It all comes down to chemistry and whether it is a team or a collection of individuals trying to fit in as opposed to working as a cohesive unit. In hockey, you have to have line combinations that work and compliment one another. Right now the Rangers are demonstrating a very good cohesion.They just need to build on it.
As far as the Habs talent, I kind of agee with jalimon that the Habs last year were nothing special without Price. They don't have a lot of dynamic offensive players, more of the grinder type guys who are great if you need to grind out 1-0 and 2-1 games with your stud goalie behind them, but are not consistent enough to sustain offense over a long period of time without goalie help. And so the team collapsed. Now they have Radulov and a few other guys who make them a little bit better. Weber adds a dimension that Subban did not - he is a huge hitter who instills fear in opposing players that there will be terrible pain if they skate past the blue line. With that fear instilled, the defense in front of Price has gone up a notch as guys do not come barrelling down the center if they value their heads. It's like the hard hitting safety in football who instill fear into WRs trying to run a slant pattern in his secondary, if those WRs try and stretch out for a pass they are gonna take a serious lick and maybe not come up right away. Same deal with Weber, it's the fear deal. The NHL has not yet adjusted although it appears Weber can be beaten with speed, you just need courage on the fast skates and not everyone has the biggest pair of testicles hanging between his legs.
The margin between good and bad in most pro sports is not that great. If a team's balance is upset by a few injuries a freefall can happen to almost anyone in these cap balanced sports leagues.
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