Malmo claims Victory despite not-so-great sim

[scoop 3,429]

In Friday's sim, the Malmo Nighthawks played four games. Having just beaten the Warsaw Predators the previous day, we had a magic number of one to secure the Victory Cup. It was pretty much a given that we would take it, with six games left. We didn't actually clinch on a win; Warsaw's loss to Seattle in Game 549 made it a done deal. With a four-game sim, though, we were hoping for big points and a lot of wins. What happened instead was a set of games that were not-so-promising with the playoffs approaching. We have looked like the undeniably best team all season, but those four games will raise some doubt.

 

It started with a 2-4 loss to the Chicago Phoenix. They are a good team, currently playing for higher stakes than we are (holding on to their second seed), and we can't expect to win every game. We were outshot, and struggled to score on the shots we did get. Our penalty kill was not great. We had a bad game. It happens. All things considered, though, this may have been the least concerning game of the sim.

 

We played two games against the Toronto Legion. We actually lost a game to them recently. Yes, we lost to the Toronto Legion. The two games yesterday, though, we did win. Barely. They were both one-goal games, with us winning by scores of 5-4 and 4-3. In the first game, the Legion actually outshot us, but luckily it was the one game this sim where a goalie struggled against us. In the second game, we did outshoot them 60 to 30, so that at least was a good sign, but ClapbombsRUs vastly outplayed Artem Tretiak and nearly stole the game for them. It's hard to feel good about these wins against Toronto.

 

The one other game we played was against the Warsaw Predators, a team that we had not lost to yet this season. In this game, they smoked us. We kept it tight in the first period, responding rather quickly with a goal of our own each of the two times they took the lead. In the final two-thirds, however, we couldn't get anything past Vsevolod Askarov, while the Predators scored two more goals in each period.

 

Since trading for Scotty Kaberle (which occurred after our 22nd game of the season), prior to this last sim, we only had one stretch of four games in which we lost multiple times. That time, the two losses (to DC and LA) were at least sandwiching a win against the Bears. This time, they come around a win we just barely eked out against the worst team in the league and with playoffs right around the corner. Now isn't the best time to be at a low point.