Why Each NA team lost in the playoffs

[VanCanWin 180]

Why Each NA team lost in the playoffs 

 

After a season in which their conference was supposed to be incredibly weak, with potentially its top team being only fifth or sixth-best overall, no one would have guessed that one of these teams would have come out on top. Let’s take a look at what went wrong for those who didn’t win and then look at what brought Seattle to glory so soon.

 

 

Calgary 

 

After squeezing past Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs on the back of three goals per game, a power-play running an efficient 24.32% and a penalty kill of 81.58%, Calgary ran in a hot and stingy Seattle defence.  The reasons Calgary lost to Seattle were simple: no one showed up. The stats that back this up are staggering.

 

Offence

In four games, Calgary was shut out twice and managed just a single goal the other two games. Hard to win games when you’re relying on your goaltender to have a shutout in order to win games.

 

Calgary was outshot this series by a tune of 149 to 84.  Not quite doubled up but close enough. I mean, how can the ice be so tilted towards one team and expect this to be a close series. 

 

Defence

Calgary’s defence couldn’t withstand the balanced offensive onslaught Seattle brought highlighted in the first game by seven goals allowed.  

 

As poor as their shots per game were, Calgary leaked an average of 37.25 shots per game. This one is especially difficult it shows that they simply were dominated on the ice and had no defensive answer to the Seattle onslaught.

 

Special Teams

After doing well in the first round, Seattle’s power play turned out to be too hot to handle for Calgary.

 

Individual Play

Brady Stropko 

After scoring nine points in the first round Brady was dominated by Seattle as he registered zero points and a -4 rating.

 

Thorny Underyew

Through the first two games, Calgary’s Thorny Underyew showed his inexperience in the face-off circle as he won just 14 of 60 draws he took. Thorny was kept out of the faceoff circle the rest of the series going just 1 for 4 the final two games.

 

 

Toronto 

 

Toronto had a very intriguing playoff run even if it only lasted four games. They initially made the playoffs against the odds as they were clearly a rebuilding team expected to finish near the bottom of the standings. Toronto was the only team marked as a “sure thing” to not advance to the next round and it was generally thought that they would do well if they just didn’t get swept. Turns out, they ended up being Seattle’s toughest opponent!

 

All the praise for a good series, yet what exactly went wrong for Toronto? They were simply not the better team. 

 

Average Talent (Top 10 skaters)

Toronto’s average player overall of 73.9 was no match for Seattle’s average overall of 77.1 especially considering that just two skaters (Rylan Peace and Tzuyu) have overalls better than the TENTH best skater for Seattle.

 

Third period

Probably the biggest reason Toronto failed to win this series against Seattle was their lack of ability to score timely goals. Out of their fourteen goals scored, just two of them came in the third period. When you are battling in close games, those timely goals are usually the difference.  They couldn’t control the ice in the third as their shots dropped as the game went later whereas Seattle’s shot attempt jumped in the third as they applied the pressure.

 

Depth 

Toronto has a couple of solid players at the top, led by shot machine Rylan Peace. Unfortunately for Toronto, only two players scored more than one goal (Glover and Kai) as the lack of depth shone through. 

 

Unlucky Rylan Peace

Being the lone offensive star on the team, all the players looked to Peace to lead the offensive charge. Rylan did his best firing six shots per game but unfortunately a total of ZERO found the back of the net. Peace led the regular season in shots with 466 but scored at just a 7.51% rate and it seemed this bad luck carried over into this series.

 

 

Vancouver

 

The Vancouver Wolves came into the playoffs as the number two seed and expectations were definitely higher than losing in the first round. While the series did go seven games and most numbers show the series was a close one, there were some worrying trends for Vancouver that ultimately led to their demise.

 

Third periods

Vancouver played good hockey for two periods. Unfortunately, whenever period three came around, Vancouver forgot how to play offence. With a total of 94 and 99 shots in the first and second periods, respectively, Vancouver only managed a lacklustre 79 in the third. Making matters worse, they failed to hit the back of the net in the third periods across all seven games. Astonishing.

 

Special teams 

Often times, hockey games are won or lost on the special teams and for this series we can certainly say the same. Vancouver’s penalty kill (18.42%) trailed Calgary’s (24.32%) somewhat significantly.

 

Backup goalie 

When league rules are broken, sanctions are expected. When Vancouver failed to play their backup goaltender for at least eight games, the repercussion was that their backup was required to play the first two games of the playoffs. Unfortunately, B-QUE just isn’t an adequate replacement goaltender and his stats showed it with a 0.881 sv% and a 4.00 GAA.

 

Struggling Sophomore

Michael Gary Scott was one of the only Vancouver players who struggled mightily through this series. Expecting big things from this second-year up-and-coming star, MGS only managed a single goal and an assist in seven games. More concerning? The thirty penalty minutes he took. If you’re not contributing while you’re on the ice and you’re putting your team down a man so often, you likely aren’t of much value to your team. 

VSN Writer VanCanWin

Edited November 18, 2019 by VanCanWin

[Motzaburger 1,590]

1 minute ago, VanCanWin said:

Struggling Sophomore

Michael Gary Scott was one of the only Vancouver players who struggled mightily through this series. Expecting big things from this second-year up-and-coming star, MGS only managed a single goal and an assist in seven games. More concerning? The thirty penalty minutes he took. If you’re not contributing while you’re on the ice and you’re putting your team down a man so often, you likely aren’t of much value to your team. 

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

4 minutes ago, VanCanWin said:

Why Each NA team lost in the playoffs 

 

Vancouver

 

@Beaviss DIDN'T START THE BACKUP GOALIE 8 GAMES IN THE REGULAR SEASON

 

FTFY

[Banackock 7,658]

Seattle didn't 

[zepheter 585]

Why each team lost: 

they didn't win.

[VanCanWin 180]

2 hours ago, Motzaburger said:

[Rayzor_7 741]

I'm waiting to see the "Why Seattle Won" now for Pt3 of this series 

 

@VanCanWin

@FrostBeard

[Bucky___lastard 75]

18 hours ago, VanCanWin said:

Toronto had a very intriguing playoff run even if it only lasted four games.

 

Six* Games