The Wild Preview the Finals
The Minny Wild and Atlanta Thrashers will meet in the 4th Annual CPHL Stanley Cup Final.
Let’s take a look at the series and how the teams stack up:
Goaltending
Both teams have lost their regular season #1 netminders with Patrick Lalime and Dom Hasek both out, and likely gone for the finals. However, the Wild were in fact more fortunate to lose Hasek in the regular season which gave them time to acquire Curtis Joseph. Joseph has had the occasional bad game in the playoffs, but in general has been very good.
Atlanta’s fortunes now rest on the well-padded shoulders of former Wild Garth Snow. Ultimately the question raised is whether a team can go all the way with a 76 OVR goaltender? Perhaps they can.
The Wild have the edge with the backup goalie with Jamie Mclennan being better than Andy Chiodo. Though if either team’s #2…er….#3 netminder is in the cages…its not a good sign
The Edge: The Wild
Defense
The Wild play the hell out of their top 3 – Dan Boyle, Dan McGillis and Bryan McCabe. Their 4-6 are far from great. Deron Quint offers a bit of offense but is not a true 2nd pairing guy. Todd Simpson, Steve Poapst and Christian Laflamme round things out, and they are not great.
Atlanta, meanwhile boasts one of the deepest bluelines in the league with a tremendous #1 in Niedermayer, as well as Rafalski, Gill, Sydor all excellent dmen in their own right. The Thrasher’s final pairing of Gauthier/Hedican is much better than what the Wild offer up.
The Edge: Thrashers
Forwards
The Wild are without Saku Koivu but still have a solid top 6 of Sundin/Hossa/Sedin/Spezza/Huselius. Also in the mix is Trevor Letowski who adds some secondary scoring, Pker Todd Marchant and some solid vets to round out the lines. After struggling to score goals for much of the season, this unit has broke out in the playoffs, averaging over 4 goals a game. If there is a weakness up front it is a lack of defensive specialists.
The Thrashers are also strong up front with a talented and experienced group that includes CPHL MVP Craig Conroy, as well as Shanahan, Bondra, Guerin, Carter, St. Louis, Kozlov and Langenbrunner. It is a deeper group than the Wild, which is where they have the edge.
The Edge: Atlanta
Special Teams
The Wild’s PP has hummed along in the post season at over 20%, while the Thrashers are solid with 16% efficiency. On the PK, The Wild have had their struggles, only killing off 78.8% of their penalties. Their saving grace has been taking very few PIMs in the post season. The Thrashers have one of the strongest PK units in the CPHL. Indeed, this series could be decided based on the Wild PP’s ability or inability to crack the Thrasher’s PK.
The Edge: Even
Coaching
Cheese holds an understanding of the sim that few can match, including Farhall.
The Edge: Atlanta
Other Stuff
The Cheese is “The Cheese”. Grant is not. Edge: Atlanta
Cheese is old. Grant is not. Edge: Dunno, just wanted to point out that Cheese is old.
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