i don't think it will really be possible for cleghorn and lalonde to never be on the ice simultaneously, and i don't think it makes much sense to keep my top d-men away from pittsburgh's top scorers, so chara and cleghorn will play against pittsburgh's 1st line.
cleghorn and lalonde clashed many times, often violently, and i expect they will be in the penalty box often. i just hope toe blake can keep cleghorn from going over the edge.
toe blake was also a hothead, though.
i have said this before, but lalonde was also a very dirty and highly penalized player. i am not sure why, but i think eddie shore and sprague cleghorn are unfairly criticized more than other comparable dirty players for their reckless play.
pittsburgh is a very fast team, and the F's who are not especially fast were very dangerous scorers: bossy, lalonde (i am not at all sure how fast lalonde was, though). pittsburgh d-men are also as a group strong in transition, so the bankers are very dangerous in a counterattack or on the rush. i do not want to play a risky up and down game with pittsburgh. i want to play a more methodical cycling game to make the bankers play in their own end and to reduce their chances in counterattacking.
i think pittsburgh's strength is its F's more than its blueline, and i think my team should be able to establish a cycle.
it is probably more accurate to say that pittsburgh's strength is its offense more than its D. in addition to their powerful top F's, their scoring depth is good and their d-men are strong in transition and dangerous in the offensive zone.
matchups
i think my main advantage in this series is that i have a better blueline. i want my top 2 d-pairs to defend pittsburgh's top 2 lines.
primary matchup i want is cleghorn and chara against lalonde and bossy. other than cleghorn's proclivity to violence and penalties, i think he and chara are well suited to defending lalonde and bossy. cleghorn and chara are big and very physical, and i don't think chara's relative lack of agility will be a big problem against them, as i don't think either lalonde or bossy is particularly fast.
my approach to forward matchups is based more on zones.
all my C's played both ways, and other than bobby smith, were known for their 2 way games. i think my C's in combination with my d-men form effective defensive units. modano and ratelle were also both fast.
tkaczuk or sometimes modano will take most defensive zone faceoffs against lalonde. jagr will not be out for many defensive zone faceoffs, but will be out for a large share of offensive zone faceoffs. ratelle is not a defensive problem, so he can sometimes take defensive zone faceoffs when needed separate from jagr.
defensive zone
of my d-men, only johansson could be described as undersized, and he was not small. i think my defensive players' combination of size, reach and physicality (cleghorn chara and ramsey, plus some of my F's) will give me good control of the middle area of the defensive zone where most scoring occurs. control of that area is always an important issue.
jagr and andreychuk are more or less defensive liabilities. but to some extent, those problems are reduced b/c jagr tended to control the play with his puck possession game, and andreychuk will not play much at ES.
i will post more later.
