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Defensive Pairings


alexstream

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The good news with all those injuries, is that it "forced" Martin to split Gill and Mara...

I think the negative comments were exaggerated because since those guys are not spectacular and won't make a WOW play (or so rarely) we do tend to emphasize on the blunders and are less prone to forgive... Call that the Niklas Sundstrom syndrome :P

But it was still a concensus that those two guys should be split, at least to equilibrate the physicality and the speed on the pairings.

We now have :

Hamr - Spatch

Gill - Gorges

Mara - Weber

I still think that Spatch should play on the left since Hamr has a lot of experience on the right side (with Dion Phaneuf among others)

Gorges covering Gill and vice versa is amazing.

Mara and Weber... wow. if the young guy can make it happen, Mara is certainly a good guy to help him bring his "A" game.

Seriously, although the 1st pairing has the edge, I think those 3 pairings are pretty balanced and could potentially be our best pairing any given night.

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I like those pairings a lot.

Each line brings some toughness and some speed. I hope Mara's dependability will rub off on Weber. If Weber needs improvement in one area it is certainly his defensive game.

I agree about Hamrlik too. Let the mushroom head (Spacek) play on his natural side. We need all the offensive boost we can get from him.

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I like Gorges-Mara as a pairing, personally. Although to me it means that all the 4 D that we can coneive as playing top 4 minutes are on 2 pairings, rather than spread out to 3, so that could be problematic for keeping the minutes a little more equal.

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I hope hammer shuts guys down like he did in 07/08. He seemed a lot meaner than last year. Also, if he has played right in the past, put Spacek on left D. He is our Markov replacement. I want these guys to show Ray Farraro what a big mouthed douchebag he is. Playoff chances are cooked! What an idiot.

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What was interesting to see in tonight's boxscore is that they all ended up playing close to 20 mins.

Mara's game is getting real good

Gorges was a stud

Gill made some good plays, and some bad (I would tend to say "less" bad plays than the other games)

not sure Weber is an NHLer though and I'm sure glad we got MAB.

Weber's supposed to have a canon and the only shot I saw were really weak, he's more of a passer and ... not so good at it :(

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Gill made some good plays, and some bad (I would tend to say "less" bad plays than the other games)

I find that interesting seeing as I thought this was Gill's worst game of the year. He coughed up the puck too many times. I had the impression that the Flames forecheck was really hard for him!

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I find that interesting seeing as I thought this was Gill's worst game of the year. He coughed up the puck too many times. I had the impression that the Flames forecheck was really hard for him!

maybe statistically, maybe more giveaways. however, i found him overally more useful. making a crisp pass here, valuably pinching there. etc.

that's not because he had a bad game statistically that he is not coming into his game.

another example is Stewart who had an awful game, but he was closer to what we're asking of him (although nearly costing us the game on his own!!).

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maybe statistically, maybe more giveaways. however, i found him overally more useful. making a crisp pass here, valuably pinching there. etc.

Not statistically, I mean overall. He was really bad last night! The Flames were too fast for him. I thought he played better against the Leafies!

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The Pairings... hmmm

From what we saw in Vancouver Big chunk of the troubles at D are so basic that I assume they will be fixed shortly!! CRossing fingers!!!

So assuming the D is again able to combine skating with puck handling "sigh!"... can we decompose the strengths and weaknesses of each D? as well as the areas where they could potentially improve (meaning coaching can fix) "the positive approach" so as to maybe pair them accordingly?

Gill: Pros: Reach, size and crease clearing "Pk"

Cons: Slow skater, Pylon-like,

Fixer-ups: Mental lags, when behind the net, specially to smaller opponents loses puck

Mara: Pros: Size and crease clearing, skates above average for his size

Cons: inconsistent

Fixer-ups: transition inability for some reason

Weber: Pros: Fast, right shot, PP potential

Cons: don't know what to leave out here

Fixer-ups: from transition to Defensive liability and offensive confidence

Need help with the other 4...

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in no order

Spacek - Mara

Hamr - MAB

Gill - Super Gorges

Pleeeeease breakup Gill and Gorges. I get a rash just watching them caught up the puck and miss passes all the time.

Hamrlik and Spacek should be kept together, to develop chemistry. They'll be OK once Hamrlik's training camp is over.

Gill and MAB would be a fun duo. About a foot difference in height. MAB can do something Gill cant: move the puck.

Mara gets the task of covering for Gorges. That duo has some decent mobility, not a bad thing.

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Pleeeeease breakup Gill and Gorges. I get a rash just watching them caught up the puck and miss passes all the time.

Hamrlik and Spacek should be kept together, to develop chemistry. They'll be OK once Hamrlik's training camp is over.

Gill and MAB would be a fun duo. About a foot difference in height. MAB can do something Gill cant: move the puck.

Mara gets the task of covering for Gorges. That duo has some decent mobility, not a bad thing.

is MAB fast enough to come in and get to Gill so he can pass him the puck? I agree Gorges is still trying to fit on the right side, having him think about coming to the aid of Gill is far much to ask. On air (tv and radio) all are saying MAB is a defensive liability. I'm very worried about this... In all events this means that J.Martin will have to turn all Forwards into 3rd Backup Dmen just in case... we can't have 50% of our goals against, come from turn overs at the blue line!

I'm scared guys, I don't see a quick fix.... Can anyone make a counter on the Habsworld front page with Markov's back from injury time countdown??? Argg 3Months and 3 weeks to go

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