Winner of the Atlantic division will be the first seed.
NE will be 2nd.
SE will be 3rd.
2nd and 3rd in the atlantic will be 4th-5th.
With Mike Sauer, we have 3 lines that can shut down anything any of those teams can throw at us.
McD-Girardi
Staal-Stralman
MDZ-Sauer
I like these pairings, they put our best three puck-movers on different pairings and all three pairs can get roughly equal ESTOI (though the difficulty of the minutes will be different for each pairing). Then you reform the pairings for PP and PK, let MDZ, Strålman and McD get the lions share of PP time, while Staal, Girardi, McD and Sauer PK.
Well, no one said every one of our pairings has to be shut down. Players earn their minutes under Torts, so he'll throw the best out there. Sauer is considerably better than Stralman, defensively, and thus will be on the 2nd pairing.
Now, why Staal will be with Girardi and not on the 2nd pairing is because he's already an established first pairing member in Torts book. He's an assistant captain, and will get minutes worth of that title. Him and Girardi were already excellent together, and we saw them together more and more as the playoffs went along. McD and Sauer have also played together and been a formidable duo themselves.
It's about establishment in Torts eyes, something that Staal has over McDonough, due to age, years playing in the league and under Torts, and also familiarity with line mates - Sauer and McDonough already have familiarity playing together while Staal and Sauer don't.
Stralman has many defensive lapses too. Yes, when he needed to step up he did, however, he really struggled some games. He's going to be put in a situation where he can continue to learn and be effective for this team, a situation where his qualities can be maximized while his mistakes can be minimized. He'll get 3rd pairing minutes because it minimizes the time he has to make defensive plays. He'll also be paired with Del Zotto because both are good puck moving defensemen and have also had chemistry playing together.
That being said, if those are our defensive lines, which I think they will be, contingent on Sauer coming back healthy and Stralman resigning, then I think the minutes will be a lot more even than they were last year. Staal/Girardi will play like 23-24 min a game, McD/Sauer will play 19-20, and MDZ and Stralman will play 16-17.
Any combination is possible except for MDZ and girardi. However, McD will not be playing only 19 - 20 a night.You get him out there as often as possible (within reason) because of his elite shut down abilities.
It was at least his 2nd, I believe it was posted somewhere though it was his 3rd. Plus the degree of the concussion he had was pretty severe. This isn't like Brad's from in Dallas where he was back in the lineup in a few weeks.
Any combination is possible except for MDZ and girardi. However, McD will not be playing only 19 - 20 a night.You get him out there as often as possible (within reason) because of his elite shut down abilities.
Most nights look for him to get around 20, maybe 21.
Throughout the season, if the defensemen remain healthy, it's highly likely for Torts to try and have an equal as a rotation as possible.
When it gets to the playoffs, our defensemen will still be fatigued, but not skating corpses as they were for these playoffs, and will have a lot more energy. That is when Torts will start rolling his first two pairings more and we'll see both top lines averaging close to 25/26, while Del Zotto will get somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 (a lot of that coming on the power play) and Stralman getting 12/13.
McDonagh - Girardi
Del Zotto - Staal
Stralman - Sauer
seems like a nice set up to me.
fingers crossed that Sauer stays 100% healthy
One pair with two lefties and one pair with two righties.
MDZ is most certainly playing the left with this lineup and most certainly playing behind McD and Staal. Only question is Strahlman or Sauer pairing with Staal... more offense on the 2nd, or more minutes for Sauer. Using Staal's rehab as a template, Sauer is starting on the 3rd.
One pair with two lefties and one pair with two righties.
MDZ is most certainly playing the left with this lineup and most certainly playing behind McD and Staal. Only question is Strahlman or Sauer pairing with Staal... more offense on the 2nd, or more minutes for Sauer. Using Staal's rehab as a template, Sauer is starting on the 3rd.
Bang on.
I'd keep the pairings like that anyway. If we need to hold a late lead in a big game you can always bump Sauer up to play with Staal.
One pair with two lefties and one pair with two righties.
MDZ is most certainly playing the left with this lineup and most certainly playing behind McD and Staal. Only question is Strahlman or Sauer pairing with Staal... more offense on the 2nd, or more minutes for Sauer. Using Staal's rehab as a template, Sauer is starting on the 3rd.
I think with the depth on defense we have, we wouldn't even have a 3rd pairing. All three of MDZ, McDonagh and Staal are top 4 defenders. Girardi is a top 4 guy as well. Stralman is a good 5th guy, but can hold his own as a #4 on a decent team. Sauer would become somewhat of a wildcard with how well he recovers and if he can reach his previous level of play or higher.
If Sauer can match his play, he's a very good #3-4 defender. We'd have pretty much a top pairing (McDonagh/Staal-Girardi) and two middle pairs (McDonagh/Staal, Del Zotto, Stralman, and Sauer). In that group their is no 3rd pairing, although Stralman would and should get the least minutes of the 6 players.
Staal-Girardi and McDonagh-Sauer were both very successful pairings. But really, all 4 of those guys are easy players to play with, not too concerned no matter how you slice them.
Girardi and McDonough had their best seasons last year but I think the most potential is Girardi/Staal and McD/Sauer. If you remember two years ago, Girardi and Staal were arguably the best shut down pair in the league and McD/Sauer had the highest +/- for any D-pairing in the league but everyone missed it. If I remember it correctly, there was actually a thread about it. They were something like +64 at the time of the posting as a pair. Quietly just as good as Girardi/Staal. I think if Sauer comes back the best pairing would be Girardi/Staal and McD/Sauer. A young D-man steps up like McD a couple years ago and that is a D-corps to be reckoned with. I was really hoping to see something like this, this upcoming season
1. Girardi/Staal
1. McDonough/Sauer
2. MDZ/Erixon
and actually, any one of those pairings could be the top pairing on any team if MDZ and Erixon had grown to their potential this season but who knows? Maybe McIlrath or Skjei can develop into something like Girardi and McDonough did but we all know the best shot at another solid first or second line was Erixon and DZ.
