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While it may be easy to look at New England and Winnipeg's success (and Philadelphia) and second guess Montreal's decision to go into a full rebuild, it may be a bit of hindsight is 20/20 thinking. Ultimately, New England and Winnipeg finished 8th and 10th in the regular season and it was far from a foregone conclusion that either would make the finals. True, you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket, but Montreal was in a position where they soon wouldn't be able to afford a ticket for an extended period of time. Ultimately, New England and Winnipeg will have to do rebuilds of their own, even if they aren't quite as full-blown as Montreal. Some franchises have chosen to go for semi-rebuilds where they still field a team that likely still sneaks into the playoffs and maybe has a puncher's chance to make a run, but Montreal likely results in a higher peak when their rebuild comes to fruition. (174 words)

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New England and Winnipeg were fairly well matched, but ultimately the difference was Olof Karsikko in net. Karsikko's performance ultimately changed the outcome of games, particularly in the game 6 clincher, where New England was considerably outshot but still came away with a 5-3 victory. Many a team has ridden a hot goaltender to a cup and New England can certainly count themselves in that group after Karsikko's performance in the finals. Of course the win was a team effort, with balanced scoring between New England's top two lines and the expected excellent performance on the blueline from Seamus O'Slapahan, but Karsikko still stands out as the shining star for this championship run. (118 words)