S78 VHL Playoff Preview

[tcookie 927]

Around the VHL: S78 Playoff Preview - June 25th, 2021

 

NA Wildcard Round

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It’s an exciting matchup between two offensively gifted teams that both struggle defensively, so we should see a lot of goals in this series! The Dragons finished 4th in the VHL in goals for while the Americans finished 9th, however, both teams were in the bottom-5 defensively.

 

Led by Groovy Dood up front, who had 42 goals, 96 points, and 337 hits, the Dragons are back in the playoffs after a one year hiatus and looking to do some damage, making the playoffs by 2 points ahead of the Los Angeles Stars with a 34-30-8 record. DC’s balanced attack features 10 players who hit the 50-point mark this season - although Dood is the only one who broke 30 goals. Though it was a bit of a down year between the pipes for Stone Wolski, he’s a generally very reliable netminder that should help give DC a chance to improve on their lacklustre defense in the regular season.

 

The Americans may not have anyone quite as dominant up front as Dood, but they have two dynamic offensive forwards who each finished the year above PPG in Red Lite and Rhynex Entertainment. Entertainment, in particular, is a player that DC will need to be wary of coming off a career-low 76 point campaign. On one hand, that’s still a darn good season but on the other, you know he holds himself to a higher standard and will be motivated this postseason.

 

New York actually relies heavily on their defense to generate offense - they have just three other players who hit 70 points, and all of them are defensemen - Kosmo Kramarev, Zeedayno Chara, and Latrell Mitchell. With that group, it’s a little surprising the Americans leaked shots so badly in the regular season (allowing 41.3 per game), and they may need to forego some of that offense in favour of defense to keep DC off the board.

 

Prediction: DC in 5

 

EU Wildcard Round

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An intriguing matchup between two teams that have recently been EU contenders, though Helsinki is weaker than they have been the last few seasons while Malmo is a bit of a surprise to make it this far with a rebuilding squad. They held off a late season charge from the Riga Reign to nab the 5th playoff spot on a tiebreaker (35 wins to 32), in what was almost an exact repeat result of last season’s EU playoff race at the wire.

 

If experience matters come playoff time, Helsinki has a decided edge here. Valtteri Vaakanainen, Ola Vikingstad, Patrik Laine, Zamboni Driver, and trade deadline pickup Erik Killinger have all been around for a while. They are Helsinki’s best players and will need to be against an upstart Malmo team. Vaakanainen matched his career high with 42 goals this season (he’s been remarkably consistent, with 40, 42, 39, and 42 over the last four years). The captain is the undisputed leader both on and off the ice. Ola Vikingstad (39 goals, 83 points) provides complimentary offense while Patrik Laine (29 goals, 68 points) hopes to rebound a bit in the playoffs. This will be the final season for Killinger and Vikingstad, while Vaakanainen and Driver have at most one more.

 

Malmo is the contrast to Helsinki’s experience, a young team that exceeded expectations and they have breakout contributions from two youngsters: Muffbeav (45 goals, 85 points) and Brendan Telker (43 goals, 90 points) to thank for that. In Telker’s second season in the league, he took a huge step forward and established himself as a force to be reckoned with offensively. Arthur Dayne (31 goals, 86 points) is the veteran of the line and played a key role in setting up those two for success. Malmo’s defense is a bit of a weak spot outside of veteran Randy Marsh (in his final VHL season, Marsh looked as rough and tumble as ever, adding 312 hits and 260 PIM to his 68 point season). Fortunately, Artem Tretiak has been a force in net with a 0.924 SV% this season, helping cover up some of those shortcomings.

 

It’s a battle of young vs. old in this EU Conference Wildcard series, but the Titans have too much talent and experience in this one. Look for them to be a possible surprise contender in the EU as they have a lot of players on the team that know how to win in the playoffs.

