What type of team do you want?

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Everything. What I want, in order of importance:

1. Speed. The league revolves around speed. You draw penalties, catch teams off guard, generate exciting scoring chances and can break up rushes going the other way.

2. High Skill Level. This is close enough to be a 1b. You need skills to do anything substantial with that speed.

3. High Hockey IQ. You need guys who just naturally understand the game and can adapt on the fly. Guys who have that on-ice vision and sense of what's going to happen on the ice a few seconds before the play develops. That brings great versatility to the roster and being able to adapt to various systems and strategies used against us.

4. Character. You can have all the skill in the world, but without string character and work ethic throughout the lineup, you won't go far. There needs to be enough guys in the room who have pride in their jersey, city, fans and themselves to hold everyone in the organization accountable for poor efforts. Everything goes to making a tight team and positive team culture.

5. Size. Size is important, because you don't want to get pushed around. But if all you have is size and little else, you're going to be at the bottom of the NHL these days. It isn't 1992 anymore...the grindy, big, unskilled team template no longer works.

 

[dumbdick]

100% character guys.

 

[h2]

Don't even need hard hitting. I want a team that skates hard and fast, passes excellently and scores. Our backend cannot have any slow, plodding, poor passing players. Every one should either skate very well or pass very well and go from there. Players like Neil should never be on this team. Replace him with a good skating, skilled forward.

Have a two-way game become essential through out coach, go from there.

I'm having nightmares of Sens-Leafs playoff games reading this..

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

I'm having nightmares of Sens-Leafs playoff games reading this..

Which team got to the finals in 2007? Us. Which team could never get past the next round? The LEafs. We're in an era where you need tons of speed and skill. Having Cowen, Boro, Gryba clogging up our backend and not letting us get out fast is killing us.

As long as Murray remains mired in the early 2000's mentality we'll never advance.
The model is simple. Character is a red flag. You're either better than others or you're getting beat by them.

 

[h2]

Which team got to the finals in 2007? Us. Which team could never get past the next round? The LEafs. We're in an era where you need tons of speed and skill. Having Cowen, Boro, Gryba clogging up our backend and not letting us get out fast is killing us.

As long as Murray remains mired in the early 2000's mentality we'll never advance.
The model is simple. Character is a red flag. You're either better than others or you're getting beat by them.

I'll take a tough/skilled team built like Anaheim in 2007, Boston in 2011, or LA in 2012 & 2014 over a soft skilled team like the one we had in the 2000s every time.

 

[Benjamin]

I'll take a tough/skilled team built like Anaheim in 2007, Boston in 2011, or LA in 2012 & 2014 over a soft skilled team like the one we had in the 2000s every time.

Chicago Blackhawks are a soft(relative to above teams) and skilled team.

So was Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Theres no one build that works. Just gotta try for the best possible team.

 

[h2]

Chicago Blackhawks are a soft(relative to above teams) and skilled team.

So was Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Theres no one build that works. Just gotta try for the best possible team.

2 of those 3 used in your example were not soft at all. Out of those examples I would say Detroit was the only relatively soft champion. But they still had players in their top 6 that were tough with character like Franzen and Holmstrom. Also had bottom 6 character players like Drake/Maltby/McCarty

Just going by quick memory here on the Hawks/Penguins:
Guerin/Kunitz in 2009 with PIT. With Scuderi/Eaton/Orpik/Gill on defense (Hardly any skill back there)

Bickell/Byfuglien/Shaw/Toews/Bolland/Ladd mixed in 2 champion runs

Like I said, I'll take a skill/grit mix over a pure skill team every time. They'll win 9 times out of 10.

 

[Benjamin]

2 of those 3 used in your example were not soft at all. Out of those examples I would say Detroit was the only relatively soft champion. But they still had players in their top 6 that were tough with character like Franzen and Holmstrom. Also had bottom 6 character players like Drake/Maltby/McCarty

Just going by quick memory here on the Hawks/Penguins:
Guerin/Kunitz in 2009 with PIT. With Scuderi/Eaton/Orpik/Gill on defense (Hardly any skill back there)

Bickell/Byfuglien/Shaw/Toews/Bolland/Ladd mixed in 2 champion runs

Like I said, I'll take a skill/grit mix over a pure skill team every time. They'll win 9 times out of 10.

