Three Up | Three Down: Week Four Recap | Playoff Push - Your Home for Everything NHL Esports. Good morning y'all, Wzia here. The playoffs are just one week away, the +/- gap is up to 113, and we have a lot of teams looking to solidify their playoff chances with one more great week. We have a ton of interesting storylines to watch going forward, so let's stop wasting time... ================================================================ But first, let's go back to our Week 3 storylines to watch... - The Overtime matchups between Couch Kings and Legends Never Die must've lit a fire underneath the fire under the former, as Couch Kings rolled Tropics HC and WILDMAN HOCKEY in straight games. Giving up only four goals all week, Couch Kings looks poised to make a strong showing in playoffs with their goal differential now sitting in the top 5 of main stage. @Sham x 19 is number one in pass% among all players that are top 10 in Puck Possession and @HNZ Prince has served effectively as CK's target man. On the other side, LND has some work to do to save their playoff spot. At 4-4, their matchup against Rated R is going to be vitally important to not become the only Division 2+ team to miss playoffs. Dropping a set to Tolerance has @CaLL Me NiT and company in a tough position coming into this week. - The wheels may be falling off for Slugz. They dropped both sets last week and only managed 5 goals total. @ASAP_hockey, @Chunky_Bai, and @Dr-budheavy are all under 2ppg and haven't begun to show the signs that Slugz can make things work in the offensive end. @Kjustin87 continues to hard carry this team, as his .853sv% comes in spite of his 5-9 record and 16.1 shots against/game. Slugz were gifted a cakewalk matchup against BIG BOY CLAPPERS tonight, and they need to show some dominance tonight for me to think they have any sort of chance to run the table and make Contender's playoffs. ===== - Well this is kinda funny. I guess Taram bar and Level Up had better things to do this week than to face the high powered T H R A S H E R S offense, with both teams forfeiting their series against them. I can't really write anything up on a team that didn't play this week, but it now means that T H R A S H E R S, coming off a Contender's Cup finals appearance, somehow, has found themselves in the middle of the main stage playoff picture after starting 1-4 in the Showcase. They'll be up against Revitalized Gaming, who was just on an absolute roll before dropping straight games to Mean x Machine. - Goaltending is kinda all over the place in Contender's right now. You have the aforemention kjustin at an .850 with a 5-9 record, while @Wigs l23l has a .775 and is 9-3. What matters from here on out is simple, who gets hot? Pacific Cup Contender's was won by Chappy's Champions off the back of an elite showing by @Pono92 in the playoffs. Any goaltender has the capacity to get hot going forward, and with the large spread in save% among starters (a full .100% difference), anything can happen. ===== - Momentumm continues to cook. The highest seeded Division 2 team, they stared down the barrel against the extremely tough talented teams of Caps Gaming and Scary Hours. @I Mccutch I, @ShaunaIdinho, @MyLittleRevvy, @Arctic Blur, @Daoustttt_12, & @I xVIBE I didn't back down, and dropped them both. Now 8-0-2 in one goal games, Momentumm's well-balanced attack has been hard for teams to break. Coming up next, a tough matchup against powerhouse IslesGT. If Momentumm runs the table, they'll become a rare Division 2 1st seed. - Off The Record had an up and down week, knocking off the last remaining Contender's undefeated team in Highlife but losing their second set to Area 51 Gaming. @Fxntilli remains scorching hot, with his 55 points ranking second in the Contender's Cup. OTR will be facing Constancy this week, who are the only top 4 team OTR has yet to face. With such a tight playoff picture at the top of Contender's, this will be a fun series to keep an eye on. ================================================================ And now, it's time for Three Up | Three Down: Playoff Push Edition Up: Are the cracks in the armor starting to show for IslesGT? After dispatching Caps Gaming in 2 games, IGT dropped their first set (and games) of the Showcase to Never Unlucky. The story of the series was the third period breakdowns in Game 2 and 3 for IGT, as Never Unlucky put up all 7 of their Game 2/3 goals in the third period of each respective game. IGT may still be the favorites to take the event, but they're far from immortal. Remember, IGT surprisingly lost to SJSharks Gaming in the 2nd Round of the IGT Open this year. IslesGT wants to show that their organization is the top of NHL Esports, and they'll need to keep that fire inside them to make it to the LAN finals. With IGT faltering, their matchup against scorching hot Momentumm will be one to watch. Down: