Quick Glance:

We’ve seen this movie before. A few times. Under their current general managers these two teams have always been at the top of the standings and have always been a threat to win the Cup. In Season 12, they met in the Cup Finals and Berlin won it. Season 13 was an instant replay. Then in Season 15, they faced off again for the biggest prize in hockey and Helsinki came out on top. Now, two seasons later, they meet again with the Finns getting home ice advantage because they finished first in the regular season standings. The Smurfs were 8th and they were the No. 3 seed in the Southern Conference.

Goalies (in playoffs):

• Helsinki – Andres De La Garma (2.28 GAA; .915 save percentage)
• Berlin – Calvin Pickard (2.97 GAA; .888 save percentage)

Top Plus/Minus players (in playoffs):

• Helsinki – Cam York and John Carlson (+11)
• Berlin- Jonas Brodin (+12)

Expert Panel Predictions:

• Commissioner Chuck: Helsinki in 5 games. Berlin has tons of money to spend, but I don’t think Sepp Blatter needs anything at the moment. The Smurfs might have to play fair and square this series and Helsinki has a much better goalie (on paper at least). Plus, the Jokerits offense works pretty well, considering they were top scoring team in the league this year. They just play better hockey than everyone else, although Minsk was a tipped puck or a lucky save away from eliminating them. During the regular season, Helsinki could send out seven forwards who had at least 200 shots on goal and all of them had positive turnover ratios. That means they controlled play. And they all scored 26 or more goals. I can’t see Berlin being able to deal with that kind of pressure.
• Rose: Berlin in 6 games. Not many people are capable of looking past the cheerleaders, glitz and glamour that surrounds the Smurfs, but I can do it because I have more intelligence than most. I was able to see that Berlin’s mightiest weapons – the top line centered by Ryan Nugent Hopkins and the top defense pair led by veteran Staffan Kronwall – seemed to shift into high gear at the end of the All-German series last week. Who can keep up with them? I’ll answer my own question because you guys all have blank looks on your faces. No one, that’s who. Helsinki has the best chance and they will also look confused and desperate, especially after the Smurfs take one of the first two games in Finland.