Currently, which team do you think has the best offensively oriented blueline? I have to go with the ducks, the way Pronger,Niedermayer and Beauchemin have been playing.
Currently, which team do you think has the best offensively oriented blueline? I have to go with the ducks, the way Pronger,Niedermayer and Beauchemin have been playing.
I would say it was between Detroit, Anaheim and San Jose (surprisingly). But Beauchemin's out for the season, I'll wait a bit longer on San Jose. So I say Detroit: Kronwall, Rafalski, Lidstrom.
Vancouver has a great core with Ohlund, Salo, Edler, and Bieksa (33 points between the four of them). San Jose's squad is the best, especially with the Boyle/Ehrhoff tandem. I think Edmonton's Defence is probably top 3 with Souray, Visnovsky, Gilbert and Grebeshkov who have 41 points between the four of them.
Rather than boasting and giving "on paper" responses, I just looked at the numbers, based on points by defensemen.
The answer is basically:
San Jose- 60
Detroit - 48
Nashville- 45
Edmonton- 43
and then.....everyone else dropping off.
You're missing a team.
The Maple Leafs' blueline has 51 points this year, although that includes Ian White's 7 points, and he's been playing a lot of forward this year.
Given the difference between the overall team scoring between San Jose, Detroit, and Toronto and their forward groups in general, there's a good argument to be made that Toronto's offense from their blueline has been the most impressive this year.
If so, than I think the "best" offensive blueline would be that which generates the greatest percentage of the teams' goals right?
No.. That would only mean that the team doesn't score alot of goals. He might be more important to the team in %, but you can't say hes better.
I hate those types of reasoning, especially as some people use it for the Hart. In their view only a great player on a lousy team can win the heart.
For example if you look at things numericly let say a team has a number(based on the players in that) that reflects their value. 1000 for the top team and 650 for a avg team, Player A has value 60 and Player b has value 50. Player A will bring more to the team than player B, but his % will be less. But that is basicly an abritrary info.
106 man-games played, through 16 games of the season. The ENTIRE Blues defense has put up 5 goals and 8 assists for a whopping 13 points. <insert barfing smiley here>
San Jose, some strange not to see Lidstrom in the top 5.
He's only 4 points behind the top leader and it's not 20 games yet, he just picked up 2 assists last night and I think he's getting his game back on, he does have a reputation for being a slow starter.
