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S55 SMJHL PT #5 - Race for the Cup
#31

The Anaheim Outlaws hobbled to the finish line after some trades at the deadline and a young core finding its identity. As a result, they'll be the #7 seed and will take on the 10th-ranked SMJHL team, the Quebec City Citadelles.

Even though these teams are closely seeded, to say that there's a heated rivalry in play here would be pretty melodramatic. The 'Delles stole the 2nd game of 4 total regular season matchups at home against the Outlaws in a shootout. Ryan Riely, in his first ever shootout appearance, put one past Borro. Other than that, the Outlaws have won with relative ease in the other 3 games.

The caveat here is that most of these matchups were already played before Anaheim's biggest names were moved in exchange for future picks. It's not that the Outlaws have really been struggling so much as they're still identifying the key players on both sides of the ice. "Long" John Donair, who is among the top in rookie scoring and picked up quite a few points down the stretch, will be looked to as an offensive leader, hopefully ahead of some great goaltending and satisfactory defense.
#32

St. Louis has been struggling heading into the playoffs, losing their final three games of the regular season. The key player for them if they are going to make a run in the postseason will be goalie Nicolae Antonescu. Goals have been very tough to come by for the Scarecrows throughout the regular season, so in order to win, it will likely have to be in some very low-scoring games. Antonescu was inconsistent throughout the regular season, posting a save percentage below .900 on the year, but is a very talented goalie capable of stealing a game when he is playing his best. If he is able to string together a couple of those performances in the opening playoff series against Vancouver, St. Louis has a chance at pulling off the upset. All four regular season games between the two teams were very tight games and this series should come down to a goal or two either way, so all the performance in goal will be very important.

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#33

I think overall, Vancouver has been a lot better than our record indicates and is a team capable of winning a lot of games en route to a Four-Star Cup miracle as some might say! Now, Vancouver had a very rough start to the season and was consistently among the bottom 2 teams in the entire league only competing with the Nevada Battleborn it seemed but then for some reason, something clicked. The team was competitive almost every time and the team was getting wins or at the very least, overtime losses against some of the better teams in the league. The wins however seemed to come in streaks just like the losses were especially early on which can be a thing that gets unlocked during the playoffs. A streaky team is something that could go on to do great things but also be knocked out early. I think Vancouver as the obvious talent but I think that is what makes the SMJHL so good is that each team is around the same in terms of overall TPE levels. The Whalers are right there and with some luck could surprise some teams early on and make a cup run. I don't know if it will happen but I will certainly be watching and I hope my player, Rikki Petrov can contribute to some wins even if his role is not super great currently!

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#34

The Detroit Falcons of the Simulation Major Junior Hockey League had quite a rough regular season. They ended up finishing second to last in the final standings and they now find themselves up agaisnt the fifth seed Maine Timber in a seven game playoff series. However there is still much hope for young team as many say this bad season was just a fluke and that they are much scarier than they seem. This does not mean that the Falcons will win this series, but there is a good chance if they play their cards right, they can pull off the upset victory. If they want to win, they're going to need veterans like Kolja Kekkonen, Burlok Sulfurgold, Toki Wartooth and Sammy Blaze to name a few to step it up big time. Another key factor is their rookies playing a good game and not looking like rookies out on the ice. However, the key player for the Falcons is former league leader Edward Williams who has not had the same success since his second season in the league. While it may not seem like it, there is still hope for the Falcons here.

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#35

There is no one who can say that this season’s playoffs will be an easy ride for the Nevada Battleborn.

As a very new and very young team, there is a lot that we will need to do in order to be successful and there will also need to be a lot of good luck coming our way too. We were the worst team in the league in the regular season which is not good but it was to be expected. In order to win some games this time around we will need to see the young rookies deliver big games when it matters.

Young players who made an impact like Bane and Sachimo Zoidberg III will need to continue to be great in the playoffs. If they do this then the team might be able to win a few games that people don’t expect them to.

Our biggest weapon is surprise and if people don’t take us seriously as the last seed they could see their team get upset.

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Wolfpack Canada Battleborn
#36

PBE Welfare

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#37

my team the Kelowna knights have a possible easy road to the second round as we are facing a bottom seed but that does not matter too much because this is the playoffs and upsets happen left right and center. The biggest piece we have is my boy in the back. Peter Ramsey. He is going to get some big Ws and I think he is our biggest weapon going into the first round and the rest of the playoffs. shut out after shut out is what is going to happen mark my words. I will ride this pine to the finals and get a fourstar cup sitting on my butt just watch. here is one thing we do need to work on for sure is being consistent on putting the puck in the back of the net. some nights we get shut out and we have like 47 shots on net. we have the star power we just gotta be consistent. that is it for now time to wait and see what will happen in round 1!!! go knights!!!

