As Season 10 heads into the home stretch, all eyes seem to be focused in a few places in particular:
- First place overall
- 8th place in both conferences
- The Record Book
First place overall
Paris and Belfast are neck and neck in the race for the President’s Trophy as the champion of the regular season. Both have 112 points through 75 games. Paris has 2 home games remaining, including a showdown with Belfast 8 days from now. The Giants have one more home game (3) on what remains of their schedule. Neither team has an injury to deal with right now.
How important is that trophy? It gets you some prestige, but it in no way guarantees you success in the playoffs. The regular season champ has also won the EURO Cup five times in the previous nine seasons. The President’s Trophy winner failed to reach the Finals in 3 previous seasons.
But 1st is still the best place to finish if you want a shot at the Cup
Cup winners:
- 1st place in the league – 5 Cups (plus 1 finals appearance)
- 2nd place in the league – 1 Cup (plus 3 finals appearances)
- 3rd place in the league –1 Cup (plus 2 finals appearances)
- 4th place in the league – 2 Cups (plus 1 finals appearance)
- 5th place in the league – (1 finals appearance)
- 6th place in the league –
- 7th place in the league –
- 8th place in the league – (1 finals appearance)
8th place in both conferences
It’s good to make the playoffs. You get prestige, which sometimes sways a free agent to join your club, and it means more revenue and a happier owner, which is never a bad thing.
In the Northern Conference, St. Petersburg, Oslo, Moscow and Gothenburg are in do or die territory if they want a playoff berth. Especially Gothenburg, who trail 9th-place Moscow by 4 points with a game in hand. Games involving teams vying for a place in the standings are referred to as 4-point games because not only does a win get you 2 points in the standings, it keeps the other guy from getting his 2 points. Gothenburg and Oslo have one of those games coming up on Monday.
A 5-team race exists in the battle for playoff spots in the Southern Conference. Milan, Bern, Zurich, Munich and Athens are all in the running and two of them will be disappointed. The five teams are separated by 5 points in the standings, and the bottom two – Munich and Athens – have one less game remaining than the other three teams do. They also play each other Friday and neither can afford to let the 2 points escape. Munich’s 81st game will be a 4-pointer with Bern, while Milan and Zurich have one coming up on Friday as well.
The Record Book
- John Tavares of Lisbon became the first player in league history to 1,000 points and 400 goals this season and he might not be done with the records. Lisbon has 6 games left and if he scores 11 points in those games, he ties the record for most points in a season, set in Season 1 by his buddy and linemate Steven Stamkos. Tavares could also tie the single season record for takeaways if he can achieve 6 more. Tyler Seguin of Oslo holds the record.
- Another record that could fall this month is most goals scored by a team in a season. The record is 341, set by Paris in Season 4. The Belfast Giants need to average 2.28 goals per game in its 7 remaining games to tie the record.
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson of Belfast is +66, which is +9 away from tying Matt Duchene’s single season record for plus/minus. He has 7 games to get there.
