“Best on Best” is always intriguing, but this QMJHL Final you can throw all the cliché’s out the window. It’s hard to believe that the defending league champions and the team finished first overall in the regular season be the underdogs in the final, but that’s where the Moncton Wildcats find themselves. The Chicoutimi Sagueneens are a “super team” and if they’re firing on all cylinders, they’re unstoppable. To say the Moncton Wildcats, have their hands full would be an understatement especially coming off a grueling seven game series. It’s “best on best” which is great for the league, but if the Moncton Wildcats are to be successful and go back to back, they will have to play their best hockey of the season by far.
How Do You Beat the Chicoutimi Sagueneens?
To beat the Sags, you have to be ready for a fight, you have to be willing and able to handle their physicality on the forecheck and in all three zones, and you have to be willing to take a hit to make a play. The Sags are a heavy skilled team that can play any kind of game you want which makes them very difficult to beat. When it comes to their speciality teams, the Sags are potent, but they do like to take penalties, but they’re quite accustomed to killing those off as well. Like any big, speedy and heavy team, if you want to beat them, you have to use your speed to cause them to chase things and you have to take time and space away from their top guys and you better bet your arse you need to pressure them like hell on their power play, because that will bother the living hell out of a big skilled team, because once they get set up they sure as hell don’t want to skate back to go get things set up. Speed and compete level, that’s your best bet to beat a team like the Sags, and even then, you will be hard pressed to do that because their goaltending is extremely good. Moncton will have to create traffic and havoc in front of the Sags starting tandem and there’s no question they have a tandem. Traffic is great and all, but you still have to get shots through, and the Wildcats really have to establish their cycle game early in the series plus they will also have to be opportunistic off the rush. Their transition game is solid when they manage pucks, but the Armada did a great job clogging up the neutral zone and applying delayed pressure which caused a lot of turnovers.
Moncton can skate, they have speed for days, and pressure the puck, but they had a tendency to sit back at times during the Armada series which was very uncharacteristic. If Moncton want to beat the Sags in a seven-game series, they will have to out work them, out smart them and ultimately win the specialty team’s battle. The Sags will have to battle their nerves and so will Moncton, but there has to be a sense of relief on the Moncton side after that Game 7 win at home. Oh yeah what about “home ice” advantage? Well, you can throw that out the window to. The Sags have the big ice which favours the Cats speed game, while the Avenir Centre has been rocking, the Sags came in there during the Hockey Day in Canada weekend on and the back side of three in three and dominated the Cats. The Sags have a group that loves to forecheck the shit out of their opponents and after playing in Rouyn, they will absolutely love the Avenir Centre ice and will no doubt bring their skating game and in your face style to the Hub City.
How Do You Beat the Moncton Wildcats?
To beat the Cats, you have to play physical and pressure their D like crazy. You have to take the boards away from them on their breakouts. If you stand them up in the neutral zone they will be forced to dump pucks which they have a solid forecheck when they want to, but at times they’re passive or hesitant on it. If you transition pucks you can catch them, their neutral zone structure isn’t the greatest. Their D zone coverage is solid, but lately they have been puck watching and their slow to react to open areas of the ice. They sag a lot and protect the house so to speak, which opens up and makes them vulnerable to point shots and from distance there might be rebound issues which some teams can take advantage of. The Cats D corps want to transition and skate pucks, but when pressured they rap or rim pucks nonstop which plays into the chip and charge, which can cause the Sags big and rangy D some issues if they aren’t smart with their pinches or pressure. The Sags need to key in on the Wildcats zone entries on the power play and apply pressure to right players at the right times. At times this season the Cats power play has been very predictable and a touch too stagnant. The Cats need to move their feet and the puck with the same urgency to be lethal as they can on the man advantage. The Cats penalty kill want transition and what to attack, they give up the back door play a lot or sag too much and give up the weakside or the one timer. It’s almost like the Cats temp teams to work it across their structure so they can pounce on loose pucks and create 2-1’s shorthanded.
What To Look For?
Well, when you look at both teams everyone will see the depth of talent and compete level, which is great and all, but which players from which team are going to sacrifice the most and really do what it takes to win that’s the biggest intangible of them all right now. Again, both teams can play the skill and finesse game, but this series is going to come down to which team and group of players are willing to get dirty and really compete.
It’s one thing to look all tough and throw the big hit, but it’s another to cower away from contact or make it look like your competing, but you’re really not. Now isn’t the time for players to be selective when it comes to contact and their willingness to battle for the puck and take a hit to make a play. I don’t like making predictions, and perhaps this might be a long series as well, but you’re going to see right away which team is willing to do what it takes to win and which team will be chasing things. The team that can adjust the most, stay discipline and take the most pride in the defensive end will no doubt be crowned the Q Champs, but don’t get me wrong, power play efficiency will also play a massive role in this one.
Sit back and enjoy the show, because its best on best, but best on best is only entertaining when both teams show up, handle the pressure and nerves, make adjustments and compete like hell and execute.
The Quick Shift Keys:
- There’s not enough room on the internet for a direct head to head comparison of the individual match ups here in the Q Finals, but I will say this, the coach that can trust and use their depth the most effectively will definitely have the upper hand.
- Smith vs Desruisseaux would be a great match up to see, but I’m not sure we will see that one.
- Caleb Desnoyers has had a great season and playoff and faced a lot of adversity this season and proved a lot of critics wrong. If the Wildcats are to win and go back to back, he will have to have a special series, which is definitely capable of. I have a feeling you will see him elevate his game to new heights in what is no doubt his last ride in the QMJHL.
- Jean vs MacDougall has all the makings of a great match up. Polar opposites perhaps in more ways that not, but perfectionists in their own right. This series will be decided on the ice, but the game behind the bench might be a close second.
- Fatigue……Fatigue might be a massive difference maker early on in the series, and if you’re Moncton, you better play your most structured and responsible game in Game 1, because the Sags will be ready to go, nervous as hell, but ready.
- Huang vs Bleyl Bleyl vs Villeneuve didn’t disappoint, but Huang vs Bleyl has all the makings of a great showcase. Bleyl was very good vs Armada, Huang has had a career year in all facets of his game.
- May the Best Goalie Win……You will see some great goaltending in this series, and we shall see which netminder will be able to potentially steal a couple or one?
The Quick Shift 