Speculation: Do the Habs have the toughest defense in the league?

[Le Barron de HF]

With the recent trend favoring analytics and defensemen who can quickly and efficiently move the puck, the Habs have gone in a different direction with the likes of Emelin, Weber and Pateryn being in the team's defensive squad.

My questions are:

a) Are they the toughest D in the league?

b) If it's the case, is that a good thing or a bad thing with the way the NHL is trending?

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[dackelljuneaubulis02]

With the recent trend favoring analytics and defensemen who can quickly and efficiently move the puck, the Habs have gone in a different direction with the likes of Emelin, Weber and Pateryn being in the team's defensive squad.

My questions are:

a) Are they the toughest D in the league?

b) If it's the case, is that a good thing or a bad thing with the way the NHL is trending?

I'm sure there's one tougher in the West but Weber's a huge addition in that department.

I personally like it come playoff time. Trends go back and forth. The only question mark in mobility is Markov. He'll be replaced my Serge I imagine and Serge is very mobile. As long as toughness doesn't compromise mobility then I think it's a positive imo.

 

[Habby Gilmore]

We may be "tougher", but "toughest", IDK.

 

[BLONG7]

We are tougher to play against in our own end, to start the season.......let's see where it goes...

 

[Le Barron de HF]

We may be "tougher", but "toughest", IDK.

I think you can definitely make a case, the teams that compete with us in terms of toughness are the Sens, the Canucks, the Jets, the Ducks and the Islanders.

 

[MXD]

I think you can definitely make a case, the teams that compete with us in terms of toughness are the Sens, the Canucks, the Jets, the Ducks and the Islanders.

I don't quite see it for the Canucks and the Islanders (for the D). Even Ottawa is a bit far-fetched. I mean... Unless they have new pieces I'm not aware of, they'd have to dress Borowiecki for it to remotely makes sense.

 

[G0bias]

Great question. Wonder what's our toughness/60 ratio at now?

That and our high Rel.CharacterFor % should make us feared opponents this year.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Shea Weber is not going to menace anyone beyond featherweight skill players. Agitators and above do not fear him.The opponent is being paid too and also might want to chase that carrot known as the Cup, and they are not going to chicken out because a guy can hit.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

I don't quite see it for the Canucks and the Islanders (for the D). Even Ottawa is a bit far-fetched. I mean... Unless they have new pieces I'm not aware of, they'd have to dress Borowiecki for it to remotely makes sense.

They have Methot and Phaneuf who are no slouches physically.

 

[MathMan]

I don't know if it's the toughest and I think it's unrelated to whether the defense is good or bad. Chara is tough and really good. Murray is tough and really bad.

If there are a lot of icepacks in the winning team's locker room after playing the Habs, that's not buying Montreal very much.

Or to paraphrase the way I used to qualify the Leafs defense: your opponents are going to spend a rough and painful time in the defensive zone, which is bad for them because they're going to spend an awful lot of time there.

 

[MrNasty]

Shea Weber is not going to menace anyone beyond featherweight skill players. Agitators and above do not fear him.The opponent is being paid too and also might want to chase that carrot known as the Cup, and they are not going to chicken out because a guy can hit.

Did you miss the quote from Shaw that says Weber broke his ribs.
He also beat up Roussel and Cooke. There are no bigger agitatators than those three.

Anyway, I disagree that Montreal has moved away from puck moving defensmen based on one transaction. He failed to mention Markov, Petry and Bealieu and Sergachev will be a very good puck moving defenseman.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

I don't know if it's the toughest and I think it's unrelated to whether the defense is good or bad. Chara is tough and really good. Murray is tough and really bad.

If there are a lot of icepacks in the winning team's locker room after playing the Habs, that's not buying Montreal very much.

Or to paraphrase the way I used to qualify the Leafs defense: your opponents are going to spend a rough and painful time in the defensive zone, which is bad for them because they're going to spend an awful lot of time there.

I didn't want to make this a fighting ability thread but rather a hitting/intimidation one. With fighters practically being a thing of the past, I think Weber is fine in the fighting department.

 

[angusyoung]

define tough

 

[M.C.G. 31]

They're tougher to play against for sure. I can't say "toughest" without looking at all the other groups. Price will definitely have bigger guys looking out for him back there if someone tries running him.

 

[Milhouse40]

It's really hard to tell.....but with Emelin, Weber, Pateryn...our zone won't be a walk in the park.
Kings should really be in that discussion to with McNabb, Martinez and Muzzin

 

[Le Barron de HF]

define tough

Defensive squad who will rack up the most hits.

 

[MathMan]

I didn't want to make this a fighting ability thread but rather a hitting/intimidation one. With fighters practically being a thing of the past, I think Weber is fine in the fighting department.

I was thinking in the hitting/intimidation sense as well. Fighting's a complete sideshow.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

It's hard to gauge how much but we're definitely tougher in that department than we were at the same time last year . I can guarantee you our goalies won't have to deal with the same kinds of crowds as they did after every whistle.

 

[MathMan]

Defensive squad who will rack up the most hits.

In that case such a squad would tend to be bad, because a player/team who hits a lot means the other team has the puck a lot.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

In that case such a squad would tend to be bad, because a player/team who hits a lot means the other team has the puck a lot.

I conceide that but I wouldn't mind if they went with the LAK approach which I something I've been wanting the team to do for a long time (one PMD and a physical stay-at-home guy).

 

[Le Barron de HF]

To give an idea of the numbers:

Weber: 169 hits
Emelin: 256 hits
Pateryn: 100 hits in 38 GP

Even guys like Petry (86 hits), Beaulieu (59) and Markov (56) are not soft by any means.

 

[mariolemieux66]

Toughest is Boston with Chara, McQuaid and Miller .

 

[MathMan]

I conceide that but I wouldn't mind if they went with the LAK approach which I something I've been wanting the team to do for a long time (one PMD and a physical stay-at-home guy).

I'm not sure that is how the Kings are actually set up, Schenn notwithstanding, and I'm not a big fan of classic "physical stay-at-home guys" as the game has pretty much passed them by.

Some of them are effective but they're almost invariably also multitalented.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Toughest is Boston with Chara, McQuaid and Miller .

Maybe that's the case, but our top three is better at playing hockey if you ask me.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

I'm not sure that is how the Kings are actually set up, Schenn notwithstanding, and I'm not a big fan of classic "physical stay-at-home guys" as the game has pretty much passed them by.

Some of them are effective but they're almost invariably also multitalented.

To be fair, what I had in mind was more at what they had in 2014 when they iced a defense like that:

Scuderi-Doughty
Muzzin-Voynov
Martinez-Greene