VHL S54 Playoff Preview (1st Round)

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Helsinki center Franchise Cornerstone hopes to turn up the intensity for the Titans in the playoffs.

 

The S54 VHL regular season has finished. The final standings are in and the 1st round playoff matchups are set. In the North American Conference, the defending champion New York Americans will take on the rebuilding Toronto Legion, while in Europe the upstart Helsinki Titans will face off against the transitioning Riga Reign. All that remains is for the final updates to be processed (hence the reason this media spot is being written at 12am). Here are the analyses for each of the playoff teams.

 

 

 Toronto Legion  

The Toronto Legion live and die by their rookie franchise goaltender, Torstein Ironside. The team has some other contributors, such as rookie defender Roman Solokov, who had a strong rookie campaign with 64 points, enough to lead his team. Fellow rookie Jean-Claude Girard also had a decent rookie season, posting 27 points against some tough competition. But again, if the Legion want to have any chance of winning against New York (they don't), Torstein Ironside will need to play out of his mind. If he isn't a brick wall for every game of the series, Toronto is going to be blown out.

 

 Riga Reign 

What were the Reign doing this season? The Reign traded the 4th overall pick in the offseason for an aging but effective defender, Guntis Petenis, and went all-in to sign marquee goaltender free-agent, Jakab Holik, only to fail. This left the Reign with a skeleton crew in a conference with the powerhouse Stockholm Vikings and pesky Helsinki Titans; nevertheless, the Reign decided to go for it. It would be an honorable display of courage at least, if only they didn't sell at the deadline. The team is led offensively by Labatte contender Guntis Petenis, with rookie duo Fredinamijs Krigars and Marc-Andre Leblanc providing some strong secondary scoring. It certainly isn't impossible for the Reign to take down the Titans (as they have done so in the regular season), although it definitely does appear unlikely.

 

 Helsinki Titans 

Despite improvement points-wise from last season, the Titans are definitely coming into the playoffs with a chip on their shoulder. They struggled offensively, scoring 201 goals, a whole 10 less than their lower-seeded counterpart Riga Reign. The offense may be of concern, but the team also needs to see a big playoff improvement from goaltender Astrid Moon. Simply put, Moon fell apart against the Vikings in the second round last year, and was a big reason the Titans were eliminated. Thankfully, all signs point to the opposite happening this season for the Titans, as Moon had a breakout year, improving markedly in practically all goaltending stats. If Moon can continue his strong regular season play into the post-season, the Titans could make a deep run.

 

  New York Americans 

The Americans did a strange thing this year. The usually even-keeled GM Ryan Power made a curiously mercurial move in the off-season, opting to go into the season with only one defenseman, Bobby Digital, and instead spending the extra cap space on superstar goaltender Jakab Holik, despite having just won a cup the season before with MT Power. While not exactly a terrible move after looking at the stats, the Americans fell to 2nd place, even with only one defender. Despite a 2nd place finish, the Americans are still very dangerous on offense though, with one of the most dominant lines in VHL history, consisting of Tom Lincoln, Unassisted, and Diana Maxwell. If these three are clicking, look out, because the Americans could be headed back to the cup final.