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I present to you a look at ten of those stories, in no particular order.
Jeff Skinner's Scoring
No individual play
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Jared Knight's Breakout
Another draft eligible player who's suffered from a lack of attention this year is London's Knight. While Skinner has his concerns over size and speed, I'm not entirely sure what's prevented Knight from receiving more hype. Sure he's averaged size, and sure he has diabetes, but he's ferocious in his pursuit of goals and is aggressive in attacking the net like few peers available from the OHL. He's turned this into a tremendous performance in these OHL playoffs with 10 goals in 12 playoff games. And even though his Knights have been eliminated, I think NHL scouts would have had to take notice of his ability to turn up the heat when it mattered most. I think he's definitely cemented his place in the first two rounds of the NHL draft...even if he failed to earn an invite to the NHL combine.
Lack of Star Goaltending
Now let me get this point straight. I don't mean to say we haven't had some electrifying goaltending performances...which we have (see Scott Wedgewood vs. Windsor as an example). What I mean to say is that we haven't had a goaltender who has come out and stolen games for his team all the way thus far. Guys like Mavric Parks, Brandon Maxwell, and Petr Mrazek have strung together some good games, but they've also had mediocre ones too. The games have been relatively high scoring so far and many teams have had to change goaltenders at some point during their series'. Is there a goaltender in the Conference finals who's going to put his team on his back and bring them to the Memorial Cup, or are we going to continue to see big offensive performances?
Kitchener over Windsor 2-0
Who would have thought? Especially considering that Windsor had just finished
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The Ryan Murphy Show
Just how good is this kid? 5 goals and 9 assists in 15 playoff games thus far. Yes...he's undersized for the defensive position, but he's made tremendous strides defensively this year and is definitely not a defensive liability. And offensively...well it's been quite some time since a 16 year old rookie defenseman has been able to bring the puck up ice like Murphy does. I'm not even sure Drew Doughty was this dynamic offensively in his rookie season. His ability to transition from the defensive end to the opposing blueline so quickly is one of the main reasons Windsor is down 2-0 so far. He's a game changer and regardless of his size, if he continues to play like this, he's going to be a top pick in 2011. Once you get Grapes' attention, it's game over.
Lack of Upsets in Round 1
If we fast forward to the start of the playoffs, one of my readers said he/she felt like the parity between the OHL's top teams and those near the bottom of the playoffs was as big as they could remember. Naturally, I somewhat disagreed and have since eaten crow. The favored teams in this league completely ran over the weaker competition in round 1, save maybe the Kitchener/Saginaw series and the Brampton/Kingston series. Not a single upset victory (unless you consider Brampton's victory an upset...which most won't). So while this wasn't surprising for most of you, I think it's definitely still a story.
Windsor Running Over Plymouth
Mike Vellucci and the Plymouth Whalers played the Windsor Spitfires very tough during the regular season. They went out and acquired big physical forwards in Phil McRae, James Livingston, and Josh Brittain to try and take it to Windsor. And what did they get for it in round 2? Getting outscored 18-6 in four games on the way to a four game sweep. Not to mention that we had the hype of the Taylor Hall vs. Tyler Seguin battle for first overall showcased. Seguin went on to go pointless in the series...which prompted many to assume he was injured. Either way, I think Windsor's ability to run over the Whalers was definitely surprising and a big story considering all the story lines centered around it.
J.P. Anderson Takes over for Chris Carrozzi...Again
Last year, Ande
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Nazem Kadri Falls to Kitchener
Nazem Kadri was absolutely sensational to start these playoffs. He had 14 points in the 5 game series against Guelph and was completely dominant. It looked like that was going to continue into the Kitchener series too, as he had 11 points in the first 4 games. But for as good as he was to start the playoffs, people are only going to remember how poor he played in the final three games of the series, where Kitchener held him goalless, to two points, and a combined -6. So while Kadri still leads the 2010 playoffs in scoring (despite London being eliminated), will people remember how dominant he was in the first 10 games? Or will people remember the end of the Kitchener series?
The Barrie Colts Aren't About to Choke
While Barrie dominated the regular season in the Eastern Conference and loaded up their line up for a run to the Memorial Cup, I think a lot of people were still eager to see how they'd perform under the pressure of the OHL playoffs. No more wondering. It's pretty obvious they are for real and are playing for keeps. They ran over Barrie and Brampton in round 1 and 2, and outshot the defensive first Mississauga Majors 55-34 on the way to a 2-1 series lead last night. They have shown an ability to play offensively, defensively and physically. And their powerplay continues to function at an obscene level (around 34%). These Colts definitely look like they've got a chance to match what Sheldon Keefe's 2000 Colts did in making the Memorial Cup.
Anything you think I've missed?
3 comments:
Guelph's being humiliated in the last two games against London was a disappointment to Royal City fans but not a surprise due to the underachieving nature of the season. Of course, when your coach is sticking to the trap when down several goals and is blaming the players for lack of discipline while taking no responsibility whatsoever, that says it all.
Wedgewood plays for Plymouth, and his big game was at Plymouth, not Windsor. Brain fart, I'm sure.
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