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roastpuff · 05-08-2020, 01:50 PM

1845 words, split between @Nhamlet @roastpuff @Mediocre_Fred ready for grading. Thanks to @"Awesomecakes" for the graphics!

PRESENTS

- vs -

Regular Season Records
Knights

KEL 31-16-3, 65 points
Falcons

DET 41-7-2, 84 points

Head to Head (Regular Season)
Knights

1 - 3

Leading Scorers (Playoffs)
KEL: Kalevolaripaavo Kaspertommevisnapuu/Andrey Barbashev II, 12 points (5 goals 7 assists)
DET: Luke McMaster, 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists)

Season Series

These two teams played each other only four times as they were not conference rivals, but Detroit won three out of four meetings, with Kelowna handing Detroit one of their few losses towards the end of the season. All of these games ended in regulation, with the games that Detroit won having scores of 5-1, 7-1, 2-0, and the game that Kelowna won having a score of 4-3.

GM Quotes

Kelowna Knights

I don't think many of us thought at the start of the season that we would be competing with Detroit over the Four Star Cup, but as the season went on we started to perform better and were able to secure home ice for the first two rounds. I think we are by far the underdog in this series (as is anyone that plays Detroit), but when we look at their series vs. St. Louis it gives us hope that we can cause an upset and we'll do everything in our powers to make that happen.

@Katth

This will be a close, hard fought series. Surprisingly, we are 8-1 in the playoffs so far and we want to continue our momentum. I assume most people will pick Detroit with how their season is gone, and I agree that we're the underdog, but we'll do our best to come out on top. I expect us to go deep, either 6 or 7 games, whatever the outcome may be.

@Naosu

Detroit Falcons

"It will be a great series. They have a lot of offensive firepower, similar to St. Louis, which means that once again our defensive play might be the deciding factor more than our own offense. We've shown repeatedly throughout the year that when games get tight, we can dominate possession and choke out a close win, and I expect that's what we'll have to do against a very good team that's got a lot of momentum right now."

@notorioustig

Analyst Predictions

Roastpuff:

The hottest team in the West, meets the hottest team in the East for the SMHJL finals matchup. Kelowna found itself on top of the Western Conference after the dust settled and the standings firmed up. So far they have breezed through the quarter-finals against the Colorado Raptors in 4 games in which the Knights were in complete control, and then a semi-final series against Anaheim where the depth of the Kelowna Knights team came into play against the rookie-laden Anaheim Outlaws, and ended up taking the series 4-1 with Anaheim stealing an overtime victory to ruin the sweep.

Detroit has had a tougher time, facing the Carolina Kraken which put up a great fight for a team many expected to be out of the playoffs this year, and then having to face St. Louis Scarecrows in what was a tense, low-scoring seven-game series in which both teams traded blows and goalies stood on their head to combine for a total of four (4!!) shutouts. With a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Scarecrows, now Detroit will get to face a well-rested, red-hot Kelowna Knights team averaging over four goals a game.

My prediction is that this is going to be another close, hard-fought series. Kelowna and Detroit both possess considerable firepower up front, with some red-hot rookies on the Knights chipping in secondary scoring, and the veterans providing considerable offense. Kelowna’s defensemen have also scored more points than Detroit’s back end, with Luciano Vessot being a particularly bright star for them there, and they will have Cillian Kavanagh backing them up in goal with a sterling 1.76 GAA and 0.923 save percentage. Detroit has the league’s regular season scoring leaders in Edward Williams and Kaarlo Kekkonen, but these two have been held in check by the teams that have faced them so far, and the second and third line have been carrying the majority of scoring duties as the first line hard-matches against the opposition’s top line. The back end has had terrible shooting luck in the postseason as regular contributors Jack Kanoff and Zbigniew Pokrywka have been held without goals, and the highest scoring defenseman on the Detroit team is Guy O’Shea with five points. A Jobin has shown his detractors that he is deserving of the All-Star honours given to him earlier in the season with a couple of game-stealing performances against the St. Louis Scarecrows, sporting a 1.88 GAA and 0.916 save percentage.

Viewers are going to be in for a treat, and I see Detroit gutting this out in a seven-game series where both teams are going to be going blow-for-blow against each other. We’re going to see spectacular goals, and spectacular saves, and a finals series that sees Kelowna back in the finals after they lost in S51 against Anchorage, and Detroit advancing to the final stage for the first time since S45.

Ace Dickenson:

This might be a bit bold, but I am predicting that this will turn out to be the Detroit Falcons version of the 1980 Winter Olympics. This is to say that I predict an easy victory for the Falcons after a nailbiter of a semi-final round. I’m sure the Falcons’ management is preparing to give a very Brooks-like speech come the first game. "If you lose this [series], you'll take it to your f***ing graves." to quote the man himself. In my very, super expert, analyst opinion, I feel like the conferences have been a bit lopsided this year with the East being the more dominant of the two. This isn’t to say that Kelowna will roll over and lose in four, but I don’t think they have what it takes to win the series or even bring it to game seven, for that matter.

