scruf


b.
New England had the more difficult road to the finals.  Winnipeg had to fight their way out of a tight division with a 7 point spread between Texas, Chicago, and Winnipeg.  Then, they easily dispatched the San Francisco upset run in 5 games.  There may be some nerves when you are the much better team coming against an underdog on a heater, but they built an early 2 game lead and cruised from there.

New England on the other side was handed back to back division leaders with a 12 and 9 point gap between Buffalo and Philadelphia.  Buffalo also just came off a 4 game trouncing of Toronto while New England went to 7 with Hamilton.


I think Montreal made the right move, which isn't to say that the others made a wrong move.  New England and Winnipeg didn't have great regular season results when you look at the whole league, but they were firmly in playoff position for their divisions.  Buffalo ran away with the North East, but New England cleared the 4th place by 21 points.  Texas barely won the Central with Chicago and Winnipeg right in the mix. 

Montreal gets a full reset and a chance to build a fresh core together.  They also get to ice a bunch of veterans at league minimum for the locker room of rookies.  If they tried to stay in the mix, they would be pushing against New England and Buffalo to break into the playoff picture.

Winnipeg might need to make a similar decision soon as Minnesota comes up to speed.  They will walk away without a championship, with a low draft position, and an older roster.  New England walks away with a championship, so the gamble clearly pays off.



I think it's hard to beat the San Francisco upsets in both scale of the point gaps and heartfarming factor being the second to last team in for the West.  They bridged a 17 point gap to beat Los Angeles in 6 and then a 38 point gap against Edmonton also in 6.  It's karma that their smallest gap of 13 against Winnipeg crushed them back in 5.

It's weird to think New England came through with a series of upsets because they such a juggernaut in general, but they bridged a 12 point gap against Buffalo to win in 5 and a 9 point gap against Philadelphia to win in 6.  They cleaned up the best teams in their conference on the way to win the championship. 

There weren't many other upsets to even consider.  Winnipeg technically upset both Chicago and Texas, but that was a tight division where Chicago had a 4 point gap and Texas had 7.  Lastly, Baltimore technically upset Atlanta, but they were dead even in the regular season so it was the most level matchup.