sorry, i forgot about this b/c of playoffs. i must have also missed the voting for 4 vs 5 series, but i did not get any PM's about them.
i voted guelph 1st in the division. very well constructed team and well balanced with no serious weaknesses.
matchups
main matchup i want is hatcher and noble against trottier's line. both were very physical and strong defensively, which i think is necessary against the power of gillies and trottier. noble's great speed will help cover for hatcher's lack of speed. gillies and trottier are not speedy players, though, so hatcher's lack of speed is not as big a problem as it would be against faster players.
i want samuelsson and rafalski against macleish's line. rod seiling will sometimes replace rafalski on the 2nd pair, particularly for defensive zone faceoffs.
my 1st or 2nd line will be out for shifts against guelph's 3rd pair whenever feasible.
defense
babcock employs a pressure game in which the puck carrier is pressured continuously. almost all of my F's were good defensively and most have the speed to play a pressure game. only F's who were questionable defensively were the hulls, and bobby hull was one of the fastest skaters in history.
C's are particularly important in this style of play, and all my C's were good skaters and good defensively.
when lumley was voted best goalie in '54 and '55, he had a physical d-corps that protected the front of the net. physicality of hatcher and samuelsson is well known, but noble was also very physical and a great hitter.
transition:
my d-corps is not ideally suited for quick transition, but noble and rafalski are very fast, and i think the position of my F's in the defensive zone (low more than high) and their speed will aid the transition out of the defensive zone.
faceoffs
i was anticipating being able to get matchups i want based on winning faceoffs, but faceoffs are a strength of both teams, and i don't know who would win more. i think jarvis is the best faceoff man in this series. his line will be used mostly for defensive zone faceoffs and PK.
poulin will probably not win many faceoffs against forsberg, b/c kirk muller will take most of them.
1st and 2nd lines will get most of the offensive zone faceoffs.
i do not know really anything about lemaire's faceoff ability.
crease monkeys
babcock puts much emphasis on F's playing near the net, screening, deflections, garbage goals, etc. he likes to have at least 1 player on each line who plays that role.
these roles would be filled by stanley, probably ward, and stasiuk and muller, who both played this role in their careers.
broda is better than lumley, so screens, deflections, rebounds and garbage goals are important.
lapointe was injury prone.
forsberg is well known for injuries, but lapointe also suffered many injuries. ankle, cheekbone, eye, knee
lapointe played less than 70 games in more than 1/2 of his 14 seasons, and played less than 60 games in 6 of 14 seasons.
after the habs' dynasty ended, lapointe did not play 60 games in a season.
lapointe missed games in 6 of 13 playoffs ('77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82).
forsberg the goalscorer
forsberg is often criticized for being a weak goalscorer, but in the playoffs he was more aggressive and scored more goals. in the playoffs, forsberg actually scored goals at a higher rate than prime trottier, even though trottier played in a much higher scoring era.
trottier's last point per game season was '88.
trottier '76-'88: .374 goals per playoff game (age 19-31)
forsberg: .424 goals per playoff game (age 21-34)
trottier scored 0p in '88 playoffs, with '88 removed....
trottier '76-'87: .382
forsberg: .424
trottier '76-'84: .362 (age 19-26)
forsberg: .424
peak trottier '80-'84: .469 (age 23-27)
forsberg: .424
forsberg obviously played in a lower scoring period.
trottier was a playmaker more than a goalscorer, as was forsberg, and passing to bossy is probably a better play than not passing to him, but fortunately for me, trottier does not have bossy in this series.