 

Prediction: Helsinki in 4

 

NA Conference Semifinals 1

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The Seattle Bears have really been a flagship franchise for well over a decade now in the VHL, and coming off of a Continental Cup title, they are back with a team that led the league in wins, though falling a point behind Warsaw and Chicago for the best record overall. Seattle ranks third in the VHL in goals (271) and goal differential (+34) and while they are more middle-of-the-pack defensively, they are no slouches there either.

 

The league knew Isabella Campbell was good but it was a breakout year for her even then, scoring 47 goals and 99 points and setting career highs across the board. Seattle has six players who hit the 80-point mark, so you know this team can score. Campbell’s linemates Timothy Brown (37 goals, 87 points) and Venus Thightrap (45 goals, 86 points). James Rose finished second in the VHL with 72 assists. While Rara Rasputin probably didn’t have the statistical success he wanted this year, he was good enough to post a 40-17-7 record. Seattle will be a team to watch once again in these playoffs.

 

Calgary had some success this season, but they are still a squad coming into their own. Luke Thornton and Nathan Perry both hit 40+ goals and 80+ points on the season while Andrew Su, a splash pickup from Vancouver in the off-season, put up 82 points this season - but for a player who has scored 447 points over the previous four, that might be a little disappointing. Calgary has depth - eleven 40 point players and that’s not even including the always-improving Nils Tallinder, who finished his rookie year with 22 points but is plenty talented and capable of holding his own at this level. Tyler Walker came over at the trade deadline and added some stability to a young back end. 

 

That Calgary top-four of Walker, Cowboy Prout, Rolf Fizzlebeef Jr., and Tom Eagles will be put to the test in this series. What’s remarkable though is how young they are. The key players on this Calgary team have their best years in front of them, and they aren’t going anywhere. That being said, we expect Seattle to be just a little too strong for them to overcome this time around.

 

Prediction: Seattle in 6

 

NA Conference Semifinals 2

 // <winner of DC Dragons vs. New York Americans>
The Chicago Phoenix have risen to the top of the VHL in a short time, and for the third-straight year they are a top contender. They may be the most balanced team in the league - the second-best offense (285 goals), second-best defense (225 goals against), and best overall goal differential (+61) in the league.

 

All season long, Chicago’s top forward line of Lee Xin, Robin Winter, and Christian Mingle has been a force to be reckoned with. All three set career-highs across the board this season and all three finished over the 100-point mark. It was a line that clicked from the very beginning and gave opponents fits. Having five-time 80-point scorer Kyl Oferson on your second unit doesn’t hurt, either, though he dropped off a bit this season to 68 points.

Regardless of whether they end up playing against DC or New York, it’s hard to envision them not being the favourites. There aren’t very many teams in the league that have the firepower to slow down this offense. Throw in a defense that features Spencer Elsby, Matty Socks, and L and netminder Jean Pierre Camus, and it’s pretty easy to see why this team tied with Warsaw for the best record in the VHL and why they are among the favourites to win it all.

 

Prediction: Chicago in 5 (over either team)

 

EU Conference Semifinals 1

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London and Prague are two teams that finished with very similar records, separated by just a point in the regular season standings, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the course of a 7-game series.

 

One area to watch will be the London defense, which suffocated opponents in the regular season. Usually, that’s important in playoff hockey. London scored the fewest goals of any playoff team this season; fourth-fewest in the VHL overall, but posted the fourth best record in the league thanks to having the league’s best defense. General Zod and Micah Adrienne head up that group as a fantastic shutdown pairing. Offensively, much of the load will be shouldered by Kevin King, who finished just shy of his first 50-goal season this year. One does get the feeling that London was aware of their need to produce more offense, as they brought in Onde Sandstrom from Vancouver during the season, but Sandstrom struggled in London (13 points in 20 games, compared to 84 in 52 before the trade). Something will probably need to give if London is to make a serious run.

