S92 VHLM Playoff Preview

[Mysterious_Fish 386]

VHLM Playoff Preview
Mysterious Fish

 

This playoff preview stuff is getting so repetitive so I am here going to try and add a twist to it. I will be talking about every series but I have asked each GM two questions:
What is your team’s strength? and, What is your team’s weakness? Doing that I will have my own sort of addition to mine.

(1) Philadelphia Reapers vs Saskatoon Wild (8)
 

Alright so starting off with the 1vs8 matchup. The Reapers have had a great season but not amazing. Philly ended the season 1st in the league and 1st in the east with 54 wins and a total of 112 points. Saskatoon on the other hand ended the season 8th in the league but 5th in the west. After selling at the deadline they managed to make the playoffs 1 point behind 7th and 9 points ahead of 9th.

Alrighty, my prediction is Reapers will win the series in 5. 

 

The Wild will find a way to steal one game with some luck between the pipes by most likely Austin Goulet lll @Tuchy and some production from Leo Neelson III @silentnyrf31, Connor simard @Alex99, and Pierre Marc Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito. 

 

Philly one the other hand will probably win because of Jorgen Lovstrom @Pifferfish in between the pipes, and Yermolai Nabokov @fonziGG as the best forward. Otherwise Philly doesn’y have that much except some meh to bad depth and some meh defense.

Saskatoon Wild answers: @Ricer13

What do you think Saskatoon's strength is?
“A strength of Saskatoons, especially in this series is going to be our defense. It’s not a massive edge but it is an edge we will need.”

What do you the Saskatoon's Weakness is?

“Our weakness is going to be goaltending. We have two goalies who’ve been fighting for the starting job where as Philadelphia’s strength is going to be their goaltending.”

Philadelphia Reapers answers: @Lemorse7

What do you think Philly's strength is?

“Goalies of course and we also have 2 of the top 5 center in faceoff might be even 2 in the top 3”

 

What do you the Philly's Weakness is?

“Not clear on it but he did say Also the Jinn chemistry on the ice is just something else that need to be study”

(4) San Diego Marlins vs Houston Bulls (5)

 

The most hyped up series in the playoffs with the series between 4 and 5 that most people say would be a great Finals. Yet here we are. The Marlins with one of the best offenses in the league finished 4th in the league and 3rd in the west, they have had an interesting season but a good one at that. The Bulls finished one point behind San Diego in the standings finishing 5th in the league and 4th in the west. With a full roster of 12-6-2 they have the depth all around with insane goaltending. 

 

Alrighty, this might be a bit biased but when everyone says Houston is going to win I am going to go with San Diego in 7.

 

San Diego has a great offense with 4 capped and 1 that is 10 tpe away. The capped forwards consist of Dietrich Reingaard @JigglyGumballs, Gianfranco Del Rocco @Victor, Jean-Pierre Devote @eagle_3450 and Wayne Gretzky @MubbleFubbles. Dwight Schrute @Jamomayo is at 190 tpe right now. The defense improved a lot at the deadline with a big move getting Ray Stanton @horoscope, along with a few waivers and then a decent goalie in the net.

 

Houston has probably the best depth but too much depth can hurt teams. In this case it might with too much star power that might not get as much playing time as needed. With 3 capped forwards by the names of Chris Reynolds Jr @Crstats23, Antonia Bucatini @CowboyinAmerica and Trimiskez Artav @jake. Then 2 capped defenders, Benjamin Abenduct @Schnee and Lucy Leitner @LucyXpher. Then one of the best goalies by tpe Ondrej Vencko @Mutti. 

 

Overall this will be a fun series and it will really be a story of how the depth players perform vs others or in the case of Houston depth players vs Depth and Star players.

 

San Diego Marlins answers: @McGriddy10
What do you think SDM's strength is?

“I think our strength is offense”

What do you think SDM's Weakness is?

“our weakness is defense”

 

Houston Bull answers: @AJW

What do you think Houston's strength is?

“I would say Houston’s strength is the depth of players we have consistently earning. Luckily enough we got a shipload of players before the regular season started and a few more joined along the way. Majority have stuck around to playoffs so I feel I’ve  got a good idea on each players strengths/weaknesses. We have a lot of options to play different players in different lines if needed.”

 

What do you think Houston's Weakness is?

“Houston’s weakness is definitely unpredictability. Throughout the entire regular season we had A LOT of 1-1 sims. It seems like we’ll beat up a team one game, then the next game we might fall asleep. To go far in these playoffs we need to stay consistent, and not give up games that we should be winning.”

