VSN Presents: Season 98 VHL Playoff Preview and Predictions

[MichkovSzn 144]

Graphic By: @slothfacekilla

VSN Presents: Season 98 VHL Playoff Preview and Predictions
 

Yet another VHL regular season has gone as quickly as it came, and the playoffs are right around the corner. We’ve already had some good playoff content created for the forum already this season with a Simon Says podcast from @SMYLS4 and @flyersfan345, and more to come with @Baby Boomer’s VHLM preview. With that being said, here at VSN we conducted a poll amongst writers of who we believe will win each series this playoffs, so today I’ll be letting you know our thoughts and give some insight about what players might make a big difference this season and what you can expect to see in these playoffs, and hopefully Simon doesn’t immediately make these predictions irrelevant.

VHL Wild Card Round:


(4) HC Davos Dynamo vs. (5) London United
    VSN Prediction: Davos wins series 3-0

 

The story was once again the same in the European conference this season, with only 4 teams being real competitors and the rest still deep in or only starting to emerge from a rebuild this season. This of course meant that one of these weaker teams had to make the play-in and this season it was the London United. Davos had a 46-22-4 record this year, finishing with 96 points on the year and slotting in comfortably as the 6th best team this season, facing off against the United who secured a 32-33-7 record with 71 points, giving them a less than impressive under .500 record. London was a scrappy team this season lead by rookie Pelayo Bolivar and are certainly a young, promising squad. It simply won’t be enough to match up against the stout roster of Davos lead by players such as Antonia Bucatini, Gianfranco Del Rocco, and Felicia Hardy. The difference between these teams was shown in the season series with Davos claiming all 6 of the matchups between these squads, and we believe that this will remain the same in this series. Davos advances to play Moscow.

 

(4) New York Americans vs. (5) Vancouver Wolves

    VSN Prediction: Vancouver wins series 3-1

 

This matchup is one of the closest that we’ll see throughout these playoffs, and certainly the closest standings wise in this first round, only 3 points separated these teams in the standings this season. The higher seeded Americans had a record of 39-23-10, lead by players such as George Richmond for the forwards, Guntis Gavilros and Callum Gray Yannick Janser for the defensemen, and of course, WWWW in net. However, while they have some great talent at the top of their roster, New York is highly lacking in depth especially at defensemen where after their two studs they have two players barely over 400 TPE. For Vancouver whose play was good enough for a 37-24-11 record this campaign, they severely underperformed expectations with the squad they have. Looking at this roster on paper it’s hard to find weaknesses for this team, they have easily one of the league’s top forward groups with 3 1200+ TPE players in Ninefingers, Bouchard, and Riley Martin, and their defenders are headlined by Bolles de Trueno, with the incredible Soju backstopping. One VHL insider added that the goalies of both squads have been playing below expectations, this series could come down to whoever can find their groove and lead their team. Despite this, the apparent strength of this Vancouver squad and the fact that they easily took care of business against New York in the regular season, winning the season series 4-1, made VSN choose the Wolves over the Americans in this series, but don’t be surprised if the Americans are able to send the pack home early this season. 

 

VHL Quarterfinals:

  (2) Helsinki Titans vs. (3) Riga Reign

VSN Prediction: Helsinki wins series 4-2

 

This is yet another series that should be a tight contest. Only 4 points separated the 49-17-6 Helsinki Titans and the 46-18-8 Riga Reign over the course of this season, and it showed in the season series as Helsinki won it 3-2 with the goal difference almost equal at 10-8. Looking at these rosters on paper didn’t make this decision any easier, as while Riga clearly has the better forwards corps with Axle Gunner, Wayne Gretzky, Kimi Raikkonen, and Severus Targaryen, but when it comes to both defensemen and goaltending, that’s where the Titans have the Reign beat. Helsinki has a deep solid group of blueliners headlined by Conference Prince de Galles and Hugh Neutron, and of course they have star netminder and last years Aidan Shaw trophy winner, Jorgen Lovstrom. However, while just looking at the rosters might lead you to believe Helsinki is the far and away better team defensively, but that was not the case over the regular season, as shockingly, Riga had 11 less goals allowed, and Helsinki had 17 more goals scored. All of these factors made this quite the hard decision for the team here at VSN, and this series really could go either way, but we think that it will be Helsinki moving on to the Conference Finals in this series.

 

(1) Moscow Menace vs. (4) HC Davos Dynamo

      VSN Prediction: Davos wins series 4-2

 

Even though Davos is the lower seed of the two, VSN has the Dynamo causing the upset and ending Moscow’s season prematurely once again. Despite the difference in seeding between these two teams, the European conference is jam packed with strong teams making it prime for some upsets, specifically for this series only 10 separated the Victory Cup winning Moscow Menace and the 4th seeded Davos. Looking at these rosters on paper, once again they are just about neck and neck with each other. Moscow’s forwards are far and away the better team forwards-wise, and probably the best group of forwards in the league with the joint-top scorers of the league in Maverick Goncalves and Jarmo Ruutu, and of course excellent defenseman turned forward Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. Of course, you can say many of the same things about Davos’ defensemen group which is also among the best of the best in the league and could make a huge difference for them in this series. A problem could arise for the Menace with their defensemen, as while they have the superb Jillian Woods and River Harrington, they only have 3 defensemen on their roster and they are forced to use a bot on their second line. In the season series as well, Davos had the best of the Menace, winning 4 of the team’s 5 faceoffs against each other. Of course there is also the Victory Cup curse which has plagued Moscow before which is causing some writers to give Davos the edge over Moscow. However, despite our belief that Davos will pull off the upset this should be an exciting, close series to watch in the coming days nonetheless.

