VSN Presents: S93 VHLE Playoff Preview

[Baby Boomer 573]

Welcome everyone,

 

The regular season ended a couple of days ago, so it means that it is now PLAYOFFS TIME!! Indeed, the playoffs started Friday and this post-season will be really exciting as only four points separated the top three teams during the regular season.

 

Semi-final #1 – Oslo Storm (1)  vs Stockholm Vikings (4) 

 

Regular season series: OSL wins 9-3-0.

 

This series is probably the easiest to predict since there is clearly a better team on paper and on the ice. Indeed, Oslo finished the season with a record of 49 wins, 20 losses and 3 overtime losses for a total of 101 points in 72 games and Stockholm with 29 wins, 38 losses and 5 overtime losses for 63 points and 20 fewer wins than Oslo. Plus, Oslo will count on three of the four best players of the regular season in Wayne Gretzky @MubbleFubbles, Antonia Bucatini @CowboyinAmerica and Jussi Jokinenegg @HearnNation67 who ended up with 89, 87 and 83 points respectively. They also have two of the six highest scoring defensemen in the league with Benjamin Abenduct @Schnee (75) and Swinsola @Swinsola(71). If Stockholm wants to have a chance in this series to win even a single game, they will need the help of the sixth highest scorer of the league and the best defenseman in the league, Marty Byrd @Marty B, to play on top of his head during the entire series. Aleksanteri Kaskiniemi-Kekkonen @Snussu will also be an important piece for the Sweden team in this series.

 

VSN Prediction: Oslo wins in 5 games.

 

 

Semi-final #2 – Cologne Express (2)  vs Vasteras Iron Eagles (3) 

 

Regular season series: COL wins 7-6-0.

 

The Cologne Express finished the regular season with a record of 48 wins, 20 losses and 4 losses in overtime for a total of 100 points in 72 games and the Vasteras Iron Eagles with 46 wins, 21 losses and 5 overtime losses for 97 points in 72 games. As you can see, both teams finished the regular season with really similar stats. The big difference between the two teams is that Cologne is more an offensive team and Vasteras is more a defensive team. Indeed, Cologne have three players with more than a point per game in BjorkaBjorn BjornaBjorkson @JardyB10, Alexandros Mograine @sliceruser and Tyrece the beast @beanhead420, against only one (Gianfranco Del Rocco @Victor) for Vasteras. On the other hand, Vasteras have four players with more than a hundred hits and a hundred shots blocked (Lucy Leitner @LucyXpher, Winston Dixon jr @Rjdixon01, Sunseth Moth @McWolf and Hezeus Ohmontegue-Steinhardt X @Sisyphus) against only one for Cologne (Scrungle Bungle @Novanod). Finally, both teams can count on great goaltender in Clark @cl4rk for Cologne and Ondrej Vencko @Mutti for Vasteras. When you look at it, you can see two pretty different teams with similar record, so everything will be decided on the ice.

 

VSN Prediction: Cologne wins in 7 games.

 

 

Final – Oslo Storm (1)  vs Cologne Express (2) 

 

Regular season series: OSL wins 8-7-1.

 

This is going to be a really excting final, but it is also an almost impossible one to predict. Indeed, only one point is separating the two teams in the standings, Oslo (61) have a better goal differential of only two goals and both teams won eight games against each other in the regular season. You can see that it is really tight between the two teams, so everything can happen. However, even if it is really close, Oslo wins in every category, so this is why I give a little edge to Oslo.

 

VSN Prediction: Oslo wins in 7 games.

 

 

That’s all for me, thanks everyone for reading, I wish you all good playoffs and see you in another VSN article!