Foster Hewitt final: Windsor Spitfires vs. California Golden Seals

[VanIslander]

Foster Hewitt divisional final:



Windsor Spitfires

coach Barry Trotz

Toe Blake - Jean Beliveau (C) - Mike Bossy
Henrik Zetterberg (A) - Frank Fredrickson - Dany Heatley
Smokey Harris - Jacques Lemaire - Mickey MacKay
Gilles Tremblay - Vincent Damphousse - Ken Randall
Ernie Russell, Eric Staal

Mark Howe - Earl Seibert (A)
Ryan Suter - Brent Burns
Doug Mohns - Bob Goldham
Sandis Ozolinsh

Ed Belfour
Ed Giacomin


vs.



California Golden Seals

coach Tommy Gorman

Syd Howe - Steve Yzerman (A) - Gordie Howe (C)
Roy Conacher - Sergei Fedorov - Steve Larmer
Craig Ramsay - Steve Kasper - Danny Gare
Patrick Marleau - Gilbert Perreault - Tony Amonte
John Tavares, Todd Bertuzzi

Sprague Cleghorn (A) - Jiri Bubla
Jack Stewart - Sergei Zubov
Moose Vasko - Red Horner
Jimmy Watson

Turk Broda
Curtis Joseph

​

Click to read more...

 

[VanIslander]

Post your special teams, links, photos, comments, etc.

 

[spitsfan24]

PP 1:

Toe Blake - Jean Beliveau - Mike Bossy
Mark Howe - Brent Burns

PP 2:

Henrik Zetterberg - Frank Fredrickson - Dany Heatley
Doug Mohns - Earl Seibert

PK 1:

Vinny Damphousse - Henrik Zetterberg
Ryan Suter - Earl Seibert

PK 2:

Jacques Lemaire - Mickey MacKay
Mark Howe - Bob Goldham

I'll outline my thoughts on the series sometime in the next few days.

 

[tony d]

Good luck to @spitsfan24 . Here are my special teams:

PP 1: Syd Howe-Steve Yzerman-Gordie Howe-Sprague Cleghorn-Sergei Zubov
PP 2: Roy Conacher-Gilbert Perreault-Steve Larmer-Jiri Bubla-Sergei Fedorov

PK 1: Craig Ramsay-Steve Kasper--Moose Vasko-Jack Stewart
PK 2: Sergei Fedorov-Gordie Howe-Sprague Cleghorn-Jiri Bubla

 

[spitsfan24]

I think this series will ultimately be decided by a few factors.

Limiting Gordie Howe

California's top line is very good. Obviously, the most important piece of the unit is Howe. While you will never completely shut him down, the Spitfires are well-equipped to limit his effectiveness. All of the left wingers in Windsor are at least a plus defensively, with Zetterberg being the cream of the crop in that regard. In Howe's book, he recalled an instance when he was trying to catch the Rocket's goal record and only had one game left to score a singular goal. Bert Olmstead was installed into the role of defensive stopper or as Howe put it, "attached to my hip like some sort of pesky shadow". Gordie did not get that history-making goal. With home-ice advantage in this series, Zetterberg is going to be that pesky shadow using his tenacious pressure and positional acuity.

Attacking The Defense

I don't know how else to say this other than just saying it. If Jiri Bubla is going to be tasked with stopping the top-six of the Spitfires, he's not going to succeed. I feel like he is grossly miscast as a top-pair defender in this setting, and Beliveau's line is licking their chops at the prospect of playing so often against him. California's forwards are going to have to shoulder a bunch of the defensive responsibility, meaning that even if they can prevent enough goals from going in (which I'm not convinced of), their impact on scoring goals will be restricted exponentially.

Forward Depth

I touched on it previously, but I think California's bottom six is going to struggle to score goals in this series. It seems like their third line is designed to be the shutdown line, and while it may serve that purpose, it's leaving a lot to be desired on the offensive side of the rink. I'm not sure if that line will be seeing most of their minutes against Windsor's top line, but if they are, California won't be scoring much (if at all) and Gordie Howe's ice time will be down.

The Boss(y) Factor

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I believe Mike Bossy to be a bit underrated these days. So I'd like to state a case for why he's the X-factor in this series.

Of the 67 playoff goals he scored during his peak, 36 of them either tied the game or put his team ahead. Additionally, against the top seven clubs in GA/GP during his prime, he scored at a ridiculous 67 goal pace.

In terms of finding open space in the offensive zone, there may not be anyone better at punishing defenders with a lightning-quick release. Trottier is an incredible player, but Bossy may have actually upgraded his pivot in Windsor as hard as that is to believe. When the spotlight was the brightest and defenses were at their very best, Bossy truly shined. He'll be a handful in this series.

Overall, I see too many weaknesses in California's lineup that will ultimately lead to the Spitfires being victorious.

 

[tony d]

Many thanks to @spitsfan24 for his points, I'll make some points of my own now:

- Regarding Gordie Howe. The Spitfires do have 4 very good left wingers. Zetterberg was a name on my radar both because I was going with a former Red Wing theme earlier in the draft and the guy's a really good player. I think he would be good against Howe but knowing the type of player Howe was he would quickly adapt and be effective vs. any of the left wingers that the Spitfires throw at him over the course of a best of 7 game series.

- I concede Jiri Bubla may be miscast as a top pairing defender here and the fact that the Spitfires 1st line is very good. That said my 1st line is good as well and may take up some defensive responsibility. Steve Yzerman turned into a responsible defensive player later in his career.

- Forward Depth. Any team with Gilbert Perreault as their 4th line centre will be fine at forward. My 3rd line is also going to be the main defensive line for my team. I take Ramsay-Kasper on a 3rd line over many if not all the teams in this draft and their 3rd lines.

- Mike Bossy. You won't see Bossy being over rated by me, he's an all time great goal scorer. In Beluveau he gets my #5 player of all time and an upgrade over Bryan Trottier for sure. That said Craig Ramsay was drafted by me because in my research on Ramsay I read that he was a very good shadow when playing vs. Lafleur. I expect a similar game for Ramsay vs. Lafleur.


Some points of my own now:

- I notice you didn't mention goaltending. I think both teams won't lack in the goaltending battle. Broda and Belfour are both in my top 15 goalies of all time which puts them in the 2nd tier of #1 goalies here. As to the head to head battle I prefer Broda especially in a playoff setting such as the one we are now in in the ATD but Ed Belfour should make things interesting for the series and help to keep Windsor competitive in the goalie battle.

Thanks for making your poiunts, @spitsfan24. I look forward to future debate.