HFBoards Team USA 2020: 1C

[Dominance]

With the Canada polls about to move into the defensemen, let’s start making Team USA. Who should be the first line centre?

This series of polls is an exercise to collectively put together the best rosters nations could field if they were to play an international game on New Year’s Day.

The process for filling out the team as follows:

1. Fill the forwards, moving from centres to wing to wing, with remaining centres also eligible. A player might be best deployed higher up in the lineup on the wing; it is up to the voters to decide.
2. Fill the defense. All defenders will be available for each side. Up to the voters to determine the importance of correct handed-ness.
3. Fill the goalies.

These polls will make a 2020 Team Canada, Team Canada B, Team USA, Team Sweden, Team Finland, Team Russia, Team Rest of World, and so on as demanded. The final rosters will then be put into a poll to determine the order of the best offenses, defenses, and goalies, and the average determined to decide the best teams. I will then compile everything into one document, which I will post in the International Forums.

Here is the pool of players I will be working with. Open to suggestions.

C: Matthews, Eichel, Larkin, Trocheck, Stastny, Stepan, Schmaltz, Hayes, Nelson

LW: Gaudreau, M Tkachuk, Guentzel, Kreider, Keller, B Tkachuk, Connor, Pacioretty, Parise, Lee, Galchenyuk, Zucker, Foligno, Dzingel

RW: Kane, Wheeler, Kessel, Debrincat, Atkinson, Oshie, Palmieri, Boeser, Pavelski, Labanc, Tuch

LD: Slavin, Suter, Krug, McDonagh, Werenski, Dumoulin, Fowler, Gostisbehere, Goligoski, Leddy, McCabe, Hanifin, Skjei, DeKeyser, Schmidt, Yandle

RD: Jones, Carlson, McAvoy, Trouba, Petry, Pesce, Carlo, E Johnson, Faulk

G: Gibson, Bishop, Hellebuyck, Quick, Howard

With that aside...who should be the first line centreman?

Click to read more...

 

[Dominance]

My vote went to Matthews, although I figure he and Eichel would likely be more of a “1A, 1B”. As a (relatively) reasonable Leafs fan I know better than anyone he goes hot and cold, in every aspect of his game, but when he’s on you can count the number of players more capable of taking over the game on one hand, probably with a finger or two to spare.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

Eichel is my vote, so he can center DeBrincat-Kane.

Matthews is the superior center to Eichel, but I still think Patrick Kane is Team USA’s preeminent player, the guy you build L1 around.. and imo he’d fit slightly better with Eichel rather than AM.

Edit: with Eichel there, I’d then run a M. Tkachuk-Matthews-Wheeler line.

 

[Dominance]

Eichel is my vote, so he can center DeBrincat-Kane.

Matthews is the superior center to Eichel, but I still think Patrick Kane is Team USA’s preeminent player, the guy you build L1 around.. and imo he’d fit slightly better with Eichel rather than AM.

Edit: with Eichel there, I’d then run a M. Tkachuk-Matthews-Wheeler line.

Those are some scary groups. This is exactly the way I was hoping people would address these polls - as evidenced by my expressive use of “should” throughout. It’s not always just the theoretically best player in a vacuum.

 

[Trap Jesus]

I think there are a lot of things you can do up front in terms of mixing and matching player combos so that there isn't a typical 1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line dynamic but rather 3 pretty equal top lines. Weirdly they don't seem to have much of a defensive presence among their forwards any more outside of Larkin. Makes you realize how important a guy like Kesler was to them where you could just pencil him in every time.

Tkachuk-Matthews-Wheeler
DeBrincat-Larkin-Kane
Gaudreau-Eichel-Atkinson
Connor-Stastny-Boeser
Pavelski

Matthews as the goal-scorer, Wheeler as the set-up man, Tkachuk as the glue guy.

Defensive presence in between the Chicago pair (a la Toews), but who can also keep up with their offense.

Mix of size and skill and a good trigger man on the right side for the two playmakers.

I think Stastny gets underrated. There are a few guys you could consider here but I think he brings at least some semblance of defensive play to the table. You could argue either Guentzel or Kessel over those wingers, it's a matter of personal preference to me. I think those wingers give the line-up a bit more size too, as it's pretty small up front after the first line.

Pavelski is super versatile and would be great to have for the PP.

Slavin-Carlson
Werenski-Jones
Suter-McAvoy
Pesce

Defense is stacked. I think it's tough to argue against who the top 6 are considering Werenski and Jones are already a pair. All of these guys are all-around workhorses, and if you can balance them all closer to 20 minutes a game, I think they'd be better off for it.

Can go a number of different ways with the last D (including a PP specialist like Krug or Yandle), but I think Pesce can take a load off on the PK and has some familiarity with Slavin if necessary.

Gibson
Bishop
Hellebuyck

Tough to argue against these 3, although Gibson vs. Bishop would be interesting to see who would be the starter. Good problem to have.

 

[Halla]

this one should be beyond obvious. Matthews will be 1, Eichel 2

 

[Critical13]

Eichel is my vote, so he can center DeBrincat-Kane.

Matthews is the superior center to Eichel, but I still think Patrick Kane is Team USA’s preeminent player, the guy you build L1 around.. and imo he’d fit slightly better with Eichel rather than AM.

Edit: with Eichel there, I’d then run a M. Tkachuk-Matthews-Wheeler line.

Super reasonable. Well said.

I think I would go

Trocheck - Matthews - Kane
DeBrincat - Eichel - Gaudreau

 

[MackAttack26]

Gaudreau - Matthews - Kane
DeBrincat - Eichel - Wheeler
Tkachuk - Larkin - Atkinson
Guentzel - Trocheck - Oshie

 

[MattySnipes]

Super reasonable. Well said.

