So that's it. I guess it's time to compare this opening day roster to last years.
I know these aren't the lines we used last season (or the lines we will use this season), but I tried to arrange them so they would be easier to compare.
2011/2012 Roster:
Malone -- Stamkos -- St. Louis
Connolly -- Lecavalier -- Purcell
Shannon -- Moore -- Downie
Ritola -- Thompson -- Hall
Jones, Pyatt
Brewer -- Hedman
Clark -- Kubina
Gilroy -- Bergeron
Gervais
Roloson
Garon
2012/2013 Roster:
Malone -- Stamkos -- St. Louis
Conacher -- Lecavalier -- Purcell
Pouliot -- Pyatt -- Tyrell
Labrie -- Thompson -- Crombeen
Hall
Hedman -- Salo
Brewer -- Carle
Aulie -- Lee
Bergeron, Mikkelson,
Lindback
Garon
My thoughts:
1st forward line:
Same. Should be just as dangerous as last year. Malone and St.Louis might be a year older, but I doubt that has a huge effect on their play.
2nd forward line:
Better. Lecavalier should play about the same as last season. Purcell should be improved over where he was to start last season. Conacher should do better than Connolly did as a rookie.
3rd forward line:
Worse. Moore > Pyatt, Downie > Tyrell, but Shannon < Pouliot. The dropoff is much less noticeable if you compare Pouliot to Downie and Tyrell to Shannon, but the difference between Moore and Pyatt is still fairly noticeable. I'm not saying this line will be bad, but it's pretty unknown at this point. It will be important for this line to contribute offensively, something i think it is less capable of (on paper) than last season's 3rd line.
4th forward line:
Better. Thompson is still Thompson(which is good), Hall is still Hall(which is also good), but Labrie and Crombeen add a huge amount of grit to this line.
1st defensive pairing:
Better. Hedman should be improved over where he was last year, and a healthy Salo is a pretty good Dman (maybe a little better than Brewer defensively, but noticeably better on the offensive side of things).
2nd defensive pairing:
Better. Huge improvement here. We lost some physicality with Kubina gone, but both Brewer and Carle are much more mobile than Kubina was. Clark had a bad year that I don't expect Brewer or Carle to replicate, even on their worst nights.
3rd defensive pairing:
Better. Lee > Gervais, Mikkelson/Aulie > Gilroy, Bergeron = Bergeron.
#1 goalie:
Better. Lindback looks real good, even the biggest pessimist can expect better play than Roloson last year right?
#2 goalie:
Same. Garon is Garon. He was playing a little better right before his injury, but I still wouldn't be comfortable with him as a #1 goalie.
Yeah, he'll probably rotate in and out of the lineup. I just like trying to figure out where the new guys would slot in.