MLD Semifinal: Peterborough Petes versus Regina Capitals

[Transplanted Caper]

Semi-final One is the Petes versus Capitals.

Peterborough Petes
Head Coach: Rudy Pilous
Captain: Herb Cain
Assistant Captain: Harry Trihey
Assistant Captain: Moose Goheen

Herb Cain-Paul Ronty-Wally Hergesheimer
Anton Stastny-Harry Trihey-Marian Stastny
Darcy Tucker-Ron Stewart-Marion Gaborik
Shawn Burr-Jason Arnott-Rich Sutter
Mike Grier

Frank "Moose" Goheen-Yevgeny Paladiev
Mike O'Connell-Dave Maloney
Bill Juzda-Dimitri Yuskevich
Jeff Brown

Johnny Mowers
Bert Lindsay

PP1: Herb Cain-Paul Ronty-Wally Hergesheimer-O'Connell-Maloney
PP2Anton Stastny-Harry Trihey-Marian Stastny-Marion Gaborik-Yevgeny Paladiev

PK1:Sutter-Stewart-Yuskevich-Juzda
PK2:Burr-Arnott-Goheen-Paladiev


Regina Capitals
Rusty Crawford (C) - Dennis Maruk - Bill Guerin
Todd Bertuzzi - Josef Malecek - Scott Young
Patrik Sundstrom - Rick Meagher - Jimmy Peters Sr.
Darryl Sutter - Bruce MacGregor - Alf Skinner (A)

Dickie Boon - Jeff Beukeboom
Bob Murray - Paul Shmyr (A)
Bobby Rowe - Howard McNamara

Percy Lesueur
Henrik Lundqvist

Extras:
RW Alex Shibicky
LW/C Mike Krushelnyski
D Alan "Eagle Eye" Cameron

Coach: Art Ross

PP1: Bertuzzi-Malecek-Guerin-Boon-Murray
PP2: Crawford-Maruk-Young-Shmyr-Rowe
PK1: Sundstrom-Meagher-Beukeboom-McNamara
PK2: Peters-Crawford-Boon-Shmyr

Click to read more...

 

[seventieslord]

I'm going to have to dig deep. Peterborough has a good squad.

 

[chaosrevolver]

Note to TC...its MLD not ATD.

 

[seventieslord]

Up and down the Peterborough lineup, I see a very solid team, but I am confident in my own - especially in net. I wish I had more time tonight... Good luck, Peterborough. Hopefully we can get some good discussion going soon.

 

[seventieslord]

I guess I'll start with the old Seventieslord Special:

Regular season vs. playoffs, top-6 forwards

Herb Cain: .70 .43 -39%
Wally Hergesheimer - INC (5 playoff games, unfair to use)
Paul Ronty .64 .38 -41%
Anton Stastny .98 .79 -19%
Harry Trihey 1.59 2.00 +26%
Marian Stastny .91 .69 -24%

Average: -19.4% per player

Crawford: 0.67 0.67 0%
Maruk: 0.99 1.06 +7%
Guerin: 0.69 0.48 -30%
Bertuzzi: 0.73 0.50 -32%
Malecek - N/A (no euro playoffs, and using int'l competition as apples to apples is unfair)
Young: 0.64 0.62 -3%

Average: -9.5% per player

Again, as seen in my last series, I believe this demonstrates that my players as a group have the ability to maintain a level of scoring similar to what they achieved in the regular season... Peterborough's top-6 group can't say that.

Next, who's going to shut down Regina's first and second line? Peterborough's third line has little to no defensive ability as a unit, and though the fourth line is full of good two-way guys (in Sutter's case he's more one-way as he didn't do much offensively) but I don't see a shutdown player. Naturally, comparing defensive reputations are easier with more recent players since we have the voting histories to go by. Regina's got a guy who's finished 1st, 4th, 6th, 11th, and another who has been 10th and 14th. All that from a total of three bottom-sixers who played after 1977, when the Selke existed.

Peterborough's best defensive player, Shawn Burr, has been 4th and 5th in Selke voting, and that's all the top-15 finishes they have from five post-77 players who were able to receive votes for the selke.

Aside from the empirical way of comparing defensive acumen, I feel that my advantage defensively goes deeper than that. Rusty Crawford was awarded three retro Selkes by the brilliantly-researched Ultimate Hockey. He was probably the third best defensive forward of his time after Jack Walker and Frank Nighbor. All eras considered equal, That would put him on the level of an Esa Tikkanen or Mike Peca or Don Luce defensively. In addition to that, he's got the talent to play on the first line and has a spot in the HHOF. Jimmy Peters was credited with shutting down the Kraut Line for a cup win and rounds out a formidable 3rd line. Even MacGregor was good enough defensively to be selected to Team Canada's lineup in the 1974 Summt series.

I definitely like the edge I have in net. As I alluded to earlier, I'm not a big Mowers fan. If there's no WW2, does he even play an NHL game? He has the first all-star team nod and the Stanley Cup, and no one can take those away. But with Mowers, length of career and quality of competition have to be major concerns. He played three full seasons in the most watered-down period ever. He allowed 19 goals in 4 games in the most monumental SCF collapse ever. Percy Lesueur, on the other hand, played top-level hockey for 11 years, until age 35. He won two cups and only isn't "officially" listed a third time due to a ridiculous technicality. Mowers' .513 and .594 regular season and playoff win percentages are pretty decent, but they're not the .595 and .778 Lesueur has amassed.

I'm also concerned about Peterborough's ability to handle the playoff pressure. There are 11 Stanley Cups on the entire roster. Regina has them more than doubled, with 26. When you combine that with a history of fading in the playoffs, this might be the end for this great regular season roster.

 

[seventieslord]

Lineup update:

Due to Josef Malecek being voted a surprise star of the last series, I am putting him up to the first line, swapping him with Maruk. Both players lack size and have considerable offensive skill so this should not upset the team dynamic that got us through round one. This will simply get Malecek more ice time which should make us a better team if my fellow GMs believe he's a better player than Maruk.

 

[pitseleh]

Peterborough defeats Regina in 6 games.

Three Stars:

1) Herb Cain
2) Percy Lesueur
3) Johnny Mowers