(678 Words)

With the playoff bracket set in the East, we have the conference leading Hamilton Steelhawks facing off against last seasons league champion, Manhattan Rage. Currently sitting in second place to the Steelhawks, we have the New England Wolfpack facing the currently third place, Minnesota Chiefs.

Let's have a look how the teams measure up on paper and see if we can discern a winner from what we know so far.


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Hamilton vs Manhattan

From first glance this should be a rather easy call to make. Manhattan clinched on the third last game of the season and Hamilton was the first to do so in the entire league. Hamilton should be able to hand Manhattan their asses and move on to the winner of the New England and Minnesota series, right?

Wrong. Having looked deeper into their season series, I have found that this series should turn out much closer then it appears from the standings.

In the season series, Hamilton is 4-3, while Manhattan is 3-3-1. Hardly domination if you could say that about Hamiltons season anyway, that they will beat the Rage if they do. No, I see this series going the distance.

During the season overall, Hamilton had a total of a hundred and eighty three man advantages and produced at a fourteen point seven five rate. Middle of the pack among the league, as well as their penalty kill having only allowed forty two goals on two hundred and twenty five chances for an eighty-one point three three success rate.

Against the Rage, however, they have been terrible. With only a single powerplay goal on sixteen chances, they have been unable to strike on the man advantage with a paltry six point two five percentage success rate and they are worse on the penalty kill as well having allowed six goals on twenty nine shots.

The Rage however, have faired much better against the Eastern conference leader, with six goals on twenty nine chances that brings them out at twenty point six nine which is a great success rate but what is more impressive is their penalty kill against the Hawks which has been at an incredible ninety three point seven five, allowing only one goal on sixteen chances.

What does that tell us? That the Hamilton Steelhawks will win this series as long as no penalties are called but we all know that won't happen so let's look at that. Hamilton is at ten point two penalty minutes a game, which means for on average five times a game, with Manhattans success rate this spells out a powerplay goal every game.

What about Manhattan? Manhattan is slightly lower at nine point two seven per game which would make things around even if could score on the power play. With their current rate, they will only score every other game on the man advantage.

Having broken things down this much so far, I would give the nod to the Rage based on the season series alone. But one thing that keeps me from doing so is that the Hamilton Steelhawks are the only team to average more then three goals a game, whereas the Manhattan Rage were among the bottom of the league in that category.

What does this mean for the playoffs? In my opinion, games were you will see Hamilton scoring more even strength goals but the series being decided by the success of the special teams.

Will Hamilton be able to fix that before it becomes too late? Will the Rages penalty kill falter when it matters most? I would give the nod to Manhattan based off the statistics presented but this is also the same team who is limping into the playoffs with a league worst three and seven in their last ten games and having had several lengthy losing streaks during the season if they start one this series that will be the end of them.


If I had to bet money on the series and games, I would pick the Hamilton Steelhawks in an incredibly close seven game series.