Hewitt Division Semifinals: Amarillo Gorillas vs Montreal Maroons

[Theokritos]

AMARILLO GORILLAS
coach: EMILE FRANCIS

CLARK GILLIES - WAYNE GRETZKY (A) - JARI KURRI
LUC ROBITAILLE - JOE PRIMEAU - STEVE LARMER
MARTY PAVELICH - GILBERT PERREAULT - ODIE CLEGHORN
JOHN MADDEN - BUTCH GORING - PAT VERBEEK

CHRIS PRONGER (A) - ROB BLAKE
HAP DAY (C) - SERGEI ZUBOV
SILAS GRIFFIS - RANDY CARLYLE

JOHNNY BOWER
EDDIE GIACOMIN

PP1: Gretzky, Robitaille, Kurri, Zubov, Pronger
PP2: Perreault, Primeau, Cleghorn, Blake, Griffis
PK1: Madden, Pavelich, Pronger, Carlyle
PK2: Goring, Larmer, Day, Zubov

Press Box: F BRAD RICHARDS, F NEAL BROTEN, D TAFFY ABEL, D KEITH YANDLE​

1, G, Johnny Bower ... Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
2, D, Silas Griffis ... Rat Portage, Ontario
3, D, Keith Yandle ... Boston, Massachusetts
4, LD, Hap Day ... Owen Sound, Ontario
5, RD, Rob Blake ... Simcoe, Ontario
6, D, Taffy Abel ... Sault Ste Marie, Michigan
7, C, Neal Broten ... Roseau, Minnesota
8, RD, Randy Carlyle ... Sudbury, Ontario
9, C, Joe Primeau ... Victoria, British Columbia
10, RW, Odie Cleghorn ... Montreal, Quebec
11, C, Gilbert Perreault ... Victoriaville, Quebec
12, LW, Marty Pavelich ... Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
16, RW, Pat Verbeek ... Sarnia, Ontario
17, RW, Jari Kurri ... Helsinki, Finland
18, LW, John Madden ... Toronto, Ontario
19, C, Butch Goring ... St Boniface, Manitoba
20, LW, Luc Robitaille ... Montreal, Quebec
28, RW, Steve Larmer ... Peterborough, Ontario
31, G, Eddie Giacomin ... Sudbury, Ontario
44, LD, Chris Pronger ... Dryden, Ontario
56, RD, Sergei Zubov ... Moscow, Russia
91, C, Brad Richards ... Murray Harbor, PEI
99, C, Wayne Gretzky ... Brantford, Ontario

The Amarillo Gorillas were a minor league hockey team based in Amarillo, Texas. The team was most recently affiliated with the now defunct Central Hockey League from 2001–10. The Gorillas began play in 1996 as the Amarillo Rattlers in the Western Professional Hockey League until the WPHL was folded into the CHL in 2001. Renamed as the Gorillas in 2002, the team frequently finished at the bottom of the WPHL and CHL divisions, but made the playoffs four straight years in the mid-2000's.

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[Theokritos]

Coach: Peter Laviolette
Assistant Coach: Frank Patrick
Captain: Dit Clapper
Alternates: Sylvio Mantha, George Armstrong

Anatoli Firsov --- Cyclone Taylor --- Jarome Iginla
Dean Prentice --- Henri Richard --- Rod Gilbert
Smokey Harris --- Russell Bowie --- George Armstrong (A)
Bob Bourne --- Vladimir Shadrin --- Floyd Curry

Bill Gadsby --- Dit Clapper (C)
Frank Patrick --- Sylvio Mantha (A)
Kevin Lowe --- Yuri Liapkin

Georges Vezina
Chuck Rayner



​

PP1: Cyclone Taylor - Bill Gadsby - Anatoli Firsov - Russell Bowie - Jarome Iginla
PP2: Frank Patrick - Yuri Liapkin - Dit Clapper - Henri Richard - Rod Gilbert

PK1: Sylvio Mantha - Dit Clapper - Vladimir Shadrin - Floyd Curry
PK2: Kevin Lowe - Bill Gadsby - Bob Bourne - George Armstrong

Spares: Billy Burch (C/LW), Dallas Smith (D), Harry Hyland (RW)

Forward Minutes

Player | ES | PP | PK | Total
Anatoli Firsov| 14 | 5| 0 | 19
Cyclone Taylor| 14 | 5 | 0 | 19
Jarome Iginla| 14 | 4 | 0 |18
Dean Prentice| 13 | 0 | 1 |14
Henri Richard| 15 | 2 | 1 | 18
Rod Gilbert | 13 | 3 | 0 | 16
Smokey Harris| 12 | 0 | 0 | 13
Russell Bowie| 11 | 4 | 0 | 15
George Armstrong| 11 | 0 | 3 | 14
Bob Bourne | 7 | 0 | 2 | 9
Vladimir Shadrin| 6 | 0 | 4 | 10
Floyd Curry | 7 | 0 | 3 | 10
TOTAL | 138 | 23 | 14 | 178

