I expected to see both of these teams get to this point. [Can't say I feel that way about ALL the match-ups!] Congratulations to both.Two points:
1) DID YOU KNOW? Henrik Lundqvist's Playoff Save Percentage is better than his Regular Season Save Percentage.
2) Is the top Goaltender post-Brodeur NOT in the top 2-dozen All-Time? The Aggy List (our most recent collation on the matter) slots him in at Number 20. If that's an over-valuation, I believe it's only a slight one. I think that the most superior Goalie post-Brodeur isn't anything less than an average #1 in a 40-team draft. [Either that, or we just conclude that the entire post-Brodeur crop of Netminders are pants. I'm much more concerned about the under-rating of Lundqvist/Luongo than the over-rating of them.]Yes- and another thing- it's not exactly like Panarin had no Professional Hockey credentials prior to his first game in the NHL...
Thanks CHP. Truly appreciate the insight.
I do think the ATD has largely become a plastering of numbers without the things I'm doing which is actually diving very deep into analysis. Should I be punished for using my free time to work hard on Pitt's roster while others do something different with their own time? Being completely honest, I do feel ganged up on at times if you look back at the threads, not just including this year. Not a single person has entered a series I've had this year and given a single thought that compliments or highlights my squad that I can recall. And this is the first series where the other GM really hasn't been active, which again, I don't blame. I've spoken to BB numerous times publicly and privately. He's a busy man and this pandemic insanity affects everyone differently.
Let me ask you a question sir. How many other players have their intellectual integrity questioned? How many others get tagged as not giving their 2nd team a full commitment? That was you, btw. There are GM's who aren't even voting/discussing and I'm getting, I think, sarcastically needled. I think, again, as a way to get me to "blow my top" as it were. There is part of me that thinks it's a coordinated effort. Why wouldn't it be when it's multiple people, over different periods of time? Is it for the amusement of reaction? Is it to get somebody with a solid team out?
And despite this, I don't take any of it personally. I'm in a far better place in life now. I hope people seeing me being honest about how I feel don't take anything personally either. I've got zero issue with a single GM here. Do I think the standard has been reduced over the years? Yes. But that's not on any single person, at all. It's a group issue. It's an issue of time and life.
Would I like to "win"? Sure. Who wouldn't as a competitive person? Do I think Pitt's squad is good enough to do that? Sure. I'm a very competitive person at heart and I don't think that's hard to discern. In the past though I lost sight of what is important and that's having fun building a team and discussing the merits of teams and players. There are plenty of people who show up, year in and year out, play and vote and do it all over again the following season. That's important, especially now more than ever. Sure, I may be long winded and spend way too much time on a fantasy draft but I do really enjoy it.
Nothing is personal. Do I occasionally stretch to the outer boundaries for a player on my team? Absolutely. But if we're being honest, most people do this. Part of being in a comp. Dreak has Redden on a top pairing. Is he stretching for Redden? Sure. I don't blame him at all for doing so. I've tried really hard to be fair and not over/under extend myself or the opposing team. I've been VERY careful not to use absolute terms or degrade anyone, player or coach.
Gong back to VsX, look at the old threads, dating back over the years. You can specifically see what I'm talking about once VsX entered the fray. It's not an accident. The VsX in particular is a wonderful barometer but it has bastardized the spirit of the draft IMO. This isn't the first year I've brought this up either. Analysis has become lazy and if you look at the vote count as the years have gone by, the participation has dwindled, to the tune of rounds that can't even muster more than 10 votes. It it was it is. Just the natural progression of something that we've all been doing year after year for more than a decade. People are older, they don't have the same drive, they don't have the same time, etc. For various reasons. I don't blame people for not showing up. I wish it were different but it isn't. We're almost surely never going back to the days when these threads would go 10 pages deep and 20+ people would vote routinely.
How often (I've looked, trust me) do you see ATD playoffs, literally just "well LW VsX vs LW VsX = this so my/your guy is better". "My C VsX is 9 points higher but ES VsX is 3 points inferior." To me, it's asinine. Thinking a F line is superior, largely based on a statistical approximation is a glaring problem to me. It's happening this year, again. And there are series where stacking VsX isn't even going to kill me anyway. But yet it's the first thing many people go to to evaluate "superiority".
Does anyone truly think Kovalev should be on a 1st line the ATD? With 40 teams even? Panarin on a 2nd line? What accomplishments of Panarin count for anything more than a passing glance than his NHL numbers, again, which are very limited? We used to press the caution button on active players, especially those with such little to their name in the grand scheme. What happened?
People are literally saying they hate Blair Russell on a 2nd line. OK, it's an opinion. No worries. Russell is a guy who's reunited with his career teammate. A guy (again I have plenty of material) who was, IMO, the best defensive F in the game until Tommy Phillips blossomed in the middle portion of the first decade. A guy who, yes, by the VsX/Vs1/2 etc standard isn't a good offensive player but a guy nevertheless who made the HOF with some other greats of those early eras, largely because of his defensive brilliance.
Is Blair Russell going to blow the doors off anyone offensively? No. Is he void of offense? No. Is he also FAR better defensively and away from the puck, a key aspect to my team, than either Panarin or Kovy? Absolutely. I've long argued defense is undervalued and that is solidified w/ the emergence of VsX and it's central use in determining value. I'll be posting the findings on Russell's defensive impact certainly. He fills a role for Pittsburgh. His primary role is to be a defensive stopper when the 2nd line goes power on power. His passing ability is of high quality and there is a connection to Bowie that shouldn't be denied IMO. He's a nice complimentary winger to a stud 2nd line C IMO. His credentials, be it his defensive rep or HOF inclusions, to me, dwarf a guy with 391 games to his name in the current NHL. 2-3 years from now the conversation is probably different. But we don't project out in the ATD.
Back to Lundqvist. Trying to argue that the goalie gap here is anything but large seems borderline ridiculous to me. BB wouldn't even do it.
You're talking about a guy who's never won a Cup. Has had numerous meltdowns in both the regular and postseasons (I watched them live). I don't think many sensible people rate this guy in the top 25 all time and if they do, it's barely. He's never once led the league SV%. Never once led in GAA, despite playing on strong NY teams that played, generally defensive first hockey. He has a losing record in the playoffs. Yes, he's been a SOLID playoff goalie, but where are the "raise the bar" performances? Has he ever willed a team to the top? Lundqvist has literally been voted as the best G in the world once. One time, in an era where the top end G comp has been extremely weak. Extremely, in an all time light.
vs
Vezina who most people consider top 10. A G who would have won a slew of best at position awards had they existed. A player who routinely dominated the competition, which btw was as good or better than anything Lundqvist has faced, another key point being glossed over. Vezina, and I have a slew of them, was absolutely dominant in crunch time. The amount of times that man faced far more shots that the comp is staggering. The amount of times he was cited as being the reason Montreal won are many, across his entire career, to include SCF's. Vezina has a few playoff series where he'd almost surely have won a Smythe had it existed. TDMM in partciular rates him 9th. I'm inclined to agree with him after clipping out dozens of newspaper bits from the duration of his career.
Vezina is the best G pre WWII. All Time. That's a half century of hockey.
Lundqvist has literally been voted best G in the world once.
As I said from the outset, I think if anyone has hesitation on this series, Vezina is a strong reason to push Pittsburgh across the finish line in a deep series. And Beliveau leading the way of course.
And now I must get the voting reminders out!
