LA Robbie Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 OK, so here is the 3rd of my team reviews for the Blitz 07 season. I'm going to try to go through the teams in the B league first, and then head on to the A league. If you have any comments feel free to make them, and if you want me to do your team (A or B league) let me know. Some extra info about your draft will help make it more complete, like important trades, important picks and your overall strategy for forming your team. I find it fascinating how different players can end up with totally different looking teams, and I think the stories of the process of how we got to our own groups of 6F 4D 2G is often pretty cool, and in the end is going to affect what kind of success we each have during the season. The one's i've already done are here: Washington Ottawa Anyway, hope you enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA Robbie Posted April 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 CALGARY FLAMES - BLITZ 07 B LEAGUE COACH: RAGE93 TEAM LINK: http://www.blitz94.com/draftab/rosterinfo.asp?team=CGY TEAM OVERVIEW With the addition of Ray Bourque and the retention of important players from last season's last placed team in the B league the Calgary Flames will be desperately hoping to put last season's disappointments behind them. There's no doubt they have talented players all over, and the base of a good team is there, as their high placing in KingRaph's team rankings show. Arguably last season's struggles could be attributed to the soft underbelly to the team which perhaps made them easy to physically dominate. The biggest question about this season's group is whether they will be up for the fight when a physically big opponent like Mav's Whalers or Gretzkyonacold's Washington try to bully them. Whilst they have some bigger guys this season who should be harder to knock off the puck, does this team have the checking ability to break up the opposition play, or are they going to be up against it again in Blitz 07 when they aren't in possession? TEAM MAKE-UP It may have come as a surprise to some, but Calgary have held on to probably more of last season's players than some of the teams that did well. Keeping their place on this season's roster from Blitz 06 are Ron Hextall, Doug Bodger, Steve Duchesne, Dallas Drake, Mike Ricci & Mats Sundin. Is this an intentional tactic to keep continuity..........or just because Chaos isn't on AIM much? lol What can't be in doubt is that these players form the base of a squad that most coaches would be happy to have. Hextall is certainly one of the league's more reliable keepers whilst Duchesne provides great offensive options from D with his 4 speed, 4/2 shot and 4 passing. Doug Bodger is a heavy hitting D man with useful 3 speed and Drake's 4 speed and solid enough skills make him useful from the bench. Offensively Chaos will no doubt be delighted to have Sundin & Ricci again. In a team that won only 10 games all season in Blitz 06 Ricci still managed to put 72 points on the board, his 5 shot accuracy & 4 passing contributing 31 goals and 41 assists, and Sundin hit 100 points for only the second time in his Blitz career with 74 goals. If the team can improve defensively & give these 2 guys more support there's no doubt they can carry them to a successful season. Of course the biggest change at Calgary is the addition of the man himself - Ray Bourque, returning to Calgary & Chaos for the 1st time since Blitz 03. This guy really is a phenomenon. 162 goals and 152 assists in 249 career Blitz games.......from D! Seriously, what other Dman in the game has more goals than assists, and even gets near a goal every 2 game average, let alone above it! But the thing is his offensive weapons are not even at the expense of his defensive capabilities. With his 10 weight and 6 checking the guy is an absolute bull. His ability to put forwards on their backside before gliding up the other end to score is pretty much unmatched due to his 5/4 skating and 5/5 shot. Lets not turn this into a Ray Bourque love-in, but Calgary have a special player on their hands this season, and 1 who just might be able to compensate for any areas of weakness the team might have at both ends. The other new additions all provide skill and ability to the group, and should make Calgary very attractive to use and watch this season. Pat Verbeek and Paul Ysebaert (traded from Washington for Joe Murphy) are both silky smooth, with strong playmaking and scoring ability, Terry Yake has a solid skill set and even new boy in defence Petr Svoboda can play his part with the puck, like the man he replaces Alexei Zhitnik from last season's roster.........it's all just so damn pretty! Indeed from the players that have gone the only one's that don't really seem to be replaced by a better, or similar player are Adam Oates in the forward line and enforcer Dave Poulin who, along with Doug Bodger was perhaps the only physical presence in Calgary's Blitz 06 line-up. There are certainly goals in the team and lots of guys who are going to be good with the puck, no doubt about it........but can this group get it's hands dirty when it needs to aswell? STARS Ray Bourque is like having 2 super stars in your team he's that good. He's a dominating Dman and might just be Calgary's best forward too............(OK, stop the love-in). At forward Ricci & Sundin are going to get goals no matter what. These 3 stars might just get near being the envy of the B league, and with Verbeek & Ysebaert supplying them the sky could be the limit. WEAKNESSES It has to be said - Bourque and Bodger aside, who's going to be the enforcer in this team? Who can be relied on to come off the bench and help see out a close game? Who can compete with some of the bigger guys in the league when the game turns into a war of attrition? Arguably last season's team member Dave Poulin would be the obvious choice to add some "balls" to this team when the going gets tough, but he's gone. A look down the roster shows that Bourque is the only player with more than 3 checking, and Bourque, Bodger & Duchesne are the only guys above 7 weight. It really is a tiny team and I have images of Bourque & Bodger swearing an oath to protect Ricci & Sundin as they accept the task of taking the One Ring back to mount doom! It seems pretty obvious the lack of checking ability, coupled with a struggle to fend off the hits on offence could be this team's undoing. SEASON PREDICTION - BATTLING TO OUTSCORE OPPONENTS IN A CHASE FOR THE FINAL PLAYOFF PLACES Lets make one thing clear - To write off any team with Hextall, Duchesne, Bourque, Ricci and Sundin would be extremely foolish. This could go either way. Either Bourque is so dominant that he can take the pressure off the smaller forwards and they light it up with all the exciting talent they have, or it proves too much for him to do alone on D and the team struggles to compete physically again. I just can't decide. We know they'll score goals. Perhaps Calgary's season hangs on the ability of Hextall, Bourque, Bodger & Duchesne to take the pressure without the support of the forwards..............will those little guys be arriving to the Stanley Cup mount doom, or end up waiting for "precious" victories?..........(Seriously, I didn't really continue with that crappy analogy did I?!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedWingDevil Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Just so it's crystal clear, Ray Bourque is hilariously broken. No other d-man in the game comes even close to what he does. He can basically handle it all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaos Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 I would like to point out that the last season the flames made the playoffs was with bourque (season 3). Also, I don't build my team on checking and heavy forwards, I build it on finesse. I look for guys with accurate shots, good passing, and decent speed and awareness. And the reason I get last place is due to my lack of playing and rustiness! Not my team's fault! Nice write up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggink444 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Great work on these Robbie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA Robbie Posted April 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 I would like to point out that the last season the flames made the playoffs was with bourque (season 3). Also, I don't build my team on checking and heavy forwards, I build it on finesse. I look for guys with accurate shots, good passing, and decent speed and awareness. And the reason I get last place is due to my lack of playing and rustiness! Not my team's fault! Nice write up! Haha, well this is kind of what's been fascinating me. The way different guys plan their teams in different ways. I've been trying to write these ignoring who the coach is (Although I kind of acknowledged that on Carse's one) and instead looking at the numbers on the roster & coming to an opinion on what those numbers might mean: How's the team likeley to play, what are the potential counters to this team's strengths? etc. I just find that really interesting that those numbers on each teams screen can lead to you to deduce different things about that team. certainly doesn't mean that my review determines how the team will do, because there're other, human factores involved that will have a big impact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.