Playoff Drive

The Gens are 1 point away from doing something that we won't have seen since the Winter of 2008, and thats have more then 58 points in the standings. In the Last two seasons the 8th place seed had 59 points. Meaning a win on the weekend could possibly the thing that gurantees us a playoff spot.

While its not a time to take the foot off the pedal, I wanted to take a moment and congratulate the guys.

Looking at the numbers the maximum points the Petes can get to now this season is 72 (of course they'd need to go 20 for 20 to get there). That means that the Gens need only 15 points to clinch a spot of a remaining 42 points.

The Majors have clinched a spot.
Ottawa needs only 9 points.
The Ice Dogs need just 5.

Brampton and Kingston are looking like locks as well, although any kind of rough patch could put them in jeopardy of missing out.

Of the remaining teams Barrie is sinking fast and all hope is lost.

So who misses out on the big dance, Belleville, Peterborough or Sudbury?

Personally the way the Wolves are playing it will be the Petes or Bulls on the outside looking in.

Although I'd love to see the Gens finish 2nd and the Petes or Bulls finish 7th.

I'd hate more then anything for the Gens to play the Wolves in the first round, travel and there turn around as of late worries me.

GO GENS GO!!!

Catching or passing Ottawa will be tough - not impossible - yes we have 1 game in hand and play the 67 's once BUT the probable will be 4 th and play Kingston at 5

That would not be so bad - finish 3rd you might play Sudbury who may pass Brampton - Niagara will likely finish 3rd barring a collapse

I am not sure why you want to play the Petes or Bulls - they have played very tough against us

Yes the Pete's have played us tough but I would love it if the Gen's met the Pete's in the playoffs. Win or lose it would be quite entertaining and one heck of a battle.

i 'd don't want the gens to face sudbury in 1st rd of the playoffs since they've been playing better as of late.

The only way we play Sudbury is if we finish 3rd and Sudbury passed Brampton for 6th - very unlikely

Like I said if somehow we passed Ottawa and finished 2nd you could play Petes or Brampton - we will finish 2nd or 4th if we collapse then 5th but can't see it

The boys deserve a pat on the back, they have now risen above the total points it took teams to secure playoff births in the last two seasons.

Here's to a great end of the season, and playoff hockey in Oshawa.

I'm confident the Gens are good for home ice in the 1st round at least...they should still be playing hard to catch Ottawa for the 2nd seed in the conference, and even though anything can still happen, I don't see Kingston catching us. Should the Gens not win the division and get the 2nd seed that goes along with it, I also don't see us catching Niagara for 3rd...so with 18 games left to play, I tend to think 2nd or 4th is where the Gens will end up.

Sudbury Brampton or Kingston as a first round matchup, unless something crazy happens. I'd like to see the Troops in the first round out of the three.

well i'm more concerned with our goals against at this point than who we will play , this team has got to start playing playoff hockey , cut down the goals against and stay out of the penalty box , or we could conceivably lose in the first round against , any of kingston , sudbury or even brampton... and i dont beleive its goaltending !not with disalvo anyhow

It is looking more like Kingston - this season is more of a learning experience - ideally a 6 or 7 game first round win would be great

As for me it is getting the team the taste of playoffs and how hard it is and ready for the future.

Missy and Niagara lesser extent Ottawa are in an area that we are not at yet - yes we can beat them but not so sure 4 out of 7

The Gens will have to get their heads into playoff mode.
This will be hard since most of the guys haven't been in the playoffs yet.
This is where they will miss Brown; he was the heart and soul of this team and was a great motivator. Hopefully the coaching staff can get them in this frame of mind. However, there has been little emotion from them on the bench these past few games.
They need to cut down on the number of stupid penalties and get their mindset on playing a full 60 minutes of hockey in order to get past the first round.

archer_gens wrote:The boys deserve a pat on the back, they have now risen above the total points it took teams to secure playoff births in the last two seasons.

Here's to a great end of the season, and playoff hockey in Oshawa.

By my calulation the Gens haven't clinched just yet.Belleville still can catch and pass us,and the Pete's can tie us
highly likely it won't happen but stranger things have happen, I'll celerbrate when I see an X beside the Gens

The gens can tie the petes for the final spot forcing a one game playoff. Thats a playoff game.

Should be an interesting finish for 1st and 3rd in the conference with Niagara pulling to within just 4 points of Mississauga after their games this afternoon.

As others have said, it's time for all of those playoff hockey ingredients to start to come together down the stretch...solid execution for 60 minutes, staying disciplined, playing tight checking/physical games but with controlled emotion and showing an increased commitment to team defense.

Let's hope the Gens can get things back on track tonight against the Bulls!

We're in the playoffe.

Id love for Niagara to take 1st. I love everything about that team, the fans and overall experience has been great each time i have visited. I even liked when they threw things at the refs during playoffs. I didnt get it back then buf the last few games ive wanted a piece of a few of the refs. P.s. I wouldnt hurt a ref its just a game, but they make it easy to want to some nights.

It looks like 2nd or 4th seed. Congrats to the players. I would like to catch Ottawa for 2nd but this will be hard, as we have a tough schedule ahead, and the one remaining game vs. Ottawa is up there. I don't think the chance we will catch Missy or Niagara looks very good, so I'm guessing 4th seed.

That will match us up with either Kingston, Brampton or Sudbury.

