Bob Cole Division Finals - Winnipeg Victorias (1) vs Victoria Cougars (2)

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WINNIPEG VICTORIAS (1)

Three-Time Stanley Cup Champs (1896, 1901, 1902)

GM: Nabby12

Captain: Bobby Orr
Assistant: Aurel Joliat
Assistant: Peter Stastny

HEAD COACH - Punch Imlach

Aurele Joliat - Joe Malone - Harry Oliver
Anton Stastny - Peter Stastny - Marian Stastny
Charlie Simmer - Ulf Nilsson - Peter Bondra
Ted Irvine - Dan Bain - Jere Lehtinen
Mark Scheifele - Wally Hergesheimer

Alexander Ragulin - Bobby Orr
"Bullet" Joe Simpson - Ted Harris
Bill Juzda - Bob Chrystal
Kevin McCarthy

Jiri Holecek
Evgeni Nabokov

PP1: Joliat/Malone/P. Stastny - Bondra/Orr
PP2: Simmer/Nilsson/Oliver - Simpson/M. Stastny
PK1: Nilsson/Lehtinen - Ragulin/Orr
PK2: P. Stastny/Joliat - Simpson/Chrystal



VS

Victoria Cougars (2)

Coach: Jack Adams

Ted Lindsay (C) --- Nicklas Backstrom --- Babe Dye
Alex Delvecchio (A) --- Tommy Dunderdale --- Shane Doan
Ray Whitney --- Ken Mosdell --- Terry O'Reilly
Don Maloney --- Mikko Koivu --- Dmitri Khristich

Ebbie Goodfellow (A) --- Bill White
Lloyd Cook --- Cy Wentworth
Jay Bouwmeester --- Bingo Kampman

Martin Brodeur
Gerry Cheevers

Spares: Art Gagne (RW), Adam Deadmarsh (LW)

PP1: Goodfellow - Cook - Lindsay - Backstrom - Dye
PP2: Bouwmeester - White- Devecchio - Dunderdale - O'Reilly
PK1: Bouwmeester - White - Mosdell - Koivu
PK2: Cook- Wentworth - Delvecchio - Maloney
​

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[ResilientBeast]

What a weird matchup.

Right off the bat huge advantage Victoria in goal with Brodeur vs Holecek

Winnipeg counters with a large advantage with Bobby Orr as their 1D compared to Goodfellow

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

Player	Overall Rank*	Rank at Position*
Orr	3	1
Brodeur	30	5
Holeček	112	17
Goodfellow	166	45

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*Source: HoH Top 100 where applicable, except for the Final Vote (for the Holeček ranking), and the Aggregate List (for the Goodfellow ranking).

Orr- better as an Alpha Defenseman than Brodeur is as a Goaltender.
Holeček- better as a Goaltender than Goodfellow is as an Alpha Defenseman.

 

[ResilientBeast]

Player	Overall Rank*	Rank at Position*
Orr	3	1
Brodeur	30	5
Holeček	112	17
Goodfellow	166	45

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

*Source: HoH Top 100 where applicable, except for the Final Vote (for the Holeček ranking), and the Aggregate List (for the Goodfellow ranking).

Orr- better as an Alpha Defenseman than Brodeur is as a Goaltender.
Holeček- better as a Goaltender than Goodfellow is as an Alpha Defenseman.

Yes? I don't thing using the HOH lists as a gauge of absolute valley is a particularly valid endeavor for an ATD or we're all just draft based on this lists and move on with our lives.

 

[ResilientBeast]

Closing thoughts, it's always more fun to have your opponents show up. Arguing into the void isn't fun.

Winnipeg as a team lacks a lot of the little things that make a team successful. It seems hyper focused on offense and will leave Holecek outgunned a lot of the time.

Unless I'm missing something that second line is butter soft and definitely below average defensively.

Their top line has some defensive chops, thanks to Joliat but also has no one to really go into the corners and win puck battles.

Their defense outside of Orr isn't particularly excellent and their counterparts on Victoria match and surpass them.

Seems like enough people have already voted, so not much more to say here.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

Here's an interesting quote that reinforces a point I earlier made...

I picture Lehtinen stealing shifts on any one of your lines to make up the ice time he deserves.

Tough series coming up- it was always going to be a tough series. The last one was challenging- and for a while, it looked like Henri Richard and Jacques Plante brought the kryptonite to the Orr-suppression project. It almost worked.

Almost.

Orr is one of the handful of guys who have the sort of impact where teams have to have an answer to the "what do we do about this guy" question pretty much before addressing anything else. No doubt Victoria has a plan- but I'm having a hard time seeing how it's a better one than the one Winnipeg just got through defeating.

Last thought- Special Teams figure to have an outsized impact in how these series turn out.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Yes, i really wish @ResilientBeast had given a plan as to what to do about Orr.

I do think his criticisms of Winnipeg are mostly fair, however.