Quick Glance:
For a few years, the Kosice franchise’s recipe for success has been puck pursuit and tough team defense, mixed with the hope they can score just when they need to. That plan has them into the conference semi-finals against the best team in the South. Berlin’s game plan under Coach Adam Oates and GM Guybrush Threepwood has always been to party hard with good looking women and all sorts of alcohol. Then on game days, Oates and Threepwood promise more girls and drinks if they win. So, the Smurfs play like light blue surgeons. Surgeons who are part devil. And by now, they have loads of playoff experience. Vadim Shipachyov has scored more playoff points than anyone in history, 246 points in 242 games. Next on that list is Shipachyov’s linemate, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (218 points in 194 games). And no defenseman in history has been more successful in the playoffs than Staffan Kronwall (+111 in 240 games, which is +41 better than the second-place total).
Goalies (playoffs):
- Kosice – Stanislav Galimov 2.37 GAA and .922 save pct.
- Berlin – Calvin Pickard 1.75 GAA and .927 save pct.
Top Plus/Minus players (playoffs):
- Kosice– Jake Guentzel, Yegor Sharangovich and Cole Caufield +6
- Berlin – P.K. Subban, Jake Sanderson, John Tavares, Artturi Lehkonen and Travis Konecny +6
Expert Panel Predictions:
- Commissioner Chuck: The Smurfs in 5 games. Although they haven’t played for week, Berlin scored 5.5 goals per game in Round 1 against Zurich and their defensemen were all over the ice. Berlin’s production will be stifled a bit by Kosice’s strong team defense, but I can’t see the Slovakian team busting through to Berlin’s net often enough to win.
- Rose: Kosice will upset Berlin in 7 games. Two can play the drinking game, and while Coach Joel Quenneville and GM Daniel Podmanicky have not put together a very attractive cheerleading squad, they are smart enough to lie about it and show their players pictures off the internet. You will see better skating legs and harder checks from Kosice in this series.
