Top 10s are one thing. We’re crazier here.
FORWARDS
Jeff Tambellini-Frans Nielsen-Jeff Hamilton
Trevor Smith-Jason Krog-Trent Hunter
Raffi Torres-Eric Manlow-Rob Collins
Sean Bergenheim-Jeremy Colliton-Kevin Colley (A)
Ben Walter
Shameful omissions: Well, Walter as a sub is kinda shameful, but anyway. Robert Nilsson (players with more than 50 GP: Only Tambellini and Krog had more points per game, but unfortunately he didn’t even play 80 here), Juraj Kolnik, Blake Comeau, Justin Mapletoft, Steve Regier, Tim Jackman. You can argue lots of ordinals, but I wanted some crash-n-bang and some versatility on that fourth line. We’ll keep Eric Godard’s number on speed dial if the peace needs keeping.
The above keeps a few historic units almost intact. (You could plug the same guy into two of them.) If we had to do it entirely by regular line combos, which is something I did threaten four years ago:
Tambellini-Nielsen-Nilsson
Kolnik-Krog-Hunter
Smith-Kurtis McLean-Mike Iggulden
Masi Marjamaki-Matt Koalska-David Masse
The last, just because it’s the only thing I’ve ever given a nickname that sort-of stuck, and I’m still absurdly proud of that. Throwing out another line like Mattias Weinhandl-Manlow-Hamilton wouldn’t be bad, I guess, or even Jeremy Adduono-Daniel Tkaczuk-Hamilton from the ’03 playoffs. But it’s my absurd list, and I’ll be as absurd as I wanna be, thank you.
DEFENSE
Ray Giroux-Mark Wotton (C)
Chris Campoli-Bruno Gervais
Alan Letang (A)-Alain Nasreddine
Brandon Smith-Andrew MacDonald
Shameful omissions: Chris Armstrong, Dustin Kohn, Tomi Pettinen, Ray Schultz, Jody Robinson.
As mentioned on Twitter, this has killed me for two months. I’m already mad at myself for not putting MacDonald in the top six, let alone leaving Chris Armstrong out, especially considering that I’ve got Giroux in there. I could go back and forth on this for the rest of eternity.
If you’re going to use real pairs, it’s, what, something like
Schultz-Giroux
Letang-Nasreddine
Kohn-MacDonald
Campoli-Gervais
in an order of your choosing?
Although, you could argue that the best defense this team ever dressed at one time was the six they threw out there on Dec. 30, 2003, at Wilkes-Barre: Letang-Nasreddine, Sven Butenschon-Smith, Pettinen-Mattias Timander. Smith was exempt from the veterans rule, Butenschon was on conditioning, and the other four were vets. From the ensuing notebook:
After Tuesday, the group has combined for:
–555 NHL games (high: Timander’s 385)
–1832 AHL games (Smith has 551)
–399 IHL games (Letang, Nasreddine and Butenschon all top 120)
–337 European Elite League games (Pettinen’s 205 are tops — Letang has 32)
That’s a total of 3123 games toward the AHL veteran rule, an average of 520.5 per person. (Smith also played 60 in the ECHL in his rookie year, 1994-95.)
The average age is 28.6 years (Smith turns 31 in February, while Pettinen is the baby at 26.5).
Utterly insane, the experience and ability those six had. Utterly implausible that, with them and a conditioning Rick DiPietro, Bridgeport lost that game, then again the next night with Letang sitting out sick. (It did allow only two goals those two nights with DiPietro in net in regulation time, losing 2-1 in overtime at Wilkes-Barre and 2-0 including an empty-netter at Binghamton. And to make it even weirder, Cole Jarrett and Jody Robinson both dressed for those games… both at forward at Wilkes-Barre, and with Jarrett at forward at Binghamton.)
(But I digress.) (What else is new.)
Anyway, if not them, then the Big Six of 2002: Schultz-Giroux, Branislav Mezei-Armstrong, Ken Sutton-Scott Ricci.
So I think we’ve successfully negotiated the veteran rule, at least as it stood in ’01-02. Letang, Nasreddine, Giroux, Wotton, Manlow and Krog competed as veterans for Bridgeport, and I don’t recall anyone else among those 21… except Brandon Smith, who’s exempt. Victory.
GOALTENDERS
Rick DiPietro
Wade Dubielewicz
Nathan Lawson
Goaltenders to lead Bridgeport to victory in a best-of-7 series: DiPIETRO, Rick. That is all. Dubielewicz came as close as anyone since, and he set records behind an excellent defense and a team that played a system as well as any. With almost everyone else a short-termer, Lawson gets the nod on his short-term performance and long-term potential, and you can’t help but wonder where his place on this list might be if he had gotten through either of his playoffs healthy.
Obviously, the criteria for these are always a little shaky. Do you take the single best player to play here, or do you say, wait, he was only here for 30 games? (Kharitonov-Sillinger-Okposo, Hillen-Martinek? And hey, Yashin practiced here for a few days in ’03-04, remember?)
But I’ll go with these guys. Hard to go wrong.