"Anyone that makes it into the playoffs can win this season."

[Renomitsu 934]

Riga, Latvia – It’s not pretty, but at least they’re in the thick of the playoff race. The Riga Reign are currently seventh overall in the standings and are the third-place team in an abysmal European Conference that has the teams in fourth, sixth, seventh, and tenth overall in the standings as their playoff teams. While the opposite could be said just a few seasons ago, it’s clear that the North Americans are the clear dominant entities this season, what with Vancouver and Calgary at least a game ahead of the conference-leading Moscow Menace with just 6 games remaining (5 for some teams).

 

“I’m not going to lie to you – we’re probably an average team this year,” commented Apollo Hackett, veteran defenseman for the Reign, “but I think there are probably eight to ten teams the league would consider ‘average’ at this point, so a lot of the matches right now are decided on a handful of coin flips.”

 

“Ultimately, that means that anyone that makes it into the playoffs can win this season,” he continued, “there’s no obvious winner this season like some of the recent Moscow squads, or maybe the second Seattle championship team. Heck, D.C.’s up there in third with a -2 goal differential. And Vancouver’s GD isn’t that significantly different than Calgary’s, even if it is better.”