Surprises in the VHL Standings So Far...

[fromtheinside 1,290]

Up to this point in the VHL season I would say while some results have been as expected, there are a fair amount of surprises as well. I quickly will go over things that have caught my attention thus far. Starting in the North American conference, the Bears are dominating, which I feel isn't too surprising. Toronto has done well too, and again, that's kind of to be expected. Both these teams have decent rosters. Now here's where things get weird. Chicago is currently in third, riding a four game winning streak currently. Chicago is a rebuilding team, and while they have a great young core, I did NOT expect them to be in a playoff position this soon. Behind them is the DC Dragons, who quite frankly I thought would be a top notch club this season. I figured the would round out the top three in the NA conference and the rest of the teams would just exist. The rest of the standings are pretty much what you'd expect in NA.

 

Over the European conference, Riga sits atop the standings with a sterling 29-5-6 record. Riga was widely considered to be a cup contender this season, so that comes as no surprise. Behind them is Moscow, who is always competitive, but I figured the likes of Prague, London, Warsaw and Helsinki would all be closer to them. Helsinki is a real shocker to me sitting at a 19-19-1 record. I feel like a huge part of this is because the EU conference is so overwhelmingly better than the NA conference right now. Things are very uneven in that sense. It's a shame of a couple of these strong EU teams are going to get screwed this season, because there's quite a few well-built teams, especially considering how hard it is to get active players and fill out a roster these days. It should be interesting to see how things play out down the stretch and into the playoffs!