VHLM Playoff Race

[nurx 914]

As the regular season is coming to its end it is nearly time for us to look at the playoffs. However, in the VHLM we have four teams in the league who have a good chance of taking the 1 seed going into the playoffs. This is uncharted land largely helped by a rule change that happened a few short seasons ago involving the draft that happened two months ago. Of course, that rule change is the rule involving the minimum amount of draft picks a team must pick for during any draft. Now let’s look at the teams that have been pushed slowly close together in this season’s standings.

The Mexico City Kings, Ottawa Lynx, Miami Marauders, and Houston Bulls are all deep in the hunt for the 1 seed and all have different paths to take to get that position. The team with the least chance of taking the first seed is Houston who at the moment can gather at most 102 only 11 more points than the Kings currently have. However, the Bulls have been hot riding their new goaltender winning 9 out of their last 10 games including wins over each of the other three teams in the race. Their only loss came to Mexico City where Houston outshot Mexico City by 13 shots while only letting in two goals. Looking forward to Houston playing each of the top 3 teams one more time while having two games against teams I would expect to miss playoffs.

The Miami Marauders are in 3rd place in the standings and I believe are in 3rd place in odds to get the one seed in the playoffs. Of course, all of this could change tomorrow with a sim involving two games against Ottawa. If either team wins both of those games they would immediately become the favorite to win the east and very likely become the favorite to win the 1st seed going into playoffs. Miami can gather a maximum of 107 points still below the maximum of the league-leading Mexico city who can get a maximum of 111 points. Of course, losing two games is possible and likely in a league this close, but any loss for Mexico City is likely as possible for Miami and when you have an advantage in such a close race it isn’t hard to believe you will hold the advantage.

Next up is the Ottawa Lynx who I believe will win the east but will get the 2nd overall seed going into the playoffs. Ottawa will play Mexico City twice, Houston once, and Miami twice. If they are able to walk away from those four games with three wins they will likely walk away with the top seed. Of course, this incredibly difficult schedule could be the reason they could possibly fall all the way down to fourth or even fifth, but they also have a really good opportunity to take the 1st seed going into the playoffs.

 

Finally, my expected top seed is Mexico City. They play Ottawa twice and Houston and likely if they win two of them they will clinch the 1st seed in the league. They hold a four-point advantage over the closest team in maximum points in Miami while never playing Miami. Mexico City is of course struggling as of recently winning just five of their last five, but their schedule will only get easier as the season comes to a close.

Of course, anything could happen, but the following are my expected final standings for the S87 VHLM season.

1. Mexico City
2. Ottawa

3. Miami

4. Houston

5. Mississauga

6. San Diego

7. Halifax

8. Las Vegas

9. Philadelphia

10 Saskatoon

[twists 413]

You take that back, Vegas is gonna win it all!

[nurx 914]

2 hours ago, twists said:

You take that back, Vegas is gonna win it all!

they mathematically cant get any seed higher than 8

[twists 413]

Just now, nurx said:

they mathematically cant get any seed higher than 8

DON'T RUIN MY DREAMS WITH YOUR LAME ASS FACTS

[Grape 739]

On 2/25/2023 at 12:22 AM, nurx said:

Mexico City is of course struggling as of recently winning just five of their last five

Quite the poor stretch of games it appears