bender


I think a loss in a conference final should never be considered more than a setback. Playoff hockey is lunacy and chaos of the highest level, we all know this, and if a couple of pucks bounce differently you go from winning a series 4-2 to losing a series 4-2 without any significant change in performance or team composition, so I'd argue that neither Winnipeg and Edmonton should sound the alarm bells just that. That was, of course, before Edmonton decided to take the series loss and use it as an excuse to absolutely explode their roster - what was it, 15 total picks going back to them? In exchange for a bunch of high numbered TPE players? Full credit to the Blizzard staff, when they decide it's time to sell they don't let anything get in their way. Winnipeg should be fine next year though - New England just made the finals finishing 6th in the league standings.


In my view, both Winnipeg and Edmonton had opportunities to reach the finals. While the Aurora may have cooled down slightly from their dominant streak, I believe Edmonton isn't quite at that level yet. I think the Blizzard's presence in the same conference as the Panthers may have prevented them from reaching the finals. Additionally, the other conference had weaker teams, which could have made the Blizzard's path easier. The Panthers showed their superiority by defeating the only team that surpassed them in the regular season. The Blizzard claimed the president's trophy with an impressive record of 44 wins and accumulating almost 100 points.

8 TPE