By Ernie
Take a look at last year's starting line-up on October 11, 2009.
Prospal / Dubinsky / Gaborik
Higgins / Drury / Callahan
Lisin / Anisimov / Kotalik
Brashear / Boyle / Avery
Staal / Girardi
Del Zotto / Rosival
Redden / Gilroy
Lundqvist
Now take a look at a possible starting line-up for October, 2010.
Frolov / Christensen / Gaborik
Prospal / Drury / Zuccarello-Aasen
Dubinsky / Anisimov / Callahan
Avery / Prust / Grachev (Boogaard)
Staal / Girardi
Del Zotto / Rosival
Redden / Emminger
Lundqvist
Granted, someone is going to be traded or else demoted to Hartford before then but the core of the team is going to remain intact. And of course you can come up with your own line-up that makes more sense, but the bottom line is I believe this team is going to do better than last year's barring injuries (dare I say). I am anticipating a more balanced scoring attack, a better PP, and more depth. The only downside could be giving up more goals against but hopefully the added offence will compensate for that. Overall I'm looking forward to an exciting season and my hopes are higher than last year.
20 comments:
I agree we will be better but to keep Staal Redden or Rozi has to be gone and Gilroy and McDonagh will probably being starting over Eminger. But overall I agree 100% with what the point of the post is and we should be better as the team has got some time to play together and will be familiar and our offense should be better because of that!
Im getting tired of people putting Avery on the fourth line?
Does anyone remember how important he was to this team prior to last season? when Sean plays well, the team follows. He is a skilled player, and his skills seems to get lost because hes also an agitator.
Sean is on the second line.
Sadly, Drury has proved himself to be a fourth liner.
But kudos for considering callahan and dubinsky as third liners.
As much as everyone wants to build from within, they are both very similar players that belong on the third line, and realistically, one should probably be traded.
Don't be surprised if Anisimov moves up to the second line.
The most depressing part of this post is the realization of how weak they are at center.
Kudos for considering Dubinsky and Callahan as 3rd liners? I just don't get it sometimes.
And lets have a look at the norwegian midget before we put him on the 2nd line.
Great Post. It would be interesting to go back at the end of the season and look at your lines and see how different they turned out to be as Torts shuffles lines ad nauseum
I see this as the lineup.
FORWARDS
1) Brandon Dubinsky ($1.850m) / Erik Christensen ($0.925m) / Marian Gaborik ($7.500m)
2) Alexander Frolov ($3.000m) / Artem Anisimov ($0.821m) / Ryan Callahan ($2.300m)
3)Sean Avery ($1.937m) / Vaclav Prospal ($2.100m) / Mats Zuccarello-Aasen ($1.750m)
4)Brandon Prust ($0.800m) / Chris Drury ($7.050m) / Derek Boogaard ($1.625m)
--- extra FW Brian Boyle ($0.525m)
DEFENSEMEN
1) Marc Staal ($5.000m) / Michael Del Zotto ($1.087m)
2) Daniel Girardi ($3.325m) / Matt Gilroy ($1.750m)
3) Mike Sauer ($0.500m) / Michal Rozsival ($5.000m)
7th dman- Steve Eminger ($1.125m)
GOALTENDERS
Henrik Lundqvist ($6.875m) /Martin Biron ($0.875m)
SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $57,721,667;
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $1,678,333
I think that splitting up Frolov and Gabby is the best way to even out the scoring and stop the team from relying on one line. I think that Avery and Dubie could be interchangeable and Avery on the 1st line could be a good spark. Prospal and Anisimov are interchangeable as well. The one bad part about the lineup is that Prust becomes a fourth liner, even though he showed that he could be a very good player last season. Defensively I think that Staal’s responsible play will work well with Del Zotto and the same for Gilroy and Giradi, if Gilroy can show his true ability. Sauer should be given the shot on Defense instead of Mcdonagh and if he doesn’t play well, then Eminger or Mcdonagh can fill in. This team is better than last season in every way. I completely don’t understand why you believe we should let in more goals. We have the same defensemen, if not better and they should all develop and learn from their mistakes of last year. I personally believe that Prospal isn’t needed and that Stepan should be in his place.
