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2015-16 AHL Ontario Reign--Western Conference Finals!

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Good recap, Jason. Sheng's recap at jewelsfromthecrown.com. Still laughing at Crescenzi's checking the goalie into the boards. You can see it on the video highlights.

Jason makes an appearance at the podcast linked below. Not a serious or particularly informative one, but the guys are having a good time hanging out and talking about the Reign. Jason was able to get a few words in. :D

 
Because of AHL Live (woo!) I get to watch many Reign games, and they are consistently more NHL-like in their approach to systems play than their opponents. The Gulls were fun to watch, with higher end prospects than the Reign, but the Reign looked far better to the eye, despite such close scores throughout the season and playoff series.

I saw the Griffins play in game 1 of the season vs the Gulls in their sweaty, foggy home opener at the Sports Arena, tons of fun. An entire season has passed, but they looked weak that night. The Gulls were a pretty solid AHL team this season with NHL prospects throughout the line-up, and a former NHL head coach with a winning background as an AHL boss, and while those kinds of things don't win you any games, they don't lose them for you either. The Reign, visually, as well as statistically, removing PP % and goals, were dominant over the Gulls. The Reign, just like last year's Monarchs (thank you AHL Live), play playoff hockey, and grind out wins with forechecking and solid defense and goaltending. If Brodzinski and Sutter can come back, and even Raine and/or Ebert, they just get even better.

Without being an idiot about it, I think the Reign's biggest test will be in the Finals vs Toronto (who are battling Albany right now I think). Marlies v Reign would be a great series, and the premier match-up in the AHL.
 
Hutch said:
Without being an idiot about it, I think the Reign's biggest test will be in the Finals vs Toronto (who are battling Albany right now I think). Marlies v Reign would be a great series, and the premier match-up in the AHL.
Click to expand...

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but I would agree, that would be a premier match up. Full out offense vs Great defense. The Marlies thought they were penciled in though. Someone forgot to tell Albany that. Game 7 in a couple hours.
 
Hutch said:
Because of AHL Live (woo!) I get to watch many Reign games, and they are consistently more NHL-like in their approach to systems play than their opponents. The Gulls were fun to watch, with higher end prospects than the Reign, but the Reign looked far better to the eye, despite such close scores throughout the season and playoff series.

I saw the Griffins play in game 1 of the season vs the Gulls in their sweaty, foggy home opener at the Sports Arena, tons of fun. An entire season has passed, but they looked weak that night. The Gulls were a pretty solid AHL team this season with NHL prospects throughout the line-up, and a former NHL head coach with a winning background as an AHL boss, and while those kinds of things don't win you any games, they don't lose them for you either. The Reign, visually, as well as statistically, removing PP % and goals, were dominant over the Gulls. The Reign, just like last year's Monarchs (thank you AHL Live), play playoff hockey, and grind out wins with forechecking and solid defense and goaltending. If Brodzinski and Sutter can come back, and even Raine and/or Ebert, they just get even better.

Without being an idiot about it, I think the Reign's biggest test will be in the Finals vs Toronto (who are battling Albany right now I think). Marlies v Reign would be a great series, and the premier match-up in the AHL.
Click to expand...

regulate said:
We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but I would agree, that would be a premier match up. Full out offense vs Great defense. The Marlies thought they were penciled in though. Someone forgot to tell Albany that. Game 7 in a couple hours.
Click to expand...

I'm going to keep an eye on updates on the Marlies-Devils game. The Marlies were best in the league this year and it's too bad I don't get AHL Live. I appreciated the free AHL in the final round of last season's playoffs. But yeah, after seeing the favored Kings play one playoff round on the last two seasons, a lot of Kings/Reign fans aren't going to take a single game for granted. I'm fully emotionally prepared to see the Reign lose in 4, but hopeful we'll see them match last year's 15-4 run.
 
Marlies win.

Also, bring on Lake Erie!

Keep an eye on Werenski and all should be well. Will be a tough series.
 
Jason Lewis said:
Rolling with a series preview before the weekend gets going. Check it. Should be a really fun series

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=77112
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Good stuff, Jason. Interesting how Lake Erie was a lot like Ontario during the regular season, but like you said, exploded during the playoffs with an insane power play and a goals for of 2.78 -> 3.67. They are going to present a real challenge for the Reign. Werenski should be a treat to watch.

There is a lot of great coverage on both teams, particularly from you, Sheng and Lindsay. All the Kings Men has a podcast on the series, as well as Jewels from the Crown. The Royal Half had a gif contest and this bit of news to make Reign fans jealous:

 
It's game time!

Copied some of the goodies from the last page or so of the previous thread as a springboard. PJ above has most of the links covered!

Go Reign go!
 
Missed the game entirely. So, 4 goals given up in tonight's 4-3 loss. Is that mainly on Budaj or did the defense just crap the bed tonight? (PK excluded.)

Yankeeking, I am only aware of the radio stream available at ontarioreign.com. Any other stream talk is verboten here, just to give you a heads-up.
 
Really competitive game tonight. Lake Erie is good team. You would have to be to make it this far. They are a little bit quicker, a little more skilled on offense than us, especially depth wise. They beat us to the puck too often, and that made the difference in the second period.

At least 2, maybe 3 of their goals came on rebounds off of Budaj's pads and with forwards getting behind our defense. Our guys also over committed to one side of the ice too often, leaving them wide open setting up the chances. Give them some props on their scouting and game plan.

