Playoffs?!?!?

[bigAL 2,176]

Holy hell, we're talking about playoffs for the damn D.C. Dragons?!

 

And not just the phony play-in round, we talking about PLAYOFFS.

 

With 2 games to go, The Dragons of the District of Columbia have absolutely no chance of not playing playing beyond Dec. 26. The gap between 5th and 6th in the conference 13 points (Chicago at 81, Toronto at 68). Even the gap between 3rd and 5th (87 points for DC, 81 points for Chicago) is insurmountable. DC won't fall to fifth.

 

But the race for third is where things get interesting. Third is, of course, a coveted spot in the playoffs. For starters, you get to skip the play-in round, where upsets are frequent and heartbreaking. In the new expanded playoffs, fourth and fifth play each other for the honour of playing the first place team in the conference. Third place, meanwhile, gets to sit at home, watch the madness of the short 3 game series, and prepare to play the second place Vancouver Wolves. The Wolves are the reigning champs, so that's not an easy series, but at least it's a guaranteed series for the third place team.

 

As of now, D.C. and Seattle are going down to the wire for the NA Conference Bronze Medal. With two games left each, the Dragons lead the Bears by 2 points. Either team losing down this stretch is a death knell for that team. Tiebreakers get messy too - both teams have 39 total wins. The next tiebreaker is regulation wins, where both teams again are tied at 7 non-regulation wins. If it comes to it, the final tiebreaker is Goals For. In this domain, finally, there's a clear winner. Despite the second line racking up a metric shitton of points, the Dragons have had trouble scoring all season, and now trail the Bears by 36 goals. With 2 games left, it's not likely the Dragons catch the Bears in that regard.

 

In these two final games, the Dragons look to continue their season high 7 game win streak and roll comfortably into the playoffs. If that doesn't happen, heaven forbid, DC is comfortable in the play-in round. Last season, they swept the highly touted Calgary Wranglers in 3 games, stunning the pundits. No one wants to be in that short series, but DC knows how to win there.

 

Win or lose these final 2 games, the Dragons are in the playoffs. Once you're in, anything can happen.

 

Go Dragons

[Garsh 1,190]

[GRZ 179]

dc dragons in playoffs