‘Championship pedigree’, in this case, means ‘lucky enough to be drafted by Sam Pollock’.
Heck, Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish have championship pedigree coming out of their ears. So does Wayne Gretzky. Doesn’t mean a thing once you go into coaching or management.
As for ‘responsible defenders’: For the era they played in, yes. But there really was nothing we would recognize as a defensive system anywhere in the NHL in the 1970s. Lemaire did not learn to coach the trap by playing in Montreal.
Stifling their offence? from 1970–71 to 1979–80 the Habs averaged 334 GF per season. They were a classic run-and-gun team at a time when a lot of other clubs were trying to imitate the Broad Street Bullies.
__________________
WARNING: The preceding message may not have been processed in a sarcasm-free facility.
Last edited by Jay Random; 05-31-2015 at 11:51 AM.
|