The two series in the Northern Conference will be great. Get the popcorn ready, make sure there are no sharp objects near the couch, and watch one of these games. Record the other one and watch it after the first one because you won’t be able to sleep anyway. You will be too jacked up. Last season, Copenhagen eliminated Helsinki when Belgian Nikita Voles of all people tallied on a screened shot in double overtime of Game 6. If the Jokerits could have won that game, they could have played a Game 7 in Finland. But that was last year. This time, both teams are completely healthy and Helsinki has won three of three regular season meetings, including two in Denmark. Both of these teams were Top 3 in the league in both shots on goal per game, and shots against per game. Helsinki has the better special teams, but Copenhagen is a pretty disciplined team under coach Ken Hitchcock. Helsinki finished the regular season as the top team, but the Tridents have won the last two EURO Cups. It’s De La Garma vs. Ramo; Toews vs. Matthews; Hamilton/Voynov vs. Alisauskas/Bogosian and it’s going to be good.

You will see lots of great forwards who love to score goals in bunches in this series. Belfast will throw Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, David Pastrnak, Gabriel Landeskog, Ondrej Palat and Mitch Marner at Matt Murray for 35 minutes each game; while Oslo will challenge Nico Hovinen with the likes of Tyler Seguin, Connor McDavid, Tomas Hertl, Vladimir Tarasenko, Chris Kreider and Niklas Danielsson for the same amount of time. Both teams are not short of defensemen who like to join rushes. Olso finished a point behind Helsinki for the President’s Trophy, but Belfast won 3 of 5 against the Outlaws in the regular season. The Giants came out of a very physical series with Gothenburg and will probably be without veteran RW Ryan Callahan for a couple games.

Bratislava stumbled to a surprise win over Milan and now they have the honor of trying to stop the Smurfs who are en route to a 5th appearance in the EURO Cup finals. On the Eagles’ side is the surprising play of rookie Nick Paul (he won 50 of 70 faceoffs last series) and the fact the Smurfs can’t be angry after breezing past Munich in the first round. Checker Morten Madsen will do his best to slow Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who scorched the Red Bulls in Round 1 for 8 goals and 14 points in just 5 games. Berlin is better in all stats and they beat Bratislava in all 4 of their regular season matchups. The Smurfs are the heavy favorites. Bratislava must guard against being distracted by hero Erik Forssell. They love to look at him when he’s dangling with the puck. And when he’s on the bench.

Lisbon gets home ice advantage in a series that should be a close one. The teams met 7 times in the regular season, with Paris winning 4 times. But Paris has to play without Kris Verteeg, the Rouge Eiffels’ top line left wing who was injured in the Prague series. Sam Gagner, who had a goal and an assist in Game 7 as Versteeg’s fill-in, will be counted on heavily against Lisbon. The Portuguese team is, as always, led by the top two scorers in history, John Tavares and Steven Stamkos. This season, a revamped defense seems to have worked like a charm for the team that finished last in the league last season. Only Sami Vatanen and Drew Doughty were retained on the blueline. Tyson Barrie, Dmitry Orlov and Cody Ceci came aboard from other teams and rookie John Marino made the team as a rookie.