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2008/2009 Playoffs
Two straight sweeps of Kariya's Buffalo and Thorton's Florida
Montreal second seed meets us in Conference Final, Colorado shocked in 1st rnd, Nashville survive Crosby's Blue Jackets in 7 in the second rnd, and will meet Number 1 in west Phx.
Conference Finals: Montreal 112 pts let by Zetterberg Yandle, Giroux Phaneuf and Brad Boyes. Doesn't matter they are swept but a couple of games are close! Nashville handles Phoenix in 5, and its a 3rd meeting in 5 years between Nashville and the Rangers
Stanley Cup Final, Nashvilel are effectively a one man team-Chara, does have help from Pat Hsarp and Vermette, and Vokoun is a decent net minder. We are 8-3 against them in finals history but they were one of just 4 teams i think to beat us this year. We both won our home games 3-2. Still expecting a fairly easy victory. Playoff stats Pat Sharp leads with 25 for Nas, as we've played so few games we still have that core 11 scoring at a decent rate, with Spezza leading us with 21
Game 1: Nashville wins! 6-4 Joe Sakic at 39 with his 6th of the playoffs! Skoula and Bezinna had 2 goals as well, and that made it 5-2 after 2! Gagnon makes it 6, before two later goals by Richards and Semin make it seem closer. Nashville's lower lines doing some very unexpected damage!!Media blames Pronger, and i lay in on him as well for the fun of it! We did outplay them though, 39- shots to 19. Real problem was our goalie
Game2: Back to normal! 7 different scoreres in a 7-1 victory. Just like our regular season the top 11 players getting on the scoresheet.
Game3: 4-3 win for the Rangers, again outshoot them but this time McElhihney stesp up in goal for Nashville! In a game we can't shake them 2-2 after 1, we take the lead in the third through markov, but Skoula with another goal, assisted by Chara, makes it 3-3. We win in OT, with Semin. Would have been great if Nashville had stolen this game, would have made it a much more interesting series. 38-24 shots for the Rangers
Game4: 31 shots to 16 for the Rangers, and its a low scoring game. Andy McDonald scores in the 3rd to halve the Nashville deficit, who have fallen 2-0 behind through Spezza and Kovalchuk. But they barely get another shot, Rangers on brink.
Game5: Again Rangers outp[lay Nashville 36 shots to 22, and in first period they take adv, with a 5-2 lead! 5 different scorers, however Nashville come back in the 2nd, Lehtnon had a really poor series it has to be said, Bertuzzi and Stoll make it 5-4 Rangers. Kovalchuk with his 14th and 2nd of the game makes it 6-4, but its nervy when Craig Adams makes it 6-5. But thats the end of the scoring, Rangers win again! The salaray cap era is not prooving to be as hard as i thought, the lack of 100 point scorers in this era, lets me build strong teams. Maybe when we get the McDavid years, it'll be more of a challenge. I will maybe next version do a 85 point limit on fwrds and 70 point limit on defenders to make it much much harder.
Hart: Savard(Col)
Conn Smythe:Streit
Calder:Stamkos(STL)
Norris:Streit
Vezina-Lehtonen- despite his cup final fumbles
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