Agreed, there's a big difference in how their coaches use them. One dominates in 3rd pair usage, the other holds his own in top pair usage.
Agreed Babcock uses LHD Rielly on his top pairing and LHD Gardiner on the 2nd and LHD Dermott on the 3rd.
Hard to question that logic as it coaches itself !!!
Winnipeg's strength is on RHD where Buff, Trouba and Myers all play, that makes LHD Morrissey play up the depth chart as a top pairing LHD and partner with Trouba as a shutdown pair.
Take away Mr. Rielly and the list would be much larger.
if Carolina and Anaheim have such great Dcorps, why do they suck?
I mean, the ducks have the best goalie in the league.
if Carolina and Anaheim have such great Dcorps, why do they suck?
I mean, the ducks have the best goalie in the league.
No it isn't. Carolina's d group is getting over rated. They have not produced elite defensive resultsThis is correct.
umm. they don't score goals?
I'm ok with our D, this season, IMO, our downfall will most likely be Freddy letting in untimely soft goals in the playoffs... I could be wrongweird that we can be elite with great forwards and a crappy D, while they suck with a great D and crappy forwards.
would seem that having a good D isn't worth much.
Oh and the other weird thing is we give up fewer goals than either of them, too. Way fewer shots than the ducks do, too.
And hey, some crazy people even think dmen are important to a team's offense, too.
truth is, you lineup the dmen from best to worst:
1.Rielly
2.Gardiner
3.Dermott
4/5/6.Zaitsev/Hainsey/Ozzy
And it matches up better than most. Rielly is playing like a Norris contender, Jake like a borderline #1, Dermott like a very good 2nd pair dman, and the rest like typical 4/5/6 dmen.
And then you add in Sandin/Lillegren to the mix and realize that even fewer team's have 2 D prospects that good, and you realize that things are pretty dang good.
Agree.if Carolina and Anaheim have such great Dcorps, why do they suck?
Hey, Pittsburgh won two cups and they basically had Letang for one of the runs.
What?
Borderline 2/3 at most... and I like Jake
Take away Mr. Rielly and the list would be much larger.
Ignoring salary cap implications:
Anaheim - yes
Arizona - no
Boston - no. They play well, but I credit Cassidy's system for most of it
Buffalo - tough....I may just for Dahlin alone.
Calgary - no
Carolina - yes
Chicago - lol
Colorado - no
Columbus - absolutely. Jones and Werenski >>>>
Dallas - yes. Love me some Klingberg and Heiskanen
Detroit - lol
Edmonton - lol
Florida - no
LA - no, but they have some solid pieces
Minnesota - yes
Montreal - no
Nashville - we all know the answer
NJ - no
NYI - no
NYR - no
Ottawa - no
Philadelphia - no
San Jose - yes
STL - no
Tampa Bay - yes
Vancouver - no
Vegas - love how they play, but see Boston
Washington - no
Winnipeg - no
So about 8-10 teams, which sounds about right for where our D should be ranked. I do, however, have an issue with how we play as a 5 man unit and our ultra passive coverage in the defensive zone.