A brief collection of the moment(s) that changed a series and impacted the entire playoff picture
2002 – 1st Round – (1) Detroit vs. (8) Vancouver
Nick Lidstrom from centre ice on Dan Cloutier
The eventual 2002 cup champs were down 2-0 in the series after 2 dominant performances by Naslund, Bertuzzi and co. In a tight game 3 at [...]
Monthly archives for April, 2011
The TSN Turning Point
A brief collection of the moment(s) that changed a series and impacted the entire playoff picture
2002 – 1st Round – (1) Detroit vs. (8) Vancouver
Nick Lidstrom from centre ice on Dan Cloutier
The eventual 2002 cup champs were down 2-0 in the series after 2 dominant performances by Naslund, Bertuzzi and co. In a tight game 3 at [...]
2nd Round Playoff Picks
Went 7/8 in the 1st round. (Nashville…oops) Not much time to go into details right now, but here are my picks:
(1) Washington vs (5) Tampa Bay
Washington. Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom and co. will expose Tampa’s defence like Pittsburgh’s anemic offence couldn’t.
(2) Philadelphia vs (3) Boston
Philadelphia. If Boston had [...]
He Who Laughs First Laughs Last
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In the 23 games played so far, the team that has scored first has won 20/23.
The only teams that have lost after scoring first are Phoenix (game 1), New York (game 1), and Chicago (game 3). Put another way, the only teams to win after allowing the first goal are Detroit, Washington, and Vancouver.
All three of the teams that have co [...]
Patience
If your picks look bad so far, don’t panic. Here are the game 1 winners from last year:
Montreal
Philadelphia
Buffalo
Ottawa
Colorado
Nashville
Vancouver
Phoenix
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Only the teams in bold ended up winning the series.
1st Round Playoff Picks
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Alright. Before making any picks, I’m going back to the well: history! Here are my picks from last year’s 1st round (in bold):
(1) Washington vs. (8) Montreal – Oops. Well not many saw that coming. Yes, Halak played out of his mind, but Gill, Gorges and others also blocked half the shots Washington threw at the net.
(2) NJ vs. (7) Ph [...]
The Recipe for Success
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How much information is too much information?
I remember a few details about an interesting study that was done on management decision making. Basically, decision makers were given three different levels of information: very little info, moderate info, or detailed info. Then they were asked to make a decision. While one might expect [...]
How to Pick a Playoff Contender
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Momentum
People often talk about ‘momentum’ heading into playoffs. Momentum is an interesting concept. You can often see it shifting within a game when a big save on one end leads to a big goal at the other end. Momentum also can affect a series, as the Anaheim Ducks proved to us in 2003 as they took out nearly everyone in their path [...]
Fantasy Playoff Drafting
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A quick look at the stats below shows that the top 7 scorers from last year’s playoffs all came from Stanley Cup finalists. (Refer to stats at the end of this post). Interestingly, only 1 of the 7 (Kane) was in the top 30 in scoring during the 2009-2010 season. If you’re involved in a playoff pool, this underscores the need to shift [...]