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The end of the line. That's where we've come. Season 7 of ECL Elite consisted of 15 teams in total, fighting tooth and nail for each and every point available. The regular season was tougher than ever - no, that isn't an overstatement. We were treated to exciting matchups all the way to the end as the last regular season matchups were decisive for the outcome of the regular season winner, as well as regulation matchups and the very last few available playoff spots. Your ECL 7 Elite Final matchup: (1) FILADELPHIA - Symphony (2) In competitive matchups, FILADELPHIA and Symphony have gone head-to-head a total of six times within the last few months, game wins being tied at 3-3 as it stands currently. FILA managed to overcome SYM in two games during the Finnish Championship Semifinals, but it's worth noting that SYM has swapped centerman @ADETIKKI for @tbnantti since. Their more recent ECL games ended 2-0 and 3-2 in favor of SYM, meaning FILA is yet to win against Symphony 2.0. @Eki and @PleeMaker of the FILA lineup have a big weekend behind them, with some tight 1vs1 games in the Finnish Championships that eventually had the pair meet in the Finals, where Eki was able to come out on top and win the title. We'll see if the wear of grinding live games for a day straight is still taking its toll as the big ECL games start tonight. It's an interesting game FILA plays, as their tasks are rather nicely divided on the ice. They have a more defensive defenseman in @Janzuh, who controls the pace of the game at appropriate times whereas his partner @vatalisti is the more offensive part we get to see more of on the breakout. Wingers Eki and Plee link up beautifully while "Mr. Selke" @Patzlaf hangs back and provides danger coming in the second wave. @Zande95 has been the brick wall we are used to seeing in net. Symphony's gone through an intriguing development during the season. They went from being just a shell of the former SJK eSports to an Finnish Championship (IS Cup 3) bronze medalist to an ECL Finalist. Some would call that a decent development curve, which is exactly what I'm doing in this preview. Their opponent is absolutely stacked to the gills with talent, but so is Symphony. Goaltender @ICappeI has been dominating the competition, setting a new Elite regular season record of 8 shutouts in 10 games. I don't regard their defense with @vSilenttio and @Ilmari_30 as balanced as FILA's counterpart, but the duo has still proven that they can swing against the best of them. @tbnantti at center seems to be what the doctor ordered for Symphony as the team has consistently improved since his addition. A few interesting notes stat-wise are that Symphony is the more physical team of the two, with especially Puantso and vSilenttio leading the way in that department. The explanation for this might be that FILA is controlling the puck more in most of their matchups. FILA seems to shoot slightly more than Symphony, as the shots for differential is 110 to 92 in favor of FILA in the playoffs so far. This is really a tough battle that can go either way and neither team winning would be an upset. FILA has, however managed to build quite the winning culture both as a team and for their individual players and head into the series as the favorite. Our prediction: FILADELHPIA wins 4-2 FILADELPHIA starting lineup evaluated by @ICappeI LW @PleeMaker 9GP, 7+12=19 FILADELPHIA's best player. Always a threat when he has the puck. C @Patzlaf 9GP, 7+5=12 Mr. Selke. Great two-way player. RW @Eki 9GP, 6+10=16 Also a great two-way player, who’s linking up good with Plee. LD @Janzuh 9GP, 0+3=3 Their most experienced guy. A calm player who doesn’t do a lot of mistakes. RD @vatalisti 9GP, 1+5=6 The best offensive d-man in the game. Will be interesting to see if he can handle Hans Moleman. (Puantso) G @sibeelius 7GP, 7W, 91.89 SV%, 0.42 GAA, 4 SO Amazing G! Looking forward to play against him. I think that both of us is going to face our most difficult challenge of the season in this series. Vatalisti scored the decisive goal of the Finnish Championship 6vs6 finals. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) Symphony starting lineup evaluated by @Eki LW @Buantso 9GP, 6+8=14 The best player in symphony and one of the best players in the game . You can see he was born in a hockey family 🙂 C @tbnantti 9GP, 7+10=17 Symphony started playing better as soon as Antti started playing. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so. RW @indi969 9GP, 7+4=11 Solid two way forward. Very easy player to play with. LD @vSilenttio 9GP, 0+11=11 Good sense of humor. RD @Ilmari_30 9GP, 2+5=7 Very good offensive defenseman, one of the best in the game. But could improve defensively. G @ICappeI 7GP, 7W, 94.44 SV%, 0.57 GAA, 4 SO The 2nd best goalie in the game. Haven't really been tested this year so I'm interested to see how he does in the Finals. Symphony finished 3rd in the Finnish Championships and have a chance to go all the way in ECL 7. (Picture courtesy of Mika Tuononen) How to watch the finals? All of the ECL Elite Finals will be broadcasted with English commentary on our Twitch channel, which can be found at twitch.tv/NHLGamer, be sure to join us for the action! Schedule for the finals: Game 1: Monday, 17th of December 20:30 CET Symphony vs FILADELPHIA Game 2: Monday, 17th of December 21:00 CET FILADELPHIA vs Symphony Game 3: Tuesday, 18th of December 20:30 CET Symphony vs FILADELPHIA Game 4: Tuesday, 18th of December 21:00 CET FILADELPHIA vs Symphony Game 5: Thursday, 20th of December 20:30 CET Symphony vs FILADELPHIA Game 6: Thursday, 20th of December 21:00 CET FILADELPHIA vs Symphony Game 7: Thursday, 20th of December 21:30 CET Symphony vs FILADELPHIA Tonight's matchups for games 1 & 2 What are your expectations for the games? Let us know your thoughts below!

After some external difficulties and other issues, we've been able to compete the ECL7 Elite Quarter Finals with four extremely skilled teams advancing. Interestingly enough, we're also 4/4 for IS Cup 3: 6vs6 finalists in the Semi's of ECL 7. It'll be interesting to see how these games turn out this time around, as matchups are slightly different and some minor changes might have happened within the teams. As usual, the series are played with a best-of-7 system, meaning the first team to reach four wins advances to the next round. The Semifinal round has to be finished by Thursday December 13th, 2018. These are the matchups for the second round of our ECL 7 Elite Playoffs: (1) FILADELPHIA vs. Dynasty (4) Courtesy of @jahajaha93 Neither of these teams had a straight path to the semi-finals. FILADELPHIA in the sense that they had to battle through some server issues and a scheduling debacle, which again heated up things on the community side a bit. Dynasty in the sense that they clashed with Sjukstugan, the early Swedish sensation, who were now making their second Elite playoff showing, hungry to prove they could go far. This matchup wouldn't seem all too interesting if the teams we would take it back a month to the IS Cup, as Dynasty had a tough time competing at the Final event whereas FILADELPHIA went on to take it all home. Tables have turned, however. It's amazing how a little bit of time can work magic on the play of any said team. Dynasty has improved tremendously with the season progressing and are now looking to really challenge the IS Cup champions. One notable change Dynasty has made as of late is keeping @Leksa94 at center instead of @Tehh, as we're used to seeing. It would seem as if their decision is paying dividends as Leksa is a more offensive-minded player, with a slightly higher faceoff skill too - if we are to trust the stats. FILADELPHIA, on the other hand has been firing on all cylinders all season long. The team seems to have a relentless drive for success. Their first round opponent Northern Ascendancy didn't give up easy although the series ended 4-1, all but the last game were one goal games. FILA will surely look to play @Zande95 in net as he is yet to let in a goal during the playoffs. Possible Elite top-6 goaltender this season? Personally, I'm expecting FILADELPHIA to take the lead and never look back in this series. Although Dynasty is more than a capable team, they are simply up against a stronger force right now. I'll be more than happy to admit I'm wrong as that would set up an amazing success story for DYN, however, my prediction is FILA in 5. (2) Symphony vs. Written In The Stars (3) Courtesy of @MartindalexC Both competitors are coming off of similarly impressive routs of their previous opponents in Northern Stars & Butterfly Effect respectively. Symphony holds a slight edge given that they beat their opponent by over two goals in all but one of their wins, whereas Written only managed to do that very same feat two times. On the face of it then one would imagine that this series should be a close affair, with that said however some cracks have started to appear for the Written side. They may have beaten Butterfly Effect extremely convincingly to start the series (4-1 & 5-0 wins), yet their play degraded quite heavily as the series went on, as shown by them whimpering through to the second round off the back of two 1-0 wins, as well as being bested 3-1 by FLY. Such a drop off of goals as the series progressed is certainly a large red flag, especially as Butterfly Effect almost punished them for it. If FLY were almost able to make them look foolish then Written are in for one hell of a rude awakening as Symphony are assuredly better than Butterfly Effect, both defensively and offensively. The latter point is of great importance as we will now truly see what impact @Totalii's absence will have on the somewhat ‘untested’ Written back end. Regarding the actual prediction however I feel that this series has real potential to be an absolute bloodbath, on the other hand I can conceivably see Written getting ‘manhandled’ by Symphony in a bunch of 3-1-ish affairs if Written does not manage to restart their offence in time. Therefore, I’m going to play it somewhat safe and go with Symphony in 6 games, although as I’ve said before I feel as though this series, more than any other, has the potential to go absolutely ‘hay-wire’ at any second. So, what do you guys think? Agree with our predictions? Give us your thoughts below! Also, remember to stay tuned for upcoming playoffs broadcasts on our Twitch-channel! See you on the ice, ECL Elite Writing Team

Hello NHLGamers, For this past regular season of ECL Elite we have been releasing a recurring segment that looked to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Elite over each week. The logic behind these rankings was / is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there admittably has been some bias that has crept in from time to time. First off I would like to apologise for this article being, well, late. Given how many teams played on the final day of the season and with the playoffs starting the very next day I felt it that it was perhaps not the greatest idea to push this out, on top of this I was still deciding what form this article should take on exactly. Despite this I still have ranked the team's based on their performance from the past week although this time the rankings will be sans the write-ups coupling them. If you just want to see these rankings and don't mind missing out on some grade 'A' statistical analysis then you can just skip to the end of the article where the familiar list will be shown. Previous rankings: Week 0 (16in16) Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Anyway, with that out of the way we may as well get into it. This article will be attempting to deal with the quantative nature of these rankings, effectively trying to make sense of the 'noise' so to speak, as well as try to pinpoint any trends that may have occured. As such, this 'edition' is almost the complete opposite to articles from weeks prior. *Note: As Radical were disqualified part of the way through the season they will be represented on the three charts immediately below, however, past that point they will be omitted. 'Welcome to the Noise' Figure 1. All teams that participated in ECL 7 Elite (including Radical) are shown above, plotting each team's respective ranking through week 1 to 5, with the additional inclusion of the week '0' which is otherwise known as the 16in16 series. Generally speaking there is not much to take away from this, although if you squint especially hard you can see that there was a slight period mid way through the season (wks 2-4) where there was some form of normality, that said this was quickly dashed by the tumultuous 5th week. Playoff bound teams (Average ranking: 5.65) Figure 2. In this we find all non-playoff teams have been eliminated so that we can see how each playoff team found their way into the 'promised land'. There are two notable trends here, one being NORs rather last second climb (at the cost of Unlucky Boys), as well as SYMs unparalleled consistency where they found themselves never dropping below the 5th spot each week. Teams that missed the playoffs (Average ranking: 11.35) Figure 3. Here we find that all of the playoff teams have been omitted and instead we have the 'rest' of elite. Regarding trends that can be seen there are at least three. Firstly, we have the collapse of Unlucky Boys (as alluded to in the past graph), as well as the similarly (but not as extreme) collapse of Rusty Blades. Finally, mention should be made of SIKA never reaching higher than 12th spot on any of the weekly rankings, perhaps underlining the forgetable season that they had. Most 'consistent' teams Figure 4. In this graph we have 5 teams selected based on them being the most consistent teams throughout the table. It is worth mentioning here how it is somewhat interesting how a clear division emerged between these consistent teams, signaling perhaps the difference between those at the very top of elite and those propping it up at the bottom. Most 'erratic' teams Figure 5. Personally, this is my favourite entry in this article. Just looking at NORs line go from 13th to 3rd in two weeks imbues me with an indescribable feeling of amusement and anguish. Additionally, I have tried somewhat to sort of dismiss week 0 throughout this and instead have attempted to go off weeks 1-5 almost exclusively, that said I could not help myself but factor '0' into this one just because of Butterfly Effect and their 'twin peaked' line. Largest overall climbs Figure 6. Who doesn't love a good feel good story? Probably Almost Famous as despite them going on a pretty impressive run, moving up from 14th in week 2 to 6th in week 5, they found themselves 8pts shy of a playoff berth. Aside from NOR who I have already talked about in previous graphs we have the only remaining team here in Dynasty, who went on an overall incline where large steps forward were mixed in with a couple 'missteps'. Nevertheless DYNs ascent from 12th to 1st in 3 weeks is mightily impressive, even if they immediately dropped off to 4th the following week. Largest demises Figure 7. I sort of feel bad for ragging on these two teams so hard but I just had to isolate them and exhibit this in all it's glory. Outside of week 5 one would not be wrong in feeling that both of these teams were on course for a playoff berth, and a comfortable one at that for UB. Well, even slipping up for just a lone week can seriously danger, if not outright kill, a playoff challenge and RB / UB are the two newest teams to feel the sting of such an event. Each team managed to only pick up 5pts out of a possible 16pts in the final week. In fact, if UB had just managed to record a single extra point from somewhere would have clinched them a playoff spot over NOR. Additional notes: Of the 8 teams predicted to make the playoffs in the 16in16 series, 7 made the playoffs, with the only team that ECL captains failed to accurately judge being the ever-surprising Butterfly Effect. The biggest change in position (across weeks 1-5, excluding 0's effects) was a -11, exhibited by Unlucky Boys in week 5. Comparatively, the largest uptick in position was found to have been +7, shared by Northern Ascendancy as well as Filadelphia in week 5. Week 5 Ranking 1. Symphony (8-1-1) [+1] 2. Filadelphia (9-1-0) [+7] 3. Northern Ascendancy (9-2-1) [+7] 4. Dynasty (7-2-0) [-3] 5. Written in the Stars (8-1-1) [+1] 6. Almost Famous (3-4-1) [+5] 7. Sjukstugan (6-3-1) [-3] 8. Northern Stars (5-4-1) [+4] 9. Gotham Knights (3-3-4) [-2] 10. Butterfly Effect (4-6-0) [-2] 11. Team Frosty (2-5-3) [+2] 12. Sika (1-2-3) [+3] 13. Rusty Blades (2-5-1) [-8] 14. Unlucky Boys (2-5-1) [-11] 15. Falun Coal Miners (1-6-1) [-1] 16. Radical (disq) [=] And with that we are done for this season, I would like to say thank you to all of those who have read this series over the past few weeks. Are there any trends you feel that I've missed? If so, please write below and I'll update the post if I feel that it is worth mentioning!