Brampton plays tight defensively, and has shut us down in the 2 meetings so far. Sudbury is one of the hottest teams in the league right now and has played us tough at home and away, and is more used to the long travel involved than our guys would be. Kingston is streaky and unpredictable but of the 3 I'd prefer them in the first round. However if Grubauer gets hot in net, they will be very tough.

Hoping for the best, lets try and catch Ottawa for 2nd seed.

I also agree that to be sucessful in the play-offs we need to cut down the penalties and tighten up defensively (a lot).

Seventhman wrote:It looks like 2nd or 4th seed. Congrats to the players. I would like to catch Ottawa for 2nd but this will be hard, as we have a tough schedule ahead, and the one remaining game vs. Ottawa is up there. I don't think the chance we will catch Missy or Niagara looks very good, so I'm guessing 4th seed.

That will match us up with either Kingston, Brampton or Sudbury.

Brampton plays tight defensively, and has shut us down in the 2 meetings so far. Sudbury is one of the hottest teams in the league right now and has played us tough at home and away, and is more used to the long travel involved than our guys would be. Kingston is streaky and unpredictable but of the 3 I'd prefer them in the first round. However if Grubauer gets hot in net, they will be very tough.

Hoping for the best, lets try and catch Ottawa for 2nd seed.

I also agree that to be sucessful in the play-offs we need to cut down the penalties and tighten up defensively (a lot).

Just to add to Sudbury being one of the hottest teams in the league...they are also #1 on the PP. With the amount of penalties we take...that's something I don't really want to face. Especially round 1.

We are averaging 21.1 (1119 total) minutes per game...and have 102 more minutes than the next team (Mississauga 1017)

Just a little update since I put the numbers together for my own interest.

Oshawa has 74 points with 11 games left.

1st Need to make up 13 points on Mississauga
2nd Need to make up 4 points on Ottawa
3rd Need to make up 5 points on Niagara
4th Need 8 points to Clinch (or Kingston losing 8 points)
5th Need three points to Clinch (or Brampton losing 3 points)
6th Clinched Sudbury can only get 71 points
7th Clinched Peterborough can only get 60 points
8th Clinched Belleville can only get 60 points
9th Clinched Barrie can only get 50 points

The Gens can wrap up 4th place this weekend if Kingston loses all 3. If not its only a matter of time.

Oshawa has one game against Ottawa (I think we all knew that)

Niagara plays Ottawa once more. This could be a huge help to us if we keep winning.

Interesting note, the Gens will probably not have the tie breaker on either the IceDogs or 67's.

First tie break I believe is Wins, Ottawa has 4 more then us and Niagara 3. If we end up with more wins then either of these teams we should be past them in the standings do to the number of games left.

I believe we have 3 vs Kingston - 2 vs Petes - 2 vs Bulls

1 at 67's - home to Owen Sound - Missy 1 - home Brampton

For some reason we have had a tough time vs Bulls and Petes who are both fighting for a playoff spot

With 11 games left - 6 home - 5 away - it will be very intersting - the way we have been playing - catching Ottawa (Niagara) is possible and we could go 8 - 3 to finish off a great year

The last month of the season is going to be fantastic. Will be exciting to see who wins our division. It wasn't that long ago that overtaking Ottawa didn't really seem like a realistic possibility, but it's amazing how things can change.

After tomorrow's game in Kingston, the Gens will play 4 in a row at home...that will almost do it for home games for the Gens...they play 4 on the road and then have the final 2 at home again. Ottawa is currently doing their western swing, so this next group of games could work out quite nicely for the Gens! Wouldn't some western conference help (in regulation time of course ) be nice right about now!

Ottawa lose to Windsor tonight - Game On!

heres to hoping the Colts end there skid and do us a huge favor tonight. They can win the season series vs Ottawa tonight I believe the Colts have it 2-1 so far.

Excited to see how the final 5 games play out for the Gens. In terms of the Gens 1st round opponent, out of Kingston, Brampton or Sudbury, my gut feeling on who I thought might be a good opponent for the Gens was Brampton...that feeling might be mutual with some of their fans since we haven't put up the same number of goals for when we've played the Battalion in the last few meetings compared to what we would typically score on average per game. Only the Bulls have scored fewer goals than Brampton, so I think we'd match up well against the 19th best team in that category since that is our strength. I don't think we've seen the same physical play in Gens/Brampton games that we've seen in Gens/Kingston games...so if the Gens could play a tight checking, physical game against a team that already doesn't score a lot, they could be pretty successful. That was why I was thinking Brampton (would be nice to have lots of Gens fans fill the Powerade Centre for an away playoff game too. ) But, we'll have to wait and see what happens because a Gens/Battalion series may not end up being a realistic possibility.

It's funny how things can change. Mississauga dominates for so long...falls back a bit while Niagara goes on a tear. Given how good Niagara was looking, I was thinking for a while that if the Gens win round 1, you'd rather play Mississauga than Niagara, especially given how the Gens have won twice in Mississauga this season. Then you get the last Gens/Majors game at the GM Centre and realize they've won both games in our rink, so maybe not so much. If you're the Majors, it would take an awful lot of good preparation to play at the level needed to win 3 playoff rounds, when you know you're already in the Memorial Cup. Wonder if that makes them a bit more vulnerable as the wear and tear of the playoffs takes its toll the further you go? Don't know. For the Gens, the extra bonus to winning the east division and taking the 2nd seed in the conference, is guaranteed home ice in round 2 as well.

Hoping for a Gens win tonight in Kingston!