 

(2) Seattle Bears vs. (3) Calgary Wranglers

  VSN Prediction: Seattle wins series 4-3

 

The reigning champion Seattle Bears finished with a 49-17-6 record good enough for joint-3rd in the league nearly 20 points higher than the third seeded Wranglers who fought their way to a record 41-25-6 good enough for 18 points. These two teams are quite close skill-wise with the Wranglers relying on great play from their higher TPE, more skilled players such as Adi Dassler, Thor Reingaard, and YaBoi Oven, conversely the Bears are a deep team with few weaknesses on any of their lines, while players like Lazlo Holmes or Forum Content are great, its the fact that their roster is good all the way down that helps them. The two teams biggest weaknesses come from the fact that neither of them have full rosters, the bears lacking a 4th defensemen, and the Wranglers only having 5 forwards, one of which being a 399 TPE winger in Jean-Pierre Devote. The two team’s near equal talent resulted in a season series where not only did both teams each win 3 games, but they also scored the same amount of goals against each other. All this made the series quite hard to predict for VSN, with the vote being locked in a tie for quite some time, however we did end up giving the edge to the reigning champs who had the better regular season and always seem to find a way to win under GM Bana.

 

(1) Toronto Legion vs. (5) Vancouver Wolves

   VSN Prediction: Toronto wins series 4-1

 

Yet again, VSN decided to go with the higher seeded team this series. While the Wolves may have an amazing roster on paper, so did the Legion, both being easily top 3 teams by talent, they underperformed severely this season. Vancouver’s 37-24-11 record put them a massive 30 points behind Toronto’s 50-17-5 record which was good for 1 point behind the Victory Cup winning Moscow Menace. In the season series as well the games shook out as one might expect from looking at the standings, Toronto took care of business winning 4 of the 5 games the team’s played throughout the campaign and outscored the Wolves 18-6. For Vancouver to have a hope of pulling off the massive upset over North America’s best team they will need a great series from Ninefingers, Bouchard, Martin, and Trueno. One area where Vancouver has the advantage that could make a difference in this series is goaltending. Soju has the highest TPA of any goalie in the league, while Toronto’s tandem of Vidarsson and Bobbly is not bad, it is clear that Vancouver has the better of Toronto in this aspect. Despite all this, VSN believes that the trend seen throughout the regular season between these two teams will continue into the postseason, Vancouver will need a monster series from their core to overcome the Legion.

 

VHL Conference Finals:

 

(2) Helsinki Titans vs. (4) HC Davos Dynamo

    VSN Prediction: Davos wins series 4-3

 

These conference finals series were quite divisive among VSN voters, as all the teams that made it this far are strong teams with few weaknesses to discern between each other. Ultimately, we chose Davos to win in a tight 7 game series as their roster is slightly better than Helsinki’s on paper, and because this season series was so close at 3-3 in the teams prior meetings.

 

(1) Toronto Legion vs. (2) Seattle Bears

VSN Prediction: Toronto wins series 4-2

 

The two top-seeded teams in North America facing off for a spot in the Continental Cup Finals, should be a exciting series between two juggernauts this season, we gave the edge to the higher seeded Toronto as they had the more impressive regular season, roster, and held a slight edge over the bears in the season series winning it 3-2. Don’t count the Bears out though, they have a well rounded roster, and as they showed last year, they know how to win when they aren’t the favored team.

 

The Continental Cup Finals:

 

(1) Toronto Legion vs. (4) HC Davos Dynamo

  VSN Prediction: Toronto wins series 4-2

 

While Davos has quite an impressive roster, we have them coming up short of a continental cup victory against Toronto, while these two rosters are both insanely strong, and they each one 2 in the 4 games they played against each other this year, Toronto was consistently atop the standings all year, so we gave them the advantage over the underdog Dynamo.

 

Thank you for reading my article and I hope you enjoyed reading VSN’s thoughts on how this playoffs is gonna shake out, may the best team win!

1900+ words, claiming for weeks 4/20, 4/27

Edited Monday at 04:28 AM by MichkovSzn

[STZ 5,533]

VSN has lost hope in the boys.. I feel so betrayed.

[SMYLS4 223]

1 hour ago, STZ said:

VSN has lost hope in the boys.. I feel so betrayed.

Simon Says hasnt. We picked NYA over Van. 

[MichkovSzn 144]

1 hour ago, STZ said:

VSN has lost hope in the boys.. I feel so betrayed.

don't blame me bro, I had New York taking this series

[STZ 5,533]

22 hours ago, MichkovSzn said:

don't blame me bro, I had New York taking this series

 

23 hours ago, SMYLS4 said:

Simon Says hasnt. We picked NYA over Van. 

Ok I forgive you two. The rest of the VSN is dead to me.

[Banackock 8,583]

Would Davos be as successful for VSN with someone else in charge? 
 

Lol

[Banackock 8,583]

@dstevensonjr looks like you’re the one to send me into retirement brother 

[v.2 1,484]