Defensemen Minutes

Player | ES | PP | PK | Total
Bill Gadsby | 17 | 3 | 3 | 23
Dit Clapper| 17 | 3 | 4 | 24
Frank Patrick| 16 | 3 | 0 | 19
Sylvio Mantha| 16 | 0 | 4 | 20
Kevin Lowe| 13 | 0 | 3 | 16
Yuri Liapkin | 13 | 3 | 0 | 13
TOTAL | 92 | 12 | 14 | 115

 

[ResilientBeast]

My second year facing off against a Gretzky team

I think I have the right second line to check Gretzky's line

Richard - Gretzky
Prentice - Kurri
Gilbert - Gillies (honestly will he do anything?)

Straight matching up our top lines yours is superior because of Gretzky but the gap between Kurri and Iginla isn't the largest and Firsov vs Gillies is a gap of mythical proportions.

Looking at our D

I'd rank our top 4

1. Pronger
2. Gadsby
3. Clapper
4. Blake
5. Mantha
6. Zubov
7. Day
8. Patrick

Overall probably pretty even mainly due to Patrick on my 2nd pairing

Goaltending is a healthy advantage for me Vezina > Bower

Coaching is another advantage IMO Laviolette alone is better than Francis but with Patrick to hopefully balance out Laviolette I think I have the superior coaching staff.

 

[ResilientBeast]

Our center depth (in terms of skill)

Gretzky
Perrault
Primeau

vs

Taylor
Richard
Bowie

I might be a homer and little crazy but I'd take my group. Gretzky is clearly the best but

Gretzky



Taylor
Richard


Perrault

Bowie


Primeau

Would be roughly how I see them, the largest gap is Gretzky to Taylor but besides that my centers are just better.

 

[ResilientBeast]

Looking at top 6 wingers

1. Kurri
2. Firsov
3. Iginla
4. Robataille
5. Gilbert
6. Larmer
7. Prentice
8. Gillies

Again I think my group is slightly superior 3 of the top 5 and my worst guy is better than your worst guy

 

[ResilientBeast]

We'll see if ck comes back

But reasons the Maroons should win

1) Better center depth
2) Better winger depth
3) Better coaching
4) Better goaltending

 

[ResilientBeast]

To add a comment that TDMM made on my team, yes I lack a true/elite 1PK center but if you read Patrick's bio as a coach his teams were known to not take a lot of penalties. And my team lacks any heavily penalized players so I'm planning my team to spend little time on the penalty kill.

I also have Richard who I think has the skill set to be a great pker and Prentice who has anecdotal evidence of being a pker taking a minute away from my top unit just to distribute the minutes better.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

To add a comment that TDMM made on my team, yes I lack a true/elite 1PK center but if you read Patrick's bio as a coach his teams were known to not take a lot of penalties. And my team lacks any heavily penalized players so I'm planning my team to spend little time on the penalty kill.

I also have Richard who I think has the skill set to be a great pker and Prentice who has anecdotal evidence of being a pker taking a minute away from my top unit just to distribute the minutes better.

Heh, I think you might be the only one to have read those things.

How much control do you think the assistant coach actually has over the team's style of play?

_____

In other news, I can't think of a forward in the history of the sport I'd rather match up against Gretzky than Henry Richard. If I'm Emile Francis*, I try hard to avoid that matchup.

*Not exactly a marquis coaching matchup here, eh?

 

[ResilientBeast]

Heh, I think you might be the only one to have read those things.

How much control do you think the assistant coach actually has over the team's style of play?

_____

In other news, I can't think of a forward in the history of the sport I'd rather match up against Gretzky than Henry Richard. If I'm Emile Francis*, I try hard to avoid that matchup.

*Not exactly a marquis coaching matchup here, eh?

This is my strongest entry yet so I'll take all comments I can get

We don't know who gets home ice, but for 3 or 4 games Richard is going to stapled to Gretzky

I think my coaches are better suited to my team. Both want to play a run and gun game and have the talent in Taylor, Firsov and Bowie to do it. Lavi likes physicality so I have Iginla and then Harris and Armstrong. I question if 1) this is a good team for Francis to coach and 2) is he really even close to Lavi

And like your comments I have a solid D group 1-6 and then a top 10 goalie backing them up.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Heh, I think you might be the only one to have read those things.

I have read it too, just not much to respond to of your mini-bio of my team.

----------------------------

It's good that the Maroons have Cyclone Taylor and Russell Bowie.This enables Henri Richard to concentrate on Wayne Gretzky without losing too much offense from the center line.

 

[ResilientBeast]

I have read it too, just not much to respond to of your mini-bio of my team.

----------------------------

It's good that the Maroons have Cyclone Taylor and Russell Bowie.This enables Henri Richard to concentrate on Wayne Gretzky without losing too much offense from the center line.

Even though I slightly regret picking Richard when I did, I've since 180'd since I have this matchup.