At the end of the day, I think Vancouver wins this one for a handful of reasons, to start off-
1) Superior defensemen. As I have shown, Vancouver has an overwhelming advantage in terms of the quality of defensmen. That's why so much time was spent on Taylor- attempting to discredit Taylor was the only way Montreal could attempt to obfuscate this glaring gap in talent level. But even in the end, and even accepting their own suggestion for Taylor on D (Karlsson- I think that is not giving Taylor enough credit), Vancouver still carries the advantage on 3 out of the top 4 defensive slots, with particularly wide talent gaps at #1 D (Orr over Cleghorn) and #4 D (Taylor over Flaman).
2) Superior goaltending. Tretiak has a far more impressive resume than Vezina.
3) Montreal's team structure. Last round, Montreal argued that they were perfectly structured to defeat a team with strong defensive centers (Chicago), as the offense from Montreal flows from the wings. Vancouver doesn't have that problem- nobody is claiming that Esposito and McDavid are strong (or even average) defensively.. and in this series, they don't have to be. Kennedy and Modano are not punishing players offensively in the ATD. Indeed, Vancouver's defense comes from the blueline and along the wings*- Howe, Smith, Roberts, Harris, Mackay, and Oatman all range from above-average to great defensively. On defense, Orr, Gerard, Vasiliev, and Wentworth are all strong defensively.
* I'm not forgetting about Bergeron- he's arguably the best defensive forward of all time, and (likely) the best defensive forward in this series. He's just not a winger, so I didn't want to include him in that list.
On a personal note- this is probably my last post in this series- I am about to be away from reliable internet for about a week, though hopefully I'll be able to check in on the series a bit here and there. If the series does close before I return (and if conversation dies, I hope that you all do commence the voting- there is definitely no need to hold this thing up on my account), thanks for the discussion, @BenchBrawl and @Sturminator !
1) Superior defensemen. As I have shown, Vancouver has an overwhelming advantage in terms of the quality of defensmen. That's why so much time was spent on Taylor- attempting to discredit Taylor was the only way Montreal could attempt to obfuscate this glaring gap in talent level. But even in the end, and even accepting their own suggestion for Taylor on D (Karlsson- I think that is not giving Taylor enough credit), Vancouver still carries the advantage on 3 out of the top 4 defensive slots, with particularly wide talent gaps at #1 D (Orr over Cleghorn) and #4 D (Taylor over Flaman).
2) Superior goaltending. Tretiak has a far more impressive resume than Vezina.
3) Montreal's team structure. Last round, Montreal argued that they were perfectly structured to defeat a team with strong defensive centers (Chicago), as the offense from Montreal flows from the wings. Vancouver doesn't have that problem- nobody is claiming that Esposito and McDavid are strong (or even average) defensively.. and in this series, they don't have to be. Kennedy and Modano are not punishing players offensively in the ATD. Indeed, Vancouver's defense comes from the blueline and along the wings*- Howe, Smith, Roberts, Harris, Mackay, and Oatman all range from above-average to great defensively. On defense, Orr, Gerard, Vasiliev, and Wentworth are all strong defensively.
* I'm not forgetting about Bergeron- he's arguably the best defensive forward of all time, and (likely) the best defensive forward in this series. He's just not a winger, so I didn't want to include him in that list.
On a personal note- this is probably my last post in this series- I am about to be away from reliable internet for about a week, though hopefully I'll be able to check in on the series a bit here and there. If the series does close before I return (and if conversation dies, I hope that you all do commence the voting- there is definitely no need to hold this thing up on my account), thanks for the discussion, @BenchBrawl and @Sturminator !