What's up NHLGamers, 28 games later, right? That's where we stand now compared to where we started off in mid-October. As always, there's been no shortage of action and interesting events during the regular season in Elite. Unfortunately, we saw a team fold this season, nothing you'd want to see on the very highest level but sometimes our minds don't think alike and conflicts prevail. This time around, we were treated to suspense all the way to the end, as no playoff matchups were solidified prior to the last round. Also, a tight battle was being fought over the last playoff spot, as Northern Stars needed a mede 2 points from their matchup against Rusty blades to overtake Unlucky Boys for the final spot. The outcome sure was unlucky for the Boys, as Northern Stars rose to the occasion and clinched a spot in the playoffs. With all this being said, the ECL 7 Elite Playoffs start today, Tuesday November 27th of November 2018. Teams are allowed to start scheduling games immediately and the games of the first round have to be finished by Tuesday December 4th, 2018. As you guys know, the series are played with a best-of-7 system, meaning the first team to reach four wins advances to the next round. As we had one team fold this season, only the team placed 15th will face automatic relegation. This season, Falun Coal Miners is the team that is facing relegation. On top of that, we have two relegation battles that will commence once the Pro playoffs have been played. The ECL 7 Elite teams heading into these battles are SIKA (14th) and Gotham Knights (13th). These are the matchups for the first round of our ECL 7 Elite Playoffs: (1) FILADELPHIA vs. Northern Ascendancy (8) Courtesy of @vSilenttio The Finnish Champions of FILADELPHIA surely weren't joking when they stated in their 16 in 16 that they'd be the team that is going to take home all of ECL 7 Elite. We know it's only the regular season but so far, so good. Of course they had their own problems during the regular season just like every other team out there but when it comes to FILA, these guys know how to handle those situations and how to move on, being even better going further. Stat-wise FILA's players were on at their best when the games mattered the most. Four out of their five opening roster guys were in the scoring top 20 after 28 games - and the remaining guy who's not there is @Janzuh, who is known as one of the best D-men of the whole next gen era. You could say no wonder things went well for these guys. The main offensive trio of @PleeMaker, @Patzlaf and @Eki was dominant as they scored 55 goals together which sounds pretty crazy when you compare it to other Elite teams who made the playoffs - teams such as Northern Stars (40GF), Northern Ascendancy (53GF) and Sjukstugan (58GF). So their offense is fine, their defensive pairing is perhaps the best in all of Europe and they have two top goaltenders who can bail them out if they end up being in a tough spot. On the opposing side we have ECL 6 Elite's finalists Northern Ascendancy. They didn't have the easiest road to the playoffs, that's for sure. The team had a really slow start as they managed to win only 3 out of their first ten outings. Granted, their schedule was on the more difficult end. With one win less they would have placed 9th in the final standings and thusly falling short of a playoff spot. After somewhat surprisingly losing a few games against non-playoff teams such as Unlucky Boys and Almost Famous and having a rather shaky vide to their game, the veterans in NOR found a way to make the playoffs. Experience is the key word I believe. At one point they even started rotating their roster for some reason, D-men playing offense and vice versa. FILADELPHIA simply has to be the team coming out on top in this series. I predict a series score of 4-1. (2) Symphony vs. Northern Stars (7) Courtesy of @jahajaha93 This matchup is going to be something of a Finland-Sweden battle. As far as I know, at least all NOS skaters are Swedish and SYM on the other hand is all Finnish except for netminder and assistant captain @ICappeI, who managed to set an ECL Elite record by amassing 8 shutouts in just 10 games in the regular season. Symphony has had a great season so far. Despite losing @ADETIKKI after a disappointing third place finish in IS Cup 3 6vs6, the team managed to bounce back and find an even better run of form towards the end of the season. SYM quickly patched up the hole left by ADETIKKI, as @tbnantti joined. Antti is an experienced player, whose importance for his team this season couldn't be stressed enough. He immediately commanded the centerman position and has been a good force to build the teams play around for the remainder of the season. We'll have to hope he can keep up his good form going into the playoffs. I would dare to say that the strength of Symphony lies in their offense. Antti at center is a good balancing factor to the offensively talented winger duo @indi969 and @Buantso, they are also getting some good secondary scoring from down low as @Ilmari_30 chips in on the offensive side quite often. The underdog in this series is without a doubt Northern Stars. Not by a massive margin, though. The Swedes have been playing a solid game for the whole season, while being able to go toe-to-toe with the best of teams in the Elite division. However, they have suffered some surprising losses against Team Frosty and Falun Coal Miners to name a few. One worrying factor for the Stars in this matchup has to be the fact that they are facing one of the hottest goaltenders in the ECL right now, and they haven't directly had an easy time putting the puck in the net so far. 40 goals scored during the regular season is by far the least out of all playoff teams. Experience is the strength of this team though, and hopefully they will utilize that in order to overcome their opponent in tight matchups. All in all, I think this might be an interesting matchup to keep your eyes on, although there's a risk of it being over rather early in the series. Unless NOS manages to completely shut down Symphony and score a few goals here and there, I predict a 4-0 sweep for Symphony. (3) Written In The Stars vs. Butterfly Effect (6) Courtesy of @Serg1vratar Written In The Stars has one of the best offensive lines in the entire league, a feat easily exhibited by the sheer quantity of goals this team scores - 89 for a goals per game average of 3,18, stats in which they are topping the Elite division. two out of their three main forwards made their way intp the top 3 scorers of the regular season, as @Dominointi amassed 59 points for 1st place and Flyerkungen put up 54 points for 3rd place. Talking about SKY, you can't simply forget the weapons they are packing in terms of offensive defensemen, as @jtorro1233 has been terrorising the Elite division from his point for several seasons now. Torro took a long step and ran away from FILADELPHIA's @vatalisti in the race for most points by a defenseman in the regular season with 31 points in 26 games. No ECL team could win without a sufficient backstop, though. SKY has two elite level goalies in @JanneK. and @Hansulinho. Butterfly Effect has had a great start in ECL Elite and one of the game changers for them is definitely @Vilupoika who has 49 points in 28 games. Pair him up with a talent like @RutonMosse (42 points in 24 games) and good things will happen. @JimBoo (jm__98__) joined FLY a bit into the current season and while not topping the scoring boards, he has made his way into the top 3 within his team. There's been some talk about FLY being the minor affiliate of Written, and that surely sets a nice rivalry tone for this matchup, as David is making a stance against Goliath. We could also look to the rosters to find a rivalry, as @eissi83 was a SKY netminder last season, but will now try to take on his old teammates and prove what he is capable of. During the regular season bouts, Written In The Stars won both games (2:1, 6:1). I predict a 4-2 series win for SKY. (4) Dynasty vs. Sjukstugan (5) Courtesy of @MartindalexC Making up the fourth and final matchup in Elite we have Dynasty & Sjukstugan, the only series where, in my honest opinion, both teams 'realistically' have a chance of winning. Both have similar GF/GP (2.25 vs. 2.07) and GA/GP (1.32 vs. 1.39) averages with Dynasty edging out Sjukstugan in both, albeit slightly. Both have 18 wins on the season. And both are coming into the playoffs with fairly decent L10 records (6-2-2 vs. 6-3-1). Therefore, with such similar statistics one should perhaps expect a frugal affair where most, if not all, games in this series are decided by one goal. Especially so with the knowledge that teams tend to play even more conservative once the playoffs come around, so at the very least this series should offer up a level of parity between the two opponents that potentially won’t be seen elsewhere. Regarding who could break this ‘inevitable’ deadlock my votes of confidence are directed towards Dynasty’s dynamic winger in @hpkfani, as well as Sjukstugan’s playmaking head-honcho in @Tacterz, these two alone has exhibited the ability to change any given game more so than any other player on their respective rosters. On the other hand, a factor that should not be disqualified is the familiarity of this scenario that each team has, or rather, the disparity between them. Dynasty have been through this many a time before, with them reaching the Elite playoffs every single season thus far. Sjukstugan however are entering largely unchartered territory as only three players (one of which being a goalie) are making their return to the Elite playoffs from last season’s first round exit, the rest are new to this situation and one must wonder how impactful those ‘early series jitters’ will be, and more importantly, whether it will cost them the chance of progressing. In summary then, despite both teams seemingly being a pretty decent match I have to seriously question whether Sjukstugan can carry their play into the playoffs, especially as recently they have faltered against some fairly subpar opponents. Ergo, I feel that Dynasty should best Sjukstugan four games to two. Whilst 112 may cobble together two wins I simply don’t see Dynasty dropping the four games required for a Sjukstugan advancement, nevertheless despite this all games should be very close and this series will certainly be entertaining to watch. There you have it, gamers. Let the first round begin! Let us know in the comments section if you agree with our predictions and opinions about the teams. See you on the ice, ECL Elite Writing Team

