S85 Chicago Phoenix VS Calgary Wranglers Playoffs Preview and Overview

[Rhynex Entertainment 487]

S85 Chicago Phoenix VS Calgary Wranglers Playoffs Preview and Overview

 

The long awaited S85 VHL Playoffs have arrived! With the finish of the Wild Card Games, we can finally begin the real playoff games. We have a North American Conference matchup between the Top Seat Calgary Wranglers and the Wild Card Winners Chicago Phoenix. The Chicago Phoenix are red hot entering their series with the Calgary Wranglers, and we are bound for a very entertaining series given how tough and competitive the North American Conference is built! Let's have a quick look over the two teams' configuration!

 

The Calgary Wranglers enter this series with probably the deepest forward group. They have the reigning Scoring and Points Champion in Daniel Janser @Daniel Janser, who led the league in S85 with 51 goals and 108 points. Daniel Janser is also a superb two-way player, being one of the best two-way forwards in the game. Calgary Wrangers' Saku Kotkakoivu @DollarAndADream leads the way for all forwards at 1240 TPA, Daniel Janser has 1166 TPA, both suppresses Chicago Phoenix's star forward The Board Game Clue On Skates @MubbleFubbles who stands at 1146 TPA.

 

Baby Bob @Baby Boomer stands as Chicago Phoenix's number two at 938 TPA, and then the Calgary Wranglers' forward depth comes for the show. Each of Landon Wolanin @jacobcarson877, Leondro Goncalves @leandrofg, and Luc Tessier @KC15 have over 860 TPA. They stand at 932 TPA, 869 TPA, and 930 TPA respectively. The Chicago Phoenix's next top gun is former First Overall Pick (in Season 83) Scotty Sundin @fromtheinside who stands in at 781 TPA. There are a lot of representations from the Season 82 and 83 draft classes in this Clash of North American Conference Semi-Finals. All in all, the Calgary Wranglers look to have an overwhelming advantage in the forwards group.

 

On defense, we have a much better balanced matchup between the Calgary Wranglers and Chicago Phoenix. The Chicago Phoenix finished the S85 regular season with their two leading scorers as defensemen. They are Bo Johansson @Shindigs and Alessandro Nano @leafsman respectively. Bo Johansson led all defenders between the two teams in the regular season with 88 points (4th best offensive defensemen in S85) and stands as the best defenseman at 1143 TPA. Alessandro Nano follows suit at 824 TPA, finishing the regular season with 74 points, giving Chicago a formidable one two punch.

 

The Calgary Wranglers actually don't lose out on this department. The Wranglers have two stud defenders of their own in former Jake Wylde Trophy winner (in S83) in AirRig GoodBrandSun @Rhynex Entertainment and Erlantz Jokinen @jRuutu. AirRig GoodBrandSun and Erlantz Jokinen finished 6th and 8th in the defensemen scoring leader board in the S85 regular season, with 87 and 78 points respectively. Erlantz Jokinen is Calgary's best defender at 1115 TPA and AirRig GoodBrandSun leads the second pairing at 919 TPA.

 

The decision making on who has the better defense (on paper) going into the series between the Calgary Wranglers and the Chicago Phoenix ends with their 3rd and 4th defensemen. The Calgary Wranglers come in with two rookie defenders in Phil Strasmore @Phil and Marcel Janser @Morcar80 who comes at 477 TPA and 499 TPA respectively. The Chicago Phoenix have Juice Box @Siddhus and Seymour Butts @fonziGG filling their top 4. Juice Box and Seymour Butts both stand at respectable 528 TPA and 534 TPA respectively. With the added experience of both defenders, this give the Chicago Phoenix a slight edge in defense for the series.

 

Lastly, we have perhaps the most important position for the playoffs, goaltending. Chicago Phoenix's Cole Pearce @N0HBDY is by far the better goaltender in the series, at least on paper. However, Calgary Wranglers' Ben Dahl @Ben did not lose out in terms of stats during the regular season, in fact they may be even better than Cole Pearce's regular season stats, but that might be due to the team's play in front. Cole Pearce is a VHL star goaltender at 1060 TPA giving the Chicago Phoenix a monster S82 trio in The Board Game Clue On Skates ( C ), Bo Johansson ( D ), and Cole Pearce ( G ), each being over 1000 TPA and stands at the apex of the VHL. Ben Dahl leads the rush for the Wranglers at 690 TPA (or should I say "69" 0 TPA ) The Calgary Wranglers also have a very respectable backup goaltender in Red Gaming @The Mustard Man, who was a force in the playoffs last season, as a rookie, for the Chicago Phoenix. Red Gaming has terrific numbers all season whenever he's put up for the task by GM @Ricer13 and stands at 435 TPA. Given that GM @Ricer13 will likely run with his favourite Ben Dahl, we are giving the goaltending edge to Cole Pearce and the Chicago Phoenix.

 

In conclusion, for the overview and preview of the Season 85 VHL Playoffs series between the Chicago Phoenix and the Calgary Wranglers in the North American Conference Semi-Finals, we have an outlook for a very competitive series. Both teams are up and coming young teams looking to make the VHL North American Conference Conference Finals and perhaps even the VHL Finals. The Calgary Wranglers hold the statistically better forwards and offensive team, where as the Chicago Phoenix stands to be the better defensive and goaltending team. However, both teams may not have any issues putting the puck into the net. This could very well be a very high scoring series between the two teams! Both teams are focused on puck moving defenders to help lead the rush offensively, while the Calgary Wranglers also have a powerful offensive punch from the forwards. It would be up to Cole Pearce to see to shut the door against such a formidable offense that saw the Calgary Wranglers score 252 goals in the regular season and have 7 over point per game skaters: where all seven scored more than 10 goals, including three 30 goals scorers, one 40 goal scorer, and one 50 goal scorer in S85 regular season.

 

Therefore, we conclude that going into the playoffs series between the Chicago Phoenix and Calgary Wranglers, the winner of this series could be a coin toss. The teams are rated equally on paper with the Calgary Wranglers being more offensive and the Chicago Phoenix being more defensive. The deciding factor will land on Chicago Phoenix's Cole Pearce's shoulders. If Cole Pearce can steal a game, the Chicago Phoenix have a great chance of winning this series and moving on to the North American Conference Conference finals.

 

 

[Word Count 1095]

 

[Claim for weeks ending 2022-10-30 and 2022-11-06]

 

Author's notes: Yes, I know the playoffs are over, but I never got a chance to finish and post my playoffs series overview before the series 

[Rhynex Entertainment 487]

claim for week ending 2022-11-06