first person i've heard optimism from for the new season
I'm really intrigued by all of the recent posts & comments with the likes of Drury, Dubinsky & Cally further down on the depth chart. It might not be such a bad thing since they might also be more productive not facing the other teams top lines every night. I would rather se Drury be the best 4th line center in the league than the worst top line pivot.
drury is not a 4th liner. i don't think so and more importantly torts does not either. avery will get the 4th line to start and will move up as injuries occur.
I am still trying to understand why players like Callahan and Dubinsky have a rough time with fans. They should be considered part of the solution and not part of the problem. Scoring 20+ goals is somethiong that 2/3rds of the players in the league fail to do on any given year. Scoring 20+ goals in their third year is something that recent players like Andropov and Jokinen failed to do in their first 7 and 5 yrs respectively. Maybe their skating is not as fluent and their hockey vision not as keen but considering they are third liners and maybe 2nd liners in a pinch, their play and grit should make them part of the core and definetely not part of the problem.
rick - the problem is especially regarding dubinsky too many fans put him as 1st liner future captain. if everyone treated him as what he really is - a 3rd liner on good team, 2nd liner on a bad team i would have much less problem with him. but they don't hence the rebuttals i'm forced to make.
good job ernie and i agree that things are looking up on paper. man... look at the failures on last years lines. kotalik. brashear. higgins. boyle. redden. lisin.
fail, fail, fail.
this year looks much, much better than last on paper.
good job bro.
good job ernie and i agree that things are looking up on paper. man... look at the failures on last years lines. kotalik. brashear. higgins. boyle. redden. lisin.
fail, fail, fail.
this year looks much, much better than last on paper.
good job bro.
Thanks icy...you're right...too many disappointments last year...let's hope to see some nice surprises this year...
Yeah, good job! I'm also hoping that we'll have a better season with the changes made. Never been a fan of Redden being on the team, so he could be demoted to Hartford, or traded and it wouldn't bother me one bit. Plus, I was never happy when they got rid of Prucha, so I say bring him back! Haha. :)
I would also agree with the skepticism regarding the goals against. The blue line could be stronger this year, but goals against are not solely dependent upon the defense. Backchecking is huge, as is overall team strategy and play. Those two areas I have to believe are something we'll have to see develop. And that will be interesting, as we are looking at hopefully a more offensive team.
I like the lines you are tentatively looking at as well. True, Avery does great things for the team. But there is nothing wrong with looking at a strong energetic fourth line. The combination of him and Prust could make that line as valuable as any in fact. Besides, the lines will be changing constantly, we know. And Avery has responded well to moving up with good play.
Last - I'd add that I think Dubinsky and Callahan are more important to the team than just as offensive contributors. It is very true neither may ever be 30-40 goal scorers. But what championship team has every player scoring that many goals? None. Building the team and growing from within is extremely important to me and a vital aspect of having a championship team in my opinion. I'd rather hang on to them - I've seen too many trades for 'big names' or high scorers.
Well done sir. Simple yet a great way to look at the season. I'm looking forward to it too.
(PS - Since it is new news, congratulations to us all, on the Brashear trade!)
Thanks Jacob...you articulate the important aspects of a winning team most prodigiously...
jacob. dubinsky is fine as long as we keep him where he belongs - on the 3rd line. and stop touting him as future captain. he's not.
jacob - i meant fans in general youting him as future c not you
Nice clarification LI Joe...so how much better or worse than last year will we be?
i think we'll be about the same. last yr was a bit of abberation as teams in mid 80's in pts were in the race all the way. normally teams need 92 or even 94 pts. so just to compete they'll need a few more pts just for that alone. although we were really bad in ots and shootouts so one would think we'll get better on that. mza could really help on shootouts i think
Agree with you on the MZA in shootouts LI Joe...looks quick and shifty...
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