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of ECL Elite we are releasing a recurring segment that looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Elite over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays (in this case as early as possible) and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will be 'missed', although if the results are significant enough they will be mentioned in the following next week's article. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in, therefore I will do my best to elucidate the reasoning behind why 'X team' deserves to be ranked at 'Y'. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Week 0 (16in16) Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 1. Dynasty (3-0-1) [+6] Rising to the summit of Elite this week we have Dynasty, although I feel as though I should clarify straight off the bat that whilst Dynasty’s rise is quite obviously down to them playing well, it is also quite considerably down to the rest of Elite going on some sort of grand rock paper scissors adventure. In fact, truth be told, Dynasty at the #1 spot is perhaps the only position this week that I can completely be sure of. They find themselves in such a position based on a nigh on flawless record of 3-0-1 against last week’s #2 team in Written, as well as this week’s #3 team in the Unlucky Boys. They may not have played that much but their general record is impressive and realistically (barring any actual miracles) there should be no reason that Dynasty are not able finish in the top 4 once again in Elite. They may not be the most flashiest of teams but fundamentally they are strong and their record up to this point illustrates that quite well. 2. Symphony (5-2-1) [+1] 34 points, 20 games played, 2 wins against last week’s hottest team solidify Symphony’s slight rise this time around. With an overall points per game average of 1.7 and a three point gap between them and Written in second place signify the gap that is beginning to form at the summit of Elite, although all is not rosy for Symphony, as they gained only one point against Sjukstugan, then dropped a game in regulation to Unlucky Boys. Sure, these aforementioned teams are quite strong (4 & 3 in these rankings respectively), however these are teams that Symphony may very well meet down the line in the playoffs, as such there should be some feeling of apprehension going forward although it shouldn’t be that intense of a feeling; more of a niggling annoyance than full blown panic. 3. Unlucky Boys (5-2-1) [+5] With a meteoric rise from 8th to 3rd we find the Unlucky Boys who came out of a very gruelling schedule this week (FILA, NOR, DYN & SYM) with an extremely solid record of 5-2-1. Remove NOR and the record is not as impressive as it falls to 3-2-1, however picking up ~58% of all points available against some of the very strongest that Elite has to offer is something that should garner some serious attention, especially with the playoffs approaching very quickly. 4. Sjukstugan (2-1-1) [+2] (7), 2, 4, 6 and 4. These are the positions that Sjukstugan has held throughout these power rankings from week 1 to the current week 4, with the 16 in 16 ranking shown in parentheses. Outside of their brief foray below the top 4 of Elite, Sjukstugan have managed to put together one of the single most consistent runs throughout the entirety of Elite this season, at least compared to those in the top half of the table. With that mind however, if there was any week out of the four covered so far where Sjukstugan looked at their weakest it would most likely be this one, despite them moving up two positions from last week. This is due in part to the somewhat inconsistent play exhibited by 112, as they transitioned from disposing of Symphony efficiently, to dropping both games against UB just two days later. It should also be noted that 112 would have been ranked lower than 4th this week, but due to the rest of Elite deciding to go a little insane and have everyone beat everybody it's particularly tough to punish Sjukstugan that much. 5. Rusty Blades (4-2-0) [+4] It’s at this point where the rankings become… interesting shall we say? It’s even somewhat tempting to lump teams placed 5th through 11th into one category and call it a day. Nevertheless, I’ll try to discern some patterns from the noise although I apologise in advance if I don’t mention too much because for real; I don’t even know where to begin with this. Starting off this descent into madness we have Rusty who find themselves on the playoff side of Elite for the first time in these rankings (sans 16 in 16). That said, despite such a high ranking there are some serious missteps made by this team that need mentioning. As impressive as their wins against Written are, they still dropped two regulation losses to basement dwellers in SIKA and the ever-sputtering Team Frosty. With that in mind then it’s tough to really place these guys higher than 5th as the consistency is simply not visible, at least not to the same extent that DYN, SYM, UB & 112 have exhibited. 6. Written in the Stars (3-2-1) [-4] Should the players for Written be worried about dropping two games to a team currently outside of the playoffs? Sort of? They didn’t score that much (only four goals in the two games) although they had plenty of zone time. Should they be annoyed that they dropped points that may have ruined their chance of clinching the top playoff spot? Hell yes they should. Just losing these two games and only picking up a lone point has sent them crashing down to three points behind Symphony with the same amount of games played between them, with FILADELPHIA nipping away at their ankles in 3rd place. Of course, it needs stating that the season still has a week (or so) to go before all the ‘chips are down’ so to speak and based off of how this week went expecting any of the top teams to slip up is something that is almost a certainty at this point. 7. Gotham Knights (4-2-0) [+4] Alright, I’ve made it this far, but I seriously don’t think I can make it any further. As I stare at the teams from 7 to 13 I can’t help but imagine the order being completely different with NOS being higher due to them having a relatively hard schedule, or FILA / FLY due to them not playing all that often and facing (currently) playoff bound opponents, or NOR for showing some life even if it’s all too late, or Gotham for taking down most of their opponents somewhat convincingly, or AF for going on a pretty reasonable 2-1-1, or TF for picking up 75% of all possible points this week. Honestly, you can make an argument for and against every team in this bracket moving up and down from where they are currently ranked. As for Gotham at least, they find themselves moving up to 7th thanks in part to a pretty resoundingly strong week points wise, that said their wins came against some pretty woeful teams (NOR & FCM) and their losses came at the hands of a middling Team Frosty so realistically this week isn't that impressive but it at least opens up the door for them to make a last ditch run towards the playoffs - although the window is closing fast. 8. Butterfly Effect (1-1-0) [-3] I almost feel bad for moving down a team so much for going 50% against a very strong side from last week’s rankings in NOS. Even so, something has to give and with a bunch of teams going on a tear since last week a demotion was in order for the side that once found themselves on top just a few short weeks ago. 9. FILADELPHIA (0-2-0) [-8] As was said previously regarding Butterfly Effect, the determining factor of this team’s fall from grace is quite simply inactivity and ‘rank’ decay. Sure, losing two games to Symphony stings but in the grand scheme of things does it really change FILADELPHIA's chances of making the playoffs? Not a chance. And realistically, making the playoffs is really all that matters, as clinching a higher playoff position certainly helps, it is not however the be all and end all. 10. Northern Ascendancy (2-1-3) [+3] Too little, too late. On the surface of things, one may be mistaken for assuming that a record of 2-1-3 shows that NOR may finally be waking up from their slumber and are on the road to putting together a playoff push, well, that’s why there’s also another adage for this very scenario, You can never tell a book by its cover. Taking down AF with two wins surely makes life easier for the NOR side, however dropping two games in OT to UB and failing to pick up more than one point against the cellar dwellers in Gotham puts a serious dark mark on NOR going forward. Despite this there is still a mathematical chance that they make the playoffs, although the disconnect between reality and this ‘fact’ is certainly not lost on anyone. 11. Almost Famous (2-1-1) [+1] It’s at this point where I genuinely run out of things to say for the following three teams. For Almost Famous it feels as though that they’ve been the mid to low table answer to Sjukstugan’s consistency, with them constantly being ranking in and around this 11th spot. Then again, just like NOR, AF are still within a shot mathematically although the road towards the promised land is even more unlikely than NOR’s, as they are going to have to go toe to toe against some exceptionally tough opponents in Symphony and Unlucky Boys. 12. Northern Stars (2-4-2) [-8] Moving on to NOS we have slightly more to talk about simply due to the fact that they played four different opponents this week, unfortunately for NOS they performed fairly poorly, only amassing 6 out of a possible 16pts. Despite these quite horrid results NOS still commands 8th place in the league standings and are relatively safe from most challengers unless they drop several games. Such an event is somewhat unlikely, however with that said it should be noted that the path towards the playoffs is often fraught with drama, and with so many close challengers in TF, AF, RB & even to a degree NOR there is certainly the chance of something memorable occurring. 13. Team Frosty (3-1-0) [+1] Rounding out the completely nonsensical mismatch of teams from 7-13 we have Team Frosty who have shown quite nicely the impact that newly acquired players can have, as @Nampa77 & @Totalii have thrust the once rudderless team into something with a purpose, and perhaps most importantly of all, the means to accomplish that goal. This is exhibited by Frosty churning out a generally impressive 6 out of 8pts, although the main criticism of this record is that it came against an overall fairly weak set of opponents (Rusty & Gotham), nonetheless, points are points and at the end of the season all that matters is how many you have so I don’t imagine TF are really that bothered all things considered. 14. Falun Coal Miners (1-2-1) [-4] Despite a reasonably strong showing last week Falun have fallen back down to the lower end of Elite once again thanks to a very underwhelming set of games against Gotham where they only managed to scrape together a lone point, although besting NOS in OT certainly raised the spirits of the FCM side as it is currently one of their three wins on the season thus far. Even though the season is close to being finalised, FCM cannot afford to become complacent. Although their motivation has been all but wicked away, one slip up could easily cause them to fall even lower in the standings into the automatic relegation zone. 15. SIKA (1-3-0) [=] Another week, another series of wasted chances by SIKA to pull themselves out of the gutter that is 15th place in the league. Sure, they had a decently difficult schedule with them going up against Written and Rusty, but when you’re in a hole as deep as the one SIKA finds themselves in these sorts of aspects are no longer of any importance and just serve to mask the true reality that only picking up 2 out of a possible 8pts is going to barely help at all. At this point however, they do have something to hold out on and that’s the chance that they can leapfrog FCM so that they are no longer in the automatically relegation zone, that said even that prospect relies on FCM dropping games which could obviously backfire if they decide to go on a run. 16. Radical (n/a) [=] ⚰️ Rip ⚰️ *Rankings accurate as of 17/11/18 That's it for this weeks Power Ranking, we'll be getting back to you in a weeks time and take a look at which teams have made a climb and who possibly hasn't. Until next time, gamers! Do you agree with our ranking? You can create your own in the comments below!

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of ECL Elite we are releasing a recurring segment that looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Elite over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays (in this case as early as possible) and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will be 'missed', although if the results are significant enough they will be mentioned in the following next week's article. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in, therefore I will do my best to elucidate the reasoning behind why 'X team' deserves to be ranked at 'Y'. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Week 0 (16in16) Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 1. FILADELPHIA (6-0-0) [=] Third week in and for the first time we have a team ranked #1 for two consecutive weeks. FILA find themselves in this position by going unbeaten against, albeit for the most part weak opponents, Unlucky Boys, Sika & Almost Famous. Putting up a pretty tidy 4 GF/GP and 1.1 GA/GP, showcasing to all how much of a powerhouse these guys currently are, with little to suggest a potential slow down in the future. All in all then, as well as taking into account their recent ESM 6s event win, I think few could argue otherwise that FILA are truly the hottest team around right now and, quite frankly, it would require a Herculean effort by the closest challengers Written In The Stars and Symphony to even come near to dislodging them from their perch. 2. Written in the Stars (5-1-0) [=] As the season trundles on we are beginning to bear witness to an all-out brawl for the top three positions in Elite with a clear division between FILA, Written, Symphony and the rest based off of the average points gained per game by each team, with Written currently sitting in the third spot with an average of 1.71. A total that historically would have put them 1st in ECL 4, barely 2nd in ECL 5 (being edged out by .02) and 2nd again in ECL 6. Whilst Written did drop pivotal points to Symphony this week which could cost them dearly down the line if they want to make a challenge for the top spot, they nevertheless went about business as usual almost and defeated Butterfly Effect, as well as Falun Coal Miners quite resoundingly. Looking forward however their schedule appears to weaken up quite substantially with next week being made up of the floundering Team Frosty and similarly rudderless Sika, only Dynasty really pose a challenge so we’ll have to wait and see if @FlyerKungen's team can conjure up something to topple FILA. 3. Symphony (3-0-1) [+2] Last week I asked people to wait one more week, just to see if Symphony was ‘for real’ and not just the result of a pretty weak schedule. Well, one week later and Symphony definitely seemed to have used their games against Written as the opportunity for a statement, besting SKY once in regulation before succumbing to them in OT in the next game. On one hand however, I still cannot shake the aspect of their schedule. Sure, they are currently the only unbeaten (in regulation) team remaining, yet they have almost exclusively played teams below them in the standings (and I mean well below them). In fact, if one was to peruse their upcoming schedule I don’t think they would be at fault for being a little surprised, or even slightly uneasy on behalf of SYM, since as far as schedule’s go this is going to be a rough one. FILADELPHIA, Northern Stars, Northern Ascendancy, Sjukstugan, Unlucky Boys, Dynasty & Almost Famous. Aside from the disappointing NOR & AF you would certainly be hard pressed to find a more difficult schedule from any team this season. 4. Northern Stars (4-1-1) [+4] “Hey look, Northern Stars are top 4” “What year is it again? Is Obama still in his first term?” Since ECL splintered off into three distinct, but not discrete, divisions in the advent of ECL 4 the predominantly Swedish team in the Northern Stars have had a very tough time finding their footing. In that inaugural season they finished 10th (six points out from a playoff position), in the following season they clawed their way back into the post-season with a strong 7th position, however in the subsequent season they seemingly lost a step, slipping one position back to 8th, couple this with the midseason loss of @PleeMaker and the summer exodus of @tbnantti one could fairly reasonably assume that NOS were going to slide all the way back to that horrid ECL 4 season form again. Turns out though, who needs Finns anyway? Whilst NOS are certainly struggling to score, they are nevertheless grinding out very important wins in critical matchups, trading wins against NOR and UB, as well as defeating a Sjukstugan team that’s looking ‘cooler’ compared to previous weeks. As long as this ability to grind out these wins remains, then NOS could very easily find themselves in a top 4 spot for the first time in a very long time. 5. Butterfly Effect (5-3-0) [+4] I think we’re going to have to hand out awards at the end of these articles, with one of them being named the “Most helter-skelter team known to man” for which FLY would be the only 'real' candidate by a mile. Just look at their position deltas thus far: +11, -8 & +4. At the very least it appears that they’re beginning to stabilise which is nice. In fact, after last week’s frankly inactive showing FLY were exceptionally active this week, playing four teams from up and down the standings. Going up against high-flyers in Written, middle table players in Rusty & Gotham, as well bottom dwellers in Sika. The question that should be asked then is could Butterfly Effect have a better record to show than 5-3-0? Certainly. Should they? Probably not. Taking away their two losses against Written brings their recent record up to 5-1-0, a record that should precipitate some real fear into those who are jostling for purchase in and around 4th ,5th ,6th & 7th place as FLY have shown to be a very deadly adversary. 6. Sjukstugan (2-1-1) [-2] Three weeks in and it would appear that the Swedish club are no longer sipping away at rarefied air and have instead begun to slowly descend back towards a more familiar position in the standings. This week was made up only of ‘derbies’ for 112, going up against the other Swedish majority teams in Elite (NOR & NOS). Gaining only one point from potential 'standing' neighbours in NOS certainly stings, although besting NOR twice in regulation without giving up a single goal probably makes up this. All that can really be said about this week for Sjukstugan is that it was a decent showing, not great, but not bad either, and coming out with five out of a possible eight points goes a long way towards clinching their second consecutive Elite playoff appearance. 7. Dynasty (4-0-0) [-1] After last week’s trials and tribulations, it would appear as though Dynasty have stabilised and become much more predictable. Despite this, they find themselves dropping a position due to a couple teams going on a much more impressive series of wins as Dynasty were gifted a quite frankly sub-par schedule this week. All things considered I don’t feel as though there is much more to say about this team outside of the fact that this season is shaping up to be fairly nominal, and that entry to the playoffs is practically assured if they maintain this path. 8. Unlucky Boys (1-2-1) [-5] Coming in with one of the toughest schedules this week we find the aptly named Unlucky Boys. Gaining three points out of eight against two very tough opponents in FILA & NOS is certainly noteworthy, especially if you look to predict the final standings for Elite. I say this because UB, for the most part, have not faced especially great opponents thus far. Whilst they may have faced the teams aforementioned, they are still yet to go up against 112, DYN, FLY and SYM, a series of franchises that could, should, and perhaps will harper UB’s playoff push quite substantially; especially with Rusty Blades and Team Frosty nipping away at their heels. This is effectively the make or break half of the season, they have set themselves up in decent position, but not great, so UB are going to have to play exceptionally well to open up a gap between them and those wanting to depose them. 9. Rusty Blades (3-1-2) [+2] Even now, just one week later, Rusty surely are ruing their loss to UB as they sit just two points behind them on the outside looking in towards a playoff berth. In fact, it seems as though the proverbial penny has dropped inside Rusty’s camp and the urgency of their play has been raised a notch with them recording a very respectable eight points out of a possible twelve, sure it wasn’t pretty and against fairly subpar opponents, nevertheless a point is a point and drawing closer to a playoff berth is all that they should be thinking about. Similar to UB before them however, Rusty is facing a somewhat bleak upcoming schedule as they are yet to face DYN, FILA, NOS and SKY. Just half way through the season, that 1-0 loss (or 2-0 win, depending on who you ask) may prove to be unbelievably critical in deciding whether RB or UB make the playoffs, outside of the race for 1st, this battle for 8th has the potential to be the most entertaining skirmish in all of Elite. 10. Falun Coal Miners (1-2-1) [+6] Doubling their wins on the season (hey! It’s something!) we find a Falun team in their best form of the season thus far. Trading wins with Rusty was perhaps expected, if a little surprising, however taking Written in the Stars to overtime is something that I doubt anyone could have called, even those within the FCM team. Even though it was just a lone point that they gained, it’s a point that very few teams, if any at all, around them in the standings could have gained. Taking scalps like this from teams vastly higher in the standings cannot be underestimated in value, as it gives the team in question some room for error going forward. Such is a luxury that FCM have not been afforded this season, and on top of that their performance against SKY has allowed them to jump out of the bottom three for the first time this season, giving them some form of respite in the run-up to the conclusion of the regular season. 11. Gotham Knights (1-4-1) [-1] Coming into this week Gotham Knights were facing a vast uphill battle to regain the spot in the playoffs that they held just two weeks prior. It would seem however that the genie has truly left the bottle and any magic left over has been spent as Gotham continued their descent into the nether regions of Elite. Getting smoked by Symphony no doubt stings but such an event should probably have been anticipated, even gaining only one point against FLY was perhaps even predictable and could be viewed as a ‘good result’, what is not acceptable however is dropping a game to playoff hopefuls Almost Famous. Even still, Gotham remains within a shot of the playoffs and at the very least assured safety, however the clock is ticking and, in truth, losing @Rimpe may have delivered the death blow already for their season. 12. Almost Famous (2-4-0) [+2] Rising slightly from the doldrums of the standings we find an Almost Famous side who are effectively on autopilot right now. Two losses against FILA showcases the vast gap in skill between them and the top of the table, however trading wins against Rusty and Gotham exhibits a certain average quality; although such a quality may be on the way out with @SadaPoika leaving to join Unlucky Boys. Aside from that however I’m at a loss of what to say about these guys, as not everyone can make the playoffs and as it stands AF are ‘favourites’, if you can even call it that, to be one of those on the outside looking in once the dust has settled in a few weeks. 13. Northern Ascendancy (1-3-0) [-1] Ten games, six points, eleven goals for, twenty against and not a single powerplay goal. The only thing working in favour for NOR is the fact that they’ve played the least games out of any team in Elite and that their overall defence is mediocre statistically. Despite this, there is still some hope if they can figure out their offensive troubles as this upcoming week could practically make or break their season, as they go up against the current 8th placed team in the Unlucky Boys. It should be noted that besting UB twice in regulation is all but required if NOR wants to be serious about making the playoffs, slipping up even slightly and giving away points to a team in prime position to take 8th place could be the ‘canary in the mine’ that draws the curtain on NOR’s season so soon. 14. Team Frosty (1-3-0) [-7] Last week Dynasty were noted as being unpredictable, well that note has been passed on to Team Frosty for this week. Just one week removed from being solidly in playoff contention TF find themselves having missed a step, going 1-3-0, with two losses coming against Dynasty and one against a very weak Sika. Despite this, TF has loaded up and are almost certainly posturing towards making a run with the acquisition of @Totalii & @Nampa77, two players who will sure up their defence and offence respectively very nicely. This upcoming week is going to be interesting as they have ample opportunity to leapfrog competitors in the standings as they are slated to play Rusty Blades and Gotham Knights. 15. Sika (1-7-0) [-2] 16th in all but name thanks to Radical’s disqualification. Bottom four offence, bottom three defence, the only statistic that paints Sika in a positive light is their league leading 58.8% faceoff rating. Even the return of the long-time member @imosi could only stem the haemorrhage for a few games before full blown systemic shock inevitably set in again. Playoffs are of course completely out of reach; however, safety is not necessarily off the cards. A solid performance against their remaining opponents (most of which are in and around them in the standings) could solidify their membership in Elite. It should also be mentioned that in all honesty, their 1-7-0 record this week is kind of admirable as they went up against a fairly tough set of opponents in FLY, FILA, DYN, then rounded it out with a playoff hopeful in Team Frosty in which they traded regulation wins. The panic button should have been pressed a long time ago but the window of safety, whilst shutting at a rapid pace, is nevertheless still open and within touching distance. 16. Radical (n/a) [-1] ⚰️ Rip ⚰️ *Rankings accurate as of 10/11/18 That's it for this weeks Power Ranking, we'll be getting back to you in a weeks time and take a look at which teams have made a climb and who possibly hasn't. Until next time, gamers! Do you agree with our ranking? You can create your own in the comments below!

