MLD 2016 Semifinals: Winnipeg Fighting Fish vs. Toronto Blueshirts

[seventieslord]

Winnipeg Fighting Fish

Herb Cain - Marc Savard - Bill Goldsworthy
Thomas Vanek - David Krejci - Steve Sullivan
Murph Chamberlain - Mikko Koivu - Charlie Sands
Doc Romnes - Saku Koivu - Mush March
Dennis Maruk - Rabbit McVeigh

Paul Shmyr- Ed Jovanovski
Rick Ley - Mike Green
Kenny Jonsson - Ron Greschner
Haldor Halderson - Weldy Young

Normie Smith
Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Coach: Bruce Boudreau

PP1: Herb Cain - Marc Savard - Bill Goldsworthy - Ron Greschner - Mike Green
PP2: Thomas Vanek - David Krejci - Steve Sullivan - Kenny Jonsson - Ed Jovanovski
PK1: Mikko Koivu - Murphy Chamberlain - Paul Shmyr - Ed Jovanovski
PK2: David Krecji - Steve Sullivan - Rick Ley - Kenny Jonsson
PK3: Saku Koivu - Charlie Sands - The most rested defence pairing

VS

Head Coach: Punch Imlach

John Ogrodnick - Craig Janney - Kevin Dineen (C)
Alex Shibicky - Daniel Briere - Bobby Schmautz
Tom Anderson - Jaroslav Holik (A) - Bill Fairbairn
Baldy Cotton - Ken Linseman (A) - Keith Crowder
Glen Skov, Buddy O'Connor, Mike McPhee

Roman Hamrlik - Andre Dupont
Mario Marois - Jyrki Lumme
Mark Tinordi - Petr Svoboda
Billy Coutu

Chris Osgood
Tom Paton

PP1:

Ogrodnick - Janney - Dineen
Hamrlik - Lumme

PP2:

Shibicky - Briere - Schmautz
Svoboda - Marois

PK1:

Jaroslav Holik - Bill Fairbairn
Dupont - Tinordi

PK2:

Linseman - Cotton
Marois - Hamrlik[/B]​

Click to read more...

 

[seventieslord]

A berth in an MLD championship final is up for grabs - let's go, guys.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Random observation: both teams have a checking line centre who I really like, and butter-soft first line centres. So secondary scoring has a big say in who wins this. So who's got it? Hedberg? Wrigley? Come at me!

Also: just realized Imlach is coaching Janney here. I'm sure there's a lot of love between those two.

 

[Hedberg]

butter-soft first line centres.

If they weren't, they wouldn't be here . I promise I will get into this more later today.

 

[Hedberg]

Ok, so a day late...

On the question of secondary scoring beyond the centres, this series is a contest between a high-end skill (for the MLD matchup) against a group of grinders. Winnipeg boasts 4 of the top 12 vsx7 scorers in the league.

I am fairly confident in Winnipeg's ability on defence to avoid being worn down by the more aggressive forwards on Toronto.

With the home ice advantage, Winnipeg's 4th line should get some favourable opportunities to support the top six's offence as while they lack the traditional edge of the 4th line (except March), they could produce like a low-end 2nd line.

 

[VanIslander]

Roman Hamrlik - Andre Dupont
Mario Marois - Jyrki Lumme
Mark Tinordi - Petr Svoboda

Chris Osgood

The weakest ability to stop goals against in recent years!

 

[seventieslord]

The weakest ability to stop goals against in recent years!

really, you're singling out an ATD staple goalie as being weak in the MLD?

I mean I totally get all the criticisms about Osgood and I make them frequently, but does he actually look bad compared to this field of ATD goalies?

The defense is not loaded with consummate defensive defensemen, but it does have one on the third pairing who had never fallen from the ATD before. Dupont is nothing to laugh at either. The other four? They don't scream "defensive whiz" to me, but they're not specialists like Jeff Brown, either. They were all, to some degree, two-way, minute munching players. Marois in particular was just outside the 2nd tier of top all-around defensemen throughout the mid-80s. Hamrlik played big minutes his whole career, and teams that employed him were just a shade below average at even strength. Lumme I know you don't want to say anything bad about. Svoboda is the closest thing to a specialist, and even he played over 21 minutes for 1000 games for typically excellent teams.

I'm not saying this is a fantastic defensive squad. As a whole, one would probably prefer to see Svoboda, Hamrlik or Lumme replaced with a purer defensive player to balance it out.

 

[seventieslord]

I mean, among starting blueliners, the three weakest defensive reputations in this series arguably belong to Green, Greschner and Jovanovski, don't they? The first two I wouldn't say are even arguable.

But Winnipeg has three of the four strongest defensively in this series as well - one per pairing.

I'm not sure the "total" defensive ability on either team is considerably better. One did it with complementary pairings; the other did it mostly with "two-way" guys.

 

[Hedberg]

I mean, among starting blueliners, the three weakest defensive reputations in this series arguably belong to Green, Greschner and Jovanovski, don't they? The first two I wouldn't say are even arguable.

There's a reason they're all on separate pairs.

I think Green's reputation suffers from being one of the players caught up in the old school/analytics debate, which leads to some hyperbolic criticisms (I suspect if the debate had occurred a decade earlier, Jovanovski would've been on the opposite side of this). As a contemporary player, we know his possession stats, even on Detroit, are very good. So while may not be ideal in the defensive zone, the upside is he spends less time there than most.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Winnipeg defeats Toronto in 7 games

3 Stars
1. Tie - Normie Smith/Herb Cain
3. Daniel Briere