Familiar Foes in the Playoffs

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The first round of the playoffs this season will feature some familiar matchups in both conferences. In North America, we will see the Seattle Bears face the Toronto Legion. These are two teams who have been in the league since the beginning, though the Bears played as the Everblades for the first season. Across the pond, the Moscow Menace and Malmo Nighthawks have been seeing a lot of each other in recent seasons, but this time around the matchup is a little bit earlier.

 

Over the course of the 81 prior VHL seasons, the Seattle Bears and Toronto Legion have faced each other in the playoffs 16 times. With this season making 17, this will now be tied for the second-most common playoff match-up in VHL history. The Legion currently have the advantage, with ten wins to six, but Seattle came out ahead the last time they played back in S77. The Bears will have home advantage, but the Legion won the season series four games to one.

 

The Menace and Nighthawks have not been in the VHL quite as long (Moscow since S65; Malmo since S66), but they have gotten their fair dose of each other in the time they have been around. This will be the fifth time they have met in the playoffs. Moscow has won three of the previous four meetings, which includes the European Conference Championship in each of the last two seasons. These two teams aren't conference favorites anymore, but you can't count out their experience.