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of ECL Elite we are releasing a recurring segment that looks to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Elite over the past week. Each article in this series will be aimed for release on Mondays (in this case as early as possible) and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will be 'missed', although if the results are significant enough they will be mentioned in the following next week's article. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in, therefore I will do my best to elucidate the reasoning behind why 'X team' deserves to be ranked at 'Y'. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Week 0 (16in16) Week 1 Week 2 1. FILADELPHIA (5-0-1) [+3] Not content with their 4th placed ranking last week FILADELPHIA set out to bolster their budding résumé by disposing of a who’s who from the top 6 of last weeks edition, taking Northern Ascendancy, Dynasty & Sjukstugan out to the woodshed, only dropping one point out of six in a game against Dynasty where they (FIL) perhaps should have won. Nevertheless, with such a dominant display against teams who were supposed to put up more of a fight one can only imagine that the SKY is the limit… or, indeed, is it? 2. Written in the Stars (5-0-0) [+4] @vSilenttio quite aptly said recently in the ECL podcast that “SKY didn’t look like SKY”, in reference to their showing in the first week. Well, one can safely assume that the players in SKY have smashed this assertation. Dispatching of NOR in resounding fashion, then absolutely decimating an Almost Famous by a combined score of 10-2 and on top this, they defeated Dynasty 3 to 2 in OT to mark a week where you would struggle to find a single aspect that they faltered in. Similar to last weeks edition of this ranking however it should be mentioned that like Sjukstugan before them, if it wasn’t for FILADELPHIA going on a hot run then SKY could easily have been slotting in at #1 as opposed to #2. If anything, it speaks to the level of competition at the very top that such a thing can happen twice in a row. 3. Unlucky Boys (3-1-0) [+6] Putting aside their lacklustre opening week Unlucky Boys find themselves in a more familiar position this time around, both here and in the Elite standings (latter being 7th). As is often the case for me I am at a loss as to what exactly I should say about these guys. They’re just solid, sure their goal scoring is particularly frightening (and not in a good way) compared to teams around them, especially when combined with their goals against average (-1 differential). Nevertheless, they grind out their wins just as well as any other team in the league, as shown by them rounding out this week by toppling last week's #3 team in Gotham Knights in both games, as well as splitting with Rusty Blades. 4. Sjukstugan (2-1-1) [-2] Sliding down to the #4 spot we find Sjukstugan, a team possibly playing at the highest level that they’ve ever played at in their entire history as a franchise. 8-1-1 overall, both losses (OT & reg.) coming against this week’s hottest team in FILADELPHIA, as well as @Hullued putting up a quite frankly ridiculous .911 save% signals that perhaps the Elite captains who participated in the voting section of the 16 in 16 may have underestimated the new look Swedish team a tad. 5. Symphony (4-0-0) [=] Eventually you’ll see me say that Symphony have had a tough week in terms of the schedule they were tasked with, today is not that day however as they went up against a bottom feeder of the division in Falun Coal Miners, then an underperforming Rusty Blades, disposing of both teams with four regulation wins (each with a goal differential of 2). Look for these guys to truly make a statement next week as they’re scheduled to play FILADELPHIA, Northern Stars, as well as Gotham Knights. 6. Dynasty (3-1-3) [+6] Having played only two games last week all eyes were on Dynasty to see how they truly stacked up against Elite’s finest, and boy were they tested. Two wins against a visibly struggling team in Falun Coal Miners surely gave Dynasty the confidence to go toe-to-toe with FILADELPHIA the very next day, with both games being decided by a single goal. They then sort of crashed back to Earth with a disappointing single point in two games against Northern Stars, finally rounding out the week with a OTL + mystery game against Written. If a single word could be applied to Dynasty’s week, I think that unpredictable would be appropriate. 7. Northern Stars (4-0-0) [+3] Entering the top 8 for the first time this year we have Northern Stars, who seem to have consolidated their playoff aspirations after last week’s wobble, even if it was minute. The one negative I would note is that the issue still remains that their offence is particularly weak, especially compared to their contemporaries, however wins are wins and with such solid defence it’s somewhat tough to not win games. In addition to this, it should be noted that whilst Dynasty are incredibly unpredictable right now and it seems luck of the draw almost regarding how well they’ll play in any given game, they are not facing down the barrel of disbandment like Radical, as such NOS’s wins against this team will be rescinded according to the LA ruling posted today. (along with any games league-wide involving RAD). 8. Team Frosty (3-1-0) [+5] Going from 16th to 8th in the space of a fortnight isn’t exactly a bad turnaround for those from Team Frosty. Especially so as one of the main criticisms I had about this team was their apparent lack of goal scoring support, an assertation that has been thoroughly smashed this past week with them potting ten goals in four games (a pace that would have them above the likes of FILADELPHIA & Dynasty). It should however be noted that eight of these goals came against the proverbial ‘whipping boy’ of Elite in the Falun Coal Miners and therefore there should still be some caution within the Frosty camp, nevertheless they can rest easy at the very least now that they have put some distance between them and the bottom of the league. 9. Butterfly Effect (1-1-0) [-8] If last week we talked about the “no-man’s land of mediocracy” then this week the theme is the broadening of the gap between the playoff bound teams (8th and above) and ‘the rest’ (9th and below). Despite an extremely hot start last week which earned them a #1 ranking, Butterfly Effect has fluttered, or rather, crashed back to Earth due partly to inactivity, as well as dropping a potentially key two points to playoff spot rivals Team Frosty. Despite this however, it’s tough to really criticise FLY that heavily as they somewhat atoned for this loss by doing some clean up duty in the following game, dominating the time on attack 9:10 to 3:35 with a score line that was equally as impressive (4-0). In a sense then this ranking is more of a ‘decay’ than anything else really. 10. Gotham Knights (0-3-1) [-7] If Butterfly Effect’s decline was motivated heavily by ‘decay’ then the same cannot be said for Gotham Knights. Since their 3-1-0 start just a week ago, Gotham has scored a miniscule two goals in four games, as well as allowing a not so great (but not bad mind you) ten over that same period. In fact, the only reason they’re ranked here and not lower is based on the level of the opponents that they have faced (112 & UB), other than that though this should just act as a ‘wakeup call’ to Gotham, reminding them that Elite can easily chew up and spit out a team resting on their laurels. 11. Rusty Blades (1-3-0) [-3] I mentioned last week that whilst Rusty Blades should not be discouraged by their tumultuous start, they should however take notice of their goal scoring and try their best to get it going. Well, one week later and the case remains largely the same for this team. In fact, I could honestly copy and paste my account of them from last week because the similarities are striking. For instance, their GF/GP is still locked to a lone tally, their GA/GP is still hovering around the middle of the league at 1.88, and perhaps most importantly of all, they again played two strong teams in Unlucky Boys & Symphony. Eventually though some of Symphony’s luck on the schedule thus far will swap with Rusty’s apparent lack thereof and all will be well, until that point however I can’t really rank RB higher than this as much as I would perhaps like to. 12. Northern Ascendancy (0-4-0) [-6] As no one else was able to write NOR’s entry this week I’ll take up the mantle, although I’ll try to keep it snappy since it’s my team and biases are a thing. Right now, NOR are in a very delicate position, as while they may have gotten all four points last week, this time around they were practically steamrolled by Elite’s finest in SKY & FILA. Of course, bad starts are not always a death sentence, that said even now just six games in NOR are close to matching their last season total of five regulation losses which for intents and purposes isn’t exactly a great thing to think about. 13. SIKA (1-1-0) [+3] Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a season won or lost providing that there’s some life shown. Compared with their last week SIKA was no where near as active, playing in only two games vs. the eight they were in before. Nevertheless, gaining two points goes a long way in the dogfight that is brewing for ECL 8 Elite security. It is also of important interest to note that @imosi is now back and is 0+3 in the two games that he has played. Whilst he’s maybe not a player that’s going to carry them to the playoffs, he certainly can be a massive factor in SIKA's ongoing survival battle. 14. Almost Famous (1-3-0) [-3] A third of the way into the season and Almost Famous have put themselves in a very respectable position going forward, affording them the chance to make a run into the playoffs. That said, there are still questions to be asked of this roster, especially as six of their eight points thus far have come against teams that currently sit below them in the standings. Now of course, one may say that having 80% of all possible points against teams below you is not exactly a bad thing and I am inclined to agree. The problem is that the other two points have come from the team directly above them in the standings (Team Frosty). Therefore, what aF should be wary of is that this a trend that, while almost assuring safety for ECL 8, makes it quite difficult to put up a challenge for the playoffs if they can’t snatch points away from those above them in standings. 15. Radical (0-2-0) [-1] DSQ For a team predicted to finish 3rd in the regular season one could perhaps be mistaken for thinking these games would be a formality, however it would seem as though these games are anything but that as Radical have sputtered out of the gate, playing a meagre four games and recording a paltry point. It would also appear that there are some internal differences within the team as a couple of their players have left, putting Radical in a very precarious position going forward. 16. Falun Coal Miners (0-5-1) [-1] If the 16 in 16 report got Sjukstugan wrong, then it all but nailed the Falun Coal Miners. Twelve games into the season with a record of 1-9-2, an anaemic offence potting 11 over that period, as well as a leaky defence allowing a league high 43 earmark a team struggling desperately to stay afloat. The one saving grace is that they have had to go up against some very strong opponents recently in Symphony and Dynasty, although the fact that they gathered only one measly point against Team Frosty certainly puts a dampener on things. *Rankings accurate as of 3/11/18 That's it for this weeks Power Ranking, we'll be getting back to you in a weeks time and take a look at which teams have made a climb and who possibly hasn't. Until next time, gamers! Do you agree with our ranking? You can create your own in the comments below!

