We are living through something of a golden age of VHL playoff races. Parity not seen in years, or arguably ever, has led to each of the past 3 seasons go down the wire, with exciting races happening on both sides of the Atlantic. After a couple seasons of heartbreak for the New York Americans, the last day of S72 saw a head-to-head match-up between the Toronto Legion and Vancouver Wolves, while over in Europe there was a barely fathomable 3-team race between Moscow, Prague, and Davos for the final two playoff spots.
Until recent years, playoff races were an anomaly. Especially in the latter half of the 10-team era, things were shaken into place in the off-season in most instances with cup contenders jostling for position, nothing more. The races which did happen were often between either two teams who both didn't want to make the playoffs, or due to hilarious unbalanced conferences. Every now and then, a genuinely exciting spectacle would take place. Below I shall reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly of VHL playoff races of yesteryear.
Season 30: The Crossover Days
https://vhlportal.com/VHL/30/VHL30-ProStanding.html
You may recall some aggrieved New York players recently complaining about the lack of crossover in the VHL. The league only experimented with it once before, for 3 seasons from S28 to S30, the last 3 seasons before the first expansion, with the player pool growing almost as rapidly as it is today. It was good timing as the only contending team in Europe by some distance was Davos, with 3 North American teams making the playoffs in each of the 3 seasons, leading to 2 all-NA finals. The fifth team out was always someone good but this was especially true in the last season of crossover: S30.
A quick look at the standings shows that the top 4 teams that season finished just 4 points apart – Seattle and Davos joint-top at 100, with Calgary at 96, a team which would have missed the playoffs without crossover but ended up winning the whole thing instead. The regular season didn't quite come down the wire, but Toronto put up a fight, with a 7-game winning streak to end the season on 91 points, 5 outside the playoffs, but only 9 off top off the league. This Legion team was virtually unchanged from their Continental Cup win in S29, a surprise victory but one featuring future Hall of Famers Alexander Labatte and Elijah Incognito, and a host of other good players. It was tight and it was arguably the best we'd see until the modern era.
Season 36: The Ol' Glory Days
https://vhlportal.com/VHL/36/VHL36-ProStanding.html
That said, not too long after expansion, in what some call the heyday of the Victatorship, league parity returned to those S30 levels and even inspired a 40 in 40 article because of playoff races of such quality the VHL hadn't seen before. The pick of a few strong mid-30s seasons is S36, where both conferences so races late in the season. New York was trying to avoid the playoff so sold midseason but only a 4-game losing streak to end the season let the Bears in, who were expecting to be doing much better. It didn't turn out so well for Vasteras, who were comfortably in a playoff spot for most of the season but buying trades, including for Keiji Toriyama from New York, made them worse and they fell behind Cologne by the end of the season. The Americans got a lottery pick (Hall of Famer Tom Slaughter) for their troubles, Vasteras ceased to exist 5 seasons later. Should anyone be concerned in S72?
Season 46: The Last Season of Parity
https://vhlportal.com/VHL/46/VHL46-ProStanding.html
Ten seasons on from the glory days, the end was approaching for a 10-team VHL. Project Player Two would start to gain traction only a few seasons later, as the highs of the S40 and S41 drafts weren't matched for many years to come, but before that, a last hurrah for playoff races in S46. This was the second straight season where all 5 European teams had genuine playoff aspiration – the Stockholm Vikings went from Victory Cup in S43 to a 60-point season in S46 to the finals in S47. They weren't even in the race which came down between Davos and Cologne, with the Dynamo prevailing and ultimately sweeping their first round series against Riga. Those last place Vikings would have comfortably made the playoffs in North America though, where a Max Molholt and Zach Parechkin powered Toronto team finished 2 points above Quebec for a playoff spot they didn't want. It didn't stop them from a threepeat soon after but was an unwanted part of the rebuild.
Season 52 and Season 57: Hilarity Ensues
https://vhlportal.com/VHL/52/VHL52-ProStanding.html
https://vhlportal.com/VHL/57/VHL57-ProStanding.html
Oh, the 50s. First, we have S52. If you thought S46 was imbalanced, have a look at the standings in S52. Europe saw Davos sneak into the playoffs with 43 points and a -103 goal differential, while in North America, the Legion missed off with 47 wins and 99 points. They would have finished second in the other conference. This was a Legion team coming off 4 finals, 1 goal away from 4 cups, and a bitter end for Greg Clegane and the Hamilton brothers, who signed with Toronto in the off-season and in theory had made them even stronger than the team that fell just short of a fourpeat in S51.
In Season 57, the European Conference was still woeful and isn't necessarily the worst of a dire decade, but the playoff race was still amazing. The Cologne Express in their final season of existence would have finished dead last in North America but instead scraped into the playoffs despite losing all of their final 10 games. Davos hardly put up a great fight to knock them out, winning just 2 of their last 10.
Season 65: The Beginning of the Modern Era
https://vhlportal.com/VHL/65/Standing.php
Despite being quite recent, I don't really remember this playoff race that well but it was a good one, evidence of the continued need for expansion (being the first season for Moscow and one before Malmo came along). New York in fifth scraped into the wild card round by just 1 point, and only 3 points ahead of Vancouver, the only time the franchise has missed the playoffs since their relocation from Quebec. It was a fun race and was a sign of great things to come in the near future.
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