Defensive Forwards -> International Tournaments,yay or nay?

[Artorius Horus T]

SOMEBODY CREATE A POLL (I DON'T KNOW HOW TO)

Do you accept defensive forwards at international tournaments in your team?
Yes or No

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Am i the only who wants 4 scoring lines?...for all teams,countries (not just for Finland )
i'm sick of tired of hearing the same stupid explanation year after year. (which is complete BS)

Time to break the cycle.

Click to read more...

 

[rickardr]

yes

 

[JackSlater]

Patrice Bergeron? Yay. Rob Zamuner? Nay.

 

[Jablkon]

We dont have enough offensive forwards now so If there is any fan of defensive hockey we can put Palat-Hanzal-Frolik line

 

[Tomas W]

Many of the best players can switch roles if they gave to, so...only defensive specialists if you dont have any good 2 way forwards.

 

[TheTwelfth]

You need two-way players to compete against gold. Canada will come in and roll with 4 scoring lines in super short shifts. You need players that can both defend and attack if you are going to beat that.

 

[MaxV]

Russian coach, Znarok, is a fan of the idea. That is why Kulemin, Telegin, Andronov and Kalinin are some of his favorite players.

 

[Statsy]

First things first, you DO need to check and you DO need to penalty kill. You ignore those aspects of the game at your own peril. With that said, if you can get offensively capable players to cover those roles, that's the most ideal situation (as many other posters have pointed out). Canada's team at this WJC was the perfect example. Howden, Formenten and Comtois did a lot more than just check. They were consistent offensive contributors.

Obviously any team's management would prefer that to be the case, but other countries choose more defensive minded players because they don't believe the second and third tier offensive guys can get the job done. It's worth noting that the OP complaint was more geared at Finland and the simple fact is that even Finland's top purely offensive guys had trouble scoring. If anything, that Koppanen line was one of their most effective units on a regular basis.

The bottom line is that you look at what you have to work with and then do your best to put together a lineup that you think will give you the best chance to win.