Defense wins championships. Just ask the Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks, New Jersey Devils, and other less offensively skilled teams that have found ways to win the Stanley Cup. A good defense will usually beat a good offense, just ask the Pittsburgh Penguins.
But who are the teams that look strong defensively this year? Here are my top five defensive teams coming into the 2008-09 NHL season, along with their defensive pairings.
5. Florida Panthers
Although they took a hit on the offensive end with the Olli Jokinen trade, the acquisitions of Nick Boynton and Keith Ballard have helped to add physicality and bulk to the Panthers' defense.
Star Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester has never had this much help around him with the likes of Bryan Allen, Karlis Skrastins, Noah Welch, and possibly Bryan McCabe. Here are my predicted defensive pairings for the Cats.
Pairing 1: Bouwmeester and Allen
Pairing 2: McCabe and Ballard
Pairing 3: Skrastins and Boynton
4. Anaheim Ducks
When you have Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, and Matthieu Schneider you're sure to have great defense, but it's the lesser known defensemen that have and will continue to step up.
Francois Beauchemin and Kent Huskins were key contributors to the Ducks' stellar defense. Beauchemin had 21 points and Huskins sported a +23 as far as plus/minus.
- B/R Ticket Guide
They also acquired the Panthers' Steve Montador. Montador has a lot of heart and determination. He will quickly become a fan favorite.
Pairing 1: Pronger and Niedermayer
Pairing 2: Schneider and Beauchemin
Pairing 3: Montador and Huskins
3. Detroit Red Wings
Why not have the Wings higher up? The same reason Anaheim isn't higher up—their top defensemen are all a year older.
The Wings sport steady and reliable defense with veterans like Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, and of course the ageless wonder Chris Chelios. But the Wings have also discovered new younger talent among their defensemen.
Brett Lebda, Derek Meech, and Niklas Kronwall all have tremendous upside. The wings also discovered the re-emergence of Brad Stuart, who was a key contributor to the Stanley Cup win by the Wings.
Pairing 1: Lidstrom and Lebda
Pairing 2: Rafalski and Meech
Pairing 3: Chelios and Lilja
2. Dallas Stars
The Stars, aside from Sergei Zubov, have relatively unknown defense. However, the likes of Trevor Daley, Phillipe Boucher, Stephane Robidas, and Matt Niskanen provide plenty of support, both offensively and defensively.
Zubov had another solid year this past season with 35 points. Boucher provides excellent leadership along with safe defensive presence. Robidas and Daley are both tough bruisers that can protect the Stars' key players such as Mike Ribeiro, Mike Modano, Brad Richards, and others on this very talented team.
Pairing 1: Zubov and Boucher
Pairing 2: Robidas and Daley
Pairing 3: Niskanen and Grossman
1. San Jose Sharks
The tank will be overflowing with fans once again as the Sharks sport a defense arguably better than last year's—yes, even with the loss of Brian Campbell. The Sharks acquired veteran Rob Blake and puck-moving defenseman Dan Boyle in the offseason. Veterans like Boyle and Blake will be excellent mentors for the Sharks' young defensemen.
The Sharks have tremendous upside in their defense with the likes of Christian Ehrhoff, Douglas Murray, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Ehrhoff is a solid defenseman who can dish the puck with the best of them. Murray is a hard-nose tough player who has some offensive potential. Vlasic played in all 82 games during the season, and looks to sure up his offensive game with the help of Boyle and Blake.
Pairing 1: Boyle and Blake
Pairing 2: Ehrhoff and Vlasic
Pairing 3: Murray and McLaren
It looks to be another exciting year of NHL hockey, with many new defensive powerhouses that are ready to knock the defensive teams such as Detroit and Anaheim right off their blocks.
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2 months ago
I'm a little stunned that you don't have Anaheim at #1 and I'm not even a fan of the Ducks. Their combo of Pronger and Niedermayer is without a doubt tops in the NHL. They eat up over half the game by themselves and gives whats left to two lines. Anaheim didn't win the cup last year due to no scoring not giving up too many. I'd switch San Jose to the third spot, eliminate Florida and choose between the Rngers loaded corps and the vastly underrated Montreal D.
from 2 months ago
Good thoughts. Anaheim's defense is great, but they are just getting too old, I agree the Habs defense is very underated, but the loss of Streit definitely will hurt them. I don't think the Rangers defense is a good as people think. Yes Roszival and Staal are good and Redden is solid, but once you get by them their defense is very average. The Sharks defense has a great mixture of proven veterans and young players full of potential that's why I think their defense is best all around.
from 2 months ago
about the habs, I dont think Streit's departure will be that big of a deal for a D position. now if u say PP, if nobody picks up, then it's screwed.
but about defense, he proved during the playoffs that he does not belong to the bing and bang side of the blue line.
great read Aaron,
from 2 months ago
Rangers aren't loaded but they have a great team defense... something florida really needs to become.
