Untitled Document

Hamilton Bulldogs Vs. Ottawa Senators

Hamilton Bulldogs		Ottawa Senators
1st Overall Canadian Conference	107 Points	8th Overall Canadian Conference	81 Points
Tied record of 2-2-0 vs Senators during season		Tied record of 2-2-0 vs Bulldogs during season

Top Point Getters in Regualar Season	Top Point Getters in Regular Season
Mikko Koivu - 37 G - 43 A - 80 - +5	Daniel Briere - 23 G - 40 A - 63 - -1
Jasson Spezza - 34 G - 41 A - 75 P - +16	Steve Downie - 28 G - 26 A - 54 P - -12
Brooks Laich - 22 G - 45 A - 67 P - +14	Zbynek Michalek - 14 G - 34 A - 48 P - -2

Series Preview

Excellent GM’s always find a way to build a winner and Bulldogs GM Frederic Monette proved that again this year as 3 years of building finally resulted in something special – division and conference crowns. The Bulldogs are a complete and well balanced team. You want centers? This team has a strong 1-2 punch in Koivu and Spezza. Manny Malhotra is a great fit as a 3rd center. You want good wingers? Try Hossa, Alfredsson, Doan, Benn and Laich. You want good role players? They have Nichol, Moreau, Niedermayer and Yelle. How about defence? A great defenceman in Keith. A quality top 4 defenceman in Rafalski. Another good one in Robidas. Add in 3 good stay-at-homers in Mitchell, Weaver and O’Donnell. Goaltending is perhaps the small question mark, Jonas Hiller is plenty capable, but he has not had that good of a season. Martin Biron is a quality backup if they go to him.

3 KEY FACTORS:

Tightening it up defensively. The Bulldogs are the league’s 2nd best offence, but 14th best defensive unit. That’s the area Ottawa will try to exploit.
Hiller. This one is connected to the 1st point, but an .890 save % is completely unacceptable. The Bulldogs need a lot better.
Marian Hossa. How does he go -19 on a team where everyone else is well into the positives?????????????? 53 points is also very average.

The little team that could…or the team that was the best of the not-so-good? Both sayings can apply to the Ottawa Senators, a team that was the 2nd worst team in the league last year. It’s an accomplishment to have made the playoffs, but being 1 game over .500 is certainly nothing to write home about. The conference was 7 teams deep this year and then there was a group of mediocre teams…the Senators ended up being the best of that group. FA signing Daniel Briere had to be huge for this team to compete and he was somewhat was. Daniel Cleary was moved to center and solved the #2 center problem. The wingers are OK with Recchi, Kariya, Fedotenko, Downie, Bergfors and Hunter. In-season trades for Martin, Michalek, Aucoin,Ohlund and Redden bolstered a shaky defence. Antti Niemi was effective in net. Regardless, the Senators are just happy to be here…and those teams can be dangerous.

3 KEY FACTORS:

Countless players will have to have great series in order to beat a powerful Bulldogs squad. Can they do it?
Antti Niemi will have to stand on his head to keep the Senators in this series.
Scoring goals. Ottawa was the 20th ranked offence. Hamilton was 2nd. Ottawa will have to find a way to generate more offence than it usually does.

The Senators are a nice story and they have plenty of talent in the pipeline. But this is about the now and the Bulldogs are just a much better hockey club, Bulldogs in 5.