Hello NHLGamers, For this season of ECL Elite we will be releasing a recurring segment that will look to detail the ‘hottest’, ‘coldest’ and… ‘mildest’? teams in Elite over the past week. Each article in this series will be released on Mondays and will thusly be based on the days in between each power ranking iteration. In addition to this it should be noted that each ranking will invariably be in some way biased as it is, at the end of the day, a subjective list. Note: Each article will be based off of results starting from the Monday, all the way up to (& including) Friday. Ergo, any games played over the weekend will be 'missed', although if the results are significant enough they will be mentioned in the following next week's article. The logic behind the ranking is admittedly a sort of internal subjective ranking that weighs up results, opposition 'strength' as well as thoughts on the general play during some games. As such a ranking is not 100% quantifiable in nature there will be some bias that creeps in, therefore I will do my best to elucidate the reasoning behind why 'X team' deserves to be ranked at 'Y'. One thing I would like to make abundantly clear however is that points are not the be all and end all within these rankings; for instance, just because 3 teams have the same record does not mean they won't be ranked wildly differently, as the context behind said results are of great importance and simply cannot be understated. Previous rankings: Week 0 (16in16) Week 1 ‘Wild West’ Yes, that is a pun about Red Dead Redemption 2 being released recently, and yes, it is the last pun I will ever make. Nevertheless, I feel it’s a fitting description given how some teams have played 8 games whilst some have only played 2, consequently making the ranking of any team quite onerous. *Rankings accurate as of 27/10/18 1. Butterfly Effect (6-1-1) [+11] Playing the most games in Elite thus far FLY have certainly sent a statement out that they’re here to play; despite being the last call up from Pro due to the folding of Monarchs. They’re ranked 1st over the similarly impressive Sjukstugan due to them playing more games against 'better opponents', most notably one of them being the highly touted Dynasty. 2. Sjukstugan (6-0-0) [+5] Despite what the ranking may suggest, being placed 2nd here is not a case of playing second fiddle in any way. In fact, it’s tough to really differentiate the two teams so treat this pick as 1b rather than 2, especially when you consider the fact that four of 112’s wins came against the previous regular season ‘president’s’ winner in Written in the Stars, as well as a playoff hopeful and stalwart defensive team in Rusty Blades. 3. Gotham Knights (3-1-0) [+11] Having the most points out of any other team on such a hard-opening schedule Gotham Knights have shown that they are here to play and don't need any games to get up to speed, dismantling Radical in regulation as well as OT, on top of defeating NOS in OT before falling to them in regulation. 4. FILADELPHIA (3-1-0) [-2] Wins over a previously predicted playoff bound team in Northern Stars, as well as going toe to toe with FLY and coming out with 2pts mark a pretty good showing thus far by FILA. Their stock is carried quite heavily by their rinsing of NOS 7-1 however, so much so that without it they perhaps wouldn't find themselves so highly ranked here. 5. Symphony (4-0-0) [-1] Are Symphony's wins against a pair of opponents who aren't the 'best'? Sure. Nevertheless, they've exhibited the ability to win and at any level that's something that simply cannot be understated. (Plus, they sort of dominated all games bar one so there's that too.) 6. Northern Ascendancy (2-0-0) [=] What is there really to be said so far? Northern Ascendancy have played only two games, winning both of them in overtime as they "only did what they had to do" against Rusty Blades. A little birdie told me that Rusty had more to give in those games and that they perhaps should have earned more than just two points from NOR. I must say that when a veteran team like NOR takes home four points and you hear these "ifs" and "buts" after the games - it just doesn't surprise me anymore. Next up they are facing SKY, BAT and FILA so it's easier to get back to this team when they have dealt with more opponents. (Courtesy of @vSilenttio) 7. Written in the Stars (2-0-2) [-6] Visible struggles against Sjukstugan mar an otherwise solid showing thus far, although one could argue that said struggles were overcome in a 8-0 victory versus the defensively orientated Unlucky Boys. Therefore, with such a varied level of play it's tough to place them anywhere other than 'mediocre'. 8. Rusty Blades (0-1-3) [+1] It's at this point we make our way into the 'no man's land' of mediocracy, don't take this as a diss by any means but that's kind of the way these rankings tend to go. That is not to say that Rusty have been bad per se, for instance their defence seems to be in form yet again sporting a 2 GA/GP which is historically a pretty decent level. With that said however, it's not like everything is rosy for Rusty as their offence has all but completely dried up (1 GF/GP) which could spell danger if it continues, although it should be mentioned that they've played two 'defensive' teams in NOR & 112 which can explain their apparent lack of goal scoring ability to some degree. 9. Unlucky Boys (3-3-0) [+1] I can see it already... "why are UB 9th with 6pts but Rusty at 8th with 3pts?". Well, as I alluded to before in the introduction, points aren't everything. Sure, UB have 6pts but those came via a series of unconvincing one goal wins vs. pretty subpar opponents in Team Frosty & Sika, then they got smacked down by a resurgent Written. Still though, running at a pt/g average in elite is nothing to scoff at, especially as that is historically close to the playoff cut-off point (avg. 1.17 P/GP). 10. Northern Stars (1-1-2) [-2] As we slip further and further down this list any issues plaguing these teams becomes less and less of a niggling problem and more of a systemic issue that poses a severe risk to derailing their chances of clinching a playoff spot. Of course this does not mean that NOS are in danger territory yet, especially as the point made about UB and maintaining a pt/g average applies here as well, just that there are some issues that perhaps could become larger problems unless tackled at some point, one of these perhaps being the fact that Chimera is currently averaging over double the amount of turnovers as his forward line mates whilst performing below their level points wise. Despite this they've played two very solid teams and come out of as a .500 team, so the panic button doesn't need to pressed just at this moment but if they want to solidify their playoff ambitions then Chimera is going to have to pull his play together. 11. Almost Famous (3-3-0) [=] If UB were rated at 9th because of their unconvincing wins and blow out losses, then Almost Famous are ranked even lower despite identical records due to a series of even more unstable and ever-changing performances by the newly promoted team. Opening up the season losing two straight to FLY stings, but it happens, winning the next two (albeit in close fashion) against FCM certainly atoned for their opening display, however splitting their games against TF (with one being a 4-1 loss) certainly puts a dampner on things and AF may rue these early missed points come later in the season. 12. Dynasty (1-1-0) [-7] Two points against a seemingly strong opponent in FLY yet here we are at 12th, what gives? I suppose it's a little bit like a 'chicken and the egg' situation, did Dynasty get two points because they played well? Or did FLY get three points (reg. W and OT W) because Dynasty played badly? Usually all that these 'hypotheticals' teach us is that context is key and in order to get context you need a certain amount of background information to make an informed decision, as Dynasty have only played FLY thus far I'm going to err on the side caution and simply say that they just weren't playing up to their usual standard and that's that. 13. Team Frosty (2-4-0) [+3] This season is looking like it may be a bit of a rough one for Team Frosty. Opening up with two losses to Symphony surely wasn't part of the plan although I doubt many could have expected a different result. Going on to split games against AF & UB is again, nothing to scoff at of course, yet outside of their wins their offence has struggling exceptionally with them only potting 3 goals in 4 games. One could say that these type of stats are inherently cherry picked and to some degree I agree, since it seems intuitive that when you win you're going to perform better than when you loss, however if you're relying on random games where your offence 'explodes' then games down the stretch are going to get very frustrating very quickly when you desperately need to close out or get within reaching distance of an opponent, only to 'hope' that something happens eventually. Nevertheless, despite such a depressing outlook this type of play may be all that Team Frosty needs to stay afloat in Elite as long as their 'average-ish' defence holds steady. 14. Radical (0-1-1) [-12] Similar to Dynasty it's especially tough to gauge exactly how good a team is when they've only played two games and had mixed results. In addition to this, it doesn't exactly leave much to be discerned from the 'noise' so to speak so... yea. 15. Falun Coal Miners (1-4-1) [=] Has Kopparberget began to run dry? With a frankly pitiful 1.17 GF/GP (good for joint 5th worst) the Miners from Falun are looking up once again as underdogs after a series of poor results vs. teams that were predicted to finish quite close to them in the standings (Sika, Almost Famous & Butterfly Effect). On the one hand if you take away their losses from FLY (who look to be an early dark horse candidate this season) FCM's results don't seem too bad, however even with that in mind giving up points to teams that you are looking to displace in order to get into the playoffs is never a great strategy. 16. SIKA (1-6-1) [-3] Worst GF/GP, 4th worst GA/GP and three points out of a potential 16 makes for a start that the Finnish Swine were not exactly looking for. There's always time to work their way up the standings but even this early it may be a case of damage control and securing safety as opposed to lofty playoff aspirations. That's it for this weeks Power Ranking, we'll be getting back to you in a weeks time and take a look at which teams have made a climb and who possibly hasn't. Until next time, gamers! Do you agree with our ranking? You can create your own in the comments below!

Hi there NHLGamers, We'll be finishing off our Season Review-series with a look at our Elite division. I'd like to congratulate our champions Carlsberg HC for a very convincing showing and a great season. All teams fought hard and showed that Elite is certainly a very competitive division with the best 6vs6 players in Europe, possibly in the world. You'll have enough reading to do below, so allow me to introduce the season ranking of ECL 6 Elite: 1. Carlsberg HC - Regular season record 22-6-2 (Playoff wins 12) Seems like having @Penatski at center will pretty much guarantee you a trophy? After a little dodgy start to their ECL 6 season they bounced back in an amazing way. Finishing the regular season with 8-1-1 in their last 10 games (Best of all teams) and, as you all know, by lifting the ECL 6 Elite trophy. Defense really does win you championships and they showed us just that in the playoffs. Goaltender @Zande95 stepped up big time together with the strong defensive pair @Janzuh and @vatalisti, resulting in only one goal conceded per game in the playoffs. 2. Northern Ascendancy - Regular season record 19-5-6 (Playoff wins 9) After a great regular season, finishing 4th, Ascendancy stepped their game up even more in the playoffs. They faced off against big favorites Written In The Stars and surprised everyone when they moved on to the finals after only 5 games, timely goals and patient play was the decisive factor in that series. Their forwards @Foppatofflan and @hpkfani(MuKiMaisteri) led the playoff assist, point and goal column with MuKiMaisteri topping the regular season point and goal column as well. In addition to second-to-none scoring, their goaltender @poliskontroll was a real difference maker this season. Having been one of the top goalies in the scene for a long time, his team can rest assured that he will make the saves needed to push his team towards victory. 3. Written In The Stars - Regular season record 27-2-1 (Playoff wins 5) SKY managed to play a nearly perfect regular season, finishing with a record of 27-2-1. Contrary to popular belief, their defense really shut the door this season and was second to none, resulting in the team conceding less than a goal per game during the regular season. For the duration of the regular season, the team allowed only 177 shots against in total, which is by far the lowest of all Elite teams. A big reason might be their strong puck possession game, which allows them to control most of the action during the games. @Joukki turned out to be a great addition in scoring power and having a weapon like @jtorro1233 in defense providing secondary scoring was key to the success of SKY this season. 4. Dynasty - Regular season record 22-6-2 (Playoff wins 5) Dynasty iced the highest scoring offense of the regular season. They were really firing on all cylinders with @jumalpeku, @Buantso (Puatso) and @Tehh (TehhAhola) all finishing above 2 points per game. Their powerplay also caught fire in the regular season, a 22,5% success rate will surely strike fear into the opposing teams penalty kill unit. The season ended early in a semi final loss against Carlsberg HC (series score 4-1), a team they managed to beat in both their regular season games. 5. Unlucky Boys - Regular season record 17-6-7 (Playoff wins 3) Being one of the teams gaining promotion from Pro for ECL 6, UB didn't have the easiest starting point for this season. The team was surely hungry and willing to show that they could compete at the highest level of ECL. Their lineup remained nearly the same as in the Pro division, so the chemistry was certainly there, now it was just a matter of translating it to a higher level of play. A 5th place regular season finish and challenging Nordic Ascendancy in the first round of the playoffs can be regarded as a successful entry to Elite. 6. Sjukstugan - Regular season record 19-10-1 (Playoff wins 2) ECL 6 for Sjukstugan was a step in the right direction. Their first showing in Elite ended early without making the playoffs, but this season they were determined to show the competition they are to be taken seriously. Acquisition of rising star goaltender @Hullued certainly helped, as he topped all goalies in regular season wins and put up a good SV% of 83,19%. On other fronts, the team managed to perform well, having five skaters going above one point per game during the regular season. Sjukstugan managed to put up a fight in the first playoff round against Carlsberg HC, series ending 4-2 in favor of CAR. 7. SJK eSports - Regular season record 18-9-3 (Playoff wins 1) Before ECL 6 it seemed as if SJK was announcing big player acquisitions weekly and as expected, they went into the season with an absolutely stacked lineup. Captain @Dominointi had managed to gather a team of absolute studs, who started off the season well, topping the table after around 10 games played. However, around the halfway point of the season something happened, and the team went cold all of a sudden, finishing the regular season with 2-7-1 in their last ten games. Their season ended in a disappointing 4-1 series loss in the first round against Dynasty. 8. Northern Stars - Regular season record 17-12-1 The season of NOS was very similar to that of SJK. A strong opening half of the season was followed by a lackluster finish to the season. The Stars managed to redeem themselves a bit towards the end, however, stringing together a few important wins and gaining themselves a spot in the playoffs. A big part of their difficulty was losing the prominent scorer @plee999 to Gotham Knights at the deadline. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. Evolution - Regular season record 12-12-6 After gaining promotion at the end of ECL 5 as the result of a Pro championship, the race was on for Evolution to prove that they belong at the top level of this league. There must also have been some healthy competition between all the promoted teams to prove who deserved their spot the most. The goalie and defense situation remained the same, while some acquisitions were made in the offensive end during the offseason. Most notably EVO lost @Erkki (I_Eki_I), who helped them hoist the cup, dominating the center lane. New acquisition @SadaPoika led the team in scoring, but the team-wide difficulty to produce sufficient offense ended up being their downfall. 10. Gotham Knights - Regular season record 13-14-3 Gotham came in swinging, having a rather favorable schedule to start the season as they faced Silver Sword Griffins, Pata Hellalla and Nordic Stars in the first three rounds. However, the team struggled to find consistency and quickly started drifting towards the wrong side of the playoff line. Gotham managed to make a big signing, acquiring @plee999 from Northern Stars at the deadline. The youngster went a bit over a point per game but didn't quite find his stride with the new team. 11. Rusty Blades - Regular season record 13-15-2 Rusty Blades had solid season after a very rough 0-6-0 start. They won the games against the weaker teams but couldn't gain enough points against the top tiers to qualify for the playoffs. Nevertheless they are always hard to play against and keep the games tight. Therefore they managed to keep their playoff hopes alive for a long time and are happy to stay in the Elite division for ECL 7. @Lamsa was 3 points shy of the top 10 scoring list. 12. Falun Coal Miners - Regular season record 12-14-4 Falun had a good first season in Elite, finishing 12th and just above the relegation zone. They showed that with very small roster changes and almost no Elite experience they can still do a great job and fight to stay in the division. Good defense backed up by goaltender @Onecorner95 was their way to secure their spot in Elite for next season. 13. Nordic Stars - Regular season record 9-15-6 If you only take a look at the numbers, you wouldn't even guess that Nordic Stars had to play in the relegation. It seems that they couldn't gain enough points out of their efforts and kept the games quite tight. @Kookasi led the team in scoring, falling just short of placing in the top 10 scoring list but individual strength doesn't keep you in the Elite division. The whole squad has to improve their game if they want to make it back to the highest division, after losing a tough relegation matchup against White Trash. 14. Pata Hellalla - Regular season record 6-17-7 Pata Hellalla had quite a disappointing season. The worst defense in the Elite division (101 GA) had to fight hard all season long. They gained some impressive wins over some top-guns of the division, but always seemed to struggle in translating that to every other game. With five points (2 wins) in the last ten games, there were still some hope of staying in the Elite division when they managed to qualify for the relegation faceoffs. After a devastating sweep at the hands of Almost Famous, @kungenkurwa has to take care of his team and prepare them for the Pro division. 15. Kattiautomaatti - Regular season record 7-19-4 After a good start with three wins out of four games, Kattiautomaatti had to deal with 20 consecutive losses. That statistic alone could be enough to tell that this season didn't go as planned. Nearly all of Kattiautomaattis wins were against the teams in the bottom region of the standings. Their lacking in the offensive zone (1,13 GF/GP) is certainly a key reason, costing them the Elite spot. @Slaivone and his group have to regroup the team to fight back in the Pro Division. 16. Silver Sword Griffins - Regular season record 7-20-3 Griffins had an off season this ECL. A squad packed with ECL experience and even a few Summer Cup trophies in their ranks, they had everything to play for this ECL Elite season. Simply put, they didn't score enough goals and ended up conceding too many. With a weak start to the season losing their first 8 games it was difficult to manifest a comeback. SSG managed to improve their form towards the end of the season, if only one or two results would have gone the other way they could have stayed in Elite next season, but that's the unforgiving world of hockey for you. AWARDS Playoff MVP: @vatalisti Most Points: @hpkfani (MukiMaisteri), Northern Ascendancy, 40 Goals, 34 Assists, 74 Points in 30 games Most Goals: @hpkfani (MukiMaisteri), Northern Ascendancy, 40 Goals, 34 Assists, 74 Points in 30 games Most Assists: @jumalpeku, Dynasty, 23 Goals, 45 Assists, 68 Points in 28 games Most Hits by a Forward: @Buantso, Dynasty, 149 Hits in 26 games Best +/-: @jtorro1233, Written In The Stars, +49 in 28 games Most Points by a Defenseman: @vatalisti, Carlsberg HC, 4 Goals, 27 Assists, 31 Points in 26 games Most Goals by a Defenseman: @DieCutterMC, Dynasty, 7 Goals, 13 Assists, 20 Points in 20 games Most Assist by a Defenseman: @vatalisti, Carlsberg HC, 4 Goals, 27 Assists, 31 Points in 26 games Most Hits by a Defenseman: @Tanski87, Rusty Blades, 198 Hits in 29 games TOP 3'S OF ECL 6 ELITE Top 3 Forwards Regular Season: 1. @hpkfani (MukiMaisteri), Northern Ascendancy, 40 Goals, 34 Assists, 74 Points in 30 games 2. @Penatski, Carlsberg HC, 35 Goals, 39 Assists, 74 Points in 30 games 3. @Foppatofflan, Northern Ascendancy, 29 Goals, 40 Assists, 69 Points in 30 games Top 3 Defenders Regular Season: 1. @vatalisti, Carlsberg HC, 4 Goals, 27 Assists, 31 Points in 26 games 2. @jtorro1233, Written In The Stars, 6 Goals, 19 Assists, 25 Points in 28 games 3. @MartindalexC, Northern Ascendancy, 5 Goals, 19 Assists, 24 Points in 30 games Top 3 Goaltenders Regular Season: 1. @Hullued, Sjukstugan, 19 Wins, 83,19%, 1.96 GAA, 4 SO in 30 games 2. @poliskontroll, Northern Ascendancy, 19 Wins, 78,91%, 2,20 GAA, 1 SO in 30 games 3. @JanneK. (JANURI98), Written In The Stars, 16 Wins, 85,98%, 0,93 GAA, 6 SO in 16 games Top 3 Forwards Playoffs: 1. @Foppatofflan, Northern Ascendancy, 7 Goals, 17 Assists, 24 Points in 17 games 2. @hpkfani (MuKiMaisteri), Northern Ascendancy, 15 Goals, 7 Assists, 22 Points in 17 games 3. @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_), Carlsberg HC, 12 Goals, 7 Assists, 19 Points in 16 games Top 3 Defender Playoffs: 1. @vatalisti, Carlsberg HC, 1 Goals, 13 Assists, 14 Points in 16 games 2. @jtorro1233, Written In The Stars, 1 Goals, 9 Assists, 10 Points in 10 games 3. @Janzuh, Carlsberg HC, 1 Goals, 7 Assists, 8 Points in 16 games Top 3 Goaltenders Playoffs: 1. @Zande95, Carlsberg HC, 10 Wins, 86,45%, 1 GAA, 6 SO in 13 games 2. @poliskontroll, Northern Ascendancy, 9 Wins, 82,69%, 1,58 GAA, 2 SO in 17 games 3. @JanneK. (JANURI98), Written In The Stars, 5 Wins, 74,64%, 1,80 GAA, 1 SO in 10 games This season we'd also like to make the introduction of the top 6 of the season. This will mean a selection of 6 players in a starting lineup, that have showed exceptional skill and played a good season. This season, the selections were made by staff members who have been following ECL Elite. Without further ado, here's the top 6 of our Elite division in ECL 6: @hpkfani (MukiMaisteri, Northern Ascendancy) - @Penatski (Carlsberg HC) - @Foppatofflan (Northern Ascendancy) @jtorro1233 (Written In The Stars) - @vatalisti (Carlsberg HC) @poliskontroll (Northern Ascendancy) Thanks to @Panarinz and @Mannheimer1938 for putting in work and helping to get this article done, also to all players and teams making ECL possible. We had a great season and will have many more even better ones to come. For now, take a little break and prepare for the Summer Cup. See you out on the ice!

