GDT - With a Little Luck - Habs @ Wild

[illWill]

but they won with price in net, far more than they are now, even with spotty offence so...

this team is built from the backend out, with the offence being the weakest of the 3 parts of a team structure, we can't expect an offensive juggernaut from a team that isn't built as one. Our version of Crosby, Ovechkin, and Stamkos is in our net, we are a goalie first defense second and offence third type of team, its how our salary is spent, its how the value of our best players is ranked, its just how we are built. You want Bergevin to be the first ever GM to ice a team with an A+ rating in Offense, Defense, and Goaltending then by all means email him the secret formula. When everyone is ready to talk realistic team building scenarios, then we can talk about how the phalanx crumbles when one of either Goaltending or Defense stops working at a decent level for us, and results in what we are seeing now.

i'm not going to sit here and blame our weakest part of the team composition for our failures because when the team was great it was still our weakest aspect. I'm blaming the parts that are supposed to operate at a higher level than our offense, and currently aren't. Those same parts that showed us the entire month of November that when they operate at a solid level we are still a tough team to beat even without our star goalie, are showing us in December that when they are not, we fall apart.

doesn't get any more simple than that in my eyes

Excellent post

[hab29RETIRED]

Ozolinsh, Blake and Foote is a pretty solid D core. Add in Bourque for their last cup.

Under the cap system, Detroit had a A+ Defence and forwards. They still paid their goalie like at least an A-/B+ goalie, so cap has nothing to do with the quality of their goaltending. Holland either has always under-valued goalies or wasn't very good at identifying goalies. Chicago has an A+ forward and D group and at least an A-/B+ goalie. Salary cap has nothing to do with their goaltending situation. Crawford makes only $.5M less than Price. As far as their D core, Keith, Seabrook and Hjalmarsson is as good or better than the habs top 3.

I would definitely not consider Colorado an A+ defense at the time, and none of those teams matter in this argument because none were built under the confines of a salary cap, which is what prevents you from throwing money everywhere as you please and force you to make choices on your roster. Even the stanley cup champions don't have A+ goaltending and still make it work, they are forced to make choices with the cap, picked their poison, and made a championship team.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

Link's post was great. Just an excellent analysis. (Now Habs29 is correct that some teams in the past have indeed been A+ in all three dimensions...but not in the cap era; despite the rationalizations, the bottom line is Chicago and Detroit have had goalies that rate well under A+. Indeed, the team that came closest to A+ in all areas may have been the 2011 Bruins, given that Kreijic produced at an elite level in those playoffs and Thomas played out of his mind).

Anyway, Link's account tends to confirm my suspicion that we need to double-down on team D. Our forwards simply are NOT going to start scoring like the 1980s Oilers, especially without the catalyst Gallagher. And we're not going to go out an acquire Ovechkin, so any added player is unlikely to restructure the fundamental nature of the team as Link describes it. Where there is room to improve is in cutting down on those damned defensive breakdowns. If I'm Therrien, my message is, don't even worry about goals. You guys are way too uptight about that, squeezing the sticks. Forget it. The aim is to play a hermetic, suffocating defence - perfect team defence - until Price gets back.

[Link67]

Ozolinsh, Blake and Foote is a pretty solid D core. Add in Bourque for their last cup.

Under the cap system, Detroit had a A+ Defence and forwards. They still paid their goalie like at least an A-/B+ goalie, so cap has nothing to do with the quality of their goaltending. Holland either has always under-valued goalies or wasn't very good at identifying goalies. Chicago has an A+ forward and D group and at least an A-/B+ goalie. Salary cap has nothing to do with their goaltending situation. Crawford makes only $.5M less than Price. As far as their D core, Keith, Seabrook and Hjalmarsson is as good or better than the habs top 3.

Come on now, Detroit has never had A+ goaltending, it was the part of their team that was weakest and despite that they put a championship team on the ice, it doesn't matter if they pay players a certain way, we all know Osgood was not an elite vezina talked about goalie. In chicago its much of the same, A+ offense and Defense, B goaltending, Crawford is never a runner up for trophies and never in the top 5 in stats. In the cap era you will not find an A+ across the board team because their simply isn't enough money to do it, you build a certain way, and hope it works.

We are built A+ goaltending, A- Defense, and B offense, it sounds more like we are asking our offense to play above their station than it is us asking our defense to play up to standard, and I simply don't agree with that.

[DON]

"B" offense...for October-Novenber it might of been, but starting to look like the "D" 18th ranked offense it was last year, or the 21st ranked offense from 2 years ago.

[hab29RETIRED]

Your point was the cap is the constraint. Detroit us paying around $5m for a goalie. There issue is more not being able to identify or valuing goaltending talent with Osgood and than Howard.

Crawford is paid only $.5m less than price. So cap isn't the reason why Chicago doesn't have a better goalie.

Come on now, Detroit has never had A+ goaltending, it was the part of their team that was weakest and despite that they put a championship team on the ice, it doesn't matter if they pay players a certain way, we all know Osgood was not an elite vezina talked about goalie. In chicago its much of the same, A+ offense and Defense, B goaltending, Crawford is never a runner up for trophies and never in the top 5 in stats. In the cap era you will not find an A+ across the board team because their simply isn't enough money to do it, you build a certain way, and hope it works.

We are built A+ goaltending, A- Defense, and B offense, it sounds more like we are asking our offense to play above their station than it is us asking our defense to play up to standard, and I simply don't agree with that.

[Commandant]

We pay price less than market value though... if he was UFA now, he'd get more than 6.5 million... so comparing crawford to price's salary isn't really fair.

You aren't getting an A+ goalie for the 6 milllion Crawford makes on the free market.