Good luck GBC, looking forward to a tough series.
One small lineup change, we're going to insert Holik into the lineup in place of Anisin to add some toughness and defensive awareness into the lineup, which I think is more important in this series than Anisin's playmaking. Just to quote what I had said about Holik before:
"Holik played a hard, highly focuses game of hockey. He had very high expectations of himself and of others...Holik was a tireless worker who inspired the other players because he never considered a match to be lost. 'Every time I went on the ice I was convinced that we had to win. I knew no other option. From the first face-off I was in a different world. I didn't differentiate between whether we were winning or losing. I always fought with equal passion. Once you let up, it is over.'...Holik really lived the games he played, never dodging blows or avoiding skirmishes."
"In the national team, played mostly together on a line with xxx xxxxxx and his brother Jiri Holik. Was famous for his emotional and agressive style in both ends of the ice, often reached top results in both scoring and penalty minutes."
Lebedev-Holik-Jirik are going to be a tough grinding line that will make things tough for Humboldt's big defensemen when we're on the offensive and on their forwards when we're playing defense.
As GBC mentioned, goaltending and coaching are a virtual wash.
I'll address a couple of GBC's points first:
And we'll try to get Richards' line out against the second line as much as possible, too. Straka's one of the few guys we have a really good scouting report on, and I think the Flett-Straka match-up is really favourable for us. Straka's soft, and outside of when he played with Jagr, he was never overly effective in the playoffs. And we have the Wensink advantage, too.
I don't know if I'd call Straka soft. He's not a guy who goes out and hits people, but he takes contact to make plays, lays his body out blocking shots, and hustles defensively. Yes his playoff numbers without Jagr aren't great, but they comprise two seasons from the ages of 23-25, and in this case he's playing with two very talented players to carry the offensive load as he did playing with Jagr. During his prime (when he was around a PPG player) from 1999-2008, he scored 60 points in 66 playoff games.
We're also confident in our first line when we need an offence vs. offence match-up. I think our top line matches up very well with Bergen's top line. Both lines are loaded with skill, although Hextall's toughness gives us an edge in that regard.
Babich was tough in his own right as well, and they'll be lining up across from each other if the lines do go head to head. Babich at the very least won't be intimidated by Hextall.
A lot of these guys on Bergen have never faced a guy with Bouwmeester's speed, smarts and size. They've never faced a guy with Green's size, reach, anticipation and defensive smarts. And Green's complimented nicely by Sweeney's smarts and mobility.
I don't know if you can say that about our players. No there weren't any players with Bouwmeester's size when our players played, but there weren't many players in the NHL with that size during that period. The Czechs on our roster played against intimidating Soviet defensemen like Ragulin, Vasiliev, and Lutchenko (and some against Sologubov and Ivanov), and the Soviets played those players along with Czech greats like Pospisil, Tikal, Bubla, etc.
Who's going to work the front of the net for Bergen on the PP? Who's going to do the dirty work along the boards? These are definite advantages for Humboldt.
Babich should be quite comfortable in that role on the first unit, while Jirik is on the second unit for that exact reason. Just to bring up quotes about their styles again:
"Jirik was famous for the way he parked himself in front of the net and assumed a pose like a tripod, with his stick out in front of him. It was nearly impossible to get him away from the net, to push him off balance or lift his stick. He provoked almost everybody he encountered - pushing and jabbing at the defensemen and scorers and sometimes flying into a rage. They were afraid of him. He was the terror of all defensemen.
Also, "Jirik had a tendency to get deeply absorbed in the game and very passionate about its outcome. He hated losing and could stand for pessimism, no matter who the opponent was. To him, losing was a disgrace. Even during training, when there was nothing at stake, he would often say or do whatever it took to win."
and Babich:
"Tarasov admired Bobrov's skill level, but he felt Babich was the better player. Babich was a complete player who sacrificed the spotlight for the good of the team. Babich, who could probably be compared to a Sergei Fedorov, and Shuvalov did the "hard labour" while Bobrov finished plays off with a scoring chance. The trio worked as a team, with the purpose being to get the puck to Bobrov.
"He had great courage. Head-on clashes meant nothing to him, and he spared neither himself nor his rivals in order to slam the puck into the net. At times, when he was pasted to the boards, it seemed as if Babich couldn't possibly get up and continue the game. But he'd do just that."
We're coming off a tough series against arguably the team with the best defensive personel in the draft. Bergen doesn't have the same imposing defence. Our guys will have more room to work.
I don't think we have the toughness that vcl's defense had in your last series, but Marshall, Kiessling, and Machac were definitely tough customers and it isn't going to be easy playing against them. Kuzkin and Fedorov bring a smart, positional defensive style.
A lot of Bergen's guys played their careers overseas, on big ice. Let's see how they do on a North American sized ice surface. Let's see how they do in a tough, best-of-seven situation on small ice, when we have a chance to make adjustments after each game. This isn't some best-of-one or best-of-three like what many of Bergen's guys get at the World Championships. The Indians have a big intangibles advantage.
At the same time, many of our players played most of the games that were available to them, while Humboldt will be relying on some players that haven't or didn't have particularly long careers or careers that were shortened by injury. Palffy was injured for the second half of his career and retired due to injury, Taylor only played in 6 full seasons and parts of a couple other, and Richards and Bouwmeester have played 3 and 5 seasons respectively. I know peak value holds a lot of weight in many people's opinions (and my own) but relying on those players in key roles should give us a bit of an advantage whether you want to look at it in terms of longevity or experience.
