Leo Naphta said:
I think that a lot of us have at least three worries about the defensive pairings:
If you play Lidström with Johnsson you effectively deprive the second pair of any offensive potential (let's face it, we would all rather see Lidström join the rush than Ragnarsson)
A pairing consisting of Lidström and Johnson isn't physical enough to handle the best power forwards in the world - I'd rather have Ragnarsson moving Iginla out of the crease than Lidström.
Frankly I don´t think that our defense corp will get much opperunity to join the rush against Canada, do you? Kim Johnsson will play more then 1/3 of the game, and having a offensive d-men for that amount of the time against Canada is more then enough for me. And if Kim Johnsson is caught pinching in who would you rather have back there to cover for him in a 2 on 1 situation, Ragnarsson or Lidström? Also, we are not going to be able to put allot of pressure on Canada, but having Lidström out there with his transition game helps allot. With a pairing of Johnsson and Lidström you get a much higher percentage of having Kim Johnsson who is one of our best offensive weapons on the ice in a situation where he can jump into the play.
I agree with you however that Kim Johnsson hasn´t been able to play up to par defensivly so far in the tournament. Of course it would help him to play with Ragnarsson when it comes to clearing the crease but on the other hand if he can´t take care of that part of the game he shouldn´t have been on the roster from beginning. I don´t think the solution is to give him a baby sitter in Ragnarsson because Ragnarsson himself can´t handle a line like Smyth-Lecavalier-Heatly. Kim must find ways by himself to clear the crease.
Leo Naphta said:
A pairing consisting of Ragnarsson and Norström is too immobile to handle speedy counterattacks - I'd be far more comfortable with either Johnsson or Lidström backchecking when St Louis is breaking away than with Ragnarsson or Norström.
Ragnarsson&Norström is going to be on the ice allot with the 3rd&4th pairing. If they have a 3rd man back with them all the time they will have no problems handling speedier forwards. If we let Canada get odd man rushes we are screwed anyway, we must have a 3rd player high all the time...
If anything I am worried about Rags&Nordström´s transition game, especially against a the weaker teams but against canada "sarg ut" will be good enough for me.