2 months ago
I think Lukowich is more likely to be in the lineup over McLaren for the Sharks.
2 months ago
Lukowich is solid definsively,but Mclaren brings more physicality, but I definitely could see Lukowich start instead of Mclaren should be interesting.
2 months ago
Schneider is most likely going to be gone which hurts Anaheims defense. And do you know anything about Detroit's D-men??? You dont even have kronwall and stuart starting! Did you watch the Stanley cup finals? and yeah Lidstrom is totally showing his age by winning his 6th Norris trophy last year!
from 2 months ago
Lidstrom is great, and will continue to be great that's why their defense is on the list, but I just think San Jose has a better mixture of young talent with solid veterans.
from 2 months ago
Kronwall and Stuart were incredibly good during the finals, the second the older players like Lilja slip up they will definitely get playing time. It's merely a case of too many good defense man lol. Lilja has been solid for the most part so it would be hard to insert Stuart or Kronwall in for him at the moment. Who do you think Kronwall and Stuart could take the place of?
2 months ago
How does Florida make this list? They're terrible...a good team generally starts with D so you may wanna rethink that one.
from 2 months ago
Florida's defense has vastly improve Bouwmeester is very good along with Allen. Boynton is a veteran who plays physical and Ballard has plenty of upside. Skrastins also is one of the better shot blockers in the league along with the possible addition of Bryan McCabe and Florida still has Noah Welch. The Panthers may not be playoff bound but their defense and goaltending will be their backbone,and well keep them in the playoff hunt.
from 2 months ago
I actually agree with putting them high on this list after the trades, Ken. Did you see the new look of that unit? That's pretty good--they may not have been top five, but putting them there is not unreasonable.
2 months ago
I have to agree with Alan Florida does not deserve to be on that list or even in a top 10. Line #1 is fine but after that it is basically a bunch of rehashed 4th and 5th "at best: d men from previous teams in the NHL. McCabe is a point producer but his defense is suspect at best, Skrastins is old and lost a few steps Boynton was a reject from Boston when they sucked and Ballard is OK. Just my two cents.
from 2 months ago
I guess will have to see. Who's defense would you replace Florida's with?
from 2 months ago
Boynton was an allstar with Boston.
2 months ago
Good article Aaron:
I actually like Calgary over Florida just because Phaneuf is such a monster back there. (Admittedly, I dont follow much east coast hockey. Pacific Division is enough to keep my heart rate up..)
I think the top 4 defenses you have listed here are spot on. How you rank them 1 through 4 is debatable. I also think these are the among the Top 5 teams overall in the NHL with Pittsburgh thrown in there somewhere among these 4.
BTW, Pronger doesnt usually play with Niedermeyer, he pairs with Sean O Donnell. They like to keep one of these guys on the ice most of the time and splitting them up does that. They did match them up in the playoffs against Ottawa to shut down the Spezza-Heatley-Alfreddsson juggernaut 2 years ago and it worked.
But generally, pairings in Anaheim are:
Pronger-O Donnell
Niedermeyer - Beauchemin
Huskins-Montador
Schneider will most likely be gone to Vancouver or LA to clear cap space for Selanne. Too bad. He was a good offensive addition to the Ducks even though he and Huskins were very soft on defense and it showed often against Dallas in the playoffs last year. I held my breath every time those two were on the ice, just waiting for the inevitable turnover leading to a breakaway on Giguere.
I hope Montador is more physical than Schneider was. Duck hockey is about physicality. I dont know much about him yet.
from 2 months ago
Thanks man, Montador will quickly grown on you. He's great at doing the little things that are very imortant, he is responsible defensively and can chip in a bit offensively. I was angry to see him leave the Panthers, good move by the Ducks though.
from 2 months ago
I totally doubt Schnieder to Vancouver.
from 2 months ago
Its heating up the past 24 hrs. Im seeing Kings, Canucks, Islanders, Devils, and Montreal thrown around as possible suitors for Schneider in the local papers. Schneider is a West Coast guy now. He lives in Manhatten Beach in the off season. Im sure he'd prefer the Kings but he'll take the best deal, Im sure. Unfortunately, he has to go to make room for Selanne. I wish the Ducks could keep him around. But they cant at 5.75 million USD and still re-sign Teemu for another year.
