A big surprise would probably be the Vancouver Whalers S57 playoff run, as it was pretty unexpected. While it didn't lead to a Cup or even a finals appearance, the whole playoffs in general that season was a round of chaos. First up was the wildcard round, where every sense of normalcy went out the window as both the 5th and 6th seeds in Maine and Kelowna were upset in the first round, and 3 of 4 total series were won by the lower seed. Vancouver was one of these teams, beating 8th seeded Nevada to move on to the second round. Now, because of those upsets by Newfoundland and St. Louis in the wildcard, the Whalers benefitted from a wonky playoff format ensuring that they wouldn't have to see one of the top two teams in the league until the finals if they got that far. Instead, the Whalers played the 3rd seed Detroit Falcons, and this was where the legend of Playoff Valtterri Kauppinen cemented itself. The series was a Whalers sweep, and in Game 2 Valtterri Kauppinen played the game of his life with a 7-point performance which, to my knowledge, is still a SMJHL record in the FHM era for points in a single game. While the playoff run ran out of gas in the semifinal against Vincent Mietitore and the Anaheim Outlaws, Kauppinen still led the playoffs in points with 20 despite not making the finals and eventually set the franchise record for career playoff points. Another big contribution was the efforts of the all-DFA fourth line of Alexis Saint-Michel, Robert E.O. Speedwagon, and Eoin Byrne.