The Conference Finals begin Friday and it’s down to 4 teams.One has been there before – many times. Here is a look at what the four teams bring to the table
Northern Conference
The upstart London Ice Lords who finished with 97 points and were 4th in the North go up against the #2 in the league Belfast Giants, who have 3 Cups in their history. But London stormed through the firsttwo rounds, belting Copenhagen 4-0 and then hammering St. Petersburg 4-0.Belfast, meanwhile, beat Stockholm 4-2 and defending champion Minsk 4-1. Casual observers see Belfast winning this series – for sure – but they better look again.
Offense
No team averaged more shots per game in the playoffs than London and Belfast was 5th, 2 shots per game behind the Ice Lords. London is also tops in scoring with 4.38 per game to Belfast’s 3.82. The Ice Lords should not be taken lightly.
Defense
In the playoffs, London also has done better than Belfast in guarding their net. The Ice Lords allowed 27.5 shots and 1.88 goals per game to Belfast’s 29.73 shots and 2 goals per game.
Special Teams
The edge in both powerplay and penalty killing also goes to the Ice Lords. They are second in the league in both categories, with Belfast in 7th out of 16 teams on the powerplay and 4th shorthanded.
Penalties
There isn’t a huge difference here. Count on Belfast to take one more penalty than London in the typical game.
Forwards
These teams both feature deep benches up front and their second lines have won them games in the playoffs. But they will balance each other out this time around. Belfast’s top line draws the major attention, but the second line of Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Lehtonen has been more helpful to the Giants’ cause in the playoffs. The No. 1 guys – Claude Giroux, Ondrej Palat and Nathan MacKinnon – will skate well against any line in the league and will be counted on for offense, but the Duchene line has ended up winning games for them. The Giants’ third line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Yasin Ehliz and David Pastrnak have speed and skill, which is exactly what they will be up against in London. Pastrnak has an injured groin and is not expected to be in the lineup to start the series. Look for German Tobias Rieder to move into his spot on the right wing. Belfast’s fourth line will barely touch the ice in the series. In London, Jeff Skinner draws the most attention and he’s a pure goal scorer, especially with creative Taylor Hall and Brandon Saad on his wings. Rookie sensation Dominik Lakatos has looked anything but in awe in his first playoffs with 9 points and a +7 rating through 8 games, playing alongside skillful veterans Phil Kessel and Artemy Panarin on the second line. When you get down to the third and fourth lines, this is where London really shines. I mean the fourth line consists of Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker! In front of them on the depth chart are William Nylander, Martin Ruzicka and Olivier Roland, who started his career with the Giants. Every forward in this series except for a couple of Belfast’s fourth-liners is of the slick, speedy variety with speed attributes of 80 or higher. Only Roland has above-average size and muscle to go along with the speed.
Defense
Belfast fixtures Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Justin Faulk will do what they have been doing for years and fans hope that includes winning Cups. New to the Giants this year are puck-mover extraordinaire Erik Karlsson and draftee Jaccob Slavin, and those two have down very well in the playoffs thus far. Second-year Jacob Chychrun will be paired with big bruiser Todd Graham of Australia until Jakub Krajcik returns from an injury. Belfast might be a little vulnerable on the third pairing, where there is just not a lot of experience to deal with the speedy Ice Lords. Over in London, the defense corps has been lucky to an extent these playoffs. Five of the six players there have given up the puck more than they have taken it away from opponents, but it hasn’t mattered much during their 8-game winning streak. Veteran Finn Janne Niskala has arguably been the best guy back there for the Ice Lords, playing on the third pairing with Ryan Ellis. The second unit of Luca Sbisa and Justin Schultz offers solid all-around play and Sbisa likes to stay at home and let Schultz join the offense when needed. The top unit of Rasmus Ristolainen and Jake Gardiner have been good, but the Giants definitely outshine them with the likes of Ekman-Larsson and Faulk.
Goalies
Jonathan Quick of Belfast and London’s Martin Jones are virtually even in playoff stats and both are at the very top of the league lists, ensuring that whatever team that emerges from the Southern Conference will go up a goalie capable of stealing games. During the regular season, Quick and Jones were also pretty evenly matched.
Team vs. Team
If past results count for anything, then Belfast is a clear favorite in the series. The teams met 6 times during the regular season and the Giants won 5 times. As should be expected with such dynamic forwards, there were a lot of goals in games between the two teams.
Southern Conference
Athens has been the league’s best team for most of the season and they seem to have a very good thing going. They topped Bratislava 4-0, but Paris nearly gave them the boot in Round 2. That should serve to sharpen the Gods’ focus against Berlin, which is a talented and pesky group of younger players who beat Milan 4-1 and Geneva 4-1 to get here. An interesting sidebar in this series is the fact that important parts of each team’s roster have played for the other team in previous seasons. The GMs of both teams engineered trades that seemed to have helped both teams. The Gods suffered a huge loss in their last game when top defenseman Alexander Edler crashed into the boards, injured his shoulder and will miss the entire series.
Offense
The Smurfs are capable of getting shots on goal. Only London has averaged more in the playoffs. Athens is 7th on that list, about 3 shots per game behind Berlin. But the Gods have made up for that deficit with accurate shooting. They have scored 4 goals per game, compared to Berlin’s 3.9. During the regular season, Berlin led the EURO in shots per game, but Athens was 3rd, not very far behind.
