Is Canadiens Defense highly underrated and disregarded?

[Artorius Horus T]

RD Jeff Petry: big mobile defenseman, improved his defensive game without
sacrificing his offensive game, last 2 seasons: two full 82 game seasons,
25 goals, 88 points with 56 penalty minutes (33 goals in last 3).

Team leader in ice time, team leader in hits, with 357, second in ice time per game with 23:30,
second in blocked shots, with 261, third in shots on goal, with 350.
Yes, most give away's, by far, with 211, however... among defensemen in takeaway's
is the best, with a larger margin what in give away's, with 90 takeaway's.

RD Shea Webber: when healthy, Shea is still one of the best defensemen in the NHL even at 33
don't care what people say about him, when healthy, he is still elite in every part of hockey.

I don't think furthermore talk is necessary,.. well, scored 14 goals 35 points and was +15
in just 58 games last season, was at pace of 20 goals and 50 points.
- led the team in few per game categories

LD Ben Chiarot: a really good defensive defenseman, has a good overall game.
Third in hits for Winnipeg last season, with 175, first among defenseman,
second in blocked shots, with 149, fifth most ice time, third most among
defensemen, seventh most ice time per game and fifth among defensemen.

LD Victor Mete: small,really strong skating two-way d-man who has improved tons each year in the NHL,
breakout season is expected from Victor (offensively). Plays way bigger what his size might suggest.

Is still young, barely 21. Fourth in 5 on 5 ice time per game with 16:55. Fourth most blocked shots
with 98, all of his blocked shots came from 5 on 5 play, which was one of the highest on his team
Didn't play much PP nor PK last season, total of 22 PP minutes in 71 games and 60 total of minutes of PK.

LD Brett Kulak, Kulak surprised me and many others last season,
still going to surprise many i think. Has offensive game in him and two-way as well,
solid in everything he does,

Canadiens prospect pool is deep and full of great and good prospects
(in alphabetical order)

RD Josh Brook (20)
LD Gianni Fairbrother (18)
RD Cale Fleury (20)
RD Noah Juulsen (22)
LD Otto Leskinen (22)
LD Mattias Norlinder (19)
LD Alexander Romanov (19)
LD Jayden Struble (17)

Click to read more...

 

[Machinehead]

Yes because we have to peddle the absolute creation that Carey Price is the best goalie in the league.

Underlying numbers have indicated he's middle of the pack in terms of facing dangerous chances and has been for years, because his defense actually excels greatly at limiting shots.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Ben Chiarot is not a very good defenseman...

 

[Kotkaniemi15]

The Habs defense is average but we have the best goalie in the world so it’s alright

 

[Holymakinaw]

LMAO.................NO!!!!

 

[amnesiac]

no, Julien's system helps.... We saw both exteremes this past season. Start of the year they were scoring a ton, while Price and the D hurt. Julien then flipped it around, offense went down, and Price looked good again.

 

[JoVel]

That's a pretty bad defense.

 

[Lshap]

Yes because we have to peddle the absolute creation that Carey Price is the best goalie in the league.

Underlying numbers have indicated he's middle of the pack in terms of facing dangerous chances and has been for years, because his defense actually excels greatly at limiting shots.

Judging Price by an arbitrary measure of "Dangerous chances" is a weak argument. I'll trust every other measure -- including the good ol' fashioned eye-test -- that says he's among the very best.

The tip-off should be the reverse-engineered conclusion that Price is mediocre, therefore the Habs defence must be really good. It really wasn't. If they were that good at limiting shots, Price wouldn't have had to save so many of them.

 

[Kent Nilsson]

It’s highly garbage and the goalie’s overrated.

We had like at least 5 players with career years and the offense surpassed all expectations last year, if everything regresses closer to average we should be good for a lottery pick.

 

[Lebowski]

Weber and Petry is a very solid top 2, beyond that it’s a lot of patch work.

 

[Hostile Offer]

It's crap. Things got pretty ugly in our zone when Weber was injured.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Judging Price by an arbitrary measure of "Dangerous chances" is a weak argument. I'll trust every other measure -- including the good ol' fashioned eye-test -- that says he's among the very best.

The tip-off should be the reverse-engineered conclusion that Price is mediocre, therefore the Habs defence must be really good. It really wasn't. If they were that good at limiting shots, Price wouldn't have had to save so many of them.

How is dangerous chances too arbitrary, as opposed to the eye test?

 

[canuckinfuts]

I’d say they’re rated.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Right side is fantastic.

That Left side is somehow worse than the Oilers.

 

[Brando]

I think the overall makeup of the defense is a bit below average. I do think Jeff Petry is underrated, however. He's a top 25 D in the league.

 

[CanadienShark]

It's not very good. They have a few solid or very good pieces, but it's an unspectacular group. Having arguably the best goalie in the world behind them helps big time.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Ben Chiarot is not a very good defenseman...

Crazy how much reputation shapes the scouting report on here. Jets have a good rep as a good defensive team but they still have some bad D on there like Kulikov and Chiarot.. And the defense is ugly this year for the Jets.

 

[Lshap]

How is dangerous chances too arbitrary, as opposed to the eye test?

Because it's a single subjective stat versus almost every other stat that says otherwise.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

How is dangerous chances too arbitrary, as opposed to the eye test?

From my understanding, the majority of places that use advance stats don't gather them themselves, but rather data mine them from another source.

In short, it might be "diluted"

Right side is fantastic.

That Left side is somehow worse than the Oilers.

Assuming Klefbom and Nurse are on the left, then yes, a lot of teams would likely have worse LD than Edmonton.

Nurse is really good.



I think people will underrate Mete because he was supposed to be an offensive d who provides no offense.

Mete is a solid defender, but that doesn't make the left side any better.

Kulak played way better than I expected, but I expected him to be hot garbage. He played like low-end number 4. Advanced stars say he and Petry played well, but I say whichever one of him, or Chiarot will looked great on the bottom pair and the other will suck on the 2nd pair leading fans to demand to be swapped.

 

[ijuka]

LD Ben Chiarot: a really good defensive defenseman, has a good overall game.
Third in hits for Winnipeg last season, with 175, first among defenseman,
second in blocked shots, with 149, fifth most ice time, third most among
defensemen, seventh most ice time per game and fifth among defensemen.

Guy is not very good at all. Ideally a 7th defenseman for a contender.

 

[Just Linda]

Underrated yeah only because it showed itself to be average when it was expected to be dumpster fire last year.

Take a weaker top pairing D from last year, I'll randomly good 30th best NHL d... Shae Theodore popped up, that works for me.

Theodore - Weber
Chiarot - Peter
Mete - Juulsen
Kulak

That's a strong defensive team. Top 10 in the league? Maybe.

Or even trading Petry for a comparable, again I'll use Theodore as my random example.

Theodore - Weber
Mete - Juulsen
Kulak - Brook

Not the strongest but good enough to skim into a playoff spot probably so long as the offense doesn't struggle. There's teams in the playoffs last year with weaker d than that.

In my opinion it's not a bad defensive group, just a flawed one.

 

[Machinehead]

Judging Price by an arbitrary measure of "Dangerous chances" is a weak argument. I'll trust every other measure -- including the good ol' fashioned eye-test -- that says he's among the very best.

The tip-off should be the reverse-engineered conclusion that Price is mediocre, therefore the Habs defence must be really good. It really wasn't. If they were that good at limiting shots, Price wouldn't have had to save so many of them.

Price is extraordinary at stopping rush chances. That probably influences the eye test.

There are many other types of good scoring chances.

 

[DFF]

2 good dmen is not enough