Mëds wrote:
Doughty is less risk than reward. He's a much improved player and when he does pinch he gets back. He can eat huge minutes too if necessary. Far less risk than Subban.
No doubt Subban is far riskier than Doughty. The point was that Doughty seems to be more effective when he's paired with a safer partner.
Yeah. Scary line when they have the puck. None of those guys screams defensive prowess. Neither Getzlaf nor Perry are "world-class" skaters, I think you play these guys together because of their chemistry and history of playing together, but that line will scare me if they end up out there against a trio of say Kovalchuk-Datsyuk-Ovechkin (providing Ovie and Kovie don't puck hog it into oblivion, then just stand and let them do circles around the outside and take away the shooting lane). If you want a line that can perform in ANY situation.....
If those guys are out against Ovechkin, we've lost the matchup battle. I'd wager that line starts most of their starts in the offensive zone, and plays the grinding style Canada should dominate. Outside of Chara, there aren't many d-men in this tourney that will be able to match-up physically with that line.
Sharp - Toews - Bergeron.
Bergeron should be ahead of Marleau on the depth chart, him and Toews, IMO, are the best defensive forwards that Canada has, and they both are extremely capable offensively. Sharp is probably the most responsible two-way winger.
Different roles. Marleau is a faster player and better offensively. I also don't think you'll see Bergeron on the wing. He's 62% in the circle, so he could be the fourth line C, but I don't think you'll see him in an offensive role. He's not quick, and we have too many offensive studs. He was the 13th forward in Vancouver, pretty much a face-off only guy, and I can see him in a slightly expanded role this year.
Fortunately Canada looks like they are approaching this from the mindset of putting pucks in the net and defense will be handled by having the puck on their sticks more often than not. As far as a balanced approach goes I think that Hamhuis should be ahead of both Bouwmeester and Vlasic. Bouwmeester hasn't won anything, ever. Vlasic is really benefiting from having Boyle as his partner. Hamhuis is more defensively responsible and capable than either of them.
I don't think you'll see Hamhuis ahead of Bouwmeester. Bouwmeester and Pietrangelo are this years package deal like Pronger-Niedermayer/Keith-Seabrook. Chances are they stay together. Vlasic could be the odd man out, but my guess is they'll try some things out in practice and see who gels. I imagine Subban will be the 7th d-man, so one of the Left-handers (Hamhuis, Vlasic, J-Bo, Keith) will be in the pressbox. Hamhuis is familiar with Weber, but I don' t think Babcock will go away from a Weber-Keith pairing.