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL 6 Elite Finals were decided tonight and Carlsberg HC took the decisive win against Northern Ascendancy in game 5 double overtime and won the series 4-1. Hereby NHLGamer would like to congratulate Carlsberg HC for becoming the ECL 6 Elite Champions, and thus the ECL 6 Champions! If you missed their playoff games, you can check them out here: https://www.twitch.tv/nhlgamertwitch/videos/all These are the series results: Game 1: Northern Ascendancy - Carlsberg HC 0-2 Game 2: Carlsberg HC - Northern Ascendancy 2-1 Game 3: Northern Ascendancy - Carlsberg HC 2-1 OT Game 4: Carlsberg HC - Northern Ascendancy 3-0 Game 5: Northern Ascendancy - Carlsberg HC 1-2 Carlsberg HC's Championship roster: G: #88 J. Onion @sibeelius (Zande95) G: #92 J. Tancredi @FinKonna D: #12 T. Brady @vatalisti D: #19 P. Sniska @Pontus T (Terasniska) D: #82 M. Nyqi @Janzuh F: #89 J. Bones @Vilupoika F: #94 M. Apeno @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_) F: #96 T. Malone @Penatski Carlsberg HC's road to the cup: 22 wins, 6 losses & 2 OT-losses during the regular season, ranked 3rd in ECL Elite Quarterfinals: 4-2 VS Sjukstugan Semifinals: 4-1 VS Dynasty Finals: 4-1 VS Northern Ascendancy Thank you to all ECL teams and fans this season! We will be releasing Summer Cup information within the next few days, as well as the full recaps of ECL 6 Elite, Pro and Lite, so be sure to check out the site regularly.

Hi there NHLGamers, We've had a long season, champions have been crowned, promotions and relegations have been made, a whole bunch of W's and a whole bunch of L's have been experienced. ECL 6 started in late February and we've been going at it hard ever since. Each team has surely put in a great effort to make yet another season of the most competitive NHL esports league in Europe successful. I'm sure all teams have had their struggles and there's been tough moments where you haven't been sure of what the next move for the team be; Should there be roster changes? How can the best possible outcome be achieved? Well, you never know. Everyone has these moments and the truth is, it's really how you react to the results in these moments that can make all the difference - be it in your daily life on in the competitive NHL gaming scene. With all this being said, we're not ready to call it a wrap quite yet - by now, we've reached the pinnacle of ECL 6, the ECL Elite Finals. This season, we'll see the clash of two extremely skilled teams coming off of rather similar runs this season. The teams we'll be watching are Carlsberg HC and Northern Ascendancy. Without further ado, let's get into what you're here for: (3) Carlsberg HC - Northern Ascendancy (4) Our season preview for Carlsberg HC went as follows: Regular season record: 22-6-2 Most points (regular season): @Penatski 30GP 35+39=74 Most points (playoffs): @Vilupoika 11GP 6+7=13 The playoff run of Carlsberg HC hasn't been as easy as it seems so far. They've won their series in convincing manner (4-2 vs Sjukstugan, 4-1 vs Dynasty) but have somewhat struggled with production in the playoffs. @Penatski hasn't quite reached the same level offensively he was at in the regular season. Without a doubt a major reason for their low scoring has been facing a team the caliber of Dynasty in the semi-final, but being able to shine even in these tight situations is what the playoffs are all about. A strong defensive effort saw Carlsberg shutting down Dynasty completely, with a GAA of only 1 in the semi's, Carlsberg is surely a strong candidate for the Elite title this season. If they can get their offense clicking even better in the finals, it will surely be an exciting one. I believe it's safe to say our season preview really hit the nail on the head on this one. Carlsberg, as expected, managed to finish second highest in scoring by hitting the back of the net a total of 98 times during the regular season. Carlsberg will most likely improve their game on the offensive end in this series, as Northern Ascendancy isn't quite as famous for their defense as for their fast-paced offensive play. We might be seeing a scoring battle in this series. Our season preview for Northern Ascendancy went as follows: Regular season record: 19-5-6 Most points (regular season): @hpkfani 30GP 40+34=74 Most points (playoffs): @Foppatofflan 12GP 6+15=21 Northern Ascendancy finished the regular season in fourth place after having some surprising difficulties in the regular season against teams such as Pata Hellalla and Falun Coal Miners, some they surely would liked to have won. Doubts about @hpkfani's (MuKiMaisteri) game not translating well into NOR's system were thrown out of the door early as the man kept on doing what he knows best - putting up points. The playoff run so far hasn't been a cakewalk for NOR either. Their first round opponent Unlucky Boys HC put up a real fight, taking the series to a game 7. However, NOR prevailed after winning the two last games. Facing the number one seed Written In The Stars in the semi-finals wasn't easy either. Although NOR beat SKY 4-1, the series was very tightly contested, with three games going into overtime. The decisive factor on NOR's end will be whether their fast-paced passing can throw their opponents off or not. We'll most likely be seeing some scoring by MuKiMaisteri. @Foppatofflan will be setting him up, but we will need to see some variation if NOR wants to walk away with the victory in this series. Defensively, the team has been solid this year, letting in under 1.5 goals against/game this post-season. Prediction: 4:3 Carlsberg HC Below is what you guys predicted for this matchup in our twitter poll: How to watch the Finals? The games have been scheduled to be played as follows: Game 1: Sunday 29th of April 2018 - 20:30 CEST Game 2: Sunday 29th of April 2018 - 21:00 CEST Game 3: Sunday 29th of April 2018 - 21:30 CEST Game 4: Tuesday 1st of May 2018 - 20:30 CEST Game 5: Tuesday 1st of May 2018 - 21:00 CEST (If necessary) Game 6: Wednesday 2nd of May 2018 - 20:30 CEST (If necessary) Game 7: Wednesday 2nd of May 2018 - 21:00 CEST (If necessary) All of the ECL Elite Finals games will be broadcasted, so get ready to watch the action on our Twitch channel! Our first broadcast, covering the first three games, starts tomorrow, Sunday 29th of April at 20:15 CEST. All games will be commentated by @Janikka and @Kenu. Below you'll find the lineups of the teams for at least the three first games: Who is your favorite? Who do you expect to win? Will we see more game 7 and/or OT-drama? Let us know in the comments! We'll see you tonight at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Playoff continue tonight! Starting at 20:50 CEST, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as we cover two very exciting matchups tonight. The first one will be between ECL Pro teams Monarchs and Almost Famous, as they are finishing their semi-final series that currently stands 3-2 for Monarchs. Our second matchup of the night will be the Elite relegation faceoff between Nordic Stars and White Trash. You can find a prediction for that matchup by scrolling down. Games so far in this series: Game 1: Monarchs - Almost Famous 0-3 Game 2: Almost Famous - Monarchs 1-3 Game 3: Monarchs - Almost Famous 1-0 OT Game 4: Almost Famous - Monarchs 3-5 Game 5: Monarchs - Almost Famous 2-3 OT After these two settling who will go on to the ECL Pro Finals, we jump over to the ECL Relegation Faceoff, where the winner of the two teams will be seen in ECL Elite next season. The teams are playing a total of four games tonight, starting at 21:00 CEST as well and we will join in on the action as soon as the first series of tonight is settled. White Trash – Nordic Stars These two teams are certainly no strangers to each other, despite playing in different divisions this season, they spent the last two seasons battling for the promotion in Pro. In fact, these two have met in playoff series both in ECL 4 and 5. The series wins are currently even at 1-1. The Nordic Stars roster seems to have experienced quite a few changes over the years, as captain @Seahyena is the only player who has played in the previous two series between these teams. On the other end, White Trash captain @Zip player has also played both series, but so has @Kane, @rGinnu and @plymalkin. We’ll see how the third series in as many seasons between these two turns out. Nordic Stars were surely excited to have been promoted to Elite during the offseason. In our season preview, we expected the team to have a difficult time keeping up in Elite. The beginning of the season was a feeling-out process, but Nordic stars put themselves in a bit of a hole by going 1-8-1 to start the season. They managed to turn the ship around a bit after the first ten games, but it wasn’t quite enough. In the end, they finished with a 9-15-6 regular season record, which isn’t bad for a team that was promoted in the offseason and had a complete roster overhaul. The biggest factor this season for Nordic Stars was most likely not being able to gel enough to create chemistry in team defense. The team managed to score enough to keep up with the rest, but fell short when it comes to their goals against average, a statistic that ended up being 3,03/game. That simply isn’t good enough to win games in a tight Elite division. The opponent White Trash had yet another good season in Pro. They’re an established Pro team and must be very hungry to prove to the community that they can compete with the big boys in Elite. Our Pro season preview noted White Trash as one of the top contenders this season. They went into the season with a small roster and managed to close out the season with only 8 players making an appearance. The playoffs ended in the Semi-Finals against FILADELPHIA, a series in which White Trash without a doubt was the underdog. White Trash will be relying on their vast experience and good chemistry to edge out Nordic stars in this matchup. As expected, they will ice the same lineup we saw throughout the Pro playoffs. It's hard to predict how this series will go, as the teams come into this series from different backgrounds; White Trash has gotten this far by succeeding during the season, whereas Nordic Stars has had a tough one. The want to play and fight for the win will be a key aspect in which of these teams will be seen in ECL Elite next season. Below you will find the lineups for both matchups tonight: The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. The games will feature commentary by @Janikka and @Kenu. We'll see you there!