 

You wouldn’t be surprised at who’s leading the charge in Prague if you looked at their roster - it is guys like Thomas Landry II (37 goals, 86 points), Dan Baillie Jr. (30 goals, 74 points), Robert Bouchard (35 goals, 74 points), and Dominic Gobeil (30 goals, 71 points) - they’re all career Phantoms, and Landry is looking to go out on top. Grekkark Gyrfalcon has only been here three seasons, but it feels like he’s been here longer… he’s really established himself as a reliable last line of defense in Prague. Prague’s defensive unit, at least behind Battre Sandstrom, is going to be a question mark but it might only become a problem as the playoffs go on if London can’t get their offense going.

 

The United are a team that could be scary, and their offense has more talent than the regular season showed. You’d have to give them the edge on paper - but we all know hockey isn’t played on paper. London has to figure out how to score goals, and based on what we’ve seen from both teams so far, Prague has been the better team.

 

Prediction: Prague in 6

 

EU Conference Semifinals 2

 // <winner of Helsinki Titans vs. Malmo Nighthawks>
Warsaw, like Chicago, is simply a stacked, well-built team. They’ve been a VHL contender for many seasons now and this year is no different.

 

Aloe Dear has built on her outstanding career so far by leading the league with 74 assists and 118 points this season, helping linemate Chris Reynolds put up his first 100-point season while Dakota Lamb had a 34-goal, 96-point season of his own. Chris Hylands led VHL defensemen with 87 points this season (it was his first full season as a defenseman, and clearly he hasn’t lost any of the offense in his game), but also placed 8th in blocked shots with 187. He’s transitioned seamlessly to the position, and he’s got a fantastic partner in Victor Grachev. Tim Waters helps out on the back end too - he’s certainly a less dynamic player than Hylands or Grachev, but he’s elite defensively as well.

 

Ajay Krishna was, not long ago, one of the best young up and coming goalies in the league. But a couple of seasons have passed without much development on his part to the point where it would be the one area you have to look at as a weakness on this Warsaw team. Looking down the line, it’s one that Chicago doesn’t have, and it might even become a problem for them in this series - especially against a team as battle-tested as Helsinki.

If the Predators end up playing Malmo here, we expect them to just be too much for a young team like the Nighthawks, who are likely a season or two away from their real window as a contender. On the other hand, if it’s Helsinki, this could be a drawn out affair with plenty of upset potential. Nevertheless, we do expect the Predators to advance either way.

 

Prediction: Warsaw in 7 (vs. Helsinki) / Warsaw in 5 (vs. Malmo)

 

The Rest of the Way
We’re predicting conference final matchups of Warsaw vs. Prague and Chicago vs. Seattle, which might be going a little too “according to chalk” but those top three teams are just so well built that it’s hard to bet against them, even if it’s likely that an upset will happen somewhere.

 

Warsaw and Prague met last season in the conference semifinals, with Warsaw winning the series in 5. Truthfully, we also think Helsinki could be a team to watch make one last push here. They’ve got a lot of veterans, a lot of experience and made a huge pickup when they added Erik Killinger at the trade deadline. If they can make it through Malmo and upset Warsaw, they could go on a run. If the series is indeed a Warsaw / Prague matchup, we’d expect a similar result to last season. Prague pushes it a bit further this time, but Warsaw still comes out ahead.

 

A Chicago/Seattle series might very well be the crown jewel of the S78 playoffs, if it happens. Chicago looks like the best team in the league on paper and the Bears aren’t far behind, plus they’re, well, the Bears - they always bring it come playoff time. But Chicago will be hungry after a stunning sweep at the hands of Los Angeles in last season’s playoffs, and our prediction here is that they come out ahead in a hard fought 7-game series. Ultimately, if this is the series we do see, we’re picking whoever wins it to win it all. 

 

Going with our predictions so far, we see a Chicago / Warsaw final. These two teams have a lot to work with, both boasting elite offenses and elite defenses. The biggest difference here is between the pipes, where we give a significant edge to JP Camus over Ajay Krishna. That being the case, we go with Chicago in 6 as our final Continental Cup prediction.

 

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[McWolf 3,116]

11 minutes ago, tcookie said:

Prediction: Prague in 6

thanks I hate it

[tinafrombobsburgers 367]

This is so so good!!