1. Which of these franchises made the conference finals for the first time in S78?
Prague has finally done it, having had a pretty bad streak of failing to win a playoff game for a while, then only being victorious in the wildcard round. Is this the start of a new Phantom era, a late blossoming of the expansion franchise? We'll have to see - Prague's expansion rivals D.C. broke their duck in S75 but haven't been back to the conference finals since. LA made it that far in just 1 playoff appearance to date meaning London, despite being a more consistent playoff team, is now the only franchise which has failed to make it past round 1.
2. What is the highest number of penalty shots faced by a Hall of Fame goaltender? (Credit and 1 uncapped TPE to @okochastar)
215 which is the number Tuomas Tukio achieved in his career as per Corco's spreadsheet here: https://vhlforum.com/topic/347-vhl-career-stats-updated-for-s77/
He's only beaten by Toronto's CPU and Finn Davison, neither of whom are in the Hall of Fame.