WCQF - Flames (5) vs Oilers (4) Playoff preview

[Cheese]

Flames vs Oilers
Battle of Alberta

Flames GM - Cheese / Oilers GM - malcomk14

Flames Coach - Jacques Martin / Oilers Coach Randy Carlyle

45-27-10 Regular Season Record 47-28-7
9-1-0 Last 10 Games 7-2-1

6-1-3 Last 10 Home Games 7-1-2

8-2-0 Last 10 Away Games 7-2-1
W8 Current Streak W3
261 GF 259
226 GA 228
Flames Lines

1 Scott Gomez Kristian Huselius Mark Recchi
2 Jason Arnott Alex Burrows Robert Lang
3 Steve Ott Eric Nystrom Gregory Campbell
4 Ruslan Fedotenko Arron Asham Matt Bradley
Oilers Lines
1 Joe Thornton Alexander Frolov Nik Antropov
2 Mike Fisher Alexei Ponikarovsky Glen Metropolit
3 Samuel Pahlsson Tomas Holmstrom Erik Cole
4 Trent Whitfield Shawn Horcoff Brad Winchester

Leading Scorers:
Flames
Kristian Huselius – 37-51-88
Scott Gomez – 29-54-83
Oilers
Joe Thornton – 41-67-108
Mike Fisher – 44-55-99

Goaltending:
Flames
Chris Mason: 31-24-9, 0.915, 2.74 GAA
Scott Clemmensen: 13-3-3, 0.917, 2.61 GAA 2-SO
Oilers
Martin Brodeur: 45-22-5, 0.913, 2.63 GAA 6-SO
Manny Legace: 1-5-0, 0.886, 3.56 GAA

Head to Head:
Day 10: Calgary 4 - Edmonton 5 OT
Day 23: Edmonton 3 – Calgary 0
Game 85: Edmonton 4 – Calgary 6
Game 88: Edmonton 3 – Calgary 2

Game 148: Calgary 3 - Edmonton 2

Top 10 Players

Goals

Mike Fisher – Oilers 44

Joe Thornton – Oilers 41

Alex Burrows – Flames 40

Assists

Joe Thornton – Oilers 67

Mike Fisher – Oilers 55

Shot %

Mike Fisher – Oilers 16.67%

Centres

Joe Thornton – Oilers 108pts

Mike Fisher Oilers 99pts

Left Wings

Kristian Huselius – Flames 88pts

Defencemen

Brian Rafalski – Oilers 45pts

Pts per 20 minutes

Mike Fisher – Oilers 1.36

Face-off %

Sammy Pahlsson – Oilers 57.85%

Plus/Minus

Mike Fisher – Oilers +33

Alexei Ponikarovski – Oilers +26

Shots Blocked

Sami Salo – Flames 127

Brian Rafalski – Oilers 127

Hits

Alex Burrows – Flames 187

Powerplay Goals

Alex Burrows – Flames 13

Game Winning goals

Joe Thornton – Oilers 9

Kristian Huselius – Flames 9

Game Tying Goals

Mike Fisher – Oilers 6

Joe Thornton – Oilers 4

Goals/game

Flames 3.18/Oilers 3.16

Goals Against

Flames 2.76/Oilers 2.78

Powerplay%

Flames 22%/Oilers 17%

PK

Flames .81%/Oilers .82%

PIM/Game

Flames 9.28/Oilers 10.13

Hits/Game

Flames 20.43/Oilers 22.15

The Oilers won the season series 3-2 with one win coming in OT. The offensive edge goes to the Oilers as they have prolific scorers in Joe Thornton and Mike Fisher. Defensively both teams are great with the goaltending edge likely sitting on the Oilers side, unless Brodeur gets tired or injured, at which point the Flames tandem of Mason and Clemmensen take over.
The Flames enter the playoffs as the hottest team in the league while the Oilers were also above .500 coming in.
The Flames still have Jason Blake on IR, but he should be back before the first round is complete. The Oilers have Todd Marchant out for the entire first round.

[Da_Chief]

Good preview.

Offensively the edge goes to Flamers imo. I still like Marty over Mason/Clementine as far as the goalies are concerned.

This is very likely a 7 game series, with Flames moving onto round 2.

[Cheese]

game on...hopefully the rest hasnt turned the team stale.

[malcolmk14]

Very excited for this series to start. Both teams were hot to finish the season, and I think the difference will be the Oilers top-end talent in Thornton and Fisher.

Other than that, the teams are very even and I think it'll be a solid 6- or 7-game series.

[Swayze11]

I gotta admit, these are 2 teams I did not want to play in the 1st round. Should be a really good series.