Can we call it already

[JCarson 730]

At this very moment, as I write this article, most teams in the VHL have completed 16 games.  Some of the teams have had a strong start while other, well, haven’t even shown up yet and their records reflect that.  It is odd to say but some teams are pretty much out of a playoff position already, it would take a miracle to change that.  With that said I think the fact that some teams are just so underwhelming that I theorize it will impact the points earned but some players in the league. 

 

Specifically, I am looking at the European Conference that right now appears to have 3 teams that are highly competitive and 1 team that is running above average.  The remaining 4 teams are competing among themselves to not be last, with one of them defaulting into the play in spot in the playoffs. 

 

Under a format where there are only 4 teams in a conference that look to have any ability to win on any given night, the players on those teams get the ability to shine when playing the bottom teams.  If I look for example at the 3 games that Davos (A team in the top of the conference) has had against London (a Team in the bottom of the conference, you get the following: 

 

Game 22 of the season saw a scoring focused game where Davos won 7-4. 

Game 30 of the season saw the first encounter between the 2 teams.  Davos won a 6-2 game, dominating the score sheet 

Game 125, the third matchup between the teams saw a 7-1 one sided affair. 

 

In three games Davos was able to put up 20 goals which is well above the average expected by any team. 

In fact, London in their games this season have given up 5 or more goals 8 times.  

 

Now I don’t want to pick on London as this article isn’t about just one team being uncompetitive.  If I look at London, Warsaw, Prague and Helsinki you can see the following. Between these teams they have had 20 games that have been lost against a team that scored 5 goals or more. 

 

What that means is that the top players on the other teams are getting the chance to put extra tallies in the net, padding their stats for the season.  How this will impact things like season awards, predictions, VHFL, fantasy zone, Supercoach, we will see as the season goes on.   

 

Until then all I know is that I am going to continue watching, to try and take advantage of the disparity and maybe gain an extra TPE or two.  Every year there are always team that are expected to do better but I think this year it is a more drastic disparity that in prior years.  A difference that is focused in one conference.   

 

Sixteen games shouldn’t be far enough into a season to call the playoff race, and positions are still unknown, but I can confidently say that I think 4 teams have already locked themselves into the playoffs, now we will see where exactly they end up.  Taking advantage of the other 4 teams will determine where they end up.