Jacques Lemaire....the architect of the dead puck era

[Gorskyontario]

Plenty of teams...Anaheim, Florida, Hartford, San Jose, Montreal...the list goes on and on...

Montreal wasn't playing the trap under Demers.

I do remember florida with Roger Neilson, and then after he got fired when they went to the final in 1996.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Montreal wasn't playing the trap under Demers.

They employed it a good bit. Demers carried a good deal of Pat Burns' tactics over. Maybe it wasn't quite as militant as New Jersey, but that would describe most situations. Most teams were playing it a good bit because there's only so many ways you can arrange five guys reasonably. That's why I was saying the whole DPE concept isn't just purely centered on a NZ forecheck concept. It's a buzzword ("the trap"), so it caught on.

But Montreal was no exception...



1-2-2. Dump. Then they get reset, you can even see Kirk Muller stop up and point out that LeClair is F1 there. Higher than New Jersey and San Jose's at points? Sure.

A couple years later when they started to try to open things a bit more to find some offense, it gets referenced here by John Davidson and then the Rangers coaching staff that they were playing it a little less now than they did a couple years ago, but they still are...

 

[The Panther]

Yeah re-watch the 1994 playoffs. Seems to be the best balance between speed, skill and physicality. Goaltending too was quite good, and the with Ranger winning that year I think the NHL lost a huge opportunity to market the game before it entered the DPE....

I agree. The NHL circa 1993-94 was the all-time peak of entertainment value for fans. (Unfortunately, my team sucked the big one in that period, but still it was a great hockey period.)

Suddenly,, the work-stoppage in 1994... the short, crappy 1995 pseudo-season... the Devils win the Cup... the League starts desperately expanding to line the owners' pockets... Florida makes the Finals playing boring-ass hockey... the DPE begins... big money is at stake now so clubs are content to acquire mid-range players and go one round of playoffs.... the size-fetish era... Oh God, make it stop!!!

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Unfortunately the 90s also had some of the worst draft classes of the Bettman era so there wasn't enough skill to go around.

what was up with that?

 

[Brodeur]

what was up with that?

Iron Curtain falling in the early 90's definitely hurt the Soviet and Czechoslovakian programs. I always remember this ESPN show that followed a few players going back to Russia in 1995. The Kasparaitis segment showed how bad some of their facilities had gotten.

I wish I could remember the source, but I recall reading something about the Swedes losing a lot of top young athletes to soccer in the 70/80's that could have been the draft eligible guys in the 90's. The 1994 Olympic Gold winning club helped reinvigorate things and that was a reason why they had a resurgence of guys born into that wave.

With the US, I think a lot of people credited the 1980 Miracle on Ice club with boosting interest in hockey. But that didn't cause a bump with draft prospects until the late 90's / early 00's.

I have no idea if there was a cause but even Canada wasn't producing as many high end forwards during some of the 90's drafts.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Iron Curtain falling in the early 90's definitely hurt the Soviet and Czechoslovakian programs. I always had this ESPN show that followed a few players going back to Russia in 1995. The Kasparaitis segment showed how bad some of their facilities had gotten.

I wish I could remember the source, but I recall reading something about the Swedes losing a lot of top young athletes to soccer in the 70/80's that could have been the draft eligible guys in the 90's. The 1994 Olympic Gold winning club helped reinvigorate things and that was a reason why they had a resurgence of guys born into that wave.

With the US, I think a lot of people credited the 1980 Miracle on Ice club with boosting interest in hockey. But that didn't cause a bump with draft prospects until the late 90's / early 00's.

I have no idea if there was a cause but even Canada wasn't producing as many high end forwards during some of the 90's drafts.

Yeah I assumed the collapse of the soviet bloc would disrupt player development in those countries, the lack of Canadian talent is strange though.