Round 1: Milan and Munich

Quick Glance: The Red Bulls finished 10th in the standings. Not among the elite teams. But they were 4th in the league in shots per game and 5th in shots against. That’s elite territory for sure. Their opponents, Milan, had the 2nd best powerplay in the EURO and they were 4th best at killing penalties.…

Round 1: Kosice and Bratislava

Quick Glance: One Slovakian team will advance to Round 2, that’s assured. And here’s an interesting stat about these two teams from the same nation: they not only had the exact same powerplay efficiency percentage during the season, but they also had identical penalty killing averages. If Kosice can get the Aleksander Barkov-to-Jake Guentzel thing…

Round 1: Zurich and Bern

Quick Glance: They are a short distance from each other – less than 2 hours by car – but Bern seems farther this season from the Lions’ perspective. The Bears seemed to shift into another gear halfway through the season and they only gained momentum from then on, finishing 3rd in the overall standings. They…

Round 1: Oslo and Copenhagen

Quick Glance: These teams know each other well, but it’s been a while since they met in the playoffs. Oslo keeps losing to Minsk before they get the chance. But last season, Rose predicted the Outlaws would beat defending champion Helsinki in Round 1 and she was right. This season, Copenhagen was 3rd best in…

Round 1: Stockholm and Minsk

Quick Glance: Everyone expects this series to be Stockholm’s EEE Line against Attila Adorjan in the Hussars’ net. Maybe they will cancel each other out. And both teams’ best lines – in plus/minus – were their second lines (Pageau and Suzuki). So maybe it will come down to which team has the better depth. In…

Round 1: Paris and Belfast

Quick Glance: Paris is flying to Northern Ireland in two planes: one for the players and coaches and one for the medical team. Steven Stamkos and Derek Ryan are out and John Tavares, Andre Burakovsky and Gurkan Cetinkaya are all questionable as the series starts. Belfast, meanwhile, is ready to explode out of the gate…

Round 1: Dublin and Helsinki

Quick Glance: For the second straight season, Dublin gets to start the playoffs against the best team in the league. So much for the “luck of the Irish.” Helsinki goalie Andres De La Garma was as hot as a pistol as the season ended, which should make it even harder for the Guinness Chuggers to…

In Berlin, losing games also means losing cheerleaders

For many years, the Berlin Smurfs have dominated the Southern Conference of the EURO League. Impressively, they won the conference 7 of the last 8 seasons. And for many years, their expensive and explosive celebration parties have attracted the very best cheerleaders in Europe. In Season 16, the Smurfs won the whole enchilada, the best…

Prospects will be joining league in about a month

Because the EURO League is a virtual evolution league, its seasons don’t align with the NHL seasons. They begin and end at different times. When the NHL season ends on April 17, we’ll be in very early February in the EURO League. Then, a week or two later, in time for the last 7 or…