Thats why I said relative.

 

[h2]

Thats why I said relative.

Which why I pointed out that 2 of those 3 weren't relatively soft.

 

[WhiteLight*]

Hockey sense

 

[Back in Black]

Playoff Team, not a revolving player/coach budget team!

 

[MtRundle]

I'd like a team with 2 more NHL calibre D who can make a breakout pass.

Karlsson, Methot, Ceci, Cowen on a good night. The rest are tweeners.

Teams with their pre-scout must be salivating watching game tape of Gryba, Boro, Phillips, Wier etc etc.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

The one that played tonight. Minus Phillips + Methot.

 

[SevenOfSpades]

100% character guys.

We should make a move for Clarkson. That man will defend his teammate's water bottle. Talk about your brother's keeper.

 

[tony d]

I want a team that spends money, scores goals and also prevents them as well.

 

[aragorn]

I would like this team to play every game to their potential which we got to see once this yr against St Louis. They played a hard fought, tough, hard hitting game & were in it to the end. The majority of fans really liked that game & the effort of the team. Unfortunately that was only one game & they never played like that before that game & haven't played that well since that game.

They always seem to take a period or two off or make glaring mistakes that end up in their net. They lack effort & energy, character, passion & determination, just not sure if that is the coaches fault or the players that they are so listless at times. On paper they should be much better than they are but a number of players are under performing this yr & how do you fix that? This team needs a master motivator & I know of one guy who lives in a van down by the river who should be coach.

 

[connor macdavid]

Everything. What I want, in order of importance:

1. Speed. The league revolves around speed. You draw penalties, catch teams off guard, generate exciting scoring chances and can break up rushes going the other way.

2. High Skill Level. This is close enough to be a 1b. You need skills to do anything substantial with that speed.

3. High Hockey IQ. You need guys who just naturally understand the game and can adapt on the fly. Guys who have that on-ice vision and sense of what's going to happen on the ice a few seconds before the play develops. That brings great versatility to the roster and being able to adapt to various systems and strategies used against us.

4. Character. You can have all the skill in the world, but without string character and work ethic throughout the lineup, you won't go far. There needs to be enough guys in the room who have pride in their jersey, city, fans and themselves to hold everyone in the organization accountable for poor efforts. Everything goes to making a tight team and positive team culture.

5. Size. Size is important, because you don't want to get pushed around. But if all you have is size and little else, you're going to be at the bottom of the NHL these days. It isn't 1992 anymore...the grindy, big, unskilled team template no longer works.

This team has 4 & 5 in abundance, but none of 1 &3.

Speed isn't something you can just go out and buy - oh wait, it is, just not with Melnyk as owner.

 

[operasen]

Everything. What I want, in order of importance:

1. Speed. The league revolves around speed. You draw penalties, catch teams off guard, generate exciting scoring chances and can break up rushes going the other way.

2. High Skill Level. This is close enough to be a 1b. You need skills to do anything substantial with that speed.

3. High Hockey IQ. You need guys who just naturally understand the game and can adapt on the fly. Guys who have that on-ice vision and sense of what's going to happen on the ice a few seconds before the play develops. That brings great versatility to the roster and being able to adapt to various systems and strategies used against us.

4. Character. You can have all the skill in the world, but without string character and work ethic throughout the lineup, you won't go far. There needs to be enough guys in the room who have pride in their jersey, city, fans and themselves to hold everyone in the organization accountable for poor efforts. Everything goes to making a tight team and positive team culture.

5. Size. Size is important, because you don't want to get pushed around. But if all you have is size and little else, you're going to be at the bottom of the NHL these days. It isn't 1992 anymore...the grindy, big, unskilled team template no longer works.

This is very well laid out. I concur with the statements made. would add Passion to Character