WCQF: Anaheim Ducks (3) Vs Edmonton Oilers (6)
The Ducks had a solid season finishing 4th overall in the standings with 108 pts, a huge improvement over a dismal 80pt performance last year.
We made a lot of changes over the summer and iced a team with a strong mix of vets and youth.
The last 4 weeks of the year, the Ducks decided to go all in and make some trades to bolster all positions. We moved out Stutzle and a number of draft picks and prospects to bring in Kaprizov, Parayko and V Husso. We also made a goaltender swap at the end of the season and brought in MAF, shipping out Georgiev.
Our lineup going into the playoffs is the following:
J Benn (76) - MacKinnon (84) - Rantanen (82)
Kaprizov (82) - Backlund (75) - Kucherov (80)
Cozens (74) - Cizikas (70) - Greenway (69)
L. O'Connor (68) - Kuraly (70) - M Martin (68)
Josi (80) - Ekblad (76)
Theodore (76) - Dillon (71)
Parayko (75) - Power (71)
MAF (84)
Husso (81)
The Ducks have a lot of fire-power up front, with 2 of the top 5 CPHL point-producers playing on two different lines (Kaprizov with 101pts and MacKinnon with 96pts). The success of the playoffs will be determined by whether our top two lines can play to their potential.
On defense, Roman Josi was our top stud, finishing with 78 pts and good for a tie for 3rd for dmen. We also had Ekblad with 65 pts and Theodore with 62 pts, so lots of potential on the back-end for our d-men to contribute.
In goal, Husso finished the year with the Ducks with a 0.923 SV% and MAF had a 0.919 SV%, so I am hoping between these two they can continue their strong play into the playoffs.
If our team plays as well as it can, we have a good chance in the playoffs to go for a deep run. The question will be, which Ducks team shows up? The one that dominated the 1st half of the year? Or the one that had spits and spurts in the final 20 games?
We shall see, as the Oilers will be a great first round match-up.
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