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2014-2015 Habs lineup

wiseguy1 said:
LOL, but realistically, the Sens will not finish last.
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Only way they don't is if Anderson / Lehner put up elite goaltender stats, and as you saw with the Leafs this year until Bernier got injured, that can hide a lot of deficiencies.
 
lecoqsportif said:
Oh, they'll be in the mix. They kinda suck.

Habs might be only Canadian team in the playoffs again.
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I think Vancouver might squeak in. Had Winnipeg upgraded their goalie instead of sticking with Pavelec (Baffling) they would be close to it too.

None of the other Canadian teams will make it.
 
Re: 2014/2015 Habs lineup

Habhead said:
Pacioretty (6'2" 217lbs) - Galchenyuk (6'1" 203lbs) - Gallagher (5'9" 190lbs)

Sekac (6'2" 190lbs) - Plekanec (5'11" 196lbs) - Parenteau (6' 193lbs)

Bourque (6'2" 217lbs) - Eller (6'2" 215lbs) - Weise (6'2" 210lbs)

Bournival (5'11" 196lbs) - Malhotra (6'2" 220lbs) - ???

Prust (6' 194lbs)

Moen (6'2" 210lbs)
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You know, that lineup isn't bad, size wise I mean. We are slowly getting bigger - very good thing...
 
Krustchev said:
I like 11 but he should be trade bait for a top 6 forward with more size.
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If we could get someone like that, yeah absolutely, but with Gionta and Briere gone despite his small size I like the feistiness grit Gally brings to the lineup, so I really don't mind him in our top 6. I would trade DD before Gally though...
 
budman89 said:
If we could get someone like that, yeah absolutely, but with Gionta and Briere gone despite his small size I like the feistiness grit Gally brings to the lineup, so I really don't mind him in our top 6. I would trade DD before Gally though...
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11's trade value far exceeds DD's, I would guess.
 
GGpX said:
I think Florida will compete to make the playoffs but will ultimately come up short.

I fully expect Philthydelphia & Washington to be near the bottom of the East this year.

Right now, ranking the best teams in the East with no regards for divisions:

1) Tampa Bay
2) Bawstun
3) Montreal
4) Pittsburgh
5) New Joizy
6) New York Rangers
7) Columbus
8) Detroit
9) Florida
10) NYI
11) Philthydelphia
12) Washington
13) Toronto
14) Carolina
15) Buffalo
16) Ottawa
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Really liking Tampa eh? I think they've improved their defense but they're really going to miss St.Louis on offense. Of course having a full season of Stamkos will help but he's going to miss MSL as well.
 
Tampa will be a top 4 team id Bishop stays healthy. Yzerman has retooled that team nicely.
 
If Bishop plays vezina-calibre next year, they will do very well. But he could very easily falter - I can also imagine that team struggling out of the playoffs, similar to Ottawa this year.
 
GrandWazoo said:
Really liking Tampa eh? I think they've improved their defense but they're really going to miss St.Louis on offense. Of course having a full season of Stamkos will help but he's going to miss MSL as well.
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I think they'll be okay offensively. Eventually MSL's production is going to drop off, and frankly I'm surprised it hasn't already. Wouldn't surprise me if his production took a dip this year because he doesn't have much around him & he's just turned 39. Don't forget, they're getting Jonathan Drouin in their lineup. He won't replace all of MSL's production, but he'll take some of it for a fraction of the caphit.

I look at Tampa's full line up (Assuming they re-sign Panik & have Brett Connolly) and I think they have the third best 1-2 punch down the middle in the East (Pittsburgh & Boston) with Stamkos-Filpulla, they have pretty good (although not great) depth on the wings. They'll have an annoying third line to play against. Their fourth line sucks, but eh. They can live with that. They have a very good (and underrated) defense with Hedman-Stralman, Carle-Garrison, Brewer-Gudkas. Second best defense in the East behind Bawstun. Stralman is grossly underrated imo. Is he an ace defensively? No, but who needs to be when you don't spend much time in your end when you're on the ice?

Dave Tippett said this a few years ago and it's something I completely agree with:

"We had a player that was supposed to be a great, shut-down defenseman. He was supposedly the be-all, end-all of defensemen. But when you did a 10-game analysis of him, you found out he was defending all the time because he can’t move the puck.

