Final seconds: Cleary or Draper?

[Shutemdown 23]

Alright, so... It's the offseason and I just feel like talking about hockey.

Let's say there was a minute left in a game, the Wings were up by one goal, trying to maintain the lead.

Who would you rather have on the ice if you could only have one or the other? Why?

[Wings_Fan_In_Exile 3]

I'd go with Drapes.

A) he is a face off pimp

B) I think they are both good defensively, but I still give the nod to Draper

C) he scored a goal with his FACE this past playoff run

[DyingAlive 27]

I think Draper has proved in all the years that he has been with us that he can come up in clutch situations and be a difference maker. With that in mind I say Draper

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

I'd go with Drapes.

A) he is a face off pimp

B) I think they are both good defensively, but I still give the nod to Draper

C) he scored a goal with his FACE this past playoff run

Agreed. Draper for all these reasons.

[eva unit zero 271]

Well, the big question is...why must we choose between them?

There are a couple possible answers:

-The other two forwards on the ice are Dats and Zetterberg.

-The Wings only have three players on the ice, and choose to go 1F, 2D. Assumedly, as Zetterberg is not an available choice, he is being replaced on the ice by Draper or Cleary.

In the first situation, I select Cleary, as Dats and Z are both good on faceoffs and excellent defensively; while Cleary is quick and a good grinding winger who has proven the capability of playing with them. In the second situation, I would prefer Draper.

If neither of the above situations is accurate, then if we are trying to protect a lead why would we not have Cleary and Draper out on the ice together? If the Wings had to shuffle the lines slightly at the end of the game into two "shutdown" lines to preserve a one-goal lead, I would go with the following lines.

Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Franzen

Cleary/Draper/Hossa

That replaces the least defensively responsible player from each of the first two lines with the two most defensively responsible players not on the top two lines as I would lay them out; Homer replaced by the Franz, and Hudler replaced by Draper.

[Yzerfan1999 81]

I said Cleary...but I was assuming we were down a goal in the final seconds. In that case I would rather have Cleary on the ice to score a goal rather then Drapes.

But if we were protecting a lead in the final seconds, I guess I would go with Draper.