Nhamlet:

I think ultimately most people might have made this prediction at the start of the season, knowing full well that both of these teams were the most talented in their respective Conference. How they got here is an entirely different conversation though. Detroit treated the regular season like a video game, putting up records that I honestly question whether it’ll be touched in the FHM era for seasons to come. Edward Williams in his sophomore season came in and blew everybody else out of the water to the point that I wonder if there’s such a thing as digitally doping. It didn’t matter if they were winning or losing, the story always ended up being about them, from how much they would blow out one team, to a seemingly historic moment when somebody did beat them. Well the playoffs finally came around and suddenly the stakes got real. The Falcons had to face some of the hottest and best goaltenders to get here and have proven that even a hot hand in net isn’t enough to stop the wave after wave of talent they have coming off the bench. That being said it certainly wasn’t easy, between some closer games against Carolina and an even closer series with St. Louis, that needed the full 7 games to close out. Save for Game 6 where St. Louis found a way to break out of the suffocation of the Detroit offense, the Falcons ultimately choked the life out of the Scarecrows allowing only 25 shot attempts in Game 5 and 24[/i]attempts[/i] in Game 7. For a team that was maybe more popularly thought of wanting to shoot until the shot counter broke, their offense has become their best defense. Naturally A Jobin gets the credit for the shutouts though the team as a whole created this appearance in the Four-Star Finals.

I’ve mentioned this before but Kelowna is always one of those teams that sneaks up on me. Whether it’s a result of being in the Western Conference or the lack of flashy players or drama, they just seem to do their job and do it well season in and out. In what was a game of hot potato for the playoffs in the West, Kelowna pulled it together and found themselves finishing the season with a 14-5-1 record in the last 20 games beating out the Anchorage Armada for top spot. Much of those early season troubles were the inability to put the puck in the back of the net but as part of that hot streak, was able to tickle the twine numerous times with the multitude of offensive wingers pitching including 2nd year Jaska Seppala bagging 23 goals, good for 3rd in the league. The trend of scoring often has continued as they’ve been able to grab 37 goals in 9 games even against some red hot stingy goaltenders in Sergei Potvinov in the Anchorage series as well as Strom Chamberlain in the semi finals. One of those huge bright spots for the continued offensive production is defenseman Luciano Vessot who sits third in team playoff scoring and tied for 4th in the league. The top two scorers also belong to the Knights with Kalevolaripaavo Kaspertommevisnapuu and Andrey Barbashev II both having 12 points with 5 goals each. This is a team that is heavily built to win this season with numerous call-ups and age outs waiting at the end of the season. As a group they’ll have lots to play for in order to get some of those veterans a championship.

Prediction wise, it’s hard to not give this to the Falcons in the end ultimately. While they did show some weakness, or rather, a lack of domination that was consistent in the regular season, it could be a result of them beating up on the weaker teams so badly that it inflated some of their numbers coming in. Another reason why they might not have looked as good as they have is the pedestrian numbers from league leading scorer in Edward Williams who only has a goal and 5 assists to show. With just over 3% shooting, it’s clear he’s in a hard funk at a bad time. Thankfully for them, the former #1C Luke McMaster has become Mr. Dependable, leading the team in scoring with 10 points including 5 goals despite anchoring the third line. Maybe it’s thanks to the incredible depth they have that they’ll be able to find the advantage in this series. For them, the game plan remains the same for the most part. Beat the Kelowna Knight into submission with puck possession and shot attempts until they break.

For the Knights, it’ll be interesting how they choose to react to Detroit’s depth and strategy. Do they choose to split up the incredible pairing of Adam Scianna and Luciano Vessot to spread out their coverage? Or keep what’s been working, bide their time and leave it to their capable wingers to find a hole and make the most out of their limit chances? Being of the highest TPE teams, Kelowna chose not to make any big moves at the deadline and seemingly at the moment, their best advantage is a slim one in the goaltending department with Cillian Kavanagh. That being said, slim might be even too big of a description with how hot Jobin will be coming in.

I’ll have to go with the Falcons, unfortunately, taking this in 6 games.

Katth · 05-08-2020, 01:55 PM

S50 Challenge Cup Finals Game 7
[Image: gNFVjT6.png]

*Zoone16* · 05-08-2020, 01:57 PM

Mediocre_Fred · 05-08-2020, 02:05 PM

Blues · 05-08-2020, 02:11 PM

mastersheep · 05-08-2020, 02:15 PM

We got this. Go Knights! Knights

Snoopdogg · 05-08-2020, 02:32 PM

Briedaqueduc · 05-08-2020, 02:37 PM

knoots got this Knights

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Rangerjase · 05-08-2020, 05:29 PM

Skreeeee!!!!

SlashACM · 05-09-2020, 03:21 PM

Falcons suck

***WannabeFinn*** · 05-09-2020, 03:27 PM

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