AAA 2014 Quarterfinals: Harvard Crimson vs. Denver Spurs

[seventieslord]

Coaches: Bill Dineen, Lou Vairo (Asst)

Peter Nedved - John Tavares - Jeff O'Neill
Cory Stillman (A) - Ed Olczyk - James Neal
Steve Konowalchuk - Wayne Merrick - Niklas Sundstrom
Vic Lynn - Andrei Nikolishin - Willi Plett

Anders Eldebrink (A) - Bill Brydge
Hal Laycoe - Al Hamilton (C)
Bret Hedican- Robert Picard

Richard Brodeur
Pelle Lindbergh

extras: LW PJ Axelsson, C Andrew Cassels, D Igor Kravchuk

Special Teams:
PP:
Nedved - Tavares - O'Neill
Eldebrink - Picard

Stillman - Olczyk - Neal
Hedican - Hamilton

PK:
Lynn - Sundstrom
Laycoe - Brydge

Konowalchuk - Nikolishin
Hedican - Hamilton

VS

Tony Mckegney-Robbie Ftorek-Mac Colville
Jimmy Gardner-Normie Himes-Serge Bernier
Doug Smail-Daymond Langkow-Bill Collins
Butch Keeling-Art Jackson-Mark Napier

Dave Maloney-Doug Crossman
Stew Evans-Christian Ehroff
Eric Weinrich-Gord Murphy


Marty Turco
Vladimir Myshkin

Head Coach: Jimmy Skinner

Spares: Bryan Smolinski (C), Al dewsbury (D), Carl Liscombe (LW), Moe Mantha (D)​

Click to read more...

 

[tony d]

Another series vs. my former ATD comrade, will be back to debate a bit later today, good luck I say to Dave.

 

[tony d]

Alright time for the debate:

Forward Line 1: Petr Nedved is probably the best offensive player on either of our first lines so good job in picking him, he matches against Mac Colville for my team, Colville's a good talent but I'm not sure he's good enough to match up against Nedved so advantage to your team there. John Tavares is more of a 1-way centre as opposed to the 2-way play that Robbie Ftorek would bring so advantage to my team there. Next battle is Jeff O'neil vs. Tony Mckegney. Both guys are good goal scorers but also offer a physical game as well, O'neil probably edges out Mckegney in physicality but Mckegney's probably better offensively so an equal battle here.

Forward Line 2: Starting with the 2nd line we have Cory Stillman vs. Serge Bernier. Bernier was called 1 of my best wingers so there's that. I do like Cory Stillman though so he should put up quite the battle vs. Bernier. The next battle is between Himes and Olcysk. To me these 2 are different types of centres, Himes being the playmaker and Olcysk being the goal scorer, I think Himes may be the better 1 in this battle. James Neal vs. Jimmy Gardner. Both guys seem to be the weak links of our 2nd lines but prove enough grit and decent goal scoring to make them solid 2nd liners.

Forward Line 3: Steve Konawalchuk vs. Bill Collins is a good battle. Both guys are prototypical 3rd liners at this level. Wayne Merrick vs. Daymond Langkow is another good battle. I think Merrick's 2 way game may be more of an advantage here to you than what Langkow would bring to my team though Langkow was a good scorer in his own right. Niklas Sundstrom vs. Doug Smail will be a good battle between 2 good defensive minded guys so this should be a good battle between our 3rd lines.

4th Line: Vic Lynn vs. Mark Napier is the first battle here. Both guys bring 2 different games. Lynn more defensive and Napier is more offensive. Both guys should bring a lot to our 2 teams. Our 2 4th line centres play different games as well; Nikolishin's more defensive and Jackson was good offensively. Again Nikolishin was a questionable pick and should be overshadowed a lot by Jackson who perhaps could have found his way onto a 2nd line in this. The final battle here is between Keeling and Plett, both guys are crash and bang types. Keeling perhaps holds the advantage because of his goal scoring exploits.

Expecting a close battle between our forwards, tomorrow I debate the defense and look forward to Dave's rebuttal.

 

[tony d]

Time now to debate the defense:

Pairing 1:

Anders Eldebrink vs. Doug Crossman: The first battle here; 2 good offensive guys. Eldebrink was a guy we discovered in 2010 and he's a solid offensive defenseman here as is Crossman, battle here is a wash. Dave Maloney vs. Bill Brydge is the battle of defensive defensemen here, both guys are adequate defensively, think Maloney's all around game would serve my team a little better but Brydge is no slouch either.

Pairing 2:

Hal Laycoe vs. Christian Ehroff. 2 different defensemen here, Laycoe's more of a defensive guy while Ehroff is more offense. Laycoe's good defensively but his ability to contain Ehroff will be one of the keys in this series for both teams. Stew Evans vs. Al Hamilton is the next battle. Evans is one of the best 2nd pairing defensemen here as is Hamilton, should be a good battle between 2 differing styles.

Pairing 3:

Bret Hedican vs. Gord Murphy: This should be a good battle between 2 solid 2 way guys who are better defensively than they are offensively. The final battle here is Robert Picard vs. eric Weinrich. I had Picard last year and know he's a good asset to have and is a great 1 on the 3rd pairing. Weinrich is good too, both guys play different styles but should be no slouches for their teams.

Again the defensive battle here is to close to call, tomorrow I debate the goalies, hopefully we'll get a rebuttal from Dave soon.

 

[DaveG]

some minor tweaks for me: game Hamilton the C and I'll be starting Brodeur in net this series, with Lindbergh available on the bench if we need a change of pace.

anyway, Ftorek vs Tavares: Ftorek is definitely the better of the two defensively with the 6th place finish, though don't sell Tavares short there, he was able to finish right around even in +/- on some notably awful Islanders teams over the past few years indicating that he's at least holding his end of the bargain in that regard. That said, I'm not counting on his defense here, that line's pure offense. With Tavares' 3rd and 18th place Hart finishes and two top-10 AS selections (6th, 4th) I think at worst this one's a wash if not a very slight nod in JT's favor even with his short career.

As for the D, Eldebrink just stands out to me as a guy that I think very well may be the best player at his position at this level. Offensively his results are obvious given not just what's available from the SHL and from his results in best on best tournaments, but there's a little but not a lot that we've been able to gather over the years that would indicate he was just a flat out good overall defenseman rather then just a good offensive dman. The heavy reliance of the Swedes on him in the Canada Cups and World Championships at the time paints a picture of a guy that was a just flat out excellent dman, as does his placement in fan voting for the Sweden all-time team years back. His 3 Swedish league MVPs came at a time where the SHL was arguably at its best, and was the generation before most of the best Swedish players really started coming over here en-masse to make their mark. His 3 MVPs all came when he wasn't even the leagues highest scoring dman, and only once when he was in the top 30 of scoring for the entire league. I just have to believe there's more to it, unfortunately Google news search seems to have gone to crap the past few years and of what I can find anymore it's mostly about his coaching.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Harvard Wins in 6 Games

3 Stars
1. 3-way tie (Nedved, Eldebrink, Bernier)