Hello kind people of the SMJHL, today we got what we wanted. The end of the season is here and the regular season is decided. The matchups for the playoffs are in and I am going to try and see if I can predict them. But, before we go to anything, first let’s check back onto my original end of the season standings predictions and compare them to how the season actually ended.

1. Kelowna Knights -> Detroit Falcons
2. Detroit Falcons -> Kelowna Knights
3. Halifax Raiders
4. Montreal Militia -> Vancouver Whalers
5. Vancouver Whalers -> Lethbridge Lions
6. St. Louis Scarecrows -> Montreal Militia
7. Lethbridge Lions -> Colorado Raptors
8. Colorado Raptors -> St. Louis Scarecrows
9. Anaheim Outlaws
10. Anchorage Armada

Well...that didn’t go well. And to be perfectly honest, never should have gone. Putting Montreal as high as they were would always end up as a risk, and thinking Lethbridge will tank as hard as they did was foolish aswell. I was partially correct about Colorado though, just didn’t expect St. Louis to fail to score anything and getting overtaken by them aswell. The top 3 also didn’t prove quite as bullet proof as I expected, influencing teams with presumably „good“ schedules where they couldn’t really do a whole lot more than the teams that managed to beat through their schedules anyway, like Lethbridge.
Well anyway, let’s try to be a bit more correct about this first round then. First off:

7th vs. 10th – Colorado Raptors vs. Anchorage Armada
The matchup here is interesting. While Colorado had a good end of the season which helped them inflate their position a bit, they won’t escape the fact that they are only 3-2 against Anchorage this season, counting in 2 games that went to overtime. This one might be pretty close, and while predictions go towards the guy with the higher chance to win, Anchorage isn’t exactly mute in this case and it’s possible they find their way into the matchup against Detroit that is inevitable for them as they enter the playoffs as the lowest seed. Then again Colorado showed a bit of a hot streak towards the end of the season which can only be concerning to Anchorage.

Final prediction: Raptors 4-2 Armada

8th vs. 9th – St. Louis Scarecrows vs. Anaheim Outlaws
Oh St. Louis, how low have you fallen. Now, you don’t even get to the perceivably easier matchup with Anchorage, but have to face a bit more powerful Anaheim. It shows in the inter-season head-to-head showing that Anchorage only managed to take one game, and even that in overtime, while Anaheim managed to force an entire loss more out of the Crows. Nevertheless though, St. Louis shouldn’t have much of a difficulty dispatching either Outlaws or Armada and this series is surprisingly the less competetive one despite the seeds being closer.

Final prediction – Scarecrows 4-1 Outlaws

So, hopefully I didn’t butcher this up. I saw another predictions thread going up and contemplated not doing this anymore, but I think more articles are only good and ultimately, it’s not only good for my bank, but making an ass out of myself for predicting bullshit is a fantastic way of making...friends?