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#38

ISFL Affiliate - PMoney
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#39

There won’t be many people expecting the expansion Quebec City Citadelles to make a deep playoff push after finishing 10th in the SHL standings to close out the regular season. It’ll be a long shot, but the SMJHL also has a rich history of underdog teams getting hot in the playoffs on the strength of a young core (hecc you, Season 30 Halifax Raiders) or even a ragtag group of inanimate objects along with @Tomen and @Waters (hecc you, Season 30 Prince George Firebirds).

It’s a different sim these days, but here’s hoping Quebec City can capture some of that playoff magic this postseason. If it happens, it’s no surprise that Alexander Roach will have to be a key part of the playoff push. However, a name that has always come up at big times for the Citadelles is Tres Sombreros. Don’t be surprised if the man of three hats has a strong playoff run.

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#40

One thing that the Anchorage Armada will have to look forward to for this upcoming playoffs, is, besides their bye for the first round, is their offense. While their defense let in a best 89 Goals Against through 50 games, their offense scored a beautiful 176. Granted, that was the best in the West, but only third best in the league. The Newfoundland Berserkers scored 185 goals, and the Carolina Kraken scored 184 goals. If the Anchorage Armada are going to want to compete in these playoffs in the later rounds with either of these teams, their offense is going to have to step up and start putting more in the net, and they are going to have to rely on their defense to continue to be the best unit on the ice at all times. I truly believe in Anchorage being able to accomplish this feat and can not wait to watch it happen on the ice.

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#41

With the Scarecrows getting swept in the first round, they had a disappointing end to the regular season and playoffs. Going into the playoffs, the Scarecrows the Crows lost 7 of the last 10 games including a -15 goal differential. In these games, the Crows also only score more than 3 goals twice.

While in the playoffs, the key forwards and senior defenseman rose to the occasion, the rookie defenseman had poor showings and helped lead to the downfall. Additionally, Antonescu was overmatched from the power lineup of Vancouver. While Antonescu was outmatched, Redacted rose to the occasion and improved his game rating.
Next season, the Crows should feature a more experience lineup, especially on defense, even though they aim to lose several key pieces. Half of the defense should be returning rookies who gained significant experience.

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#42

The St. Louis Scarecrows got swept in the first round of the SMJHL playoffs by the Vancouver Whalers. The 4-0 series was far from indicative of what an 8-9 seeded matchup should be, though nobody should be shocked at the result. The Scarecrows have seemed to just tread water most of the season, while the Whalers turned their season around after a dismal first half. They’ve been one of the hottest teams of the league recently, and thrashing the Scarecrows just seemed plausible. The Scarecrows needed excellent play from goaltender Nicolae Antonescu, and they didn’t get it. He only had an 88.5% Save percentage to go with a 3.33 Goals Against average as well. But you can’t win games without scoring goals, either. St. Louis managed only 8 goals in the 4 games, and not a single player had more than one goal. The Scarecrows Defense wasn’t much help, as anyone that wasn’t Elwulf Jericson or Erben Kasius didn’t play well at all. The one thing going for St. Louis is that they have some young players up and coming who are only going to get better. Another season of playing together can help the Scarecrows come back even better next year! (203)

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#43

Losing in round one was expected for the young NBB but what made it harder was how it went down. No one likes getting swept and that was a tough pill to swallow. However what went wrong is something that the Battle born can fix simply by drafting. This past season most of the core of the Battle born was its defense. Having 6 active defenseman is something that most first year teams never have. However they suffered up front from the lack of overall team depth. This also came to an ugly head during the playoffs as the young Nevada team was not able to capitalize on its scoring opportunities. This also came a big problem in game four where they were able to grab a lead early but because of their lack of overall offense, as the game became a shoot out, the Battle-born were not able to answer all of the goals by the knights. I think for the players this taste of playoff hockey and getting swept will leave them wanting more. It will motivate all of these young players to be capped as 2nd year players and the defenseman will be able to contribute more with what will most likely be a core of young rookie forwards. I believe that the goals Danger scored in the playoffs are things that we will see more next season as the Battle born develop and their narrative changes from Expansion team, to powerhouse.

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#44

It would be easier to tell you what went right in Nevada's series against Kelowna, but let me try to give you a lay of the land of our demise. The most disappointing and unexpected development of the series for us had to be the disappearance of our top line scoring. Zelma, Chad, and Vermette combined for 1 point, Vermette contributing the sole tally. Top line wing scoring was anemic. Oskar Baldus stepped up in a big way down the middle however, and will hopefully continue to play a critical role in Nevada. We had a few bright spots on D with Zoidberg, Funk, Koa and Kamado all standing out. Kimanje was another redeeming asset in most of our losses. We had a little bit of a surprise in net as well, with Supernaw playing our best hockey in net. A reassuring sign that we could have one of the stronger tandems next year. All in all it's a result I pretty much expected. It's disappointing to see Chad totally disappear during these 4 games, but I know the team will bounce back and make some noise next year. PogRam.

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#45

ISFL PT




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