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The 2010 Quarterfinals The Good Sir Gazette Written by Cole Thompson March 21, 2011 First off let me start off by saying that it's about time this paper returned. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has missed the Times (formerly the Gazette). This was a great regular season with many surprises. First off we have to to wait at least one more year to get our first back-to-back TOFHL Champion, as Gorilla Warfare failed to make the playoffs just one year after winning the whole thing. So we will have a new champion for sure this year! Of the 6 teams vying for immortality, we have two former champions: The Phenoms and MesEx (who actually play each other in the first round), a team (The Good Sirs') that has been runner up twice in 4 years, a back-to-back President's Trophy winner (No Boundaries), and two brand new teams (MVB and FKS) in the dance. Should make for some exciting playoff action! This is the first time in the four year league history that The Phenoms haven't finished 1st or 2nd to end the regular season. Also for the second year in a row, in only his 2nd season in the league, No Boundaries ends up with the presidents trophy with 292 points (a .603 winning percentage). It is interesting to note that this is the lowest winning percentage for The President's Trophy ever, which leads me to believe our league is the most competitive it's ever been. Also worth noting/watching during these playoffs will be to see if the “curse” of The President's Trophy can finally be broken and No Boundaries can be the first team to take down both the President's Trophy and The Cup in one season. Last, but not least, I'd like to personally congratulate both MVB All-Stars and Five Knuckle Shuffle on their first playoff appearance. They, ironically, will match-up against each other in the quarterfinals so one of them will at least have a shot at the trophy/money. With that in mind let's look ahead and breakdown each of the match-ups in the quarterfinals. Congratulations to the 6 teams who fought and clawed their way into the playoffs, now the real fun begins! (1) No Boundaries and (2) The Good Sirs' each have earned themselves a bye this opening round so we won't be discussing them until next week. Congrats to both teams. (3) MVB All-Stars vs. (6) Five Knuckle Shuffle – This match-up is very intriguing to me as we have two teams who have never made the playoffs before. In fact, based on the preseason rankings, the majority of the league didn't believe MVB or FKS would make the playoffs this year either. MVB was ranked 7th overall while FKS came in at 10th. MVB All-Stars had a strong campaign all year thanks in large part to his league leading 85 goalies wins. MVB was actually sitting in 2nd place entering the last week of the regular season but dropped to 3rd after a 2-7-2 run against The Good Sirs' (who coincidentally jumped up from 4th into 2nd place earning themselves the bye). Despite the set back in the last week, MVB still finished strong going 6-2 (51-28-9) over the last 8 weeks of the season. As mentioned before, MVBs strength lies in his goaltending (he also put up 13 shutouts over the season), but that's not to say his offense is lacking. MVB finished 3rd in the Gretzky Trophy race with 807 points (which is 17 more points than the 4th place The Good Sirs'), and was led all year by H. Sedin (86 pts) and M. St. Louis (85 pts). MVB is also strong from the back end with 2 defensemen in the top 5 in pts: K. Yandle (57 pts) and D. Byfuglien (50 pts). Five Knuckle Shuffle is also getting his first taste of playoff action and he is hoping it goes better than when he got his first taste of underage girls. Like MVB, FKS finished the season strong going 5-2-1 (54-26-8) over his final 8 weeks of the regular season. Offensively FKS was middle of the pack as he finished 8th overall in player points with 729 (78 pts less than MVB) and 6th overall with 249 PPP (24 less than 3rd place MVB). As far as the head to head series goes this season it was pretty much a stalemate. The two teams met only twice and each picked up a victory, MVB picked up the first victory 6-3-2 and than FKS responded with a 6-4-1 of his own. Looking back even farther, FKS holds the advantage over MVB with a 4-2 (34-25-7) record over 6 meetings all-time. That being said though my money is still on MVB to be victorious as I believe his balanced scoring and goaltending will put him over the edge and into the semi-finals. Prediction: MVB All-Stars 6-4-1. (4) The Phenoms vs. (5) MesEx – This is new territory for The Phenoms as they have never played in the quarterfinals. In the 4 years prior to this, The Phenoms have finished either first or second and received a bye into the semifinals. The Phenoms is also the only team to make money every year (finishing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) since the inception of the league. I expect The Phenoms to be very hungry to keep his streak alive. Standing in his way is not only a former champion, but a team that many predicted to be here. In fact, The Phenoms and MesEx finished 1st and 2nd in preseason ranking respectively. So while their seeding may be a surprise, it's no surprise that both teams have found their way back to the postseason. Add to that the fact that The Phenoms and MesEx co-GM Erich The Phenoms once again had a strong regular season, finishing 2nd in goals (327), 3rd in assists (508), and 2nd in points (835). This despite that fact that his two biggest “Phenoms”, S. Crosby and E. Malkin have been on IR for most of the season. Crosby has played only 41 games this season but still sits 3rd in points on The Phenoms with 66 points. Malkin has also been plagued by injury only playing 43 games this season while picking up a measly 37 points. One has to wonder just where The Phenoms would be ranked entering the playoffs if these two superstars were healthy all year. Unfortunately for The Phenoms Malkin is gone for the season and Crosby is still having “concussion-like” (read: CONCUSSION) symptoms and there is no timetable for his return. He'll have to really pull together as a team and rely heavily on his goaltending tandem of C. Price, M.A. Fleury, and T. Rask if he wants to keep it close with MesEx. We are already seeing signs of a possible Phenoms slowdown as he went 2-5-1 (38-42-8) over the final 8 weeks of the season. MesEx also isn't entering the playoffs on a dominating run as they played .500 hockey over the last 8 weeks of the season. Despite going 5-2-1, their actual record only shakes down to 38-35-15. MesEx was led this season by J. Iginla (71 pts) and E. Staal (64 pts), and ranked 5th in goals (293), 7th in assists (445), and 7th in points (738). So despite the fact that Crosby and Malkin are hurt for The Phenoms, I still have to give the offensive edge to them in this match-up. Speaking of the match-up let's look back and see how these two teams have done head-to-head. This season, the two teams were very evenly matched as they split the series 1-1 (11-11), with each team winning 9-2 during the two meetings. That right there shows me that one team is possibly going to dominate the series, although I'm hoping for a very close match-up. Despite two key injuries to The Phenoms, I still believe there is enough in the cupboards to get past MesEx in this quarterfinal. It'll come down to timely scoring and excellent goaltending from both teams, but in the end I like The Phenoms to to pick up the victory. Prediction: The Phenoms 5-4-2. |