This ODBHL season is rapidly coming to a close and there are still lots of questions around the league to be answered on who will make the playoffs or who teams will match up with. The Saint John Kings sit 6 points out of first place behind, The Riverview Royals, The Bathurst Angry Ducks and The Moncton Melons while they only have 4 games remaining. The Lemieux Conference is still not all clinched with the Miramichi Moose making a late season chrge to usurp Oromocto;s playoff spot.
The Kings are not mathematically eliminated from finishing first but it is a pretty far-fetched situation for Saint John to win a Barbarian Trophy now. The team's hopes lie in the fact that they do have 2 of their 4 remaining with the Royals. The other 2 games versus the Abert County Renegades who currently sit fourth in the Gretzky Conference which makes a 4-0 finish to the season a very difficult task.
With all the remaining jockeying for position to be done leaves the current potential playoff matchups in the Gretzky fantastic for the ODBHL fans. If the season ended today the top 4 offenses in the league would all come from this conference, the high powered Royals facing Igor Shesterkin and his Albert County Renegades. The top line of Lundestrom, Aho and Eichle sit 1,2,3 in the league's scoring race with 4 games remaining and have provided the Royals with enough firepower to wreck most defensive cores. The other matchup has an old rivalry being reignited with the Moncton Melons facing the Saint John Kings. The Melons lead the Kings by 1 point in the standings while the Kings hold a game in hand to fight for home teams advantage. The season series between these 2 has been heavily in Moncton's favour coming out of the season with a 6-2 record over the Kings, but everybody knows the playoffs can be a totally different landscape. It will be up to the high powered offense of the Kings to solve former Saint John fans Sweetheart Matt Murray who was dealt to Moncton after a couple of playoff disappointments.
Much can still change with the layout of the upcoming playoffs with 4-6 games left for teams, but regardless who The Kings match up with in this conference round 1, we will see some exciting hockey!
Harold Philip Ness
Telegraph Journal
6/16/2024 - 392 words
