Post by torontogm on Apr 24, 2011 0:14:26 GMT -5
Toronto, ON - Last year they were the regular season champions in the AsHL and this year they won the Eastern Conference and were second overall. Last year they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in six games by the number 8 seed. This year they go into their sixth game facing a similar fate.
"We dominate all year, now we play bad," said leading scorer Nikolai Kulemin. "We know how to win, we just don't do."
"Full credit to the Jokers. They have played us well and we need to just keep playing our game and we'll break through," said coach Jim Schoenfeld.
The Marlies have been led offensively by defenseman Viatcheslav Voynov and winger Nikolai Kulemin, but the supplementary offense has not been there. They have been defensively sound and goalies Ben Bishop and Sergei Bobrovsky have been effective, but not stealing games like they did at times during the season.
It remains to be seen if Schoenfeld will alter his lines or strategy or the Marlies will plow ahead as they so often did so well during the regular season. No matter what, for this team nothing less than an appearance in the conference finals would be considered a disasterous season. We'll soon know if that's what we have here.
-Barbie Q. Pork for the Hogtown Hockey News
"We dominate all year, now we play bad," said leading scorer Nikolai Kulemin. "We know how to win, we just don't do."
"Full credit to the Jokers. They have played us well and we need to just keep playing our game and we'll break through," said coach Jim Schoenfeld.
The Marlies have been led offensively by defenseman Viatcheslav Voynov and winger Nikolai Kulemin, but the supplementary offense has not been there. They have been defensively sound and goalies Ben Bishop and Sergei Bobrovsky have been effective, but not stealing games like they did at times during the season.
It remains to be seen if Schoenfeld will alter his lines or strategy or the Marlies will plow ahead as they so often did so well during the regular season. No matter what, for this team nothing less than an appearance in the conference finals would be considered a disasterous season. We'll soon know if that's what we have here.
-Barbie Q. Pork for the Hogtown Hockey News