The French Ligue Magnus playoffs begin on Tuesday, with 12 teams in contention for the Magnus Cup and a CHL wildcard berth. Grenoble finished first in the regular season, while defending champions Briançon enter as the fifth seed.
by Nicolas Leborgne
Last season it was the Briançon Diables-Rouges who won the Magnus Cup with a seven-game victory in the finals against the Angers Ducs and earned a spot in the 2014–15 edition of the Champions Hockey League. If they want to repeat their title and retain their position in Europe's premier club hockey competiton, they will have to pull off an upset or two.
The 14-team circuit completed its 26-game regular season this past weekend. The top four teams qualify directly to the quarter-finals, while the next eight will have to win a play-in round to advance.
| # | Club | GP | W | OW | OL | L | GF–GA | Pts |
| 1 | Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups | 26 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 94–67 | 40 |
| 2 | Rouen Dragons | 26 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 121–73 | 38 |
| 3 | Rapaces de Gap | 26 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 88–71 | 38 |
| 4 | Angers Ducs | 26 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 97–66 | 38 |
| 5 | Briançon Diables-Rouges | 26 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 94–78 | 34 |
| 6 | Amiens Gothiques | 26 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 100–81 | 33 |
| 7 | Chamonix Chamois | 26 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 96–85 | 32 |
| 8 | Étoile-Noire Strasbourg | 26 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 74–101 | 25 |
| 9 | Morzine-Avoriaz-Gets | 26 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 78–106 | 24 |
| 10 | Épinal Dauphins | 26 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 82–87 | 23 |
| 11 | Dijon Ducs | 26 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 72–88 | 20 |
| 12 | Brest Albatros | 26 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 73–98 | 20 |
| 13 | Lyon HC | 26 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 87–115 | 19 |
| 14 | Caen Drakkars | 26 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 66–106 | 18 |
The Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups won the regular season title with 40 points and will try to win their first Ligue Magnus title since 2009. Under new coach Richard Martel, the team won the League Cup and enjoyed a solid season with the best record away from home. Grenoble also finished with the league's best defence. Despite a 5–4 overtime loss against Épinal in the last regular season game, Grenoble secured the first spot thanks to Gap's 5–0 loss at Amiens.
Combined with Rouen's 8–3 win over Strasbourg and Angers's 4–3 shootout win over Lyon, three teams were tied for second place with 38 points. Rouen earned the second seed because of a better record against the other teams. Early-season favourites Dragons de Rouen envoyed a strong season with a perfect 13–0 record at home. Their torrid attack, led by scoring champion Julien Desrosiers, started slow before winning 12 straight in December and January, finishing with a French Cup title in Marseille a few weeks ago.
Rapaces de Gap finished third and could be a serious threat, thanks to coach Luciano Basile, who won the Ligue Magnus last year with rivals Briançon. Gap were on a nine-game winning streak before the loss at Amiens.
Last year's finalists, Angers, earn the fourth spot and go to the quarter-finals as well. Former NHLer Jean-Sébastien Aubin could be goaltender of the year and leads a stingy defence.
The next eight teams will compete in a first-round play-in round in a best-of-five format.
Last year's champions, Briançon, rebounded well after a difficult start and will play Brest. The "Red Devils" played in CHL this season and had troubles all season long winning away from home. Brest avoided the relegation round with a 3–1 win over Dijon on the last day of the season.
Chamonix will play Dijon, Cup finalists Amiens will play Morzine-Avoriaz and eastern teams Strasbourg and Epinal will try to advance to the quarter-finals.
Each winner will play the first four teams of the regular season in best-of-five quarter-final series. The best in the rankings will play the lowest ranked. Then the semi-finals and finals wil be played in a best-of-seven format.
The play-in round starts on 17 February, the quarter-finals on 27 February, the semi-finals on 10 March and the Ligue Magnus Finals on 24 March. The winner of the final series will win the Magnus Cup as French national champions and be invited to compete in the 2015–16 edition of the Champions Hockey League.
The bottom two teams in the league, Lyon and Caen, will battle for the right to stay in Ligue Magnus next season. The 13th and 14th teams of the regular season will play a do-or-die best-of-seven series starting 20 February. The loser will be relegated in Division 1. Caen won the relegation round last season. Lyon was the promoted team from Division 1.