ThatZachGuy's Playoff Preview - Conference Finals

It's Conference Finals time! Winners battle for the Calder Cup and the losers go golfing. As always the TL;DR predictions are at the bottom. Let's get into it!

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins vs Syracuse Crunch

Round 2 - Defeated Hershey in 4 games
Round 2 - Defeated Binghamton in 6 games

Wilkes-Barre Scranton comes rolling into the Conference Finals on a high note. 60% of the fan vote favored the Penguins in their series against the Bears, but I don't think anyone had them bringing out the brooms. This postseason, the Penguins top line of @Hilly , @Aarskog , & @Big Blaster 14 have accumulated 17 goals and 22 assists. To put that into perspective, the rest of the forwards have a combined 16 goals and 21 assists. Those 3 players are also the only undefeated forwards on the team at 4-0 (@M a x y l19l & @JTRx91 are defenseman who are 4-0 & 3-0 respectively on defense). Big kudos to @l Scopes x l20l who has been playing very well in net (5-1, 1.82 GAA, 80.4 SV%).

The Syracuse Crunch had 78.9% of the fan vote last series against the Binghamton Senators and they didn't disappoint. The Crunch have 2 very good lines. I would call them 1A & 1B. Both are undefeated in the playoffs and the points are pretty evenly spread out. The main focus here though would have to be goaltending. @I KiLLTarTED I & @l Rockystar l are still evenly splitting time and it's been going great for them. Both are putting up 4-1 records and averaging a 1.57 GAA and an 86.9 SV%. This goalie tandem is the best remaining in the playoffs.

Special Teams Factor:

4/12 (33.3%) on the PP vs 2/22 (90.9%) on the PK
6/26 (23.1%) on the PP vs 4/20 (80%) on the PK

Key Matchup:

The first line of Wilkes-Barre (Hilly, Aarkog, & Blaster) going up against the goalies (Rockystar & Killtarted) of Syracuse. You have a forward line that is clicking on all cylinders right now going up against two goalies who have not only been fantastic all season, but who are pushing their team towards a Calder Cup Final.

My Prediction:

This is hard. The Penguins go from a Game 7 nail biter against the Phantoms to a 4 game sweep over the Bears. Meanwhile, you have the Crunch sweeping the IceCaps and then taking care of the Senators in 6 games. I favor the Crunch's offense, think the defense is evenly matched, and lean towards the Crunch when it comes to goalies. I would not be surprised though if all of these games are low scoring, 1 goal difference wins. The Syracuse Crunch are on their way to the Calder Cup Finals with a 6 game series win.







WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

Cleveland Monsters vs Tucson Roadrunners

Round 2 - Defeated Rockford in 5 games
Round 2 - Defeated San Diego in 6 games

The Cleveland Monsters are the perennial favorites to win the Calder Cup. Many have been saying that since the beginning of the season. They come into the Western Conference Finals taking down the best team (points wise) in the AHL this season. I don't think many saw it going down like it did though in 5 games. The Monsters are stacked! There is no simpler way to put it. As you would expect, @Martin ScoresEZ , @Gunwoat , & @MadeOf21Faces lead the way in points with a combined 14 goals and 19 assists. @Zacha l 37 l & @tchang3380 join that line as the defensive pairing. The goalies, @Gthumbz42o & @NEON 5 have played very well this postseason and continue the trend of great goalie duo's in these playoffs. @VVaGs82 is a veteran owner who has always built dominant teams. This season he is looking for that first Calder Cup Trophy!

Here we go again. It's that time when I get to talk about my team, the Tucson Roadrunners. I honestly did not think that we would ever get this far. Started off the season like shit, but managed to turn it around and now we are here surprising a lot of people. In the last series against the Gulls, it was the line of @Idropyy , @Eatchy , & @PENSxCrosbyx87 who were able to secure 2 wins. Both of which came after losses. While our defense isn't perfect, we have been playing well lately as a whole. Turnovers are on a decline. Goalie play has been an issue and hopefully that can be resolved in this series. A full team effort in all aspects of the game will be needed to pull of this David vs Goliath type upset.

Special Teams Factor:

5/17 (29.4%) on the PP vs 4/20 (80%) on the PK
9/36 (25%) on the PP vs 5/26 (80.8%) on the PK

Key Matchup:

The entire defensive core of Tucson versus the 1A, 1B, 1C lines of Cleveland. In order to win the series, the "no talented" (@MadeOf21Faces mentioned this one) Roadrunners d-core will have to limit turnovers and force the Monsters to change their game. That's a lot easier said than done.

My Prediction:

I'm obviously picking the Tucson Roadrunners in 6 games. I can 100% see this going 7 games in order for my team to win, but I have to choose differently from @LG McDonald to beat him in the Pick'Em. Am I biased? Of course I am! But this team of mine literally goes into the chatbox and chirps each other. We tell each other that we suck and that we are playing like shit. But somehow when it comes to these playoff games, we have one common goal and that's to just win the damn game. There's bad blood between Tucson and Cleveland so it should be an eventful series (especially in the chat box). Tucson is shocking the LG community and heading to the Calder Cup Finals.





TL;DR predictions:

Syracuse in 6 games
Tucson in 6 games
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what is this? a high effort post? delete this nephew

edit: also wheres my shoutout

 

This isn't biased at all.

Look @tchang3380 we're elite!!!!!!

@MadeOf21Faces look what you did.

Go cleveland!

 

JTR is a chump and got carried by all 3 lines.

 

Looking forward to this series