Defense
The Smurfs have also been stingier in the playoffs, allowing 26.2 shots per game on their goalie, while Athens allowed 28.64 per game, so look for Berlin to have an edge in shots most games of the series.
Special Teams
The teams’ powerplay units both scored on 20 percent of their opportunities, so there is no advantage to either squad there. But when they are shorthanded, Athens has been almost unbeatable, stopping PP units at a rate of 93.9 percent. Berlin has been below average at 80.4 percent, so Athens will have a slight edge when Berlin takes penalties.
Penalties
Berlin has taken a few more penalties in the playoffs than Athens has, but not a lot more.
Forwards
Four Berlin forwards have been hot in the playoffs and two of them – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Andrey Bykov – play on the top line with Vadim Shipachyov. Nugent-Hopkins has 9 goals in 10 games, so he will be the main focus of Logan Couture and other Gods centers. Veteran Tyler Ennis plays on the Smurfs’ second line, but he is putting up first-line numbers. Berlin hopes he lifts linemates Jan Kovar and Eliezer Sherbatov to equally great play. Aleksander Barkov centers the third Berlin line and he has been great these playoffs, leading the team in hits and shooting percentage. Derek Ryan and Anders Lee have been riding Barkov’s coattails and they will have to do more if Berlin is going to get past the Gods. The fourth line sees vastly underrated Erik Forssell centering Anthony Beauvillier and Timo Meier and that line has had a 0 rating in the playoffs so far. Again, that might have been good enough against Milan and Geneva, but it won’t be against the President’s Trophy-winning team. Athens is fueled by Couture, one of the best all-around players in the game. Couture racked up 100-point season number 4 this year and in the playoffs, he has 12 goals in 11 games, as well as 43 shots on goal. But he’s -1 in the playoffs. Wingers Colin Wilson and Marcel Hossa need their A games for the rest of the playoffs if Athens is going to grab the Cup that seems so close to their grasp. Anze Kopitar is playing his usual excellent way and driving the second line, with Game 7 hero Brandon Sutter doing the same on the third line. All three of Athens’ top lines feature superb centers and wingers who have been getting the job done sufficiently all year. The offense provided by Cal Clutterbuck has been the most pleasant surprise of these playoffs among Gods forwards. Clutterbuck has scored on 20.8 percent of his shots and has 5 goals and 3 assists. But look at what Jori Lehtera is doing on the fourth line! The Finn who spent all Season 8 unemployed has 5 goals and a shooting percentage of 35.7 percent, just ahead of teammate Zack Kassian’s 33.3 percent in 7 games. Kassian, who is always a candidate to take a costly penalty, starts this series in the press box, where he was stationed at the end of the Paris series. The Gods’ fourth line has made tremendous contributions this playoff season and Forssell and crew better be ready for them.
Defense
The Smurfs have one of the marquee names in the sport on defense in Shea Weber, who is skilled, big, strong, experienced and the owner of two Best Defenseman trophies. He leads Berlin defensemen in shot blocks this playoffs but Smurf fans would like him to unleash his feared slapshot more than he has been in the post season. He has not scored and has just 2 assists through 10 games. Staffan Kronwall has picked up his partner with inspired and effective defensive play and 7 points. Veteran Ossi Vaananen and Ryan Murray have been careful with the puck back there and are in the +4 range, as is the third pair of Austrian Stefan Ulmer and American Matt Donovan. Until Edler got hurt, Athens had the better defense corps. Edler led the Gods in plus-minus, shot blocks and points with 8 assists in 11 games. Rugged and capable Erik Johnson will have a new partner against the Smurfs. Ryan Murphy, who plays with Roman Polak on the second pairing, has been very good in his first-ever playoffs. He leads Athens D-men in shots and is among their best in shot blocks and takeaways. He is also the lone God blueliner with a positive turnover ratio and that play has earned him promotion to play with Johnson in Edler’s absence. Veteran Alex Goligoski got into just one game this season, but the Edler injury means he gets second-pair minutes with Polak. In 109 career playoff games with Copenhagen and Athens, Goligoski has 49 points. He will also see top PP time on the point of the first unit and he will basically be counted on to save the whole season. The third pair of Alec Martinez and Esa Lindell have not been good in the playoffs, although they were both better than +20 during the regular season. Look for them to play better in Round 3.
Goalies
Athens has the definite edge with Jimmy Howard, who finished the season with the league’s best goals against and save percentage averages. He also was voted Best Goalie last season, as he was in Season 6, when he was a Smurf. He has a 92.7 save percentage so far in the post season. Calvin Pickard will be at the other end of the rink trying to match him. His numbers aren’t as good as Howard’s but obviously Pickard has played well enough to get Berlin into the second-last series of the season.
Team vs. Team
During the regular season, the two teams played twice in Athens and twice in Berlin and the home team won each time. In this series, Athens has home ice advantage. It will be interesting to see how players in this series will do against their one-time teammates.
Athens players acquired in trades with Berlin: Jimmy Howard,Logan Couture, Tomas Vincour, Roman Polak and (injured) Alexander Edler.
Berlin players acquired in trades with Athens: Staffan Kronwall and Vadim Shipachyov,
