A few Brian Burke Tidbits

[Pepperkorn]

So am I wrong in thinking our defense is too inconsistent to rate? That's what I want to discuss... I figured you of all people would work out a way to average each players performance and come up with the most realistic rating not based on gut instinct alone. and not based on a total of season end statistics.

[stevestevens]

I wonder if you can apply the same principal to forward lines?

So you have 12 players on forward lines and the ratings from 1-12 and you need 78 to have a good team?

The forwards are just as interesting as the defensive pairings. I think that it comes down more to chemistry, and luck than the actual abilities or number values of the forwards.

When it comes down the goaltending, which analyzed under the scope of the past two season, may be one of the largest (Devils; Brodeur, Rangers; Lundqvist, Canucks; Loungo) or a lesser part of the hockey team (Detroit; Osgood, Flyers; Biron, Capitals; Theodore.) It is harder to analyze but is clearly an important part of the game. A system of 2-1 for every goalie pairing cannot work, but if you want to stretch it to a 1 to 4 (I found 1 to 3 to be a bit too constricting) an overall score of 6 should be pretty positive and 5 still being competitive. The scores being; 4:Elite, 3:Solid, 2:Average, 1:Poor.

For example, under last years teams-

Devils:

Brodeur; 4

Clemmensen; 2.5

Total______6.5

A team with a sure Hall of Famer, and an above average backup has a very strong game between the pipes which is fairly consistent as well.

Redwings:

Osgood; 2.5

Conklin; 2.5

Total___5

While it is questionable to go up or down on Osgood or just down on Conklin, (I gave him the benefit because he was 25-11-2, although the numbers are all from the team in front of him) they had a competitive team on the ice every night.

Flyers;

Biron; 2

Niittymaki; 2

Total____4

While some may think Biron (I'm not sure if he should be lower than Conklin but he posted worse stats which a very solid team infront of him while being a starter compared to Conklin's role sided more towards beign a backup) may deserve higher, both tenders allowed an average of 2.76 goals a game in net while recording only 3 combined shutouts. Luckily the team scored a lot of goals for them, but it is fairly certain where this team falters.

This may not work out perfectly, but it does portray more evidence to the line of competitiveness.

[sundstrom]

except that burke's players are overrated and mike mottau is underrated. i'd move greene down to a 1 and oduya to a 4, so that puts the devils at 17.5.

oduya is very good - he does a lot well except put up big points - but that likely has something to do with the fact that the devils system doesn't really have ANY defensemen putting up big points - mostly because they don't shoot enough.

I would agree with this rating. Greene is a 2 in my opinion, we could have klee who is deffinetly a 1.

that's why i had greene as a 2. 1 is reserved for NHL filler that might as well be in the AHL. Greene has talent and if he was given a #6 spot for 70 games, would perform at the level of a 2.

while i dislike brian burke a great deal (he reminds me of me, only much smarter and more successful) and would love to call him an idiot, it's the middle of the summer and any hockey discussion is good hockey discussion.

that's funny. i welcome burke - this was a good interview and he kinda understands this is still entertainment too unlike lou who acts like he's holding missle codes.

[puckrock]

think of it as assigning a #1-6 defenseman

Martin - 5

Oduya - 3.5

White - 2

Salvador - 2

Mottau - 1.5

Greene - 1 (I could concieveably go lower)

total - 15

now, let's go back to 2003

Stevens - 6

Nieds - 6

Rafalski - 5

White - 4

they get to 21 without the other two guys. you start to understand how we could win without having any front-line scorers (since Gomer

and Patty stunk that season).

Good, because Tverdovsky was good for a minus