For my second deep dive, I decided to do an in depth look at how the playoffs and some of the top and bottom teams are looking going into them. To this end, I have looked at four teams and will be doing a break down of where they are, what their odds are, and where they’re going. Leading off i will be discussing the two bottoms, the San Diego Tidal and the Thunder Bay Walleye.

Bottom Two:

the San Diego Tidal

Now it breaks my heart to dunk on my hometown team, but you’ve got to pity the Tidal for having the misfortune to land where they did in the playoff seedings. If it were against any other team I’d at least give them a semblance of a snowball’s chance in hell, but having to go up against the Maine Timber out of the gate? Given the Tidal’s record of 15 wins and 46 losses thus far this season, landing them dead last in overall league standings, they are at bare minimum in for a rough time against Maine(who has a record of 51-11 and tops the league standings). This reality is only further reinforced by the fact that not only will they be going up against a Timber that has two of the top scoring players in the League (Doug Weight and May O’Nase), but also that they recently traded away some of their top players(Sam Volta and others). All told, the Tidal is in for a very rough match and will need a miracle to pull through.

Thunder Bay Walleye

Coming into the playoffs with a slightly better shot are the Thunder Bay Walleye, who will be facing off against the Anchorage Armada. In the regular season, the Walleye managed a below average record of 24 and 37 while the Armada managed an acceptable record of 39 and 22, landing each team at 15th and 2nd in overall league standings. With that being said, I think we can all agree that this first round is going to be an up hill battle for Thunder Bay as they contend with an all around solid Anchorage team.

Top Two:

Maine Timber and the Anchorage Armada 

For the top two teams, I have gone with the Maine Timber and the Anchorage Armada. Both have performed consistently well throughout the season, with Maine leading the league overall in terms of points, as well as assists. Record wise, Maine leads the Armada with an overall record of 51-16 to Anchorage’s record of 39-22, which while a good season for the Armada does not a winning run against Maine make. Between this and the Timber’s overall higher level of points/scoring this season, I think you will find the Armada hard preseed to end Maine’s dominant run. All told, if the Timber continue to perform as they have thus far this season, they should have little difficulty in securing a relatively smooth path towards to an appearance in the finals. That is saying nothing of the high likelihood that the Timber will not only appear in the finals, but take home a cup win.

Approved @Ara @CptSquall

credit to Flappy, ToeDragon, and Carpy