With 2 to 8 games left in the season, there are still several questions fan bases are asking. Starting from the bottom and working up:
Best Position in the Draft Lottery: The team that finishes last doesn’t always get the first pick, thanks to the draft lottery, but they will have the best chance of anyone of getting a really good player for their future. Right now, Moscow has that spot all but locked down. The maximum point total the Maniacs could have is 50 points and all teams except for Prague already has more than that. The Spartans would have to go 0-5 or 0-4-1, and Moscow would have to come away with a win in Geneva and another one in their season finale at home against London. But thanks to the lottery, Edinburgh, Munich, Athens, London and two other teams will all have a chance to jump over Moscow and Prague in the draft.
Exactly what kind of players are those teams fighting for? Here’s a story about the next draft set.
In or Out of the playoffs? In both conferences, there are still 9 teams in the running for 8 playoff berths. That means two teams will not get extra revenue, and that means their owners won’t give them as much of a budget next season. In the Northern Conference, Stockholm H.C. must feel they are in a never-ending chase to catch the trailing end of the pack in front of them. Oslo has dropped into 8th place and with 6 games remaining for both teams, Stockholm will need to gain 4 points and have at least as many wins as the Outlaws. Oslo has a tough schedule ahead of them with 2 games in Belfast, another in Paris and 3 games against Lisbon. Stockholm has to visit Minsk and Helsinki, but they have 4 home games against teams they could definitely beat. In the South, Milan is hot on Bratislava’s heels for the last playoff spot. They trail the Eagles by 3 points, with one game in hand and the two teams play each other twice in the next 8 days. It could come down to the last day of the season when Milan visits Zurich and Bratislava has to play in Belfast. Madrid and Zurich should be able to make it through, but if they go on losing-streaks in their final 7 games, they could fall out of the playoffs.
Bern vs. Geneva – The Swiss teams will play each other in the first round, but where will they start? Geneva has a 2-point lead over the Interrail with a game in hand. Bern will probably have to beat Belfast and Helsinki to win home ice advantage in the playoffs.
The North’s Top 4 – Minsk is holding on to the top spot in the league, but by a thread. Copenhagen can’t catch them, but Helsinki and Belfast still could. However it shakes out, those four teams will have home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. So while it seems like a fight is going on between 5th place St. Petersburg and 6th-place Gothenburg, neither team can win home ice and both will face superior teams. And even if both Petrograd and and Gothenburg make it through to Round 2, they still wouldn’t get home ice unless there were also major upsets affecting the top 2 teams.