"Then we had another guy, who supposedly couldn’t defend a lick. Well, he was defending only 20 percent of the time because he’s making good plays out of our end. He may not be the strongest defender, but he’s only doing it 20 percent of the time. So the equation works out better the other way. I ended up trading the other defenseman."
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Anyway, back on point, and then I check their goaltending. If Bishop is as good this year as he was last year, they finish with the best record in the NHL. But that's .930 save % good.

Let's say for example's sake that Bishop lays an egg and fall flat on his face and that Nabokov is done. Tampa Bay has a goalie named Andrei Vasilevski that they can call up and he'll do just fine. He is, imo, the best goalie outside of the NHL (now that John Gibson is in Anaheim to stay) and it would not surprise me in the least if by 2015-2016 he is their opening game starter.

I really think Tampa's going to be the best in the East this year.

(This is all assuming there are no major injuries, because then all bets are off)
 
GGpX said:
I think they'll be okay offensively. Eventually MSL's production is going to drop off, and frankly I'm surprised it hasn't already. Wouldn't surprise me if his production took a dip this year because he doesn't have much around him & he's just turned 39. Don't forget, they're getting Jonathan Drouin in their lineup. He won't replace all of MSL's production, but he'll take some of it for a fraction of the caphit.

I look at Tampa's full line up (Assuming they re-sign Panik & have Brett Connolly) and I think they have the third best 1-2 punch down the middle in the East (Pittsburgh & Boston) with Stamkos-Filpulla, they have pretty good (although not great) depth on the wings. They'll have an annoying third line to play against. Their fourth line sucks, but eh. They can live with that. They have a very good (and underrated) defense with Hedman-Stralman, Carle-Garrison, Brewer-Gudkas. Second best defense in the East behind Bawstun. Stralman is grossly underrated imo. Is he an ace defensively? No, but who needs to be when you don't spend much time in your end when you're on the ice?

Dave Tippett said this a few years ago and it's something I completely agree with:



Anyway, back on point, and then I check their goaltending. If Bishop is as good this year as he was last year, they finish with the best record in the NHL. But that's .930 save % good.

Let's say for example's sake that Bishop lays an egg and fall flat on his face and that Nabokov is done. Tampa Bay has a goalie named Andrei Vasilevski that they can call up and he'll do just fine. He is, imo, the best goalie outside of the NHL (now that John Gibson is in Anaheim to stay) and it would not surprise me in the least if by 2015-2016 he is their opening game starter.

I really think Tampa's going to be the best in the East this year.

(This is all assuming there are no major injuries, because then all bets are off)
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I was curious about that quote (which I totally agree with) and I have a feeling he was talking about John Erskine and Trevor Daley.
 
I think that was during his time in Junior or the minor leagues.

Anyway, point is, the big, physical, stay at home d-man that can't do much of anything else (See Douglas Murray as an extreme example) are going the way of the goon. They are slowly being filtered out of the league for faster, less physical d-men who can move the puck. There's going to be more and more undersized d-men like Sami Vatanen in Anaheim who skate like the wind and move the puck up the ice quickly to create a faster pace. And frankly, that's a great thing for the NHL.

10 years from now, at least this is my belief, players like Brooks Orpik won't have jobs in the NHL because teams will stop looking for his type of defensemen. And if they do, they'll be bottom pairing & paid accordingly just like the modern-day goons are. More and more goons are out of NHL jobs as teams are looking to have real fourth lines that can play.
 
GGpX said:
I think that was during his time in Junior or the minor leagues.

Anyway, point is, the big, physical, stay at home d-man that can't do much of anything else (See Douglas Murray as an extreme example) are going the way of the goon. They are slowly being filtered out of the league for faster, less physical d-men who can move the puck. There's going to be more and more undersized d-men like Sami Vatanen in Anaheim who skate like the wind and move the puck up the ice quickly to create a faster pace. And frankly, that's a great thing for the NHL.

10 years from now, at least this is my belief, players like Brooks Orpik won't have jobs in the NHL because teams will stop looking for his type of defensemen. And if they do, they'll be bottom pairing & paid accordingly just like the modern-day goons are. More and more goons are out of NHL jobs as teams are looking to have real fourth lines that can play.
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You will always need those defensive defenceman on the PK. Can't trust a puck-mover to block a shot. Douglas Murray is a bad example because he couldn't skate but guys like Weaver can be very useful in the right situation, much like the 4th liners are useful eventhough they are nowhere near as valuable as your first liners.
 
Mike Weaver can move the puck, though. And Mike Weaver can skate. Doesn't fit my example.

I'm talking about uni-dimensional d-men who are only in the NHL because they're big and physical.
 
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