I think I would go

Trocheck - Matthews - Kane
DeBrincat - Eichel - Gaudreau

Damn. Those are some sexy lines man. USA wingers looks small-ish, but lethal! Hope there's an Olympics. Make it happen Gary.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Matthews is going to win, but I prefer Eichel.

 

[wabagee]

USA is definitely lacking center depth, Canada has better centers sitting in the press box.

 

[Merrrlin]

USA is definitely lacking center depth, Canada has better centers sitting in the press box.

Which centers are in Canada's pressbox that are better than Matthews, Eichel, Larkin, Trocheck, etc?

 

[bobholly39]

Which centers are in Canada's pressbox that are better than Matthews, Eichel, Larkin, Trocheck, etc?

Schiefele, Point, Giroux, Seguin etc all havent made team Canada so far.

I probably take Matthews above all those guys (maybe Eichel too) but its still really close in some cases.

 

[Merrrlin]

Schiefele, Point, Giroux, Seguin etc all havent made team Canada so far.

I probably take Matthews above all those guys (maybe Eichel too) but its still really close in some cases.

Giroux wouldn't be playing C at this level. I am not certain Seguin would either, definitely not over Eichel or Matthews.

Point and Scheifele I could see arguments for, but I really don't think I would take either over Matthews/Eichel.

 

[Regal]

Which centers are in Canada's pressbox that are better than Matthews, Eichel, Larkin, Trocheck, etc?

A few are better or similar to Trocheck, and some are debatable with the other three, but it's a pretty good 1-4. The "etc" is what's lacking because it's literally just Stastny, Hayes and Nelson for top 6 players.

 

[Haatley]

Eichel is my vote, so he can center DeBrincat-Kane.

Matthews is the superior center to Eichel, but I still think Patrick Kane is Team USA’s preeminent player, the guy you build L1 around.. and imo he’d fit slightly better with Eichel rather than AM.

Edit: with Eichel there, I’d then run a M. Tkachuk-Matthews-Wheeler line.

No Gaudreau on top two lines is an interesting take.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Which centers are in Canada's pressbox that are better than Matthews, Eichel, Larkin, Trocheck, etc?

If you go by literal centers without shifting any to the wing, Canada would have Crosby, McDavid, Bergeron and MacKinnon as their centers which would leave guys like:

Tavares
Scheifele
O’Reilly
Point
Couturier
Seguin
Stamkos
Toews

 

[Merrrlin]

If you go by literal centers without shifting any to the wing, Canada would have Crosby, McDavid, Bergeron and MacKinnon as their centers which would leave guys like:

Tavares
Scheifele
O’Reilly
Point
Couturier
Seguin
Stamkos
Toews

Those guys don't exactly blow Eichel, Matthews, Larkin and Trocheck out of the water.

Not to mention those guys are not in the pressbox, as the post I quoted mentioned, so not sure why you are suddenly moving the goalposts. It wasn't a "compare the C" question, it was a statement that Canada's leftover players not on their team are better than the starting Americans.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Those guys don't exactly blow Eichel, Matthews, Larkin and Trocheck out of the water.

Not to mention those guys are not in the pressbox, as the post I quoted mentioned, so not sure why you are suddenly moving the goalposts. It wasn't a "compare the C" question, it was a statement that Canada's leftover players not on their team are better than the starting Americans.

There's a chance Scheifele doesn't make the team, I think he's better than all the American centers.

 

[thethirdhockeyman91]

If torts is the coach then DUBINSKY will be the 1c with Abelkader on the wing

 

[Merrrlin]

There's a chance Scheifele doesn't make the team, I think he's better than all the American centers.

So there is one potential C that in your opinion may be better than the American Cs.

That's what all this is about?

Just let us pick our team, go fawn over the Canadian team in the Canadian thread.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

No Gaudreau on top two lines is an interesting take.

yeah I really wanted to put him on Matthews wing, I think they’d mesh perfectly with Gaudreau’s transition game and passing ability.

But I was just going for lineup balance, not saying anything about Johnny Hockey. Like I’d just personally rather use an elite scorer like Gaudreau to create and drive offense on a really speedy (Larkin and Atkinson the other 2 guys I have in mind) third line.

He fits the identity of that better than Wheeler, and Wheeler is still a premier passer who can set up Matthews, with Tkachuk as the 2-way physical presence who can go to the net.

Same reason I went Eichel (and considered Larkin) over Matthews at 1C between the Hawks duo, even though AM is the better player. Think they fit the roles and balance the lines better.

 

[Incognito]

Those guys don't exactly blow Eichel, Matthews, Larkin and Trocheck out of the water.

Not to mention those guys are not in the pressbox, as the post I quoted mentioned, so not sure why you are suddenly moving the goalposts. It wasn't a "compare the C" question, it was a statement that Canada's leftover players not on their team are better than the starting Americans.

I'd say that most of those guys are upgrades on Larkin and Trocheck, but not on Eichel or Matthews.

 

[EXTRAS]

Damn. America is gonna be great this time around.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Eichel is my vote, so he can center DeBrincat-Kane.

Matthews is the superior center to Eichel, but I still think Patrick Kane is Team USA’s preeminent player, the guy you build L1 around.. and imo he’d fit slightly better with Eichel rather than AM.

Edit: with Eichel there, I’d then run a M. Tkachuk-Matthews-Wheeler line.

Matthews is one of the best goal scorers in the league and you think he wouldn't work with one of the best playmaking wingers in the league?