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Post Info TOPIC: BRHL Playoff Preview: Buffalo vs Carolina
BluesGM


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BRHL Playoff Preview: Buffalo vs Carolina
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There are two curses I believe in while in FHL, the first is star power will win you regular season games but not help in the playoffs, the other relates to winning the President's trophy.

Buffalo (58-17-10-1) won the President's trophy with ease, with yours truly predicting they would win with 15 games to go. Acquiring Jarome Iginla to play alongside Crosby was a genius move, despite giving up Havlat and the 1st pick overall. Iginla finished tops on the Sabres with 104 points, while Crosby and Zetterberg finished 2nd and 3rd. The Sabres have the best goaltender in the league in Martin Brodeur, who with 45 wins, 2.18 GAA and .915 SV% will be racking up the awards. Josh Harding has also provided some solid backup posting a 2.39 GAA and .897 SV%.

Carolina (38-36-7-1) beat out the Boston Bruins for the 8th spot in the East, lead by Jason Spezza the Hurricanes have an extremely hard uphill battle against the Sabres. Martin Straka and Mike Knuble finished 2nd and 3rd behind Spezza, but quite a ways behind. Cam Ward played in 74 games, posting a 3.12 GAA and .884 SV%, those numbers will have to improve in order for the Hurricanes to have any chance.

Special Teams

Buffalo had the 20th ranked powerplay, something most would not expect from a President's trophy winning team. Arguably it shows how effective they can play at even strength, but an effective powerplay is needed to go far in the playoffs. Their penalty kill is ranked 5th, but if the Sabres powerplay cannot get it going, the penalty kill will have to improve as well.

Carolina on the other hand has the 11th best powerplay, led by, who else?, Jason Spezza with 10 powerplay goals. With the 18th ranked penatly kill, Buffalo just might get some confidence by playing a team with a weak penalty kill. However, the Sabres must be wary as the Hurricanes had 14 shorthanded goals, good for 3rd in the league and 2nd amongst playoff teams.

In two regular season games, Buffalo won the series 2-0-0, outscoring the Hurricanes 7-3. Sidney Crosby was the star of the series with 4 points in the two games, while Jason Spezza scored twice and Eaves chipping in one for the Canes.

Where the Series will be won or lost for:

Buffalo
    - Won - If no surprises happen
    - Lost - If Ward decides to be a brick wall two feet thick, 7 feet wide and 6             feet tall and Jason Spezza is revealed to be Superman

Carolina
    - Won - If they pray really, really hard
    - Lost - Well, it wouldn't be a surprise....

Prediction

Though I believe in the curse of the President's trophy, it won't happen in this series, Buffalo are just too good for Carolina. Buffalo sweeps the series.

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HOTLANTA


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i think this one will be a long series with buffalo slipping by..

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Sabres_Luke


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While its entirely possible, I think that's more what wish Kirk...It's funny to me how in your mind you are still the favorite in the East.

Good article- I'll see if i can't work on that 20th ranked pp, We've been practicing new units.

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HOTLANTA


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dude their is no practice its fhl...

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BluesGM


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HOTLANTA wrote:

dude their is no practice its fhl...



just thought i would bring this nice little writeup from kirk.... no practice eh? wink

While working on the drills with his regular line-mate Dany Heatley, Marian Gaborik made a mistake in a powerplay drill and Heatley made a european joke towards him, Marian seemed a little angered by the comment but nothing came of the incident. Later in the same drill the same thing happened and Heatley made his joke a little more vocal and Gaborik snapped and went after Heatley the two ended dropping the gloves and Heatley landed a few good shots on Gaborik before Zdeno interupted the fight and picked Heatley off of Marian..

After practice coach Barry Trotz was asked what he thought of the fight and all he could say was, "At least their showing they have a little fight in them." When asked if they would still be on the same line Trotz chuckled and said, "We have enough talent on this team we can separate them even strength but expect the two to still play powerplay together."



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Eric_Isles


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BluesGM wrote:

 

HOTLANTA wrote:

dude their is no practice its fhl...



just thought i would bring this nice little writeup from kirk.... no practice eh? wink

While working on the drills with his regular line-mate Dany Heatley, Marian Gaborik made a mistake in a powerplay drill and Heatley made a european joke towards him, Marian seemed a little angered by the comment but nothing came of the incident. Later in the same drill the same thing happened and Heatley made his joke a little more vocal and Gaborik snapped and went after Heatley the two ended dropping the gloves and Heatley landed a few good shots on Gaborik before Zdeno interupted the fight and picked Heatley off of Marian..

After practice coach Barry Trotz was asked what he thought of the fight and all he could say was, "At least their showing they have a little fight in them." When asked if they would still be on the same line Trotz chuckled and said, "We have enough talent on this team we can separate them even strength but expect the two to still play powerplay together."

 




HAHA, too funny.


Kirk apparently has an ego, who knew?

 



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HOTLANTA


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hahha it was a joke who knew???

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Sabres_Luke


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Haha Kirk you say everything in jest but actually mean it. I should try using it, it's a brilliant excuse for saying anything you want.

Joking of course....

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HOTLANTA


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how did practice go?

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Sabres_Luke


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Almost as bad are your defensive drills..

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BluesGM


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I'll probably be doing playoff recaps after each series as well... not sure if i can do them for every round as in a month i'll will be entering exam period at university

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Sabres_Luke


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BluesGM wrote:

I'll probably be doing playoff recaps after each series as well... not sure if i can do them for every round as in a month i'll will be entering exam period at university





I definitely understand that feeling. THanks for doing what you can. I just had my last 2 exams yesterday. I'm done undergrad forever though!

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Sabres_Luke


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what a joke- I'm pretty sure I've gotten outshot like 5 times all year.

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HOTLANTA


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should have practiced harder... hahahahahahah





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Sabres_Luke


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Wow.

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