The first goal by Backman went off Mersch's body, but credit to Mersch for not saying anything and giving the goal to Backman to get him off the snide.

I thought we controlled the game for the first 10 minutes and had some real nice opportunities, with Forsberg making some very nice glove stops. LE got their legs going from that point all the way through the second period, where we got outplayed pretty badly. Not too often have I seen that this year. This will be a tough series.

Team got going at the start of the 3rd tying the game with two goals, only to have a let down with the 3rd line getting scored upon 19 seconds after the tying goal, letting the air out of the balloon. LE does a good job getting shots through from the point. Our forwards need to do a better job getting in the lanes.

Looked like Leslie was injured late in the 3rd period. Might mean Ebert goes back in next game.

The bottom two grinder lines were not good for ONT tonight. They were on the ice for a couple against.

Kempe was involved in several scrums and stick play. He got away with a cross check to the face right off the draw when the Kings tied the game. He was moved to the second line as the center in the third period, and Amadio was moved to RW on the 1st line, a move that sparked the team and lead to the Reign's 2nd goal. Kempe's shot off the post with a minute to play was a back breaker. It was a beautiful cross ice pass by Amadio to set him up. Man that hurt.

Team will need a full 60 minutes tomorrow. Budaj needs to control his rebounds better.
 
regulate said:
Really competitive game tonight. Lake Erie is good team. You would have to be to make it this far. They are a little bit quicker, a little more skilled on offense than us, especially depth wise. They beat us to the puck too often, and that made the difference in the second period.

At least 2, maybe 3 of their goals came on rebounds off of Budaj's pads and with forwards getting behind our defense. Our guys also over committed to one side of the ice too often, leaving them wide open setting up the chances. Give them some props on their scouting and game plan.

The first goal by Backman went off Mersch's body, but credit to Mersch for not saying anything and giving the goal to Backman to get him off the snide.

I thought we controlled the game for the first 10 minutes and had some real nice opportunities, with Forsberg making some very nice glove stops. LE got their legs going from that point all the way through the second period, where we got outplayed pretty badly. Not too often have I seen that this year. This will be a tough series.

Team got going at the start of the 3rd tying the game with two goals, only to have a let down with the 3rd line getting scored upon 19 seconds after the tying goal, letting the air out of the balloon. LE does a good job getting shots through from the point. Our forwards need to do a better job getting in the lanes.

Looked like Leslie was injured late in the 3rd period. Might mean Ebert goes back in next game.

The bottom two grinder lines were not good for ONT tonight. They were on the ice for a couple against.

Kempe was involved in several scrums and stick play. He got away with a cross check to the face right off the draw when the Kings tied the game. He was moved to the second line as the center in the third period, and Amadio was moved to RW on the 1st line, a move that sparked the team and lead to the Reign's 2nd goal. Kempe's shot off the post with a minute to play was a back breaker. It was a beautiful cross ice pass by Amadio to set him up. Man that hurt.

Team will need a full 60 minutes tomorrow. Budaj needs to control his rebounds better.
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Thanks for the recap. Do you have line combos for the Reign heading into tonight?
 
PanniniClaus said:
Thanks for the recap. Do you have line combos for the Reign heading into tonight?
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Given that Stothers shuffled the lines in the third period, to some success I might add, I would say the lines are not concrete at the moment.

Here is how they started last night:

Mersch - Dowd- Kempe
Auger - Amadio - Backman
Crescenzi - Newbury - JST
Lowry - Horvat - Bissonnette


By the end of the game Amadio had moved up to RW, Kempe down to 2C, Lows up to 2L, Auger down with Cresc and JST.

So yea I wouldn't trust those to be the combos tonight.

Back end was standard.

MacDermid - LoVerde
Forbort - Gravel
Schultz - Leslie

Schultz/Leslie were getting crushed though, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see Ebert go.
 
Not really surprised to see Lake Erie's depth tear it up. WHen you have Sonny friggin Milano on your fourth line...that would be like us forcing Kempe/Amadio onto the fourth. That's a lot of depth.
 
Raccoon Jesus said:
Not really surprised to see Lake Erie's depth tear it up. WHen you have Sonny friggin Milano on your fourth line...that would be like us forcing Kempe/Amadio onto the fourth. That's a lot of depth.
Click to expand...

The Reign are really missing Brodzinski, and to some extent Sutter, who gave the team some offensive spark also. I thought our bottom 2 lines, particularly our AHL only players, were outplayed. If those lines continue to struggle by allowing goals and not chipping in something offensively (even keeping the Monsters in their own end to tire them out), this will be a tough series for the Reign to win.
 
Jason Lewis said:
Given that Stothers shuffled the lines in the third period, to some success I might add, I would say the lines are not concrete at the moment.

Here is how they started last night:

Mersch - Dowd- Kempe
Auger - Amadio - Backman
Crescenzi - Newbury - JST
Lowry - Horvat - Bissonnette


By the end of the game Amadio had moved up to RW, Kempe down to 2C, Lows up to 2L, Auger down with Cresc and JST.

So yea I wouldn't trust those to be the combos tonight.

Back end was standard.

MacDermid - LoVerde
Forbort - Gravel
Schultz - Leslie

Schultz/Leslie were getting crushed though, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see Ebert go.
Click to expand...

Thanks - will Biss keep his spot?
 
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