The OHL playoffs begin tonight with Sudbury taking on
Barrie. Rather than do a traditional playoff preview going through each match
up, I thought in the spirit of March Madness I would post my OHL playoff
bracket!
*Hopefully that is legible enough, apologies if its not.
I'm taking the favourites this year, with Peterborough as my
only upset pick of the first round.
In the Eastern Conference I see Oshawa rolling through the
first two rounds pretty easily before a tough match-up against Barrie in the
East finals. Oshawa wins the East through their great offense lead by potential
top 10 Michael Dal Colle, and Flyers first round pick Scott Laughton (20th
overall, 2012). Dal Colle led the Generals in scoring with 95 points (39G, 56A)
in 67 games this season (1.4ppg). Laughton is highly regarded for his two-way
play helped the Generals to the third best penalty kill in the league (82.9%),
and even chipped in with five shorthanded goals.
Barrie on the other hand is carried by big time defencemen
Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad led the Colts to the best goal differential in the East
(+48) which resulted in a fourth place finish in the standings. Ekblad has been
deadly from the back end this season, especially on the power-play where he has
scored 16 of his 23 goals. Those 16 power play goals were tops among OHL
defencemen and third in the lead behind Erie snipers Conner Brown and Dane Fox.
Offensively the Colts are led by winger Andreas Athanasiou who put up 95
points
(49G, 46A) in 66 games (1.4ppg).
The battles out west are going to be fun. With four super
teams set to collide in the second round, expect each series to be a long
fought battle. I predict Guelph and Erie to win the battles with Erie winning
the West and then getting through Oshawa to be the OHL’s representative (along
with hosts London) at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
I like Erie to win the OHL
championship because they are the perfect example of how to win in today’s
hockey. I've had the chance to see Erie play a few times this season, granted
it was against some weaker teams, but they are a puck possession team. They
have so much skill on offense that once they gain the zone with the puck they
do not relinquish it. That style of play on offense was the key to only
allowing 170 goals all season, fewest in the OHL. That offense featuring some
of the best in the league, be it OHL point leader Conner Brown (128), OHL goal
leader Dane Fox (64) or phenom Conner McDavid who just missed the 100 point
mark as a 16 year old (he finished with 99), helped keep the pressure off of
the defence. It’s not like the defence is poor either, with team Canada
defencemen Adam Pelech and silver medalist Oscar Dansk. This team has an
excellent offensive core, god defence and a solid goalie, that’s why they are
my pick to be the OHL Champions.
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