Montreal secured a playoff spot with one game to go with a must-win game over Florida. Trailing Florida by just one point, a 4-1 win gave them that final playoff spot. That's the good news, the bad news is that they're playing Buffalo. A team that all but secured a playoff spot halfway through the season. Finishing the year with an outstanding 137 points, 45 points ahead of Montreal and the easiest President's Trophy win ever.
The Offense - Winners - Buffalo
340 goals in 82 games led the entire league for the Sabres, averaging over 4 goals a game it's not surprising that they have 2 of the 3 players who had 100+ point seasons in Crosby and Kopitar. Though not having the depth, with only 10 players who had 10+ goal seasons, half of the 10 scored more than 30 while Zetterberg finished with 29. Kopitar had the quick start for the Sabres while Crosby picked up his play in the 2nd half of the season. One of the most consistent goal-scoring teams, the Sabres won the season series 6-0-2 and outscoring the Canadiens 36-16.
Montreal only has one threat up front in Martin St Louis, but with 23 points in 27 games with the Canadiens, he'll need to pick up his play if Montreal ever want to win a game in this series. The veteran presence of Martin Straka should help the inexperienced forwards, but will need to put up the numbers of a 1st line center instead of the 7 points in 19 games he had in the regular season.
The Defense - Winners - Buffalo
Jay Bouwmeester, Dennis Wideman and Scott Niedermayer led a strong Buffalo blueline, with all three having 40+ point seasons. Derian Hatcher will be heavily depended upon for penalty killing duties while Erik Johnson and Shea Weber will be need to be solid in their own zone if Buffalo are to overcome the difficult teams in the East.
Montreal have a strong defensive core led by Chris Pronger and Rob Blake but will need strong play from leading offensive defenseman JM Liles and strong defensive play from Barret Jackman and Trevor Daley if Montreal want to steal a game. Chris Pronger and Rob Blake will have to log big minutes in this series but should be well suited to handle it.
The Goaltending - Winners - Buffalo
Martin Brodeur, need I say more? 50+ win season, 2.10 GAA and .910 SV% is easily worthy of a Vezina nomination. Backed up by Josh Harding who, with his 1.97 GAA, .916 SV% and never losing a regular season game, will provide an excellent backup to Brodeur.
Dan Ellis who was brought over in a deal with Colorado, will most likely struggle against the high-powered offense of Buffalo but his 2.26 GAA and .915 SV% might indicate that he could steal a game.
Who Wins the series?
Buffalo in 5 games, though I don't think Luke would mind as it means an extra home game income.
As the button pusher of the FHL Sim, I feel it's best to abstain from offering my opinion on who will win. However, Buffalo should be able to walk backwards blindfolded to pick up the cup. No offense to the rest of you guys, Buffalo's regular season was exceptionally impressive.
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"As long as those gnome elite molecules emerge, we certainly can reduce casualties. Their warplanes troops would be nice."
eric you took my comment the wrong way, im not saying it doesnt matter, i think id be top of league in thinking this does matter lol.. I MEANT to point out that fhl is very random, and Presidents trophy winners in FHL have a jinx come the playoffs imo..
example 1- Clb going to the conference finals as the 8th seed last year?? like this isnt the nhl their are power power teams (SJ, Col, Chi, Phi, Buff) that would win, 4-1, 5-2, 6-1 against teams like (clb, edm, bos, no offense to those guys but their is huge gap in talent level IMO) even come playoff time these top teams would dominate in 4-1, 5-2 wins.. and teams with radek dvorak leading a top 2 line would have no chance but in FHL they do..
example 2- Chara-O.Jokinen-Heatley (3 of my 5 80+ guys last year all getting hurt with 90+ DU and high high endurance get pounded by george's french based team (lecavlier, dumont, etc, his guys "physically" pounded me, injuring three guys in one game last cup finals, just saying in FHL its very random.
not saying luke doesnt have a good shot as with his team if it were on ice in nhl i think his guys would win 75+ games and maybe 1-2-3 games in the whole playoffs..
brodeur-crosby-zets-iginla-bouw-neids-carter-kopitar-brown like its insane...
-- Edited by HOTLANTA on Sunday 19th of April 2009 10:09:47 AM
As the button pusher of the FHL Sim, I feel it's best to abstain from offering my opinion on who will win. However, Buffalo should be able to walk backwards blindfolded to pick up the cup. No offense to the rest of you guys, Buffalo's regular season was exceptionally impressive.
Thanks Eric. We'll see what happens; I had twice the team Kirk last year yet he managed to out me so like he said, it is FHL. Good news is that TB won the first year, I believed he had the best team. Chicago won last year, our teams were really quite close.
Also, keep in mind Chicago has been one of the hottest teams of the league down the stretch. It seems like he scores like 8 goals every game lately.
That being said, for this year, I'll be disappointed with anything short of a cup victory. Good luck to all teams.
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"With Sid on your team, anything is possible" - Mario lemieux
Dominant teams in the regular season always march unopposed to the Cup.......just ask San Jose
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"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
Don't think Luke thought after two games he would be tied with Montreal, but recovered nicely after a shaky first game to tie the series. Tim on the other hand is just playing with no pressure, after Buffalo has had their season go the way it has, it wouldn't surprise me to see teams be happy to take a game or two off Buffalo in the series.
Surprises of the Series thus far
Martin Brodeur - Shaky play by the league's best goalie, letting in 5 goals on 42 shots.
Sidney Crosby and Anze Kopitar - Combined for just 3 points in two games after posting 100+ point seasons
Chris Pronger - Being the force he needs to be in Round 1 with 3 points
Martin St Louis - Best forward for Montreal is playing like it, 3 points in 2 games
Down 2-1 in the series, Buffalo has now gone 3-2 up. A bold move to play Josh Harding instead of star goalie Martin Brodeur sent a shock to the rest of the team and they've responded.
Surprises of the Series thus far:
Buffalo lost 8 regulation games in the whole of the regular season, have already lost 2 these playoffs
Jere Lehtinen - Leading the star-studded Sabres roster in scoring
Anze Kopitar - 100+ point regular season, 3 points and -1 in playoffs
Alex Steen - Key reason why this isn't a sweep with 5 points including a game winner and powerplay goal
Chris Pronger - 4 points and a reason why 4 out of the 5 games have been decided by 1 goal (the other was Buffalo's 4-2 win)
