Looking Into The Teams Who Have Yet To Start Their Backup And How That Might Affect The Rest Of Their Season

[MubbleFubbles 1,292]

I was going to do a full piece on the playoff chase but god there’s so many teams involved in that I’d be here forever, so instead I decided to focus on four teams who hadn’t yet played their backup this season and see how their chances might (or might not) be affected by that.

 

Los Angeles Stars

 

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Los Angeles were probably the most disappointing team of Season 86. Having only just missed out on the playoffs in the final sim the previous season and keeping around a lot of players for Season 86, the Stars were expected to improve on their previous season, but surprisingly wound up much worse, finishing bottom of the North American Conference behind a rebuilding Toronto Legion, with the most notable portion of the season unfortunately being their streak of fifteen consecutive games without winning a single point towards the very end of the season. The follow-up in Season 87 however has been a dramatic improvement, and sees the Stars in second place in the conference and, while they aren’t mathematically guaranteed playoffs yet, it’s a struggle to see all those teams battling to make the playoffs in the NA completely wipe out the 16-18 point advantage that Los Angeles currently has on them.

 

It's actually interesting that Los Angeles haven’t given their current goalie a start as of yet as, unlike the other three teams in this article, they actually have a human backup goalie in Alexander Minion, who is comfortably above the VHL’s 400 TPE cap, so should be capable of putting on some decent performances for the Stars when they call upon them. It’ll be interesting to see how Los Angeles fare towards the end of the season as they have one of the tougher schedules to close out the season, largely because they have no more games to play against Helsinki or Toronto (although in fairness, STHS did already bless them with one extra game against the Legion this season), so I wouldn’t be surprised if they dropped some points down the stretch, but I’d also be very surprised if they fell into the Wildcard round.

 

Moscow Menace

 

It’s no surprise to see the Menace once again leading the European Conference. Unquestionably the best run team in the VHL has finished on top of the European Conference in the regular season in three of the last four seasons (their one miss being when they finished second to the Predators in Season 85). However, by no means are they out of the woods yet as, while they do indeed hold the top position in the European Conference, they are only 12 points ahead of sixth place and, as evidenced by them being in this article, they do still yet have to take a dip in potential performance as Matt Murdock (who has had a sensational first season as a starting VHL goalie) will have to give way to a BOT goalie who has conceded 3 goals out of just 28 attempts for eight of the remaining games of the season.

 

Moscow is helped by having a slightly easier remaining schedule than most of the teams in the European Conference (bar London who definitely have the easiest). While they do still have two games to play against the Vancouver Wolves, they have no more games to play against the Calgary Wranglers, nor do they have any more against a Seattle Bears team that improved significantly at the trade deadline. They also have games against quite a few teams that have thrown in the white flag on playoff competition, with a couple of games against a now significantly weaker D.C. Dragons and Helsinki along with one more game against Toronto. While I think the gap between Moscow and whoever finishes second in the conference may not wind up as large as it is currently, I think Moscow’s current form combined with their slightly easier schedule should be more than enough to off-set the eight BOT goalie starts and see them finish top of the European Conference.

 

London United

 

London have obviously had a challenging first 15 seasons in the VHL, having failed to win a single playoff series since they joined the league and they will be hoping that this season, but first and foremost, they’ll have a tougher task than they maybe originally expected to get into the playoffs. Heading into the season, I had London down as the fifth-best team in the EU conference, but I anticipated them to be quite a bit better than Malmo and Riga, but in defense of London, this season’s result is less London failing to meet expectations and more Riga and Malmo exceeding expectations, as I didn’t expect either Riga or Malmo to be over .500 at this late point of the season.

 

While there are some problems ahead for London in this run to the end of the season with the stronger competition for the playoff places than originally intended and the eight remaining backup games to play, London does have one of the easiest schedules to close out the season, as they have three games left to play against the bottom of the standings Helsinki Titans (only Seattle has more games to play against Helsinki), but they also have no more games to play against both the North American and European Conference’s strongest teams in the Vancouver Wolves and the Moscow Menace, a situation no other team in the VHL finds themselves in. However, the key to making the playoffs will require them to make an improvement, as they have four very important games against the Dynamo ahead, a team they haven’t beaten so far this season in their two previous encounters.  

 

Warsaw Predators

 

Of the teams that are stuck in the EU playoff race, I think Warsaw will probably be the team most surprised to be involved. Coming off a couple of seasons in Season 85 and Season 86 where they finished over 35 points clear of the top EU team to miss the playoffs, Season 87 has been much more of a struggle for the Predators despite the incredibly strong play of Brendan Marner (who currently leads the league in points despite having played two games less than some of their competitors), as Warsaw currently find themselves just one point ahead of the sixth-placed London United. One of the notable moves of last season saw Warsaw try to improve at goalie by acquiring Oskar Lindbergh at the trade deadline and while that fell through due to Warsaw not having the cap space, you have to wonder if Warsaw could have benefitted from that stronger goalie this season, as (while they would have had to make some skating adjustments to be cap compliant) Wumbo currently ranks among the worst of the playoff-competing goalies in save percentage and this would potentially suggest why a team that has the best shots for/shots against differential in the league finds themselves in this precarious situation.

 

Not only does Warsaw have eight backup games to play though, they also have easily the toughest remaining schedule of all of the teams in the VHL. 13 of Warsaw’s 21 remaining games this season are against teams in the top 5 of the VHL in points, playing each of those five teams at least twice with three games against Vancouver and Davos and 10 of those 13 take place in the final 11 games of the season. Given the talent on their team, you would think that Warsaw would be able to overcome this challenge, but at the same time, looking at that last run of games, it might not be as big of a shock as originally thought if Warsaw don’t wind up making the playoffs. If there is one thing in their favour, at least right now, they have a solid advantage over most of the EU teams in the second and third tiebreakers in ROW and Goal Difference, but if they do wind up in a situation where a tie for the playoffs could wind up happening, they’ll need to hope they’ve improved their win rate as they sit seventh In the EU conference in the primary tiebreaker.   

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This was over 1000 words so claiming for week ending 3/5 as well

 

[LastOneUp 160]

The article does a good job discussing the performance of four VHL teams as they enter the playoffs. Los Angeles Stars have improved their performance this season and are in a good position to make it to the playoffs. However, the fact that they haven't played their backup goalie yet, Alexander Minion, may pose a challenge in the tougher games ahead if they face any injuries. Moscow Menace, the best run team in the VHL by some assessments, is currently leading the European Conference, but goaltending is a question mark. London United has one of the easiest schedules to close out the season and may stand a chance to make the playoffs, but they will have to make an improvement in their performance. The Warsaw Predators are also in the playoff race but have had a tougher season than in the past, and their performance has been inconsistent.