ECN presents “The Story of GM Jerry Garcia and the success of Davos Dynamo”

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ECN presents “The Story of GM Jerry Garcia and the success of Davos Dynamo”
 

European Cable News presented by Frostbeard Entertainment is going to look at a fairly controversial question of “What do you deem to be a success in VHL?” Is it the amount of Cups you win? Is the amount of trophies your team has? Maybe it is the amount of times the team makes the playoffs? Or maybe we are talking about something else? 

It is not really up to discussion that in recent times, Davos Dynamo has had troubles with their on ice performance. No matter how well the team is built or how many great and talented generational players they have, simulation gods are just not there to help them out. 
 

S70 and S71 “Rule of Gustav begins”
 
GM Jerry Garcia took over the team in S70 and  was in a fairly tough situation as after GM Shawn Glade left the team was not in a great situation, previous drafts were not great and didn’t really land any highly talented players. It was a situation when GM Garcia was forced into a rebuild and a complete overhaul of the team. It was clear that it will take a season or two for Davos to get back into a competitive mood. Under Jerry Garcia Davos Dynamo finished S70 at the bottom of the conference and league standings. It wasn’t anything unexpected at that point. S71 did show progress with addition of a new and promising player called Roque Davis who seemed to be a highly promising young talent with a chance to become a league superstar.
 

S72 and S73 “Does the curse exist?”
 

S72 was the first season that left many wondering if Davos was actually under some weird curse. Generational legends like Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Jet Jaguar, quality players like Jerry Garcia, David OQuinn and ACL TEAR and youngsters Robin Winter and SS Hornet for so many VHL aficionados made Davos Dynamo favourites for a deep playoff run. It was however cut extremely short after a 4-0 series loss to Riga Reign in the first round of playoffs. With important changes on the horizon due to losing HHH, Davos players and management were thirsty for post-season wins. Jerry Garcia made sure to keep his team active and competitive and added to the roster Soren Jensen and Charlie Paddywagon, two prolific players for their respective teams. Making the playoffs was a really tough road for Davos team as they managed to barely squeeze into playoffs by 1 point over Prague Phantoms. It was clear at this point that they had to prove their worth. In the wildcard round of the playoffs, the experienced Davos team met with a young and promising Malmo squad who had just got back into playoffs after 2 seasons of rebuilding their roster. Sadly, again the gods didn’t help and with 3-2 series win Malmo moved forward to face Helsinki Titans. At this point a lot of things were being said about Davos Dynamo and their performance on ice. To many it was a huge joke but again to so many others, it was a question about what are we doing wrong? 
 

S74 and S75 “Retooling and quality drafting”
 

S74 came with even more changes to the roster, new additions and more hopes for good results in the playoffs. Owen Nolan was added to provide that extremely important scoring ability that he had shown with New York Americans and also to improve the goaltending situation Jerry Garcia agreed to make his moves and gain access to one of the most impressive playoff performers in recent times - Seattle Bears dynasty goaltender Rayz Funk. With these players S74 looked like a great chance for the Dynamo players to go and make the playoffs in the tough European conference. Sadly, this season as many before that made many dreams get crushed as Davos finished 6th in the conference and even though their team had performed well and finished with 80 points and 38 wins, Helsinki and Prague managed to perform better and squeeze into playoff spot leaving Davos Dynamo and their strong and competitive roster out of playoffs. After a really good draft, Davos had acquired a future goaltender in Kuniburi UnGuri and a potential star player in Taro Tsujimoto. Davos even managed to get Tyler Walker who was supposed to be the future of Malmo Nighthawks. With these new and youthful players, Davos again looked decent and showed promise. Sadly, the season again didn’t go as planned and even though there were times when Davos team could be praised, their overall performance was not there. 
 

S76 - ??? “Right now and always?” 
 

Davos has been struggling since. Player changes, drafts - nothing has made any significant impact and at this point it just seems that STHS is trying to make GM Jerry Garcia as grey as possible. What does the future hold? Honestly, it is a really tough question as we see so many new players join and it might be just a matter of time until GM Garcia will find a way to unite all his players and create a chemistry worthy of history articles in the future. 
 

So in the end, why did I call this story a success? Why did I decide to label this article “The Story of GM Jerry Garcia and the success of Davos Dynamo”? 
 

Many of you don’t know that there was a time when playing for Davos seemed like a thing you just didn’t want to do, team leadership wasn’t there, management made weird moves and overall the team didn’t feel healthy enough for anyone to actually go and want to be a part of that. With Jerry Garcia, an accomplished and respected VHLM GM of Mississauga Hounds, taking the reins for many, including me, the opinion of Davos Dynamo changed. It wasn’t the team you wanted to avoid, it wasn’t a team you just wished wouldn’t draft you. It was a question of “there are many good people on the team, talented and great GM, brilliant AGM and an atmosphere that you just want to be a part of”. A community built through struggles, a community where everyone is wanted and expected. 
 

So to repeat what I wrote at the start of the article - What do you deem to be a success in VHL? 
 

I think that winning regular season games and playoff series is important, I equally think that winning awards makes your team feel more devastating and respected. Continental cup victory is something you can only hope for. 
 

So what makes a franchise successful?
 

Players and the feeling of community. Nothing else really really matters if you want to have fun and enjoy your time. No matter if your community likes to trash talk or be extremely quiet, if your players care, they are worth it. 

Cheers!

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