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S75 Playoffs - The Finals
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ec06aajRegistered Senior Member
And so, friends, well-wishers and open enemies, we reach the Four Star Cup final. Twelve entered this weeks-long meat grinder and two stand before us, hoping to carve their name onto the silverware.
On the one side, we have the Newfoundland Berserkers, a team no stranger to the heady heights and the pressure cooker intensity of the Finals. Both squads have given their fans a ton to celebrate in the last decade or so - and all too often, had one see success at the expense of the other - but last blood went to Newfoundland and they ride forwards into the Finals. It feels a little odd to describe them as not a natural pick, given their history of success and stacked trophy cabinet, but I don’t think many people saw Newfoundland as a title contender this season. There’s an obvious history of success but finishing in the murky middle of the standings, four wins back from the top four, doesn’t immediately inspire hope. It’s doing the Berserkers a disservice - they have a fine tandem of goalies, a fantastic goalscorer in Sabage Cabage and a potential MVP on the back - but the parts hadn’t quite meshed together in a way an obvious title favourite might want them to. Standing across the ice from the Berserkers are the Colorado Raptors. A series featuring the two best offenses in the league at first proved a little less chaotic than the free-wheeling goal numbers suggested, especially given both had byes through the first round and should have been relatively fresh, but things took a turn and culminated in an insane 11-2 shellacking of the Citadelles to send them out. In the postseason, it doesn’t matter how you get the W and Colorado make it three seasons in a row the Citadelles have dominated the regular season but fallen short of the finish line. Perhaps it’s me, but I feel that of the SMJHL’s top teams Colorado have contrived to still be seen as underdogs. Of the top four regular season teams this season and last, the Raptors are the only ones to be Cupless in recent memory and even the years they’ve been successful somebody else has stolen their thunder - you need only look back at last season’s Finals to see that, having a series lead multiple times against Detroit but being unable to finally pull the trigger. This is going to be the curtain call for some of the Raptors’ most favoured sons - will this be it?  Newfoundland Berserkers Regular Season Record 37 - 27 - 2, 76 points - 3rd Atlantic Conference, 1st Addition Subtraction Division Road to the Finals On bye through the first round Defeated Detroit Falcons in seven games Defeated Maine Timber in seven games Goaltending The raw numbers of goals conceded look fairly ugly but Newfoundland’s goaltending tandem has been a real bright spot, and an unheralded one at that. Ben Harrison has again stepped back into the backup spot for Launchpad McQuack but between them the pairing is posting a .907 save percentage, better than the rest of the league outside Quebec City and Detroit. McQuack is developing a justified reputation as being a player who will win games single handedly, with five shutouts - including a 4-0 blanking of Colorado. Defense It’d be easy to wax lyrical about Eric Vanderberg Jr for 500 words here and he is very much a player around who the Berserker defensive unit revolves, but an often-overlooked part of the blueline is the undrafted first-year player Pique Boo. Signed a few weeks into the season off waivers, Boo looks like a classic uncut gem - his advanced stats are on part with EVJ, he boosts the team during his time on the ice, and between Boo and Joe Degen Newfoundland are reaping rewards of the waiver gamble. Offense There’s an argument to be made that Newfoundland look artificially good on offense thanks to playing in the Addition Subtraction Division, along with the league’s worst two squads in Vancouver and St. Louis, and there have been some absolute batterings in bouts between the three, but this feels like it does the Berserkers forward group a disservice. Much as EVJ gets the flowers, Sabage Cabage is the team MVP for my money - the brassica aficionado put up career highs in goals (49, second only to Froya Solberg), assists (43), both powerplay and penalty kill time (spending more than 5 minutes a game on both units combined), takeaways, hits, shots, you name it. Something changed in the Cabage routine over the offseason and it’s powered Newfoundland here. The depth is enviable as well, with four players - Cabage, Sad Ketchup, Entropy Sanchez and Mac Griddle - all breaking the point-per-game mark and everybody who played a full season being above half a point per game. Postseason MVP Launchpad McQuack made the starting role his during the regular season and has done nothing to disprove that. The Maine series was a real goaltending duel and even though Timo Leppanen’s stats look nicer, he’s eliminated and McQuack helped send him out with a game 6 shutout that allowed Newfoundland to pull the series back to 3-3.  Colorado Raptors Regular Season Record 44 - 21 - 1, 89 points - 1st Pacific Conference, 1st 510 Division Road to the Finals On bye through the first round Defeated Carolina Kraken in six games Defeated Quebec City Citadelles in six games Goaltending It’s very arguable that Colorado wouldn’t have seen anywhere near as much success without a pre-season trade swung with St. Louis. Bringing in Herman Stahl is probably going to go down as the best trade in the J for a good few seasons - Tanner Pitts is by no means a bad player, but Stahl has been fantastic between the pipes, leading or being in the top 3 of the key goaltending stats. Defense And as if the Stahl trade wasn’t enough, bringing in Brooklyn Physt from Kelowna took a more than capable defensive unit and gave it a firm goalscoring threat. Oranj Konhe remains the superb set-up man he was from last season, but taking a player known for being a danger even on a relatively weak roster and giving them a lot more offensive talent to play around seems almost criminal. If teams continue to trade with Colorado knowing how high the chance of them getting fleeced is, they deserve everything they get. An underrated element of the blueline is Valerija Serapin; he won’t show up as a star in the boxscores, but his Corsi% and Corsi Rel is the highest of the defensive unit, giving stats to the visual perception that Serapin will tilt the ice in Colorado’s favour. Offense But it’s fair to say that if you watch the Raptors, you’re watching for goals. Colorado boast goal-scoring in depth the way only Quebec City can really match - I believe the Raptors and the Citadelles are the only two teams to have three or more players average above 0.5 goals per game. Shadow Fenix and Jussi Mutou sparkled but Brandon Gilleyes potting 36 was a welcome surprise, and something that has put him in consideration for the most improved player of the season. It’s worth noting that this isn’t simply a case of team-wide good luck either - nobody on the team has a higher figure than Pinli Switchbang’s 101.8 PDO and Fenix’s 15.8% shooting percentage is notable but not at all unsustainable. This offensive core shows no obvious signs of being a flash in the pan. Postseason MVP In his final season before leaving the cosiness of the juniors, Xavier Beausoleil has shown up to play in a big way. Last season he had 27 points over 24 games - in half that this year, he’s on 23 points, chewing up minutes and recording more than 3:40 on the powerplay. He’s been playing like a man possessed, knowing this is his final crack at the Four Star Cup. The Edge Goaltending Despite Herman Stahl’s work during the regular season, he’s been fairly mediocre in the postseason so far, and the heavy workload isn’t going to make him any better. Edge: Newfoundland Defense In defensive capacity you’d side with Newfoundland, but the Colorado defensive corps are so well suited for the balls to the wall run and gun style the Raptors have made their own that it’s hard to argue against it. Much will depend on how well Vanderberg and co are able to keep up with the Raptors' tempo. Edge: Colorado Offense Sorry, Berserkers, but as pretty as your favourite’s totals are I can’t ignore that they got to play 12 games of a 66 game season against St. Louis and Vancouver. Colorado got through the regular season regularly playing against Regina, Great Falls and the defensive wall of Detroit, and Shadow Fenix STILL broke the century mark. Edge: Colorado Prediction Oh, who honestly knows at this point? Let's flip a coin and spin the wheel and say...Colorado in five. [1611 words] ![[Image: Skree.gif]](https://i.ibb.co/bgnm7fk/Skree.gif)
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