Leaf Prospects Front And Centre
May 16th, 2008 by Steve
Tonight is a big night for some of the young guns of the Toronto Maple Leafs. First up, at 5:00 pm, the Swedish national team will be facing team Canada in the IIHF World Hockey Championship Semi Finals. Anton Stralman will be patrolling the blue line for the Swedes, and his play has been steadily improving. He has the 2nd highest +/- on the Swedish Defense, at +5, and the 2nd highest point total with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. This despite being 5th in ice-time per game amongst the team’s defenders. On the negative side, he is tied for 2nd on the team in penalty minutes with 27. Overall though, Stralman is putting forth a solid performance for a top 4 team at the World Hockey Championships. This should bode well for his future in the NHL.
At 8:30 the Marlies will be facing off against the Wolves in Chicago in game 1 of their Calder Cup Semi Final. Thus far the Marlies have won 2 series in a row, both in 7 games. Chicago is less defensively stalwart than Syracuse or San Antonio. They gave up more goals (226) than any of the 4 Semi-Finalists during the regular season. The strength of the Wolves is scoring goals, and during the regular season they did it a lot, potting 300 pucks in enemy nets. They also play with a physical edge, with over 400 more penalty minutes in the regular season than their closest remaining rivals in that area, the Marlies. The Wolves boast one of the strongest Power Plays in the AHL, mainly due to their dynamic duo, league leading scorer and MVP, Jason Krog, and Darren Haydar. They also get offensive output from Brett Stirling, Joe Motzko, and Jesse Schultz. In net they are also relatively strong, with Ondrej Pavelec posting a .925 SV% and 2.28 GAA thus far in the Calder Cup playoffs.
If the Marlies are going to win this series, their league leading PK needs to shut down the powerful Chicago PP. They also need to score on the less than stellar Chicago D, as well as continue to get production from more than 1 line. If everyone shows up, and the team skates well, forechecks hard, and plays solid positionally, they can do well in the series.
The season series was split with 1 win for each team, and was relatively high scoring. The Marlies won the most recent match up on April 9th, 8-3. Scott Clemmensen was in net for both games, so I’m going to stifle my arguments on behalf of Justin Pogge. Should Clemmensen get lit up early in the series, don’t be surprised if Pogge gets another chance. Clemmensen has faced more rubber than any goalie in these playoffs, but he and the rest of his teammates claim to be more than ready for the next round. Tonight we’ll find out if they were telling the truth.
Posted in Prospects
4 Responses to “Leaf Prospects Front And Centre”
By eyebleaf on May 16, 2008
GO MARLIES!! looking forward to the round and heading down to Ricoh.