Kenora THISTLES
1907 Stanley Cup Champions
Home Rink: Thistle Rink (1920), Kenora, Ontario
GM: papershoes & Hawkey Town 18
Coach: Cecil Hart
Captain: Steve Yzerman
Alternates: Toe Blake, Butch Bouchard, Daniel Alfredsson
#6 Hector "Toe" Blake (A) - #19 Steve Yzerman (C) -
#5 Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion
#14 Woody Dumart -
#71 Evgeni Malkin -
#11 Daniel Alfredsson (A)
#9 Clark Gillies -
#8 Igor Larionov -
#10 Tony Amonte
Dave Andreychuk -
#10 Edgar Laprade -
#6 Floyd Curry
extras:
Neal Broten,
Tommy Smith, #44 Stephane Richer
#4 Leonard "Red" Kelly - #3 Emile "Butch" Bouchard (A)
#3 Vladimir Lutchenko -
#2 Jimmy Thomson
#20 Jimmy Watson - #76 PK Subban
extras:
#7 Gennady Tsygankov
#1 Walter "Turk" Broda
#1 Roberto Luongo
Powerplay:
PP1: Dave Andreychuk - Steve Yzerman - Evgeni Malkin - Red Kelly - Bernie Geoffrion
PP2: Toe Blake - Igor Larionov - Daniel Alfredsson - PK Subban - Vladimir Lutchenko
Penalty Kill:
PK1: Edgar Laprade - Floyd Curry - Vladimir Lutchenko/Red Kelly - Butch Bouchard
PK2: Toe Blake - Steve Yzerman - Red Kelly/Jimmy Watson - Jimmy Thomson
PK3: Igor Larionov - Daniel Alfredsson
Forwards | | | | |
Player | ES | PP | PK | Total |
T. Blake | 14 | 2 | 2 | 18 |
S. Yzerman | 14 | 4 | 2 | 20 |
B. Geoffrion | 14 | 4 | | 18 |
W. Dumart | 16.5 | | | 16.5 |
E. Malkin | 13 | 5 | | 18 |
D. Alfredsson | 13 | 3 | 1 | 17 |
C. Gillies | 12 | | | 12 |
I. Larionov | 12 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
T. Amonte | 12 | | | 12 |
D. Andreychuk | 3.5 | 5 | | 8.5 |
E. Laprade | 7 | | 4 | 11 |
F. Curry | 7 | | 4 | 11 |
TOTAL | 138 | 25 | 14 | 177 |
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Defense | | | | |
Player | ES | PP | PK | Total |
R. Kelly | 19 | 5 | 2 | 26 |
B. Bouchard | 17 | | 4 | 21 |
V. Lutchenko | 14 | 2 | 3 | 19 |
J. Thomson | 17 | | 3 | 20 |
J. Watson | 13 | | 2 | 15 |
P.K. Subban | 12 | 3 | | 15 |
TOTAL | 92 | 10 | 14 | 116 |
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Here's some general info about the Kenora Thistles...
Red Kelly
The Kenora Thistles are built around their best and most important player, Red Kelly. Kelly is an elite Dman who brings loads of offense, often said to be acting as a 4th forward. He's the only Dman other than Orr and Coffey to finish top 10 in league scoring more than twice (he did it 3x). He is the type of player that will boost the offense of his teammates, all the while being solid defensively. So how is Kenora built to maximize Kelly's effectiveness?
1. Cecil Hart as coach. Hart is a player's coach, respected league-wide, who likes a fast paced high offense attacking style. With a coach like Hart Kelly will not be held back at all, and have free reign to rush the puck whenever he sees an opportunity. For more information on please see
Cecil Hart Bio by RS
2. A stay-at-home defensive minded partner. Butch Bouchard is not a rushing defenseman at all, and therefore will allow Kelly to have the puck as much as he pleases. Bouchard will also bring some strength and physicality to to the pair, known for his great positioning, he will hold down the fort as Kelly buzzes about the ice. Kelly's mobile-rushing nature also nicely makes up for one of Bouchard's weaknesses, his skating.
As can be seen on the minutes chart, Kelly will also take several shifts alongside Jimmy Thomson. Thomson's real life partner, Gus Mortson, was a rushing defenseman himself, so when partnered with Thomson Kelly will also be in good position to maximize his effectiveness.
3. Defensive minded forwards to cover for Kelly when necessary. Much of the time, Kelly's rushes will turn into a 4-man attack, but Kenora has the forwards to cover for Kelly should he get caught up front. Kelly plays the left side, each line's LW (Blake, Dumart, Gillies) has good defensive acumen, the only exception is Andreychuk, who is not terrible defensively, but definitely not on the level of the others, but he is only playing 3.5 ES minutes, with Dumart taking half his shifts. In addition to the LW's each line has a second forward that has a two-way game (Yzerman, Alfredsson, Larionov). The 4th line actually has 2 in Laprade and Curry, giving plenty of coverage even when Andreychuk is on the ice.
Evgeni Malkin
Malkin will also be a key player for Kenora. Between a strong playoff performance last year in which he lead the NHL in points while winning the Stanley Cup, and the current NHL season, Malkin's value is really on the rise. If the season were to end today, Malkin's vs.X score for the year would be 95.9. This would boost his 7yr vs.X score up to 93.7, the same score as Brian Trottier, slightly ahead of Yzerman, and good enough for 25th all time. And this is not even considering that a metric like vs.X underrates Malkin's offensive ability due to his injuries (speaking of which, when he is injured Tommy Smith is available to fill in). This is uber-elite level offense coming from a second liner. Kenora has a strong 1st line, and Malkin on the 2nd should cause mismatch problems for opponents.
As discussed above, Cecil Hart is an offensive minded, player's coach, that should allow Malkin to flourish.
Malkin's linemates also set him up for success. Both Dumart and Alfredsson can take care of all the puck digging and defensive responsibilities. Malkin is a center who can both score goals and set up linemates, so a winger like Alfredsson who is a better playmaker than most wingers is a good match as well.
Goaltending
During the draft some people voiced concerns about Turk Broda's regular season play. First, please check out my bio linked above which shows that Broda has a better regular season resume than the other "money" goaltenders like Smith, Fuhr, etc., being named a top-3 goalie in the league for a decade (missing 3 seasons to WWII during that time).
Second, Kenora has a backup with a strong regular season resume in Roberto Luongo to pick up any slack if needed. Luongo's Hart, Vezina, and AS records are as follows:
Hart: 2, 6
Vezina: 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 7, 7
AS: 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 8
Luongo has also demonstrated he is capable of handling a backup role, which is more of a question mark for other ATD backups.
Powerplay
While Kenora is not weak in any special teams area, they are especially strong on the 1st PP unit.
Dave Andreychuk - Steve Yzerman - Evgeni Malkin - Red Kelly - Bernie Geoffrion
Kelly and Geoffrion on the points is an elite combo giving Kenora one of the best puck rushers in the draft and one of the best PP point shots in the draft. Up front Yzerman and Malkin are strong offensive players coming in at 25th and 27th all time in 7yr vs.X, and Andreychuk is a net front specialist. Yzerman is also a strong faceoff man to win possession. Teams that take a lot of penalties or have average to below average PK units will be in trouble.
Leadership
Kenora has one of the best leadership cores in the draft. Yzerman is an elite captain, Blake and Bouchard would be fine wearing a C in the ATD, and while Alfredsson never captained his team to a Cup, he wore a C for 13 seasons.
That is all for now, I may come back with more later if I have time.