it’s my Parting Shot for the second and final part of The Fearless Predictor’s review, preview and winner picks for Round 2 of the W-H-L post-season…..
At the end of yesterday’s first part, I teased for Prince Albert fans to be ready for my take on the Raiders versus Saskatoon Blades Eastern Conference semi-final series – as if I was going to say something outlandish like I think the Bridge City Bunch will pull off another upset!
One of my all-time favourite lines, combining self-deprecation with being confident in my knowledge of sports subject matter – or any subject matter – is, “Mama raised fat children, not stupid ones!”
Nope, nothing outlandish here. To me, the Blue and Gold season is already a success, no matter what happens against the Raiders. The Blades are, essentially, playing with “house money,” after knocking off heavily-favoured Edmonton in seven games in the opening round. Prince Albert, meanwhile, have all the pressure on them to win because they finished first in the Eastern Conference and second overall and made the moves before the trade deadline to take a shot at winning a third league title in their history! I know, I know, Saskatoon has never won an Ed Chynoweth Cup – but they aren’t supposed to this year. No pressure on them, they should play loose and free!
Kind of like how it was two years ago when the first overall Bridge City Bunch lost the opening game of the opening round to the visiting, eighth-seeded Raiders at SaskTel Centre – then got down to business and won the next four in a row to advance!
I expect something similar in this series, only flip the teams around. The Blue and Gold might steal a game, thanks to Evan Gardner’s goaltending, but P-A has too many weapons. They’re too deep for the Blades up and down the lineup! The additions of Braeden Cootes, Brandon Gorzynski and Maddix McCagherty up front gives the Raiders three dangerous scoring lines while most other W-H-L teams are lucky to have two!
In the end, my head says Prince Albert in no more than five games. My heart hopes Saskatoon can get it to at least six games, which would be incredible! Just keep in mind Raiders’ fans, I said the same thing prior to the opening round series with the Oil Kings and look what happened!
Just saying, T-F-P isn’t always right!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