Is Contender's hiding a sleeping contender? Accuracy may be 5th in the standings, but they might have one of the scariest looking teams to face in the playoffs....if they can get their overtime woes in order. At 11-2-5, the only team with less regulation losses than Accuracy is current #1 seed Highlife. I'm a believer that Accuracy's lack of OT success is a product of their drive during the regular season, and last event paints that picture pretty clearly once we take a look. Accuracy was a 16 seed in Pacific Cup, but performed at the level of a Top 3 seed once the going got tough. I believe @Lxtchyy is more than happy to coast into the playoffs and once again take everyone by surprise. ===== Up: Sometimes, teams can attribute their success to a number of different factors, but for R X T S, their backend play has been nothing short of impressive. It's not just their goalies' save percentages (.896% and .894% for @Devin__29 and @Hxlak_41, respectively), but also the lack of shots in general. R X T S is only giving up 11.8 shots per game, putting their defensive shots allowed right around teams like The Underdogs and Caps Gaming. Yes, they may only be 5-3, but this is a team I would not want to face early in the playoffs. With both goalies at the top of the Showcase in save%, R X T S' 7 shutouts (T-1st in the Showcase) have the capacity to play spoiler, even if the offense doesn't click the same way another team's may. Down: I touched on it a bit earlier, but I don't know how Rezervation is winning games right now. They have some extremely talented skaters like @xCree10-, but what's going on with your goaltending? @Wigs l23l's .775sv% is last place among all teams currently in the playoffs by a pretty significant margin. Could it just be the shot quality? Rezervation only allows 13.3 shots against/game, but it'll be hard to trust these guys and their 4-7-0 record in one goal games in the playoffs unless something improves quick. ===== Up: There's a lot of teams below the playoff line that I wanted to give a chance to highlight, but I couldn't decide. Honorable mentions included The Helmet Boys and their 5-0-1 record in 1 goal games, Revitalized Gaming and the hard carry job @xLeafs33 is doing to keep them in the race, @PBM Kap and Problematic's last gasp to reach the playoffs (7-2-1 in their last 10), and Dutch Ovens' push of their own (8-1-0 in their last 9). But my favorite story has been that of Syracuse AAA. All credit to them for not folding the team, because they have some high character to withstand these beatings. At 1-7, their only series win was a FF win against Dutch Ovens, and their only actual win was a 6-5 OTW against T H R A S H E R S. They have 111 goals against in just 13 games (8.53 PER GAME)!!!! @XLEFEVRE16x is -61 and the team still keeps showing up every night. Props to y'all, it's very commendable. But please save yourselves the headache, it might be best to drop down to Contender's if you intend on playing another event. Down: BeAn ToWn BraWleRs can't stop playing one goal games. 17 of 22 games this Showcase have been one goal games for BTB. In spite of mountains of lineup turnover, BTB continues to find themselves in close games every single week. Excluding their series against Northern Redmen, BTB's only 3 goal game was a 3-0 loss to S O L D 3 week ago. I know these guys are capable of offensive firepower, so why are @RoaringViper and @JLaCroix77 under 2ppg? Their extremely low team shooting% of around 15% is one of the lowest in the entire Showcase, but I know the team is capable of more. As long as @Baghdelii continues to impress, however, BTB will continue to hang in these one goal games until they either get knocked out or win it all. ================================================================ We've reached the end of T|T this week. I'd like to thank everyone for taking time out of their day to read this. If you have anything to ask or bring up, just let me know in the comments of the post. The playoffs are just ONE WEEK AWAY! I wish everyone luck this week, and hope to see some fun storylines play out before we get to the nitty gritty of the event. Thank y'all again for taking the time to read this, I truly appreciate it. Your Very Own Enforcer Enthusiast, Wzia ============================= Interested in more from Caps Gaming? Check out their socials for everything NHL Esports! Twitter/X Twitch Instagram View attachment 57392 Support the news team, like, comment & share your thoughts on their work
@Sham x 19 @HNZ Prince @CaLL Me NiT @ASAP_Hocky @Chunky_Bai @Dr-budheavy @Kjustin87 @Wigs l23l @Pono92 @I Mccutch I @ShaunaIdinho @MyLittleRevvy @Arctic Blur @Daoustttt_12 @I xVIBE I @Fxntilli @Lxtchyy @Devin__29 @Hxlak_41 @xCree10- @xLeafs33 @PBM Kap @XLEFEVRE16x @RoaringViper @JLaCroix77 @Baghdelii LG mentions are weird, tagging y'all here in case you didn't get the first ping.
