Post by Buffalo Sabres on Mar 19, 2008 0:11:37 GMT -5
Preview
The Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers take on the 8th seeded Minnesota Wild. The Edmonton Oilers overcame a very poor start and battled all the way back up the conference to their second straight conference title. The Wild have endured a season in which say them fire and re-hire their GM within a period of three weeks at a time when they held the division lead. This turmoil was a main factor in the Wild falling to the 8th seed.
Goaltending
Edmonton has a ton of experience in goal with J.S. Gigeure as the main man. Backing him up is one of Jose Theodore or Ed Belfour so there is a lt of experience and depth at this position if Giggy happens to go down with an injury. Minnesota counters with Manny Fernandez and a solid Josh Harding backing him up and gaining experience for this still young club. Giggy put up some pretty good numbers with a 37-22-7 in 69 games with 3 shutouts and a 2.82 GAA and .902 save percentage. Giggy was in the top ten in most categories. Fernandez has very nice numbers as well boasting a 30-28-5 record, 4 shutouts, 2.84 GAA and .904 save percentage. He also had the second most Star Points in the league this season indicating that he is most likely the most valuable player to the Wild this season.
The numbers are almost identical for both teams in regards to goalie stats, shots allowed per game(Edmonton allows 29.1 and Minny 29.4 per game) and goals against per game is also almost identical. Baring any injuries to Minnesota this category is a draw.
Forwards
Edmonton has a bit more depth of offence at the forward position carrying 8 players with more than 55 points to Minnesota only having 5, however that is a bit masked in that Minnesota has 6 players with more than 20 goals to Edmonton only having one more at 7. Neither team has a player at a point a game pace for the regular season so there isn't as much of an advantage there as one might think. Veteran leadership is clearly on the side of the Oilers with Forsberg, Naslund, Gelinas and Nolan leading the way.
Defense
Neither team is getting a huge amount of offence from their defence, however with the likes of Boyle and Rafalski in Edmonton there is potential of more offence from their defence corp. Minnesota's defence is lead by veteran Tom Poti and a young Brent Burns and Filip Kuba. Add in guys like Rozsival, Zidlicky and Liles to Edmonton and clearly the defensman on the Oilers boasts a bigger named group and is much deeper in talent that what the Wild offers, but this teams focus is defence first so Edmonton will have to crack through that.
Injuries
Edmonton - No injuries to report
Minnesota - Patrick O'Sullivan sidelined 1-2 weeks (Injured)
The keys to victory!
These two clubs are both very disciplined Minny being the least penalized team in the VHL. Edmonton has struggled badly this season on the powerplay coming in 25th in the VHL so there is not likely to be very many powerplay goals against Minnesota. Edmonton however does have the 3rd best PK in the league which should slow Minnesota down a fair bit. As long as these trends continue I expect a very low scoring series. Veteran leadership should be the difference in the series.
PREDICTION:EDMONTON in 7 games.
The Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers take on the 8th seeded Minnesota Wild. The Edmonton Oilers overcame a very poor start and battled all the way back up the conference to their second straight conference title. The Wild have endured a season in which say them fire and re-hire their GM within a period of three weeks at a time when they held the division lead. This turmoil was a main factor in the Wild falling to the 8th seed.
Goaltending
Edmonton has a ton of experience in goal with J.S. Gigeure as the main man. Backing him up is one of Jose Theodore or Ed Belfour so there is a lt of experience and depth at this position if Giggy happens to go down with an injury. Minnesota counters with Manny Fernandez and a solid Josh Harding backing him up and gaining experience for this still young club. Giggy put up some pretty good numbers with a 37-22-7 in 69 games with 3 shutouts and a 2.82 GAA and .902 save percentage. Giggy was in the top ten in most categories. Fernandez has very nice numbers as well boasting a 30-28-5 record, 4 shutouts, 2.84 GAA and .904 save percentage. He also had the second most Star Points in the league this season indicating that he is most likely the most valuable player to the Wild this season.
The numbers are almost identical for both teams in regards to goalie stats, shots allowed per game(Edmonton allows 29.1 and Minny 29.4 per game) and goals against per game is also almost identical. Baring any injuries to Minnesota this category is a draw.
Forwards
Edmonton has a bit more depth of offence at the forward position carrying 8 players with more than 55 points to Minnesota only having 5, however that is a bit masked in that Minnesota has 6 players with more than 20 goals to Edmonton only having one more at 7. Neither team has a player at a point a game pace for the regular season so there isn't as much of an advantage there as one might think. Veteran leadership is clearly on the side of the Oilers with Forsberg, Naslund, Gelinas and Nolan leading the way.
Defense
Neither team is getting a huge amount of offence from their defence, however with the likes of Boyle and Rafalski in Edmonton there is potential of more offence from their defence corp. Minnesota's defence is lead by veteran Tom Poti and a young Brent Burns and Filip Kuba. Add in guys like Rozsival, Zidlicky and Liles to Edmonton and clearly the defensman on the Oilers boasts a bigger named group and is much deeper in talent that what the Wild offers, but this teams focus is defence first so Edmonton will have to crack through that.
Injuries
Edmonton - No injuries to report
Minnesota - Patrick O'Sullivan sidelined 1-2 weeks (Injured)
The keys to victory!
These two clubs are both very disciplined Minny being the least penalized team in the VHL. Edmonton has struggled badly this season on the powerplay coming in 25th in the VHL so there is not likely to be very many powerplay goals against Minnesota. Edmonton however does have the 3rd best PK in the league which should slow Minnesota down a fair bit. As long as these trends continue I expect a very low scoring series. Veteran leadership should be the difference in the series.
PREDICTION:EDMONTON in 7 games.
