Swiss NL playoff, play-out pairings set
The Swiss National League A completed its 50-game regular season over the weekend, leaving eight teams to battle for the championship via best-of-seven game playoff series. The four teams that did not qualify for the playoffs will play a so-called “play-out” to determine who has to play the National League B champion for the final spot in next season’s top flight.
We’ll explain the play-out concept in a bit. First, the playoff pairings:
SC Bern (First place finish in regular season) vs. EV Zug (eighth place)
ZSC Lions (second place) vs. Fribourg (seventh place)
Kloten Flyers (third place) vs. Servette Geneva (sixth place)
HC Davos (fourth place) vs. HC Lugano (fifth place)
Obviously, the Davos-Lugano pairing is the biggest of the quarterfinal match-ups, but Davos will be heavily favored. In the regular season, Davos had a decent 25-14-11 regulation time record while Lugano was a more pedestrian 19-16-15. In the other three pairings, the higher-seeded teams should advance without too much difficulty, though Servette presents the most compelling case for an upset pick in our view. The Geneva side have played some of the elite teams, particularly Zurich, tough in the regular season.
The play-out is actually a pretty cool concept. The four teams are seeded according to their place in the regular season, with the ninth-placed finisher playing the 12th-placed team. Unlike a playoff, where you “win or go home”, the object in the playout is to win and go home–winners of the best-of-seven game series get to hit the golf course while the losers play each other until there is just one team left. That team then plays the second-division champion for the final place in next season’s National League A. It’s a novel way of determining relegation/promotion that clearly rewards teams in the top flight (something to look at should U.S. leagues ever decide to go this route. Are you reading this Major League Soccer?) The playout pairings are Langnau Tigers vs. EHC Biel and Rapperswil Lakers vs. Ambri-Piotta. The NLB representative is still to be determined, with four semifinal teams set to begin their playoffs. Those pairings are EHC Visp vs. La Chaux de Fonds and Lausanne vs. Ajoie.
