RECAP: Playoffs Round 1

-The Playoffs, this is what it’s all about.

-Militia is tired of playing D+C, luckily there is no chance they will see each other again until next year.

-I predicted that the Dump and Chasers would win by a score of 10-5-3.

-But, I also said this “it’s the playoffs, anything can happen.”

-For most of the week Mario had a commanding lead, but each day the Dump chased after stat categories bit by bit.

-Dump and Chasers wore down their opponent like a good boxer then waited for the perfect time to strike the KO blow:

-Literally the last player in this matchup in the last game of the NHL week won it for the Dump.

-Patrick Marleau was all D+C had left Sunday night when Mario was up 8-7 about to bust out the celebration materials.

-Then it happened, “Marleau PPG.”

-With that goal the Chasers caught up to Mario by tying the goals cat and taking the lead in the ppg cat, thus eliminating Mario and his Militia.

-Dump and Chasers move on:

-This wasn’t your typical D+C victory, but they’ve shown now that they can win in many different ways.

-They had a rough weeks offensively and they split the specialties but their goaltending was superb. Led by Kippers great play and a huge shutout by Price, D+C almost swept the goalie stats on their way to victory. Clutch.

-Great season by Mario’s Militia, there best ever in fact. Mario’s got a great young core with Kopitar, Malkin and Stasny. Certainly, they will be a force for years to come:

(Unfinished business next year for MM)

-The other first round matchup was of course Farls Regime vs Halfhill Crusade IX.

-It was The 3rd seed vs. the 6th seed:

(Regime was supposed to have as much chance as this kid ^ )

(It was the Big Champs vs the Tiny Scrappers)

(It was David vs Goliath)

-This is the 3rd time these two have met in the playoffs and 9th time they have met all-time.

-I based my entire prediction around a previous matchup, here it is: “3 weeks ago when these two teams met, Regime couldn’t take any goalie stats but they took most of the specialties and all of the offensive #’s on way to a 10-7-1 win. Déjà vu again. I predict a 10-7-1 victory/upset by Farls Regime.”

-The miracle here is that the score ended up 10-7-1 and for the first time I actually predicted perfectly, but how I got to that score is another story.

-Regime dominated the offensive stats again, losing only in goals.

-I thought Regime would take the specialties like before and lose goalie numbers.

-Can you blame me though, I mean how could my rag-tag goalies possibly beat Halfhills Brodeur/Luongo tandem???

-Then it happened. Ersberg:

(The little Swedish goalie that could)

-In a move that could have only been predicted by Johnny Carson, Farls sat all of is goalies over the weekend figuring Biron/Nittymaki/Backstrom would lay an egg somewhere.

-The move was risky, Regime was handing Crusade Wins and Saves for a solid chance at winning Save % and GAA in return.

-The move payed off, Regime miraculously took the goalie stats with a bunch of nobody’s and the rest is Lemieux’s League history.

-Also, Bert MacLean?? What a week this guy had! 6 points in 3 games, what a beast:

(BERT)

-Can’t forget this guy either, 7 points and a huge SHP:

(Welcome to Pomminville)

-To Halfhill’s credit, he had injuries like you wouldn’t believe and still almost pull off the win. Hossa, Chara, Smyth, Zubov, Bergeron, Upshall, Connolly and others missed time during the week.

-Halfhill's team is getting old fast, but they still have another year or two left of highly competitive fantasy hockey left in the tank.

-So in closing, the Regime wins and so does the Dump.

-Next week Regime will meet the Mollies again and the Dump travels to the Corporation of Bones.