Too Early VHL Predictions

[Timmy Turner 18]

In this article we will take a look at the VHL season thus far and try to make early predictions for how things will turn out come playoff time. We'll take a look at conference champions, who make it to the finals and of course who comes out on top of that matchup. Along with those predictions I'm gonna throw in a few hot takes wherever I see fit. So without further ado, lets get to the predictions.

 

North American Conference Champions: Although the North American is the more separated of the two divisions, there is still some top tier teams to discuss here. For me there are 3 clear contenders for this title; the Vancouver Wolves, D.C. Dragons and Chicago Phoenix. You may be saying to yourself, "Did he forget about the New York Americans? They're above Chicago in the standings". Well here comes a hot take; Not only is New York not a contender for the conference title, The New York Americans will barely make the playoffs by finishing 5th in their conference. Their defence has looked sub par and Thadius Sales hasn't done much to help that situation either. As for the three teams I mentioned earlier, although I believe all these teams are of excellent quality it's hard to ignore that one of them towers over the others. Currently on a 10 game winning streak, having 3 more wins than any other team in the league, Vancouver is so obviously the giant of this conference it's almost frightening. With four top-20 scorers and Markus Emerson Jr standing on his head every night, this team didn't come to play games. Not to say it is impossible for another team to take this title but it will certainly require a David to take down this Goliath.

 

North American Conference Champions: Vancouver Wolves

 

European Conference Champions: This conference is undoubtedly much harder to call. I could see a couple late season runs completely flipping the script on this conference. However I only know what has already happened and I'm not looking to base many of these predictions off of hypotheticals. If you would have asked me at the start of the year how this would go I would have probably told you Malmo was the favourite with a certain amount of confidence. However a rough last 10 games leaving them 5-4-1 has rattled my confidence in them a bit and allowed Moscow to become a serious threat. These two teams (Malmo Nighthawks and Moscow Menace) are certainly my favourites for this title. However before I go on, this feels like another appropriate time for a hot take. Although I doubt they get to the top of the conference, I believe the Riga Reign are at minimum the third best team in this conference. Despite currently sitting outside of a playoff spot, Riga has shown flashes of being a competitive team that I haven't seen from many teams above them. I see them finishing the season hot and being a dangerous first round matchup for whoever meets them in the first round. That being said I think Malmo and Moscow still have better regular seasons. Who will be the best? I think that title will fall onto Moscow. While Malmo has trended downwards, Moscow has been climbing steadily. This may be a bit of the hot hand fallacy talking here but I think Moscow continues excelling and puts some room between themselves and Malmo in the standings. 

 

European Conference Champions: Moscow Menace

 

Finals: The playoffs are certainly the hardest part of the season to predict. So to add a bit more ease to the decision making process I am going to assume that my conference champion predictions are correct and work from there. Although Vancouver looks to be one of if not the best team in the league, their conference is pretty bottom heavy compared to the European Conference. With possible second round matchups including D.C, Calgary, Chicago or New York, Vancouver will have some tough competition to beat in order to advance to the finals. With that being the case I see the hockey gods being unfavourable to Vancouver as they get swept in the second round by Chicago who take the North American conferences position in the finals. Chicago isn't necessarily a team that is gonna wow you. What they do excel in is keeping the puck out of their own net thanks to responsible hockey and a top 5 goalie in Jean Pierre Camus. Although this is certainly not the likeliest scenario, I believe defence wins championships and will lead to success in the playoffs for the Chicago Phoenix. As for the European Conference I see this being a much simpler outcome. With Moscow winning the division they get the bye to the second round where they will make easy work of their opponent. I also see Malmo blazing through the playoffs aside from when they meet up with Riga who will take them to seven games. Malmo and Moscow will battle for a spot in the finals. It will be a long series but the team with proven playoff performances will emerge victorious. Warsaw have been competitive but Malmo have just come off an impressive playoff run that saw them win it all. With that victory fresh in their mind I see them defeating Warsaw in 6 and taking the European Conference spot in the finals. This sets us up for a Chicago vs. Malmo final. 

 

Finals: Chicago Phoenix vs. Malmo Nighthawks

 

Champion: Coming into this matchup we can easily recognize Chicago as the underdog. However these teams are much more evenly matched than it appears. Both teams have shown the strong defensive play style that gets you far in the playoffs and have been battle tested vigorously by their opponents almost every round. Seeing as both of these teams have a goalie who are in the conversation as the best in the league, I see this series being an obvious battle in the crease. The team who can manage to crack the opponents goalie first will win it all. Which leads to my hot take; Every game of this series will be won by the team who scores first. This may not be the craziest take but I believe it holds more than ever in this series. It will be a low scoring, gritty series that every playoff fan dreams of. Lots of bones will be broken but in the end the winning team will be lead by their top producers. Because of that I believe Malmo will take this series in 7 games on the backs of Gunnar Odinsson and Scotty Kaberle being Jean Pierre Camus worst nightmare. Malmo will see their top players step up in ways that only the glory of the playoffs can inspire. 

 

Champion: Malmo Nighthawks

 

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk and I can't wait to be proven wrong since I'm not a big fan of repeat champions anyway. Best of luck to everyone in the rest of the season and lets see some crazy upsets come playoff time!

 

1182 Words

Edited October 5, 2021 by Timmy Turner

[SpicyGecko 100]

Awesome article! The hot takes were great and the content was premium. I enjoyed how the predictions are based off of what you see and how you interpret the stats and standings. You aren't just spitting stats at us which is great! Very well formatted, the simple use of orange for hot takes it to the next level. Overall very enjoyable article, looking forward seeing your next article. 

 

10/10

[Greg_Di 961]

Review:

Loved this article and your predictions. The way the article was laid out, colored and flowed was great! I really see no flaws in this article, more of a suggestion in adding a picture to help the article but even without a picture this article was well done 10/10

[Jubis 1,297]

Great read  and love the article 

Hope you're very wrong tho

Fun fact: 

New york is 1-0-0 vs Vancouver so far 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Jubis

[Nykonax 1,551]

12 hours ago, Timmy Turner said:

With that being the case I see the hockey gods being unfavourable to Vancouver as they get swept in the second round by Chicago who take the North American conferences position in the finals

im never letting @JeffDdo that.

[osens 297]

Great article and predictions are never too early! I loved reading them and the content side of this article was really well! I would recommend leaving the background same for all of the text. On some paragraphs the background was black and on some white, but I don't think that you wanted to do it un purpose. You could add some pictures too! Great job eitherway!

 

9/10

[Renomitsu 932]

Review

0/10, can't believe you didn't put D.C. as the NA Conference champions and Continental Cup winners.

 

Jokes aside, you've done a lovely job highlighting key players and team composition for the best teams in each conference, and I really like that you didn't put your anticipated conference regular season winners as both of the conference champions (it gets a bit boring to read the same teams' names over and over again). There are some bold takes in each paragraph, which helps disturb the typical "yep favorite wins everything" or "my team is the singular best and nobody can say otherwise" trend I tend to see with predictions threads.

 

The only comment I have edit-wise is using a colon in place of a semicolon when you gave your hot take in the last paragraph (i.e. "...leads to my hot take: Every game of this series..."),

[Jubis 1,297]

[Timmy Turner 18]

claim 2/2

[a_Ferk 761]

Hello. I think your predictions for the NA conference won't hold up until the end of the season. The Vancouver Wolves don't seem that great to me, and I think their run will come crashing down at some point. I approve of NYA being 5th though, the sim seems to have some kind of vendetta against them. Your article was well formatted and easy to read so 10/10 from me.