To an Insane Season in the VHL

[MetalToday 266]

 This was one hell of a season in Europe, the teams fought for their lives and it just wasn’t enough for a couple unfortunate teams. The race was close, and the games were closer as the season came to an end. The qualifiers started yesterday, and we already have results. People knew the matchups in North America for a while as the weaker division showed.

 

The North America division ended with 3 teams over 90 points and with that, 1 team over 100 points. There was not much competition in that division as the teams not in the top 3 had 75 points this season, or less. The comparison between the North American division and the European division shows as the only team in Europe with less that 75 points… scratch that, in fact the only team in Europe with under 81 points is Helsinki. This just showed the weakness in the North American division and the strength in Europe in the VHL. However people cannot count out Calgary who were beasts last year, and considered the favorites to win it all, Vancouver who won it last season, and now in first this season, and also Los Angeles who have a lot of up and coming players this season.

 

Well this is tough, but in Europe 3 teams have 37 wins, Riga with 84 points, Warsaw with 83 points and London 83 points. London missed the playoffs by a measly tie breaker, Prague who had 38 wins, missed as well from lack of overtime loses, as they had 81 points. The last place team in the division, and in the league is Helsinki, and they didn’t even try to win with only 13 wins and 37 points. In Europe 7 teams had more than 80 points in the end, and with those teams the 7^th place was only 11 points away from the 1^st place team in the division. Honestly it still shocks me how close this division was, this was crazy.

 

We have the qualifiers right now, and with the Seattle Bears taking on The Chicago Phoenix, the games and the series is close. The series is tied 2-2, and with only one game left, we will see who the lucky team is to move on when that last game happens tomorrow. Warsaw Predators, and the Riga Reign was just no match. Riga showed how much they wanted to move on in this easy defeat as they make the first sweep and sweepout Warsaw 3-0 in the series.

 

This the season was insane, with teams making the playoffs that probably shouldn’t, and others missing it that probably should be playing, the close games, and hard-fought wars made this season more interesting than the rest. With the amazing teams that we see now, the real question is, who will take the cup home? I really couldn’t say considering how this season went in general, but in my opinion whoever makes the finals from Europe deserves the win, this division is just too hard.

[JCarson 744]

Article Review:

 

The summary of the fantastic European conference and the close war that was fought all season provides for a great read.  Two teams were eliminated from the playoffs by a slight margin.  The end result may have come down to when GM decided to play their back up goalies, a scoring hot streak or a slightest bounce of a puck.  Not sure anyone at the beginning of the season would have expected the results would be decided by a second tie breaker rule.

 

Great article  9/10,