UPDATE: We are also covering Carlsberg HC - Dynasty, starting at 20:00 CEST! Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Playoffs continue tonight and we might be celebrating an ECL Lite champion tonight! Starting at 19:50 CEST, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as we cover an amazing three matchups. The first one will be between ECL Elite semi finalists Carlsberg HC and Dynasty. Below you'll find our prediction for this series: Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: Carlsberg HC - Dynasty 0-4 Game 2: Dynasty - Carlsberg HC 0-3 Game 3: Carlsberg HC - Dynasty 1-0 OT The first three games were played yesterday and while Dynasty started off strong with a 4-0 win, Carlsberg were able to end the night with a 1-0 OT win and a 2-1 series lead. Northern Ascendancy and Written In The Stars. Below you'll find our prediction for this series: Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: Northern Ascendancy - Written In The Stars 3-0 Game 2: Written In The Stars - Northern Ascendancy 2-3 While Written In The Stars was the favorite going into this semi final pairing, Northern Ascendancy managed to improve their game from what we saw in the quarter final round and ended up walking away from the first night with two deserved wins. The series is far from over, though, and we're sure Written In The Stars brought some new tricks up their sleeves for tonight and look to bounce back and tie the series. The teams have agreed to play two games tonight. After this, we go to the ECL Lite Finals, where EV Duisburg is only one win away from the Lite championship. The games are scheduled to start at 22:15 CEST. You can read our original prediction about the series below: Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: EV Duisburg - Cowabunga Hockey 2-1 Game 2: Cowabunga Hockey - EV Duisburg 0-1 Game 3: EV Duisburg - Cowabunga Hockey 2-0 As you can see, we predicted an even series here, so it's not a surprise that EV Duisburg has been able to win games in this series. However, what surprised us, is that they are already up 3-0 and could even sweep the series. All of the games so far have been really close, so don't miss the chance to see if Cowabunga Hockey can bounce back and even force a game seven, or if EV Duisburg will be hoisting the cup tonight. The teams have agreed to play two games tonight. You can see tonight's lineups for each team in the image below: The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. The games will feature commentary by @Kenuand @esdor. We'll see you there!

Hey NHLGamers, The heat is ramping up, both outdoors and in the ECL Elite Playoffs, as we get into the semi final stage. Only four teams left and each of them needing four wins to make it far enough to play in the finals. Who will want it the most? You'll find our predictions below. (1) Written In The Stars vs Northern Ascendancy (4) Written held up to their expectations in the quarter finals dismantling Northern Stars in five games (4-1). Written In The Stars are often considered an offensive team, but it is their defensive game as a unit that is the one that puts the opponents to sleep. With solid goaltending by @JanneK. (Januri98), Written looks very hungry to win the championship. In the regular season Written won both games (6-0, 2-1), but it's the playoffs now and things tighten up. After me barking on Northern Ascendancy last weekend, they showed some character bouncing back against Unlucky Boys to win the series 4-3. After last night's heroics from @hpkfani (Mukimaisteri) - who scored all 5 of his teams goals in games 6 and 7 - this team looked fired up and took their game to another level. Northern Ascendancy plays a beautiful passing game with fast quick passes back and forth and it is going to be interesting to see how the Written defensive game is going to handle Northern Ascendancy's offense. I will put the slight advantage on offense to NOR, but the cohesive unit in Written is going to be too much to handle for NOR. Prediction: 4-2 Written In The Stars (2) Dynasty – Carlsberg HC (3) Wow - what a matchup this is going to be! Dynasty took care of what seemed like a somewhat uninterested team in SJK by beating them in five games. @ICappeI in net for SJK did everything and a little more to shutdown Dynasty, but he wasn’t able to stop Dynasty all alone. Dynasty gets good goaltending night after night and they defend like the best of them. Add @Buantso (Puantso) to the mix and you have a very dangerous, championship kind of team. This series against Carlsberg can be one of the tightest series we've seen. Carlsberg took care of Sjukstugan in six games ( 4-2 ) and got a good warmup for the next series playing against a tight defensive unit. @Penatski showed up again, playing an MVP type of game, but so did the defensive unit with @Janzuh and @vatalisti, as the latter looks like one of the best defenseman in the game right now. @Zande95 bounced back after a tough first night in the series and Carlsberg was too much for Sjukstugan to handle. What a battle of monsters this is going to be and expect this series to go the length. It is very hard to predict who advances to the finals, but I expect the team who has the hotter goaltender is the one who advances after an even game 7 and in this case its going to be @Sandr0hh. Prediction: 4-3 Dynasty The semi finals are underway now and have to be finished by the 24th of April 2018 (Tuesday). No extra time will be given! We wish the remaining teams good luck and most importantly: have fun! Please let us know when you will play your respective games so we have the chance to cover them on our Twitch channel. EDIT: The last day to play is Tuesday the 24th, not Monday the 23rd. Fixed in the article.

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Playoff continue tonight! Starting at 20:15 CEST, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as we continue yet another two exciting matchups tonight. The first one will be faught between ECL Elite teams Carlsberg HC and Sjukstugan - a good Finland - Sweden matchup! Below you'll find our original prediction for this series: Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: Sjukstugan - Carlsberg HC 3-1 Game 2: Carlsberg HC - Sjukstugan 5-1 The teams have agreed to play three games tonight, so there is a hypothetical chance that one team secures their place in the semi finals tonight. However, that's highly unlikely with these evenly matched up teams. Whatever the result tonight, the expectation is a very high-skilled hockey night between these two. After this, we jump right over to ECL Pro, where SIKA and White Trash will decide who's going to the semi finals. The games are scheduled to start at 21:40 CEST. You can read our original prediction about the series below: There's been five games played in this series so far and White Trash came out strong, winning the first two with quite big numbers. Someone might have expected even a sweep after that, but SIKA came back strong in their next session, winning games 3 and 5 and losing game 4 by only one goal. SIKA continues to play with their backs to the walls. No more losses allowed. Tonight we'll see if this experienced bunch can come back from this, or if White Trash can find the tools to clinch it. Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: White Trash - SIKA 4-0 Game 2: SIKA - White Trash 1-5 Game 3: White Trash - SIKA 0-1 Game 4: SIKA - White Trash 3-4 Game 5: White Trash - SIKA 1-2 You can see tonight's lineups for each team in the image below: The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. The games will feature commentary by @gzell60 and @Kenu. We'll see you there!

Hey NHLGamers, It's time for some ECL Elite Playoff action tonight! Starting at 19:45 CEST, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as we continue two very exciting matchups tonight. The first one will be the battle between ECL Elite teams Dynasty and SJK eSports. Below you'll find our original prediction for this series: The teams played four games so far and while it looked like Dynasty was going to sweep the series, SJK eSports came back in game 4 and made the series 3-1. Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: SJK eSports - Dynasty 1-2 Game 2: Dynasty - SJK eSports 4-3 Game 3: SJK eSports - Dynasty 1-4 Game 4: Dynasty - SJK eSports 0-4 SJK eSports has their backs to the wall tonight, but don't count them out quite yet. Whatever happens, the teams will finish this series tonight, so don't miss this action! After this, we jump right over to another exciting ECL ECL pair as Written In The Stars and Northern Stars continue their series. The teams have agreed to play up to two games tonight and the puck drop for game 5 will be at 21:00 CEST. You can read our original prediction about the series below: While very even on the ice, Written In the Stars has been able to take control of the series and lead the series 3-1. It's noteworthy that all of the games have ended with a one goal difference and two of them in OT. In game 3 Northern Stars had an opportunity to take control of the series, as they had a 2-1 lead and got a penalty shot with 40 seconds to go. They didn't score here and Written In The Stars bounced back. Quite the display of calmness in a tough situation one might say. The same kind of calmness will be needed from Northern Stars tonight, as they try to get three wins in a row with their back against the wall. We can't wait to see what kind of show these teams put up for us tonight! Games so far in the series (home team to the right): Game 1: Northern Stars - Written In The Stars 1-2 OT Game 2: Written In The Stars - Northern Stars 0-1 Game 3: Northern Stars - Written In The Stars 2-3 OT Game 4: Written In The Stars - Northern Stars 1-0 You can see tonight's lineups for each team in the image below: The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch. The games will feature commentary by @gzell60 and @Kenu. We'll see you there!

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Elite Playoffs are already partly underway, so let's jump directly into our predictions for the first round, also known as the quarter finals, where the best eight teams battle for a chance to make it into the semi finals. These predictions were written by @chavelski and @pnordetun. (1) Written In The Stars vs Northern Stars (8) Written In The Stars won the regular season in style. The team really had that 'wow'-factor being talked about from time to time. A left-wing seemed to be what SKY needed to out them on a rocket ship right towards the title. Except for acquiring the new winger, little has changed and we can expect SKY to try to control this series. With great goalies in @eissi83 and @JanneK. (Januri98), amazing defenders that can dominate both blue lines and all three zones, and a highly skilled offensive trio up-front. So, is the sky the limit or will Northern Stars be the end of the line? NOS took the 8th and final playoff spot this time, avoiding pressure and expectations, perhaps. However, the old giant fears no one. NOS knows these situations and certainly holds more experience of these tight spots compared to their opponents. With their basic game and some @tbnantti magic they can surely match SKY. These players have been in so many playoff games together that we might see their low playoff seed actually work in their favour. Prediction: 4-2 Written In The Stars (2) Dynasty vs SJK eSports (7) Second seeding Dynasty goes up against SJK eSports in the quarterfinals in a matchup that could have, and in many Community members' minds would and should have been a clash later down the bracket. That's not the case this time around, as here we go! Dynasty has been nothing but a true joy to watch in the regular season. With quick passing, movement, their timing close to perfection and some great variety in their offense - they are as effective as they are stylish. @Buantso (Puantso) is deadly and with @jumalpeku and @Tehh (TehhAhola), they have a perfect trio. Puantso and jumalpeku combined for 55 goals between them in the group stage, just 10 shy of the SJK total. As always, it's important to shut your opponents offense down, and this will not be an easy task for SJK to do. Dynasty is also really solid on the defense and won't give up anything for free with @Snapster keeping the lines clear from intruders, alike the Finnish war hero Simo Häyhä. In the net, DYN has a good situation with @Sandr0hh and @Lukkoukko (Lukkolinho) having similar, strong stats. SJK will have to respond to Dynasty's offense in this series, and they need to prove that they really are defensive masters. Like we are used to, @Dominointi will be the cornerstone of their game. It'll remain to be seen who SJK will ice on the wings but your best bet will likely be @Leksa94 and @indi969. @Ilmari_30 on defense is set in stone and beside him we will most likely see @Selarit. @ICappeI stood tall in net for yet another great regular season, it'll remain to be seen if he can put up another stellar showing in the playoffs. Showcasing their defensive ability, SJK allowed only 48 goals (1,6 per game) in the regular season (2nd to SKY) and they have a tremendous defense in all zones. Sometimes playing SJK you're happy being able to create any good scoring chances at all, and how frustrating isn't that in a best of 7 series for the opponent? Can SJK lower the games' pace and ace their defense? Do they have the variety and creativity not to get stuck chasing behind every game? SJK has so much experience from these games it's almost scary. They are used to tight spots and used to advance - can they do it this time? Prediction : 4-2 Dynasty (3) Carlsberg HC vs Sjukstugan (6) Carlsberg HC was one of the hottest teams in the off-season and was one of the favourite teams coming into ECL 6. They finished with a solid third place right after Written In The Stars and Dynasty. @Vilupoika, @Penatski and @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_) comprise a forward line that makes any GM out there jealous. All of them have great hands and vision and also the game changer ability, as anyone of them can win a game for their team. With one of the best defensive pairings in the league with @Janzuh and @vatalisti, this team looks like you couldn't replace one player with another and expect better results. If CAR wants to be successful they can and if they can stay humble and focused facing a very seasoned 112, they will prevail. Don’t count their opponent out just yet! You can easily say that Sjukstugan is the underdog in this matchup, but if you look closer at the players they have, the team looks really good. With one of the most prestigious right defensemen in the game in @Gustafsson7 returning back after a season in Synergy, taking his familiar place as the king of the hill in Sjukstugan's defense, they have a strong leader down low. Helping him along the way we have @Karkkyjaa, @Basstian23 (JaromirSniper) and @Klingen45 who is expected to be dressing for the next game. Look for him to be a game changer as well. On the forward side we have the brothers @pnordetun and @Bjono with @Norpee skating out with them. Norpee could easily be one of the most underrated players in the whole community. I suspect we will see @Nampa77 in this series as well, as he adds something the rest of the forward core doesn't have - the right-handed shot. The real MVP of Sjukstugan can be found in net as @Hullued has taken the community by storm and been excellent throughout the season. If CAR can stay focused and disciplined for the entire length of the series, they will move on to the next round. On the other hand, if 112 wants to have a chance in the series, they cannot try to mimic the play style of opponent Carlsberg, as they tried to do in game #2 of the series. The series currently stands at 1-1. If Sjukstugan can score the first goal and play as a defensive unit out on the ice, we might have a long series here that could end either way. Prediction: 4-3 Carlsberg HC (4) Northern Ascendancy vs Unlucky Boys HC (5) Northern Ascendancy vs Unlucky Boys is already far into the series (2-3) as UB are only one win away from the Elite Semi finals in their first season in Elite! The last season runner-up in Pro has surprised the whole community by beating a few of the big teams during the season and finishing the season as fifth in the standings. Lead by @Anhel (Anhel_Kuru) alongside @JimBoo (jm__98___) and @Wenger (re_wenger), the trio has been playing together all season, and with @Jugeh_ and @Frilander on the back end, the five skaters really come together as a team. @Danielcadabra has bounced back from a disappointing last season in Synergy where he looked somewhat rusty. This season he has been again at the very top among goalies and he can steal games for you. Northern Ascendancy with the fast paced very beautiful style of playing ended the regular season on a solid fourth place. @poliskontroll has been better this season and @Foppatofflan has been scoring points as usual. This season he got some help from @hpkfani (MuKiMaisteri) who was the leading scorer this season for NOR. @MartindalexC has switched from LW to RD and transitioned quite nicely making a nice pair with @Haldeem. And the cherry on top is that you have @anrh17, an excellent two-way player, as a center. You could think this team would be ready for a championship. However, once again they are facing a team who looks to want it more and play to win and not simply to get on the scoresheet. Can NOR bounce back, come together and break the trend that has been haunting them and get past the quarterfinals? Prediction: 4-2 Unlucky Boys Many of the teams continue their series' tonight, and while we sadly won't be able to provide an official commentated stream tonight, be sure to be on the lookout for the team's own streams in the streams section and the chatbox over in the community section. What did you think of the above predicitions? Who do you think will go all the way? Let us know in the comments section below!

