Let's be clear....
First, the West is not better than the East, at least not enough that it makes any real difference. At best, it is marginally better, if that. I believe all the disrespect stems from this premise. Somehow Ottawa dispatching of Oshawa and Sudbury in easy fashion creates a situation where it may look like the East was weak because of how easily Ottawa rolled through both teams. Both of those teams EARNED 91 & 92 points through the regular season. No average teams accumulate 90+ points over a full season. I believe the disrespect given to Oshawa and Sudbury as somehow being lessor teams for some reason is the reason why, by extension, Ottawa is being disrespected. We've heard over and over that now we will finally get our first test of the playoffs? Really? Guelph was a 90 point team. They picked before Oshawa AND Sudbury in the Draft. I'm sorry but on paper Guelph looks great but they haven't been consistent at all, at least not in relation to the other top tier teams. That isn't speculation, that is a fact and their record compared to other teams in the same category support that premise.
Oshawa took out Niagara, who by many were going to win the East. They ran up four straight after going down 2-0. Ottawa heard all of the rumblings about how good Oshawa was and them slaying the giant with ease after losing the first two. Then they got steam rolled. We also heard about it before the Sudbury series, how UPL was going to be an impenetrable wall. They got steam rolled.
I give a lot of credit to Guelph for taking out both London and Saginaw. Saginaw was my pick to come out of the West. I was wrong. Guelph beat two immensely talented teams. Just because I don't feel doing it with late series heroics through massive series comebacks is a credible means of assessing the quality of the team doesn't diminish the fact they won their series. I think the fact Guelph won the series is the only factor at play. If they had won one, lost one all the way through Game 7, would we be talking about it as much? Probably not. It is only the way with which they won is the talking point.
Guelph won two seven game series in seven games. They beat two great teams. Congrats. Well deserved. Having to come back from 3-0 and 3-1 is a concern in my books. In the end it doesn't matter what four games you win as long as you win four games. I get it. That said, this Ottawa team is better than both London and Saginaw. The Storm need to bear down early and take it to the 67's hard right from the first drop of the puck if they want a chance to win this series. They can't expect to turn on the jets when their backs are against the wall. If they do, they will get shoved right through the wall.