How do the Ottawa Senators function:
Glen Sather, with the assistance of Frank Boucher, will do what they did in their NHL careers. Coach an aggressive, attacking style and empower the players to contribute to team strategy.
Sather's teams went all-out to score in the regular season and locked it down defensively in the playoffs. This team has the skill to play an attacking game and the defensive ability to lock it down when necessary.
Line 1: The Six Goal-A-Game Line. Joe Malone, Darryl Sittler, and Gordie Howe.
Frank Selke compared Joe Malone to Gordie Howe, as both were effortless skaters who could get themselves into great scoring positions and had hard and accurate shots. Howe was also an all-time great playmaker, great along the boards, a backchecker -- the total package. Darryl Sittler, the centre, is the third most skilled member of the unit but maybe the hardest worker. Joe Malone excelled at left wing alongside an old-time version of Sittler, Newsy Lalonde, so this combination should work well.
Line 2: The Kid Brother Line. Paul Thompson, Henri Richard, and Theo Fleury.
Henri Richard leads this line with his incredible skating, checking, and puck control. He was accustomed to playing against top centres and coming out ahead from beginning to end of his great career, and will shoulder this responsibility again in the ATD. Theo Fleury and Paul Thompson will give Richard wingers who can finish his passes, generate offence themselves, and check back against opposing top wingers. Fleury and Richard are a particularly interesting combination as a pair of undersized forwards who played bigger than they were with a real edge.
Line 3: Fire and Ice. Brad Marchand, Neil Colville, and Alexander Mogilny
Marchard and Patrice Bergeron have led maybe the best line in hockey for the last few years. Marchand will fit perfectly with Neil Colville, a skilled two-way righthanded centre like Bergeron, as they can play defensively or on the attack against anyone. Alexander Mogilny rounds out the line with his immense two-way talent. The question with Mogilny as always is will he bring the effort? Well, Mogilny's best season came under coach John Muckler, a protege of Glen Sather. The attacking style, talented and driven linemates, and more relaxed coaching style should be a great environment for him.
Line 4: The Fighting Irish. Rusty Crawford, Dave Poulin, and Rene Robert (or Jack Darragh)
Rusty Crawford brings the high-end speed, tireless forechecking and backchecking, and grit. Dave Poulin is a strong defensive centre with first-line skill and also a great skater and hard worker, and Rene Robert adds some attacking skill and more hard work to the line.
Pairing 1: Scott Stevens and Larry Murphy
Stevens toughness and defence and Murphy's elite puck control skills will form a strong first pairing. Both Stevens and Murphy have had success with similar pairing -- in fact they played together in Washington for a couple of years (albeit before either had really hit their peak) and each was a postseason all-star. Murphy is used to playing alongside elite defensive left defencemen. Rod Langway won a Norris with Murphy as his partner, and Nicklas Lidstrom partnered with Murphy as the shutdown pairing on back-to-back Cup winners. Murphy also paired with defensive LD Ulf Samuelsson on the top pairing for two Cup winners. Scott Stevens had some of his best seasons paired with skilled right defenders like Brian Rafalski and Scott Niedermayer, so Murphy is a perfect fit.
Pairing 2: Babe Pratt and Art Coulter
While Pratt and Coulter were teammates on a very strong New York Rangers team, they were not partners. But there's no reason they can't be. Coulter is more defensive and Pratt more offensive -- but Coulter was also a strong puck-carrier and stickhandler, and the massive Pratt was a strong defender and shot-blocker when needed. Hap Day "took the reins off" Pratt, leading to Pratt winning the Hart Trophy. Sather will do the same.
Pairing 3: Glen Harmon and Alex Pietrangelo
Defensive play and mobility are the name of the game for this bottom pairing. Harmon was known as an "Al Murray type", meaning a defensive defenceman, who was very good at carrying the puck out of danger and moving it up the ice. Pietrangelo is a big, mobile two-way defender who is among the best defensively and also among the leaders in even-strength points.
Power Play
Darryl Sittler - Joe Malone - Alexander Mogilny
Babe Pratt - Gordie Howe
Paul Thompson - Henri Richard - Theo Fleury
Larry Murphy - Rene Robert
Gordie Howe is the key to the first unit. He was the best scorer on a loaded Detroit power play in the 50s. In the 60s, he moved back to the point and led a Detroit power play made up of himself, Delvecchio, Ullman, and a revolving door of various ham-and-eggers. He was still the top power play scorer of the 60s who didn't play for Montreal, and the Detroit power play was the key to several playoff series victories in the 1960s, especially against Chicago.
Joe Malone was a first class goal scoring centre and should fill it up with a big power play role. Darryl Sittler adds skill and hard work in the corners, Mogilny the high-end skill, playmaking, and shot, and Babe Pratt was an elite offensive defender in his time.
Penalty Kill
“When we were a man short,” Boucher recalled, “we’d send out three forwards and one defenseman and we’d forecheck in their own end. This worked so well, we scored more goals over the season than we scored against us during the penalty-killing.”
Boucher's aggressive penalty killing system should be a great fit with coach Glen Sather, who coached the four top single season regular season SHG totals (one without Wayne Gretzky) and the top playoff SHG total.
Rusty Crawford - Dave Poulin - Gordie Howe
Scott Stevens
Brad Marchand - Neil Colville - Theo Fleury
Art Coulter
- Poulin and Fleury are both top-10 all time in shorthanded goals scored.
- Howe, Marchand, and Colville were the leading shorthanded scorers of their era.
- Crawford was among the fastest skaters of his era and a renowned backchecker, hard worker, and tireless skater.
- Stevens is on the shortlist of the greatest PK defencemen of all time, always playing big shorthanded minutes against top units for a very successful defensive team.
- Coulter was the main defenceman on Boucher's 3-1 penalty killing system and was among the top defender of his time.
- If circumstances require one of the forwards to drop into a defensive position, Colville was an all-star at defence and Howe and Crawford both played some defence.
- If Sather decides they need to go with two defencemen:
Poulin-Howe
Stevens-Coulter
Marchand-Colville
Harmon-Pietrangelo
Goaltending:
Vladislav Tretiak was a legend in his time, with a long and successful career, an innovative goaltending style and many great performances in big games. Because Tretiak never played an NHL regular season style schedule, Curtis Joseph will play a substantial share of the regular season games, keeping Tretiak fresh to take the net full-time in the playoffs.