KC Comets Playoff Picture

The MASL season is reaching its final month of the regular season, and the Kansas City Comets are in a big fight for a playoff spot in the league’s Eastern Conference. Firstly, the Monterrey Flash have all but wrapped up the first seed in the East. After their win in Texas on Friday the Flash sit on fifty-five points, they need only three points in their final five games to clinch first in the East.

Currently the Comets sit in third place in the conference, two points behind second place Utica City FC, one point ahead of the fourth place Milwaukee Wave, and eleven points ahead of the fifth place Baltimore Blast. Only three of those four teams will make the playoffs in the East, but the Comets’ problem heading into this final stretch is that they’ve played three, two, and five more games than those teams respectively have played. With that in mind, here’s a look at all four teams and where they stand heading into the final stretch.

Utica City FC
Points: 36
Remaining schedule: 4 home (Baltimore, Harrisburg, St. Louis, St. Louis). 3 away (Milwaukee, KC, Baltimore).

Utica City plays all three of the other teams involved in the Eastern Conference playoff race, the only one of the three to do so. They play all three teams on the road as well. Those three games against the already eliminated Harrisburg Heat and St. Louis Ambush, all at home, will be a big factor, Utica has only lost one game in regulation at home all season, against the undefeated Monterrey Flash. Meanwhile the three opponents they face at the Aud have won just two games in twenty-two on the road this year. The road trips to all three will be tough, including a Friday/Sunday stretch against the Wave and the Comets, but the home games and their points currently probably have them in the driver’s seat to claim the two seed in the East.

Kansas City Comets
Points: 34
Remaining schedule: 3 home (St. Louis, Utica, San Diego). 1 away (St. Louis).

The Comets schedule isn’t an easy one with two games against I-70 rival the St. Louis Ambush and home games against Utica City and the San Diego Sockers, the latter of which has just one road loss this season, and will likely be looking for some payback in the season finale after the Comets beat them in San Diego this past week. A few things will work against the Comets, the fewest games remaining, plus only one against the other three playoff contenders in a potential six-pointer. The thing that may work in the Comets favor though over the other three teams fighting for playoff spots is that they have zero two game weekends the rest of the season. They can focus on just the one game each week to get maximum points while other teams may conserve legs or adjust tactics with two games in a weekend. The other advantage the Comets might have is their games against both Utica and San Diego are both team’s second game of the weekend as both are in Milwaukee before they travel to play Kansas City.

Milwaukee Wave
Points: 33
Remaining schedule: 3 home (Utica, St. Louis, San Diego). 3 away (Baltimore, Dallas, Monterrey).

The Wave certainly have some interesting matchups in the final run of the season, including a trip to rival Baltimore and a trip to Mexico neither of which will be easy. Getting Utica and San Diego at home when they have two games on the weekend is a plus, though playing San Diego at home on a Friday and traveling to Mexico for a game on Sunday against currently undefeated Monterrey will certainly be a tough one.

Baltimore Blast
Points: 23
Remaining schedule: 4 home (Milwaukee, Harrisburg, Dallas, Utica). 5 away (Utica, Chihuahua, Monterrey, Texas, Harrisburg).

Baltimore with the most games remaining will certainly feel they have a great chance of getting into the playoffs, but it’s not an easy stretch for the Blast either. A double game week this weekend against Milwaukee at home and Utica on the road followed next weekend by a trip to Mexico to play both the Chihuahua Savage and Monterrey Flash is not going to be easy. Even a trip to play the Texas Outlaws who sit third in the West will not be easy for Baltimore. Baltimore also has the home field advantage for at least three of their four home games with their smaller field at TU Arena.

So how will the season break down for the remaining games?

I think Utica will end up in second in the East. Their home slate is definitely the easiest, with Baltimore being the only one of the teams with a road win this season. That’d put Utica potentially on forty-eight points, outpacing the Comets and Blast (because they’d lose the road game to Utica) maximum point total. It’d also put the Wave in a position where they couldn’t drop more than three points in their final six games.

I see the Wave taking enough advantage of their two games in hand on the Comets and jumping over them and into third in the East. I see wins over St. Louis and Dallas. I also think they’re likely to take points off of Utica and potentially even San Diego at home. That said that trip to Monterrey to close the season out could loom large in the end.

For the Comets I think they’ll finish in fourth. The two games against St. Louis just mean more when they’re rivalry games so you know the Ambush will be up for them. The other two games will be a question of whether the Comets can take advantage of a team that has already played that weekend. The big thing reviewing the remaining schedule for me is just how big the Comets’ sweep in California this past week was. Those two wins put the Comets in a much better position to make the playoffs.

For the Blast, the big issue is that road schedule to close out the season, four of those five games are against likely playoff teams, two of them in Mexico where the Mexican teams are undefeated this season against US opposition. The Blast will likely need to find a way to get some points out of those games as outside those games they have fifteen points available. That means if the Blast don’t, and the Comets win two of their final four games (even if one is in OT) those fifteen points won’t be enough to jump into a playoff position.

While there is still a lot of work left to do for all four of the teams left in the playoff race in the East, these are the match ups I see happening.
(1) Monterrey Flash vs (4) Kansas City Comets
(2) Utica City FC vs (3) Milwaukee Wave