Poll of the Week - May 25

[BigTed3]

A lot is made about high-end talent when it comes to the playoffs. Each of the remaining teams has a high-caliber goalie and elite players on D and up front. Which trio of core players would you select for your team to make a run at the Cup this year? If you were the Habs, would you trade our trio straight up for one of the other semi-finalists' trio?

[jennifer_rocket]

The Kings trio is awesome. I would love to have Doughty and Kopitar. I avoided picking the Habs trio because I feel like Toews and Kopitar are both superior to Max.

[THEBIGGESTHABSFAN123]

I was gonna pick the Kings but Price is way better than Quick so yeah.

[31Careyprice]

Price > Quick

Subban < Doughty

Pacioretty < Kopitar

But out of the 4 listed I would say habs have 2nd best trio.

[Guest habs1952]

Crawford, Keith and Toews...........Good goalie, excellent d-man and a team leader in every respect.

[PAPPAPUMPED]

I feel that the Habs need more scoring punch up-front but I would never trade Price but we do need more from offensive players.Habs need a big gun or two that can bury an opponent in OT come play-off time.

Game #4 proved it we need a sniper too bury it in the net streaky scoring players cannot be counted upon to score in tight games.

MB must try & trade for a sniper with proven stats & soft hands around the net.

Go Habs Go !!!

I believe that the Habs can come back down 3 games too 1 just one game @ a time.

[powerplay2009]

I feel that Max and Rick Nash are the weakest forwards of the group. By far.

I think that Crawford is the weakest goalie, and that Quick, while not being weak, is definitely overrated.

I think Keith and McDonaugh have been pretty average compared to PK and Doughty over the past couple years.

It's tough to choose, for me. Definitely not the Rangers. I like Chicago's core overall (beyond the 3 players listed) more than any other teams, but as the 3 player unit, I think Crawford and Kieth are a little weak.

I chose LA because I think the difference between Price and Quick, while not terribly small, is smaller than the difference between Doughty and PK (basically nil) and between Max and Kopitar (which is enormous, IMO - seriously, I can't figure out why more people don't talk about Kopitar).

[BigTed3]

If I were to rank the players in order, I'd have them as

1. Price (tie)

1. Quick (tie)

3. Crawford

4. Lundqvist

1. Doughty

2. Subban

3. Keith

4. McDonagh

1. Toews

2. Kopitar

3. Pacioretty

4. Nash

So to me, the Rangers are without a doubt the weakest of the bunch, even though Lundqvist and McDonagh are elite players in their own right. I think Crawford's a bit underrated as a goalie, but he's not in the same class as Quick and Price. However, Toews is probably the best player in the entire bunch, so he boosts Chicago's value. Overall though, I think LA has the best defenceman and a better forward than us, and the value of Quick + Doughty is greater to me than Toews' value in Chicago.

[31Careyprice]

1. LA kings trio

2. Montreal trio

3. Chicago trio

4. New York trio

[Manatee-X]

I agree with PP that Kopitar is consistently underrated around the league. I think that he's enough, along with Doughty, to put the LA trio on top.

With that said, I wouldn't actually trade our trio for any of the others. All three of those guys, PK and Price in particular, are just too much fun to watch. As a fan I'm much happier with them around.

[powerplay2009]

With that said, I wouldn't actually trade our trio for any of the others. All three of those guys, PK and Price in particular, are just too much fun to watch. As a fan I'm much happier with them around.

Yeah, I've become really attached to the core of this team. With PK and Carey in particular, even if there was (hypothetically) a way to improve the team by moving them, I've come to like them so much that I still wouldn't want to see it happen.

[Guest mrsmarkov]

I like the LA trio the most, but I'd never trade in ours. I want to see this team win, they're like family. No interest in new faces there.

[Guest mrsmarkov]

I'm all in favour of Kopitar and Doughty, but can I keep Price?

[Habsology2]

I chose the Chicago bunch. I think that Crawford is a serviceable tender and is underrated. Keith, although not as good as PK, is a very good Dman on any team. But the one thing that this team has been missing is a great leader. One who can lift the team when it needs that lift. One that the team can rally around. We have been missing a great leader for a long time. I would even take Toews over Crosby. So for that reason I chose Chicago.