2 months ago
Calgary's defense is decent Phanuef is great and Sarich is solid, but not enough depth, and I actually would have considered Pittsburgh, but Whitney's out 3-5 months that will hurt their defense a lot.
2 months ago
Thanks for putting the Sharks #1, but the Ducks #4? They have BY FAR the best blueline in the league. And Aaron is right, Calgary HAS to be on this list. Look for my article on this over the weekend.
from 2 months ago
Good thougts, I definitely will check out your article. The Ducks have a great blueline, but they' re getting old and all the rumors have Schneider leaving, That's why I didn't put them higher up.
2 months ago
Honestly... I am a panther's fan and I know no one will agree that the panthers can actually have something good... but I know most people here don't watch our team play..... we've got a hell of D. You just wait and see. And our 1-2 goalie situation is top 10 possibly top 5 in the league. I am not trying to talk like some crazy fan but the moves we have made... all fans in south florida are very happy with. Jokinen as great of a scorer he was.. he could not play wing and didn't make people around him better. He is man who knows how to put up points and he will continue to do so in Phoenix... but he is not the guy to guide Mueller.
We may not have a sexy Offense but it is not as bad as all suspect. Thanks.. please don't kill me .. I tried to be honest.
from 2 months ago
People don't know how good our D can be,and how much potential it has for this year, because nobody hears about the Panthers, even in the state of Florida, you would not even know we have a hockey team with the lack of covarege we get.
2 months ago
One last thing if I were to take out my team,, I would put in New Jersey... everyone knows that defense is 5 guys... maybe only 2 are called defensemen but you need five guys to play it and no team plays a TEAM defense the way the devils do
from 2 months ago
Absolutely.
The Devils wrote the book on defense in the 90's and early 2000's.
I always thought Anaheim was trying to emulate the great 2003 Devils Championship team that beat them in the Finals. Since the day the Ducks were beaten by the Devils in 7 games, they have proceeded to systematically dismantle the Karyia-led skill team and build their version of the Devils.
Think about it:
Scott Stevens--Chris Pronger
JS Giguere--Martin Brodeur
Getzlaff--Gomez
Selanne-Elias
Langenbrunner--Perry
Turner Stevenson--George Parros/Brad May
Brian Rafalksi--Francois Beauchemin
Scott Niedermeyer--Scott Niedermeyer
Throw in a great checking line of Pahlsson-RNiedermeyer-Moen and you have a pretty good emulation of the NJ Devils.
Of course, with the rule changes, they cant trap like the Devils did. But, watching them as much as I do, (and my wife's from NJ), I often notice that they are a hybrid of that great Devils style of play.
They went from a finesse team to a defensive minded Stanley Cup Champion 3 years after losing to the Devils in 7, keeping only three players from the losing squad (Rob Niedermeyer, JS Giguere, and Sammy Pahlsson, all three of whom are ALL about defense.)
2 months ago
New Jersey has always been great defensively, but when they lost Rafalski last year their D was just not as good as it used to be.
2 months ago
Truth be told... comparing the top 6 defensemen of every team is very different from comparing the team defense of every team. Toronto gave up a lot of goals last year... but just looking at who's on the Top 6 for them.... they aren't awful.. Kaberle, Kubina, McCabe, Colaiacovo, White, and Stralman... That's a legitimate top 6... better than quite a few teams. But it's all about how the team plays not just two of the guys on the ice.
Best Team Defenses
Honorable Mentions: New York Rangers, Vancouver
5. San Jose
4. Dallas
3. Anaheim
2. New Jersey
1. Detroit
I think San Jose and Detroit belong where they are but Dallas, Anaheim & New Jersey can be moved around.
from 2 months ago
No way--Anaheim is #1 anyway you slice it. I do not have New Jersey in mine because I am rating the blueline for both offence and defence, rather than team defense from all skaters.
Aaron, I just finished a list of my own and this is really tough. Naturally people will disagree because it's very subjective and pretty close. And it's even harder of you are talking team defense--for instance, that would move the Sharks up on my list because they have good defencive forwards.
2 months ago
You have to remember too how much the Stars picked apart the Ducks defense during the playoffs, they also took among the most penalties in the NHL, that comes form being out of position defensively. Their D was still their backbone, but not as good as it has been in the past.
from 2 months ago
I disagree--the Stars only picked them apart because of their penalties. Half the Stars goals were power play, and being on the PK will make you look bad.
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