Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Johnny's size needs to be offset? When has his size been a liability? He's about the one forward on this team who isn't sometimes a liability outside of Backlund.
Again, I'm not talking about a player to put on Gaudreau's line. I'm talking about a player to put on Bennett's line, away from Gaudreau.
Huh? This logic makes no sense.
If you had 40 minutes of a Gaudreau-calibre player instead of 20, you would be much more difficult to match up to on the road. Last change, the only real advantage of being a home team, gets taken away when all your D pairings have to face an elite offensive talent.
Size is a bonus on the priority list, not a prerequisite in my opinion.
The same playoffs that the Blackhawks, Penguins, and Red Wings have come out victorious in five of the previous nine years off pure skill instead of grinders...
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The Flames had playoff success... Forward with the biggest positive impact:
Ferland..... Ferland plays at that level consistently and the Flames could afford to have another small skilled player flitting around.
The Penguins won in 2009 with a 21 year old Crosby and 22 year old Malkin banging and fighting for their ground.... both with over 70 minutes of penalties in the regular season and Malkin had another 50 in his 24 playoff games . Letang was the smallest of their d-men at 6-0 200 and was no cream puff. Scuderi 6-1 212, Gonchar 6-2 210, Orpik 6-2 218 and Hal Gill played 20 minutes a game in the playoffs @ 6-7 240 ... Mark Eaton was #6 at 6-1 214
Sure they had top end skill with Malkin, Crosby, Letang and Gonchar..... but they had no one near as small as Gaudreau or as passive as Monahan.
The 2009 Penguins would have run the Flames out of the building and playoffs in much the same manner as the Ducks did last year.
Chicago almost always has either Toews or Seabrook on the ice. Their first SC... Byfuglien, Ladd,