Playoff Previews: First Round - RIG/HSK

[McWolf 3,116]

 

Playoff Previews

First Round: Helsinki Titans vs Riga Reign

     

Season 70 is finally over and, after one of the wildest races to the finish line in recent memories, our playoff matchups are finally set in stone. This season, Beketov has decided to grant us an extra day between the end of the season and the beginning of the playoffs, giving the VSN team an extra day to write these playoff previews. So let’s kick it off with the European Conference First Round matchup between the Helsinki Titans and the Riga Reign.

 

     

Road to the playoffs

     

The Riga Reign enters the playoffs as the hottest team in the league, currently sitting on a 6-game win streak, which ended up pushing them from a borderline playoff team to the 2nd position in the European Conference. They have one of the best defence in the league, having only 183 goals throughout the season. On the other side of the rink will be the Helsinki Titans, who had a rough season and ended up making the playoffs with a mere haul of 75 points in 72 games, which rank them as the 8th best team in the league, tied with the Prague Phantoms and tied for the worst record among playoffs teams. 

 

Both European teams currently hold the longest playoff appearances streaks. Riga has been a part of the postseason dance every campaign since S62, while Helsinki’s streak started two seasons later in S64. Since the beginning of these two streaks, the two teams have met in the playoffs three times. The first two series between the two rivals came in Seasons 64 and 67, and basically reflect the same story: they played in the second round and the Titans won in 7 games both times, making their way to the Continental Cup Finals and losing twice. The last meeting went the other way, with Riga coming on top in 6 games in the first round and, ultimately, losing in the Continental Cup Finals.

 

     

Why the Helsinki Titans should win

Offence wins games, defence wins championships. Nice saying, right? While it might be right in some situations, I feel like the offence will drive this series. Because offence wins games, and you need to win four of these to win a series. And if one of these two teams has a dangerous offence, it’s the Helsinki Titans. Led by surefire Hall of Famer Julian Borwinn, the Titans offence ranks 3rd in the whole league with a total 207 goals. Borwinn is supported by a strong cast composed of long-time partner Kronos Bailey and new teammates Ben Hafkey and Erik Draven. Guillaume Fontenette is one year removed from his breakout season and just had another standout season from the blueline. In net, the 300-win man himself, Alexander Pepper, certainly hasn’t had the best campaign of his career, but he definitely is still a serviceable goaltender, and nothing excludes a great comeback performance from him when it truly matters.

 

 

Why the Riga Reign should win

The Titans' opponents are not pushovers either. The Reign are actually entering this first-round matchup with home-ice advantage, but I don’t trust their offence to keep up with the Titans’ explosive top line. Aston Martin and Pat Svoboda have, at times, struggled to keep up with franchise centre Ryan Kastelic, the latter being the only player on the team to crack the point-per-game mark in the last two campaigns. Alternatively, the area in which Riga has been strong all season - and the area that might ultimately give the team a chance to win this series - is their strong defensive game. Their blueline is led by a tandem of youngsters in Apollo Hackett and Lincoln Tate, who represent a great barrier in front of veteran netminder and possible Aidan Shaw Trophy-favourite Finn Davison. The Titans offence will really need to step it up if they want to score as much as the same rate as they did in the regular season, but I believe they continue their regular season domination on their Latvian rivals - they came on top 6 times in 8 regular-season meetings - and I believe they end up making their way to the European Conference Finals, where they’ll meet the winner of the Moscow Menace-Prague Phantoms series winner.

 

 

This series will be tough for both teams. Unless STHS has a word to say about it, expect a long series, like the two teams, usually, offer fans. This series might also mark the end of the decade-long rivalry between the two European Conference teams, as their respective cores are retiring soon and the better days of both teams appear to be behind them. It might be the last shot at a Cup for both Helsinki and Riga before they need to rebuild or retool.

     

Players mentioned: @Jubo07 @Quik @McLovin @Jbeezy76 @okochastar @Sonnet @Sullvino @StamkosFan @Enorama @Renomitsu @Tate @Poptart

     

VSN Writer McWolf

Edited February 29, 2020 by McWolf

[Victor 11,021]

6 minutes ago, McWolf said:

cast

[McWolf 3,116]

1 minute ago, Victor said:

he is everywhere

[Cxsquared 455]