Still a long way to go, but the playoff Americans are looking good

[scoop 3,441]

The New York Americans finished the regular season with a 29-32-11 record, which was good enough to make the playoffs, ending a record ten-season post-season drought, despite finishing 12th in the overall standings. It was a close race in North American for the fifth spot, with Chicago and D.C. finishing just three and four points behind New York, respectively. At the deadline, New York was the team that made the biggest acquisitions, trading for Nezuko from the Stars and Max Torq from the Dragons. At the time, New York was fifth in the standings, just three points behind D.C. and five points ahead of Chicago. The reeling Stars, who had lost nine straight, were another point behind the Phoenix. Playoffs were far from a certainty for New York, but they looked to be in a good spot.  As it turned out, the Americans performed worse after the trades, dropping from above .500 to below. The Stars turned things around and were scorching hot heading into the playoffs. It took an end-of-season 1-12-3 collapse from the Dragons for New York to even make the playoffs.

 

Now that the playoffs are here, things have looked very different from the Americans. Maybe you could say it just took New York some time to figure things out with the new players, but they were struggling even at the very end of the regular season. Sure, three wins in their last six were an improvement over the one win in the ten prior games, but it didn't instill much confidence. The way things are going now, they legitimately look like a team that could win it all.

 

The Wildcard round saw the Americans facing off against the Stars, who had won nine of ten going into the playoffs. New York would take the series relatively easily. Even still, it seemed like the two teams were just playing for the right to lose to Seattle in the next round of the playoffs. The Bears ended the regular season on even more of a heater than the Stars, winning their final 11 games of the season.  In the VSN Playoff Preview, the voters, who had accurately predicted New York to beat Los Angeles, unanimously agreed that the Bears would beat the Americans. New York is flipping the script. After splitting a pair of one-goal games in Seattle, they have come home and looked even better in two wins, putting them on the verge of advancing. The same Americans who finished 33 points behind the Bears in the regular season will knock them out of the playoffs if they can win just one of the next three games.

 

As good as they have been, New York has a long road ahead. If the Americans can make it past the Bears, they will run into either the Wolves or the Wranglers. Like New York, Vancouver is ahead in their series. Either team would likely be favored in the series against New York, who likely cannot avoid being tabbed as the underdogs until they are leading in a series. At no point in the regular season did the Americans show much consistency that would have us believe they can keep up their superb play from the first two rounds of the playoffs. Vancouver and Calgary, although they weren't as dominant as Seattle in the regular season, are two very good teams and had a lot of buzz coming into the season. If their miracle run could survive that, they would still need to beat the Finals representative out of Europe. Against the four remaining playoff teams in Europe, the Americans had a combined 3-12-1 record.

 

For a team that has been out of the playoffs for so long, a team who barely even made it into the playoffs, the Americans have turned some heads so far. They will continue to be the underdogs, and deservedly so, but they are showing they can can compete with the best. And as good as they have looked, Seattle is good enough to win the next three, so all of this could still result in a Conference Semifinals exit. The absolutely worst case scenario for New York at this point is a Game 7 loss to Seattle, but that's still a lot further than anyone thought they would make it.

[Frank 5,212]

Jinx thread or reverse jinx? 

 

Spoiler