Ice Hockey: Swedish Elitserien 1/4-finals

[Burran]

Finally it's playoff time in Sweden. The first quarter finals are played on tuesday. I'm posting now since the odds may change pretty soon. Brynäs-HV71 I think HV71 has a great chance in this match and I'm pretty confident that they'll be the stronger team in a 7 game series. Brynäs started the season great and for a while in January they actually led the league. Since then, nothing has worked for them. They are currently on a 14 game winless streak. The Coach says that the reason for this is that they've been more or less through too the playoffs for a couple of months and that they had a rough traning session back then which will now pay off in the playoffs. I'm not sure this is the whole truth though. Brynäs is a good team, don't take me wrong, but they aren't that great. If Niklas Bäckström doesn't perform, which he hasn't been doing since the U20 Championships, they're a pretty weak team offensively. Brynäs are a defensive minded team, but lately, when Tommy Sjödin has been missing out, that part of the game hasn't been working either. Sjödin is likely to return now in time for the playoffs though. HV71 has a great team with no real weaknesses. They've been at the top of the table for the whole season and have been playing great hockey. They have such skillful players in Jan Hrdina, Johan Davidsson and of course the defender who has most points in the team, Johan Åkerman. He made his international debut this season at age 34. Young goalie Erik Ersberg has filled the hole left by Stefan Liv in a great way and has been one of the best in the league this season. HV71 are probably Färjestad's biggest threat in quest for the gold medals. They enter the playoffs with an ok form. 4 wins and 2 draws in their last 10 games. H2H is almost even with a slight advantage for HV71. 2 wins in reg. time, and one in OT for HV and 2 losses. Both wins in regulation came in Gävle, Brynäs home town. I count HV71 as favourites to win this series, and also to win this game. Therefore, 2.60 at Nordicbet looks very tempting. Other bookies have them at 2.30-2.35. Going for DnB once again, since Brynäs tied 20 games in the regular season. 4.50 at bet365 and others for the draw, gives us a nice price at around 2.02 HV71 DnB 2.02@Nordicbet/Bet365 5/10

[Comic Book Guy]

Re: Euro Ice Hockey Leagues 4-5/3 I see that Nordicbet has 1.60 on HV 71 to reach the semi-finals. That might be worth a try. There are some interesting odds on top scorer in playoff. Are you guys having any ideas on that?