Hey NHLGamers, We continue our ECL Playoff Broadcasts tonight with some ECL Elite and Pro playoff action! Starting right now, be sure to join our ECL Playoff stream, as ECL Elite teams Northern Ascendancy (#4) and Unlucky Boys HC (#5) start their matchup with two games tonight. Right after that, it's FILADELPHIA (#1) and Deadly Phantoms HC (#13) from ECL Pro that hit the ice. These two teams we've been following throughout their previous games and it's looking to be quite the matchup. The games will be broadcasted on the NHLGamer Twitch channel, at twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch by @Kenu and @Panarinz.

Hey NHLGamers, After an eventful regular season in ECL Elite, we are ready to start the playoffs. There were some really tough battles for the playoff spots and teams were fighting for their life to avoid the relegation battles up until the very last round. Our ECL Elite season preview was quite spot on regarding the playoff contenders, as 7/8 of the teams we listed as playoff teams made it. The biggest surprise comparing to our listing was Unlucky Boys HC finishing in 5th place. We were supposed to have the playoff predictions for you already in the weekend, but sadly it will be a while more. It's coming, though! Below you will find the matchups for round 1: (1) Written In The Stars vs Northern Stars (8) (2) Dynasty vs SJK eSports (7) (3) Carlsberg HC vs Sjukstugan (6) (4) Northern Ascendancy vs Unlucky Boys HC (5) All series will be played in a best-of-seven series from 9th until the 16th of April 2018. Below you can find the exact dates for the ECL Pro playoffs: Quarter finals 9.-16.4. Semi finals 17.-24.4. Finals 29.4-7.5. Teams Kattiautomaatti and Silver Sword Griffins, having collected the least points in ECL Elite this season, will be relegated and play in ECL Pro next season. Teams Nordic Stars and Pata Hellalla in spots 13 and 14 will be playing against the semi final losers of ECL Pro. The winners of these matchup will be seen in ECL Elite next season. The teams Evolution, Gotham Knights, Rusty Blades and Falun Coal Miners finishing in spots 9-12 will keep their spots and will be seen in ECL Elite next season. We thank all participants and hope you will return next season! Best of luck for all remaining teams, have fun!

ECL All Stars The first ever ECL All Star week has come and gone, leaving us with a single winner but multiple fond memories. The week began with a draft, broadcasted live at NHLGamerTwitch, as the eight captains came together to select their teams. Every team was to be comprised of one goaltender, one defender and two forwards. At the same time, all of the 16 teams from ECL Elite were to be represented by at least one player. In the end, both the draft and the live broadcast proceeded smoothly and set the tone for future events to come. Once the drafting was complete, many viewers made sure to single out and praise @cHIIMEERa, @FlyerKungen and @vatalisti for putting together strong teams. The eight teams were randomly seeded into two groups of four. The group stage was played over a stretch of two days (Wednesday, Thursday) with each group taking center stage for one day each. You can watch the recorded streams by following the below links: Wednesday stream, Group 1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/245812315 Thursday stream, Group 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/245813540 Here are the results of that group stage: GROUP 1 1. Team ICappeI - 3 GP, 6 P (3-0-0) 2. Team cHIIMEERa - 3 GP, 5 P (2-0-1) --------------- 3. Team TehhAhola - 3 GP, 2 P (1-2-0) 4. Team SepiDN - 3 GP, 0 P (0-3-0) GROUP 2 1. Team vatalisti - 3 GP, 4 P (2-1-0) 2. Team FlyerKungen - 3 GP, 4 P (2-1-0) --------------- 3. Team norpee - 3 GP, 4 P (2-1-0) 4. Team MartindalexC - 3 GP, 0 P (0-3-0) With the first stage of competition complete, it was time for the playoffs. Four teams had qualified; Teams @ICappeI, cHIIMEERa, vatalisti and FlyerKungen. Team @Norpee was also tied in points with Team vatalisti and team FlyerKungen in Group 2, but after the tie-breakers, the goal difference ended up being the deciding factor and putting the other two in front. During the qroup stage, Group 1 seemingly focused more on defense (perhaps not truly in the all star groove yet?) as the second group outmatched the first in terms of goals scored by quite a wide margin. Would it be defense versus offense in the playoffs? To the delight of every viewer who tuned in for the playoffs - it would turn out to be a full-out offensive war. You can watch the recorded stream with both of the Semifinasl and the Final here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/245814928. SEMIFINAL 1 Team ICappe vs. Team FlyerKungen 4-3 This game started out as the @Tuukka.R (KingOfApes_) show, with the highly skilled winger scoring two dazzling goals in the first period. Captain Cappe managed to wake his team up in the second period as defenseman @The_Alpha_Furyan scored two goals to tie the game at 2 before the third period. "Apes" completed his hat trick in the third period and seemed poised to lead Team FlyerKungen to a 3-2 victory... until @tbnantti stepped in with just three minutes remaining. First, he tied the game up and then - with just 55 seconds left on the clock - he scored the game-winning 4-3-goal. What a finish! SEMIFINAL 2 Team cHIIMEERa vs. Team vatalisti 6-7 If you thought the first semifinal was intense, boy you were in for a treat with this one. Before the game started, both teams were forced into some lineup changes. Due to the unavailability of @jtorro1233 and @Nampa77, @taemtaem and @SadaPoika stepped in as defender and forward for the respective teams. The game featured vatalistis team putting on a show with the captain himself scoring four (!) goals while new recruit Sada supplied a hat trick and playmaker @anrh17 dishing out 6 assists. Team vata held a 7-2 lead with just 8 minutes remaining and things seemed hopeless for cHIIMEERa and his team. Then, the veteran captain got his team moving. With four unanswered goals in the last few minutes, all of a sudden we were back to watching a one-goal game. Despite this, Team vata managed to hang on and secure a 7-6 win. Phew. Surely the finals couldnt top this? ALL STAR FINALS Team ICappeI vs. Team vatalisti 5-6 (OT) You had to know that the ONLY overtime game in the entire All Star-event was to take place in the finals, right? It was just too good to be true. Team vatalisti once again got out to a comforting lead by going up 4-1 - paced by two goals and two assists from the captain himself - before Team ICappeI even knew what hit them. Even though @Lamsa scored a nice goal to get the game to 4-2, things seemed hopeless with just a single minute remaining of the game. Thats when Team ICappeI scored twice to knot the game at 4. Incredibly enough, with a mere ten seconds remaining they scored again. 5-4 Cappe with 19.50 on the clock! Surely this was it? Nope. Team vatalisti won the faceoff, came down on one final rush and tied the game at 5 with SadaPoika dishing an incredible pass to anrh17 who scored. At this point, @Kenu and @Panarinz were going nuts in the broadcasting booth. In the overtime, Team vatalisti was the stronger team and took home the first ever ECL All Star-win through a goal by captain vatalisti. Congratulations to Team Vatalisti for taking home the first ever ECL Elite All-Star Week win! Thanks to all participants and viewers for a great event that is sure to come back again in the future. Below you will find the full stats and logos for each team: Team cHIIMEERA G, Supreex, 4GP 2W 71,1SV% 2,75GAA D, jtorro1234, 3GP 4+3=7 D, taemtaem, 1GP 3+2=5 F, indi969, 4GP 5+6=11 F, cHIIMEERa, 4GP 2+8=10 Team TehhAhola G, Zande95, 3GP 1W 69,56SV% 2,33GAA D, OxtreeLAT, 3GP 0+2=2 F, Foppatofflan, 3GP 2+1=3 F, TehhAhola, 3GP 3+1=4 Team SepiDN G, SepiDN, 3GP 0W 70,96SV% 3,00GAA D, Isumpppi90l, 3GP 1+1=2 F, Puantso, 3GP 1+1=2 F, koojiikoojii, 3GP 0+1=1 Team ICappeI G, ICappeI, 5GP 4W 70SV% 2,4GAA D, The_alpha_furyan, 5GP 6+6=12 F, tbnantti, 5GP 6+8=14 F, Lamsa, 5GP 5+7=12 Team MartindalexC G, Hullued, 3GP 0W 38,09SV% 4,33GAA D, MartindalexC, 3GP 0+2=2 F, Kungenkurwa, 3GP 2+2=4 F, Penatski, 3GP 4+2=6 Team Norpee G, poliskontroll, 3GP 2W 53,33SV% 4,66GAA D, JParola, 3GP 0+8=8 F, SadaPoika, 5GP 12+11=23 F, Norpee, 3GP 5+3=8 Team FlyerKungen G, Ranta83, 4GP 2W 51,43SV% 4,25GAA D, Ilmari30, 4GP 4+6=10 F, KingOfApes_, 4GP 10+4=14 F, FlyerKungen, 4GP 4+7=11 Team Vatalisti G, Danielcadabra, 5GP 5W 48,98SV% 5GAA D, Vatalisti, 5GP 12+13=25 F, Anrh17, 5GP 7+20=27 F, Nampa77, 3GP 9+6=15

Hey NHLGamers, The ECL Elite All-Star Week has reached its pinnacle, as we head into the semi-finals and final tonight! In case you have no idea what we're talking about, please see the below two articles and you're all set. We would like to thank all the players and viewers involved in this All-Star week and congratulate the teams that made it this far. We will be streaming both semi-finals and the final tonight, starting at 20:30 CEST on our Twitch-channel: https://www.twitch.tv/NHLGamerTwitch All games will be BO1, meaning the winner of the semi-final game moves to the final and also the final is determined in one game. In other words, we will be streaming a total of three games tonight. The matchups in the semi-finals are: VS Team ICappeI vs Team FlyerKungen 20:30 CEST Team ICappeI was the best team during the regular season with 3 wins in 3 games. With their captain @ICappeI leading the lines with his strong netminding skills and @The_Alpha_Furyan guarding in front of him, they will be very hard to score on. Team FlyerKungen on the other hand is more known for high-scoring games and will punish the defense of Team ICappeI if mistakes were to be made. With 2 of the best forwards in ECL Elite, KingOfApes_ (@Tuukka.R) and @FlyerKungen himself, they can be deadly on the counter attack. Prediction: Attack wins games, but defense wins championships, I predict Team ICappeI to win 3-2. The top 10 skaters in the All-star group stage, sorted by points VS Team vatalisti vs Team cHIIMEERa 20:50 CEST With 20 goals scored in a very tight group, Team vatalisti succeded in clinching 1st place. Team vatalisti know how to play good defense but offensively, that's where they shine. With stars like @anrh17 and @SadaPoika you just know they will score several times a game. "Wait, what? SadaPoika? Wasn't he on Team Norpee?", you may ask. Yes indeed. Due to the fact that Sjukstugan apparently didn't read the requirements for the players taking part in the All-Star Week before sending in their players for the darft, we seem to have lost @Nampa77 to a real life activity called work. In order to fix this, SadaPoika, who represented Team Norpee in the group stage, will be putting on the Team vatalisti uniform tonight. Fellow Sjukstugan player Norpee would have replaced his teammate Nampa77 by default, but was unavailable. Team vatalisti had, by far, the best offense during the group stage with 6.67 GF/GP. Can SadaPoika keep up with Nampa's big point production? Team cHIIMEERa, on the other hand, was more of a strong defensive team during the group stage with only 1.33 GA/GP. Will the previously mentioned statement of "attack wins games, but defense wins championships" take factor in this game? Team cHIIMEERa has a strong all-round team and with players such as former ECL 5 winners @indi969 and @jtorro1233 they will put up a strong fight. This one could go either way. Prediction: Team cHIIMEERa to win 4-2. The top 5 goalies in the All-star group stage, sorted by wins Predicted final: Team ICappeI VS Team cHIIMEERa. With Team ICappeI finishing higher than Team cHIIMEERa in group 1 and Team ICappeI with a win in their game against each other, I predict Team ICappeI to win this tight defensive matchup with a nail-biting 2-1 score. We hope as many of you as possible tune in to watch this top games. It's not often you get to watch the best of the best play together and face each other in 3 on 3 action!

The All-Star Week Gameday 2-stream is live NOW at our Twitch-channel! Stream is hosted by @Kenu and @ICappeI The schedule of tonight will be as follows: 20:30 CET Team MartindalexC - Team vatalisti 20:45 CET Team FlyerKungen - Team Norpee 21:00 CET Team vatalisti - Team FlyerKungen 21:15 CET Team MartindalexC - Team Norpee 21:30 CET Team FlyerKungen - Team MartindalexC 21:45 CET Team Norpee - Team vatalisti See you there!