Quick Glance:
The Bears beat the Eagles all four times they faced each other this season, and twice they chased Bratislava’s starting goalie to the bench. Bern center Anthony Cirelli was especially mean to Eagle goalie Spencer Knight in the season series. Speaking of goalies, both teams’ starters – Tanner Jaillet and Chris Driedger – shared the goaltending duties in Paris in seasons 14 and 15. Now the former teammates will be staring each other down from opposite ends of the rink. And speaking of goalies again, Bern fans will be very happy to learn that of the 34 goalies in the league who played 25 games or more this year, Bratislava’s ranked 28th and 31st in save percentage. And there are only 24 teams.
Goalies:
- Bratislava – Tanner Jaillet, 3.33 GAA, .878 save pct.
- Bern – Chris Driedger, 2.61 GAA, .913 save pct.
Top Plus/Minus players:
- Bratislava – Luke Hughes, +18
- Bern – Brendan Perlini, +33
Expert Panel Predictions:
- Commissioner Chuck: Bratislava in 6 games. Yes, Bern is a better team, but that doesn’t mean they automatically get the win. The Eagles have some players capable of ticking people off and taking them off their game. Rhett Gardner, Evander Kane and Connor Korte are going to have to shake things up without taking penalties. If they can break up the Bears’ structure or get them to take dumb penalties, then slick puck handlers like Colin White, Josh Norris and Travis Konecny can capitalize.
- Rose: Bern in 5 games. This series reminds me of this scenario: you are attacked by two bears and you focus on getting one to calm down. Then the other bear eats you. Bern’s top line has two guys who scored 95 points this season (Nico Hischier and Sebastian Aho) and their top defense duo consists of two players who both scored 49 points (Rasmus Dahlin and Thomas Harley). So who does Bratislava focus on? And which bears eat them? Oh, did I mention Bern’s third-line center Brett Howden scored 72 points this season?
