SPNHL, Season 28: Stanley Cup Final Recap
By Dirty-Dietrich.
“The Cup Finds a Home”.
Going forward, most of the secondary headlines (usually found in quotations) are going to read like a title of an episode of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”.
The draft for Season 28 occurred on March 20th. Two months later, on May 21st, the Stanley Cup finals were contended between the Colorado Avalanche and the Ottawa Senators. In Cuban’s preseason power rankings, he ranked the Avalanche in third, and the Senators in seventh. The Avalanche won the President’s trophy, while the Senators clawed their way into the playoffs as a wild card. You must give Cuban credit; his picks were just about spot on.
Colorado went 8-1 on their way to the finals, defeating a talented Blackhawks squad and sweeping a very dangerous Minnesota unit by using their combo of a great team cycle and an incredible defensive structure. Ottawa swept the Panthers in their wild card series, took the #1 seeded Lightning to 7 games, and swept their regular season kryptonite Pittsburgh in the conference finals. A scrappy offensive core, stellar two way defending, and a solid goaltending trio helped bring the underdog Senators to the finals.
When they got there, they were facing a team who in a combined regular season and playoff record, had lost less than 10 games. The Senators had their work cut out for them, but after an early season struggle and a Cinderella run in the playoffs, Ottawa was not going to let the Avalanche trample on them. Let’s take a look and see how this series turned out, doing it game by game.
GAME 1: Avalanche win 4-1. Series score: 1-0.
Game 1 saw the Colorado squad brutalize the Ottawa team with their great passing and one-timer ability. Boutch put up 2 goals for the Avalanche while Woy would control the ice, dishing out 4 assists in the game. Go_Marc had the lone goal for Ottawa this game, as the Senators hard a hard time getting past the stagnant blue-line defense of the Colorado Avalanche.
GAME 2: Avalanche win 2-1. Series score: 2-0.
In a much closer game than the first, the Avalanche managed to hold off a Sens squad who had adjusted to their playstyle and were playing a more complete defensive game. Woy changed roles this game and put up the only two goals for the Avs, while Go_Marc was once again the goal scorer for the Sens. This was the game that the Sens needed after the big first game loss.
GAME 3: Avalanche win 3-1. Series score: 3-0.
At this point, there was some nervousness on behalf of the Sens. They were playing with a more aggressive side, their forecheck was a lot more prominent, and their offense was high-risk. However, it wasn’t high reward. Go_Marc was the only goal scorer for the Sens, but the Avs had scoring from three different players and were able to step it up and put the pressure on the Sens.
GAME 4: Senators win 4-1. Series score: 3-1.
This game featured two new goal scorers for the Sens in Grammyhands and Dirty-Dietrich, getting two goals and one goal respectively. The Senators’ forecheck was strong and their defensive awareness was heightened, as the only Avalanche scorer was Desy. This was a must win game for the Sens, and they gave Go_Marc a break and helped push elimination back another game.
GAME 5: Senators win 2-1. Series score: 3-2.
Game 5 saw a lot of neutral ice action and a lot of stellar defensive play by both teams, and this game took 5 periods to finish. In the end, Go_Marc made up for the lack of his scoring in the first game, getting the double-overtime winner. Desy scored again for the Avs, but solid goaltending kept the Colorado squad to a single goal again and pushed the series to a game 6.
GAME 6: Avalanche win 2-1. Series score: 4-2.
The ending to game 6 was incredibly dramatic. After Dirty-Dietrich tied the game up in the third with a shorthanded goal to push the game to overtime, the Sens took a bad penalty, and Boutch was sprung on a breakaway upon exiting the box. Boutch went backhand and won the game 2-1 in overtime. In 6 games, the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ottawa Senators to win the Stanley Cup.
In a thrilling 6 game series, there were many notable players per side. For the Avs, Woy and Boutch made big contributions including the series winning goal by the latter and a great first three games by the former that paced the series. For the Sens, Go_Marc had 5 goals in 6 games (the most by any player in the series) and Dirty-Dietrich (don’t give me hell for self-promotion, I played well) had 4 points including a game winning goal and a game tying goal.
As we have reached the conclusion of a great finals, I wanted to take time to congratulate the 2 GM’s who brought their team to the finals. Eggman created a team that believed in a defensive structure that would create opportunities in the offensive zone and they stuck with it all season long. A couple big trades made by Kozmo during the regular season brought in the necessary weapons to turn the Sens from a struggling middle pack squad to a cup contender.
In the end, the Conn Smythe trophy for the most valuable player to their team in the playoffs was Woy. Woy was an offensive force for his team in their monstrous run to the finals, and was the key to victory for the Avalanche in the finals. The only games the Avalanche lost were when he wasn’t on the ice, being not only a great offensive presence for them, but also their lucky charm to an extent. Congratulations to vxWoytkiw8xv for winning the Conn Smythe trophy!
With that, we have reached the end of another fantastic season. There were some great teams assembled this season which lead to the emergence of new stars for the league. The expansion to 18 teams gave new players time to shine and made for some very tight playoff races. Now, we have a little bit of a vacation until we begin Season 29 of the SPNHL. So everybody take their time to rest, but I will leave you with this, a more personal side to these articles.
I wanted to thank everybody in this league. From the stern players to the jokesters, from the GM’s to the players, and from the opponents to the teammates. You all have made me very happy and proud to play in this league, and motivated me to do something to give back. This is why I started writing these articles, and I thank every single one of you from the bottom of my heart for reading these and giving me feedback.
Go dip your feet in the sand, friends. See ya in June.
* DD.