm sure Semin choked though for the Eagles.)

This series could have gone either way.

I wish it had gone to Game 7 in OT.

 

[Rob Scuderi]

I humbly accept the win against a surely equal opponent. Shibicky, Holik, Boudrais, Cude would have all made my squad if I'd have the chance. (I'm sure Semin choked though for the Eagles.)

This series could have gone either way.

I wish it had gone to Game 7 in OT.

Good series VI, Crozier really is a stud for the MLD. I can definitely see him having a good showing against our forwards.