GM: Guybrush Threepwood
Coach: Adam Oates
Last season: Finished 4th overall. In playoffs, defeated Munich, then Bratislava, then Lisbon and then Helsinki in the Finals to win the EURO Cup
Ins and Outs
(Season 12 to Season 13)
In: Kris Letang (free agent), Travis Konecny (free agent), Artturi Lehkonen (free agent), Roman Lyubimov (waiver), Brendan Leipsic (free agent), Gaetan Haas (free agent), Jonas Johansson (free agent), Boo Nieves (free agent), Kurtis MacDermid (free agent)
Out: Anders Lee (free agent), Timo Meier (free agent), Anthony Beauvillier (free agent), Eric Gryba (free agent), Curtis McKenzie (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Eliezer Sherbatov/Ryan Nugent-Hopkins/Vadim Shipachyov
Artturi Lehkonen/Aleksander Barkov/Jan Kovar
Brendan Leipsic/Erik Forssell/Travis Konecny
Roman Lyubimov/Brian Gibbons/Gaetan Haas
Staffan Kronwall/Kris Letang
Morgan Rielly/Filip Hronek
Roger Karrer/Dante Fabbro
Calvin Pickard/Jonas Johansson
Three Questions
1. Will they repeat as Cup champs? Certainly they can, but it won’t be easy. The best thing the Smurfs have going for them is the fact they are still the class of the Southern Conference. They should be favored to get to the Finals and once you get to the Finals, anything can happen. But this year, a key piece is missing thanks to our friend the salary cap. American left wing Anders Lee is now in Athens – with former Smurf Logan Couture, by the way – and that’s a big loss for Berlin. Lee scored 68 points in each of the last two seasons, with goal totals of 31 and 35. That puts the pressure of the Berlin fan base and media squarely on Artturi Lehkonen, a 27-year-old Finn who will inherit Lee’s spot in the lineup. After four seasons in Athens, Lehkonen broke out with Moscow last year. He scored 60 points and 27 goals. He’s a hard worker and he’s fast, but he’s not the big body that Aleksander Barkov and Jan Kovar enjoyed on their line the last two years. On defense, the Smurfs let Shea Weber drop to the farm club after they won the services of ex-Paris star free agent Kris Letang. That’s the only change on defense this season and frankly, that’s a pretty big plus for Berlin, if you’re going by the stats put up by Weber and Letang last season. But like Weber, Letang is a relative senior citizen and Coach Adam Oates can expect to play without the defenseman for a dozen or more games.
2. How can you beat the Smurfs? The Smurfs are starting out Season 13 beating themselves. Since they won the Cup over Helsinki in 5 games, they have been drinking, partying, singing, drinking and drinking. Not necessarily in that order. When we told GM Guybrush Threepwood training camp is starting, he responded “What?” That was it. Then he went back to looking at women. On the ice, Berlin is strong for most of the game, but they will be very vulnerable when the fourth line is out there and a little vulnerable when they are shorthanded. The team was only 14th best in the league at penalty killing last season and that’s lousy by Berlin standards. But if your plan is to get them to take retaliatory penalties, be careful because their powerplay is downright lethal. Second-best in the league last year, in fact. Your best chance of dealing the Smurfs a loss is by taking advantage of your man advantage situations. Fail to do that, and you will probably fail to win. Last year, Berlin’s forward lineup wasn’t as deep as you would think. The top 6 all scored at least 57 points, which is really good. Of the bottom six, Erik Forssell was of course brilliant with 44 points. But none of the other forwards on the bottom two lines even hit 20 points. That says injuries to the top six forwards could be pretty costly to Berlin.
3. Who are the team’s MVPs? Calvin Pickard was good in goal for the Smurfs and he peaked in the playoffs, where his save percentage hit a hard-to-beat 92.1. But he wasn’t the only reason they won their first Cup. Berlin proved last year that the top line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Vadim Shipachyov and Eliezer Sherbatov is a line that is simply a blue pain in the derriere. Even if you manage to bottle up two of them, the third guy always strikes. Always. The team had five 30-plus goal scorers last season and three of them were on that top line. Nugent-Hopkins finished with 111 points, second only to Anze Kopitar of Helsinki. He is 30 this year and is signed for the next 2 seasons with a team option. That contract tells you how much GM Guybrush Threepwood values the player. Shipachyov has a similar contract, as does Staffan Kronwall, the 29-year-old defenseman who is coming off his best year yet. The three top-line forwards, Kronwall and Pickard comprise the heart of the Berlin team and that will be the place this season, next season, and maybe longer.
Rose’s Focus
“I’m sure everyone expects my focus this season to be on Erik Forssell, and I get why. ‘She tried to kill him with poisoned cookies, he got mad, blah, blah, blah.’ But everyone seems to forget those cookies were intended for Threepwood. No, I won’t be focused on Forssell this year. I will be paying attention to what Aleksander Barkov does on the second line. Yes, Forssell has had both his plus-minus and turnover ratio skyrocket the last three seasons, and yes, he is suddenly becoming a hitting machine on the third line. That stuff doesn’t interest me. Although it will be cool to see what Forssell does with two new wingers this season. He actually should be an awesome fit with Travis Konecny and Brendan Leipsic. They could be tough to play against. But I don’t really care about that. I’m more interested in um, … what’s his name. The other guy.”
