Manhattan's goaltending has been subpar all year, and that's an excellent opportunity for Chicago to capitalize on. Their main guy, Scottey Crawfling, has a meager .900 save percentage, while Chicago has been solid with starter Jay Bae rocking a .915 save percentage. There's a huge advantage there, and Chicago can definitely exploit that by lighting their goalie up. The more shots they get, the more the disparity is likely to become apparent.

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Manhattan has the managerial advantage, as JayWhy has been a GM for multiple years while Velevra is only in his second year in his GM tenure. JayWhy fought off the Toronto North Stars despite being an underdog in last year's playoffs, so he knows what it takes strategically to win a series, and has a lot of experience with the quirks of STHS.

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Chicago needs offense to win their series, as they don't have an elite defenseman core, with no defensemen over 1000 TPE. Luke Atmey has been leading the charge for Chicago, registering 58 points in 50 games, and looking no worse for wear. He will need to carry his offense into the postseason, as he is over 20 points ahead of the next scorer on his team, so they will be relying on him to carry the load for goal scoring. In fact, he may need to be even better than he was in the regular season, as Manhattan has a lot of depth scoring that he will need to match.

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As previously mentioned, Chicago has a massive advantage in terms of goaltending, as Jay Bae has been much more consistent and reliable than the struggling Scottey Crawfling. Many expected Manhattan to lead their conference this year, but goaltending has really sunk them, with Crawfling letting up tons of goals night in and night out. For comparison, Crawfling's 3.12 GAA is higher than Chicago's backup, Billy Sorokin, who has a 3.00 GAA, so Chicago's backup has literally performed better. Goaltending is a huge weakness for Manhattan; the numbers don't lie.

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Chicago has some youngsters that have had excellent rookie seasons, namely two of the Smebs, Parker Smeb and Kit Smeb, who had 28 and 26 points campaigns respectively. This is only their first season, so in the playoffs, they will likely be brimming with confidence and looking to increase their pace. Next season as well, they could also be looking at breaking the thirty point mark; at such an early stage in their career, they're already showing a lot of promise.

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I'd love to have tickets to San Francisco, because I always wanted to visit California and see the Golden Gate Bridge. Also, Pride fans have been long-suffering, so I bet there will be a lot of energy and excitement in that building to see their team finally make the real season. I was a believer in the Pride's capability before the season began, when everyone laughed at the idea, so I'd like to see them prove the haters wrong.

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Well, I foresee Manhattan edging Chicago in spite of their goaltending weakness just because the Syndicate have very little depth and have only one star players, and no defense. After acquiring Poopity Scoop, they've added an elite young defenseman who plays an aggressive, visionary, physical game, and solidified their skating core over the last few seasons. They're young, have a lot of heart, and want to achieve the heights they did last year to show they're not a fluke, so I have a feeling they'll dig deep to win the series.

As for the other series, I think contrary to popular belief, San Francisco will win; while I mentioned the goalie difference in the first series, there's an even larger gap between the Pride's goalie and the Texas Renegades' goalie. While Partridge is their starter and performs about the same as Walter Hobbs around the unimpressive .900 mark, they have a wild card, Patrice Nadeau, who I think might get the nod. Nadeau has posted .937 save percentage numbers in 6 appearances, and in spite of small sample size bias, I think Nadeau can carry the Pride to the next round and let them triumph against a superior opponent skater-wise.

I believe both series will go 6 or 7 games.

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I'm worried about James Dekens for Manhattan, because his 13.7 shooting percentage is bound to level off and likely unsustainable, and the playoffs would be the wrong time for that inevitable regression to take place. The Rage will want him to continue being an effective converter and a solid sniper, and that's a lot of pressure to put a guy under.

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If Texas advanaces, they could compete against the superior teams simply because of their depth; they have two elite players in Liam O'Callaghan and Louie Garrett, and six other 30+ point players, so they could be firing on all cylinders and have scoring threats on every line, much like the super teams.

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I would definitely buy Barret McCarthy's jersey, because he's had two great campaigns in the pros, including a 34 point campaign this season, and he is a close friend of mine. I believe he will one day be a Hall of Famer, and I'll be proud to say I was one of the first to get on the hype train.