Playoff Review- NA Conference

[Scurvy 1,414]

The playoffs are here and last week I looked at the playoff teams in the  European conference so this week I am going to dive into the formidable North American conference.  The NA had a significant battle for placement in the final days of the regular season with NY, Chicago, and Vancouver all tie with 88 points.   We saw Vancouver struggle at the end and lost that coveted 3^rd place spot to face Seattle.  As the playoffs have already started, I will start with Wildcard teams:

 

New York Americans:  39-23-10.  

 This was a team I had picked at the beginning of the season to be up near the top of the NA conference battling Toronto for top spot. Loaded with high end talent the Americans ran into some struggles along the way and maybe like Moscow performed a bit under their talent level.  

 

Up front they have Jasper Davis @Josh, FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Analfist @STZ, Yaroslav Trunov @qripll, and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky @MubbleFubbles.  On defense they have two bruising dmen in Callum Gary Yannick Janser @Daniel JanserDaniel and Tord Yvel @Trazan that can punish on both ends of the ice. 

 

In net, WWWWWWWWWWWWWW @roryis a brick wall and if he gets hot is one of the tougher goalies in the league to score on.   Overall, I think the Americans are a playoff-built hockey club who could spell trouble for opposing teams.  

 

Vancouver Wolves 40-24-8

 Much like the Americans the Wolves had stretches of games when they played way below their level.  Loaded with 4 very good players on defense in Mark Calaway @Beketov, Liv Slater @Subject056, Left Alone @okochastar, and tough guy Guntis Gavilrovs @Girts.  

 

Up front they have a veteran leader in Owen Lazaro @traphag who despite a slow start ended up with 39 goals and 95 points.  Rip Wheeler @ScottyP and late additions in Martin Kemp @leafsman and Keita Kourou @woog have been great as well.  Logan Ninefingers hit a bit of a sophomore slump through most of the season but ended the season on a good streak.  In net, Dalkr Vidarsson @KaleebtheMighty wll be key as well as he is one of the best in the league when hot.  

 

Overall, the Wolves are another team built for playoffs with grit and big bodies.  They are built for the long term with many young players still figuring the game out but look to them to be a playoff team for years to come. 

 

Chicago Phoenix: 43-27-2

 Chicago stood true to their name and came out of the ashes to burn past NY and Vancouver for that third spot in the playoff seed.  A young team that despite not having one player over 1000 TPE yet they play as a complete team and just win games.  Their goalie Ryan Artyomov @Enorama has won 40 games with a young defense in front of him.  Led by YaBoi Oven @Doomsday on defense he amassed 23 goals and 240 hits this season with 5 GWG. 

 

Up front off-season addition Spanish Moon Moth @Renomitsu can also light it up as he had 32 goals and 229 hits during the season with 7 PPG.  This team likes to play physical and can’t be overlooked these playoffs.

 

Seattle Bears: 51-17-4

 Winning 51 games in a season is no joke and very difficult. The defending Cup champs have a very deadly cup contending team that doesn’t have many weaknesses.  From an All-Star goalie in Fukka Rask @Jubis, to shot blocking defense Mina @Baozi, to an intimidating front line in Daryl Dixon @Ricer13, Severus Targaryen @Banackock, Eric White Jr @Mysterious_Fish, and rookie sensation Gianfranco Del Rocco @Victor.  

 

Up front they are deadly, and they had the lowest goals scored against in the entire league in the regular season.  

 

Toronto Legion 52-13-7

 Toronto had the most goals scored during the regular season and a look at their roster you see why.  They are stacked in every way possible with a legendary goalie Joel Castle @animal74, a 111 point scoring defensemen in Bobby Bob @Baby Boomer, and 3 forwards who were in the top ten in scoring with Jimi Jaks @ke1vi (131 points), Diego Machado @Dadam30 (124 points), and Mac Atlas @v.2  (112 points).  

 

I think this club is as close to perfect as you can build.  Let’s see if the long layoff before playoffs makes them rusty.

 

OVERALL PREDICTION

 

 Well I would love to say Vancouver wins it all but realistically I have to pick Toronto to win the NA and face London in the Cup Finals.   Toronto is too stacked and unless they have a meltdown offensively, they will be tough to beat.  That is the great thing about playoffs though, anything can happen. 

[Jubis 1,341]

[animal74 1,773]

[Smarch 3,112]

Review: Real good overview or the teams that made it into the North American Conference playoffs. Nice little overview for each of the five teams that made the playoffs and nice touch adding some stats for the top players from each team. Media spot really drew me up readers attention with tagged players, pictures and underlining the teams names. Nice way to end the piece with a final prediction as well. Great read as always!