and a carousel of average goalies
yea I know everyone is saying the devils will go back to the boring trapping team that sits back on 1 goal leads but I don't think the devils will be a whole lot different from last year, Lemaire said he wants to maintain the aggressive forechecking but have the center stay back a bit and actually have the defense pinch up on the play... something that they didn't do at all last year
I rather have Lemaire's system over John Steven's... does Steven's even have a system?
Thanks for asking.
and
the
answer
is....
no, no he does not have a system, he is an idiot.
The Flyers have the 2nd most talented team in the league, behind San Jose, and we will still come in 3rd in the East (behind Boston and whatever team Bettman decides needs to win the cup this year - it can't be the Pens AGAIN, can it?)because our coach is inept at making lines and runs a "do whatever you feel like doing" system.
If we had a REAL coach we would throw this 3 good scoring lines bull out the window, stack our 2 top lines and have the best top 2 lines in the league* imo, make an actual 3rd line be a checking line and roll the 4th line out there just to muck it up.
*stacked top 2 lines:
Gagne - Richards - Briere
Hartnell - Carter - Giroux
(I think I just wet myself thinking about it...)
For ***** and giggles lets speculate the points those 2 lines will put up, assuming health is not a factor:
Line 1:
Gagne - 40G 40A, and that is an average year for Simon
Richie - 30G 50A, with 8 of those goals being shorthanded as he continues trying to shatter that record
Briere - 35G 35A, a little low for him, but even if he is healthy he will still miss a dozen games with a stubbed toe
Line 2:
Harts - 30G 25A, and 500 PIMS, all of which are due to Pejorative Sluration
Carts - 40G 30A, I am expecting a down year for him, when teams game planned for him he got shut down, he is still a monster though
Giroux - 25G 40A, and then next year he will have 35G and 60A because he is the next coming of FOPPA!!!
We would also play a system that complimented our team make up. We have a good mix of big bulking wingers (Carcillo, Hartnell, Lappy - if he plays wing) and small, quick wingers (Briere, Powe - if he plays wing, Giroux - if he plays wing)
oh, and of course, JVR waiting in the wings.
We should play a more up tempo forecheck with the quick winger chasing the puck and the big winger and our 2 selke trophy worthy centers clogging the neutral zone. Not to mention now that we have a heavy hammer on D (Pronger) we can take more forechecking risks.
I am just hoping that all the leadership we added this offseason (Pronger and Lappy) plus the maturation of Mike Richards will help offset the ineptitude of the coach coming down the stretch. Nothing was worse than seeing our players take the last week or two of the season off last year and not being able to flip the switch for the first game of the Pens series. The hope stems from the fact that Smith and Hatch were able to do that in 07-08, so it has been done before.
