Quote:
Originally Posted by devo22
should be an interesting matchup between Tri-City and Portland - could easily be another 7-game series. I think the key will be how the teams can neutralize each other's top lines.
Regular Season Hughesman-Shinnimin-Holland: 359 points (133+226)
Regular Season Baertschi-Noebels-Rattie: 249 points (100+149)
Playoffs Hughesman-Shinnimin-Holland: 44 points (15+29)
Playoffs Baertschi-Noebels-Rattie: 57 points (20+37)
While looking at the RS numbers of the Winterhawks top-line you have to consider that Baertschi missed 25 games with injury and his NHL-callup, while Noebels only joined the team mid-season and only played 31 games for Portland. So over 72 games, they would have been better than Tri-City's top three once again, like in the playoffs. Anyway, those are pretty ridiculous numbers for both top lines.
I have a feeling that the Winterhawks have more secondary scoring (Ross, Pouliot, Morrow, Leipsic etc), but who knows ... I'm still not convinced by Carruth in net though. Getting the SO in game 7 is great, but overall his numbers haven't been that impressive.
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Portland scored 328 regular season goals to Tri City's 281. However, Portland gave up 228 goals vs Tri City's 190. Goal differential for Portland is +100 vs +91 for Tri City's. This indicates that your guess about better depth is very likely accurate.