 

(2) Las Vegas Aces vs Ottawa Lynx (7)

 

In a series that might be good we have the 2 and 7 seeded teams. Las Vegas who is quite similar to San Diego in the sense of offense it is just Las Vegas has a tiny bit worse top 5 based on tpe. LVA finished the season 2nd in the league and 1st in the west. Ottawa who has been struggling is basically everyone on the tpe side who finished 7th in the league and 3rd in the east.

 

My prediction is Las Vegas will win in a clean sweep.

Las Vegas with a good group of forwards which includes 2 capped forwards Caesar Monterrey @CaptainGatsby and Annie Oaks @Noodle Enjoyer who they acquired in a trade with Saskatoon and then 3 more forwards in the 190+ range of tpe and then a solid D with good depth and 1 capped D by the name of Bric Sheithaus @Oldhead911. In net they have a decent goalie Hugo Boss @Dil with 130 tpe.

 

Ottawa has the 2 leading point scorers both capped by the names of Ivan Ivanov @KmaddFPSand Wayne Shotzky @Kenamatic. The next closest forward by tpe is Steve French @Seabass with 177 tpe. On the defensive side no one is capped but Wwumbo @Fire Tortorella is the top D with 172 tpe. In the net with 98 tpe Alexander ovieckin jr @penguinb19.

 

With poor goaltending on Ottawa and good offense for LVA this is why LVA will prevail.

 

Las Vegas Aces answers: @McLovin

What do you think LVA's strength is?

“our strength is absolutely our offense. bolstering the most consistent and potent offense in the league over the last two seasons has given us a remarkably unique opportunity to outscore and outpace our opponents, and we've used that greatly to our advantage of this last season especially.”

 

What do you think LVA's weakness is?

“our greatest weakness is the other side of the coin, our defense and goaltending for sure. we let up on average a significantly larger number of goals than other similarly ranked teams, and Hugo Boss can only do so much to stop the high volume of shots he faces every night, but even he has weak nights sometimes”

 

Ottawa Lynx answers: @Grape

What do you think Ottawa's strength is?

“Strength would be high end offensive talent”

 

What do you think Ottawa's weakness is?

“Weakness is subpar goaltending”

 

(3) Mexico City Kings vs Miami Marauders (6)

 

Lastly we have the series between Mexico City and Miami. Mexico City has the depth but not a real superstar but they still finished 3rd in the league and 2nd in the west. Miami was the best team to start the season going 15-0-1 but after the first 16 games they only won 22 more games in 56. Still with that they finished 6th in the league and 2nd in the east.

 

My prediction is Mexico City will win in 6 games.

 

Mexico City is worse on paper with only one capped player Trey Daniels @Tdan04 outside of him the team just has a bunch of depth that has worked well for the forwards. The Kings defense has 2 good D then the other 3 are under 100 tpe.

 

Miami does have a chance to win if their offense of 5 capped forwards Forum Content @frescoelmo, UghSike @UghSike who were both picked up at the deadline in a trade with Saskatoon. The other 3 are Joe Shmo @matt sovick, Matthew Highmore @NineIQ v2 and Vanuza Kolesinska @chikn. One the defensive side they have basically 2 capped players, Pierre Ennis @DeciBell4 and Gul Dukat @MSouthworth. So in total Miami has 7 capped players which should mean they win but in this case they have too much of the same in their star players instead of some different style of players.

 

On paper Miami should win but their goalie even though the goalie has good tpe has been performing poorly.

 

Mexico City Kings answers: @hylands

What do you think Mexico City's strength is?

“Our strength is definitely defence and goaltending. When I drafted this team I had a clear direction I wanted to go, and that was building from the goalie outward.”

 

What do you think Mexico City's weakness is?

“Our biggest weakness is forward depth. Looking at all of the other playoff teams, they have a lot more firepower than we do. However, the players we do have are extremely dedicated to the cause and know exactly what is needed from them.”

 

Miami Marauders answers: @Tetricide

What do you think Miami's strength is?

“Our strength definitely comes from our offensive prowess, whether it's from our forwards or defense.”

 

What do you think Miami's weakness is?

“However, we lack the opposite from our forwards -- defense. There are a few like Highmore, Kolesinska, and Loo who have helped a little in that department, but it's caused us to have a close goal differential towards the end of the season at 17. Because of that, our goaltending has suffered quite a bit as well, and it all just kind of falls down from there.”

 

Although this does not matter in the 2nd round San Diego will beat Philly in 6 because Philly really only has a goalie and then between the Aces and the Kings the Aces will win in 7. In the Finals between the Aces and the Marlins the Marlins will take it in 6.

 

This has been my VHLM Playoff Preview and lets enjoy the playoffs!

Edited February 18 by Mysterious_Fish