B - Winnipeg had a much tougher opponent in round 1, but after that I think New England had a much tougher road to the finals. After defeating Toronto in round one they had to knock off the Buffalo Stampede and Philadelphia Forge, both of whom finished 2nd and 3rd in regular season standings. As the number 9 seed they could've lost to either of those opponents and no one would have given them much grief, but they dispatched Buffalo in 5 games and Philadelphia in 6.
C - Perhaps my response in B foreshadowed this a bit, but New England's conference final victory was more impressive than Winnipeg's this season. While the pesky San Francisco Pride certainly brought a degree of uncertainty given their massive upset to Edmonton in round 2, I think either team would take them over the Philadelphia Forge who are a veteran squad with a proven track record of playoff success.

Based on my limited knowledge of the Montreal team, and with the power of hindsight, I think they pulled the plug too soon. While TPE does win, there is a significant degree of chance/luck involved in the sim as seen by San Francisco defeating Edmonton in a best of 7, or Winnipeg and New England reaching the finals yet again despite being the 9th and 10th seeds in the league. Now if I were remove the power of hindsight I can see why they might want to blow it up and avoid several seasons of middling results followed by an eventual tear down. It saves the few seasons of what ifs, which could be runs to finals, or could just be meh seasons. Toss in perhaps a management change or several players voicing their displeasure or reluctance to stay with the team and perhaps the tear down was even more imminent and the management just wanted to get in front of it and get the best possible value for their roster.

Perhaps a bit bias here since I'm a member of that Cinderella team, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find a greater upset than San Francisco defeating Edmonton in the second round of the western conference playoffs. Edmonton finished the regular season as the number 1 seed with an immaculate record of 52-13-1 and a goal differential of +193. San Francisco on the other hand finished with a 31-30-5 record and a goal differential of +24. While that is San Francisco's best result with their current core, it's a far cry from how Edmonton finished. I think if you were to poll 100 people, 99 of them would say Edmonton wins and the one holdout is a die hard Pride fan, or plays for them. Perhaps what was most impressive takeaway from this upset is San Francisco led the series the entire time. They went up 2-0 on the road, lost the first one at home before going up 3-1 after game 4, lost game 5 on the road and then finished it out at home in game 6 to win the series 4-2.