Yukon Rush- In Memoriam

[fromtheinside 1,290]

YUKON RUSH

-S31-S80-

Gone but not forgotten.

 

Thank you for coming to the memorial to celebrate the life and times of the Yukon Rush, one of the most historically-rich franchises in all of the VHLM up until its recent execution last week. Yukon made its debut into the VHLM way back in Season 31 when former user Streetlight was named the club's first ever general manger.  Yukon's inaugural season was a huge success as they went on to capture the Founder's Cup in their very first season, a very rare feat for a team in any sport. The franchise would go on to capture three more titles before Season 40, quickly establishing Yukon as a powerhouse in the VHLM.

 

Eventually, Yukon hit a dry spell where they would go 21 seasons without a Founder's Cup. These were trying years for Yukon, but the Rush faithful never stopped supporting its team. Finally, after years of tough losses and heartbreak, the club had a breakthrough. Longtime user @Smarch was handed the reins and eventually led the club back to greatness. Smarch would lead the Rush to their fifth franchise Founder's Cup, defeating the Saskatoon Wild in the finals.  He would come close again in Season 61 but fell just short in the playoffs.

 

After Smarch moved on, the Rush saw a number of different people come in and try to guide the team to success. Both @Josh and @MexicanCow123 served long stints as general manager for Yukon, but neither of them were able to capture a title, but great memories were made nonetheless. Towards the end of Cow's tenure is when I personally joined the franchise as the assistant general manager. Cow taught me all the tricks of the trade and together we established a plan. While Cow eventually stepped down, I stayed on as we brought in @Juice to take over as GM. 

 

Juice was truly the perfect person to take over Yukon. Not only is he FROM Yukon, we also signed his first player Kristoff Welch off waivers and helped him get his VHL career started. There was no better person to bring in to help guide the Rush. He was young, hungry and wanted to excel. And excel he did. Juice came in during Season 77 and we continued to rebuild with our plan being to compete for a title in Season 78. And we did just that. Season 78 will always be my personal favourite experience in any of the three leagues. 

 

We collected a ton of draft capital and assembled an all-star cast that included all-star goaltender @Beketov Papa Emeritus, as well as the Reinhart brothers Jerome (Cow) and Tyler @Zetterberg. They joined a young core of first gens @JB123 Nathan Power and @hockeyis66 Jaromir Lemeiux, as well as the Finnish trio of @jRuutu Erlantz Jokinen, @Big Bob Bob Beach and @Otto Numminen.  We even were able to bring in ex-GM @BarzalGoat Sven Eightnine at the trade deadline. The Season 78 Rush dominated and indeed went on to capture another Founder's Cup. Aside from the hunt for the Cup that season, we were also entrenched in a fierce rivalry with the San Diego Marlins. Juice had a bet with rival GM Thadrasher on which team would do better that season. Officially it ended in a draw, and the two sang an absolutely terrible rendition of My Heart Will Go On, but the Rush eliminated the Marlins in the playoffs, so we all know who came out ahead on that one

 

Juice and I opted to step down following the championship season, and @Domg5 would serve as the teams final general manager. He had built a great foundation but alas it was all for nothing in the long run. Dom was promoted to the VHL as new GM for the Malmo Nighthawks, and the VHLE murdered the Yukon Rush and its 50 seasons of history and tradition. It's been a hell of a ride Yukon. You will be missed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ricer13 2,824]

This is where it all began for me as an AGM. A lot of amazing users came through those teams. RIP Yukon

[Dom 1,445]

[Beaviss 4,958]

[fromtheinside 1,290]

and now a performance by Sarah McLaughlin

 

 

[BarzalGoat 728]

My agent will be reaching out about leaving me off of the list of former General Managers of the Rush @fromtheinside. Who do you think Smarch gave the team to? Who do you think trained Josh to be the VHL Superstar he became today ? smh

 

[BarzalGoat 728]

@McWolf there is no rush? 

[Juice 641]

35 minutes ago, fromtheinside said:

Officially it ended in a draw, and the two sang an absolutely terrible rendition of My Heart Will Go On

 

I take high offense to this as I did my best to hit those high notes ;(

 

But seriously a perfect writeup of my favourite time in the VHL as a whole. Being drunk at a bar at 2 am my time and 8 pm in Scotty's time while we were making draft trades over a discord call is still the most hilarious thing looking back on it ( @Beketov how you came to be a Rush-onian btw). We didn't just build a cup team with really good players that were just clickers like what I assume most people think the VHLM is/was, but we made it an actual fun time where everyone pitched in and we made it a great place where we celebrated every win and motivated eachother after every loss.

 

I sorely miss my time with Scotty at the co-helm at the Rush, and it's very sad to see Yukon gone for seemingly good, but I truly cherished the S78 run we had and it'll take a lot to top it.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

@fromtheinside since it seems no one has mentioned it yet: "former user Streetlight" is current user @scoop

[fromtheinside 1,290]

2 hours ago, diamond_ace said:

@fromtheinside since it seems no one has mentioned it yet: "former user Streetlight" is current user @scoop

 

 

OK I WAS WONDERING!!! Because we interviewed scoop for a pre-draft interview when he recreated, and he mentioned that he was a GM for Yukon, and when I checked the list I didnt see his name. It all makes sense now!

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Yukon 2 gud

 

@WentzKneeFan036

[ROOKIE745 607]

review time: Very good little over view of the history of the Yukon Rush, it is sad to see a team with such history moving. Good amount to read that's well spread out, I like the pictures and use of bold and underline. I like all the mentions to for everyone that played a role in this team's history. There's nothing wrong here that I can spot, I think mentioning some of the most notable players that came through the org would have been cool, and at the bottom naming listing the seasons the won the cup would have been nice to. Overall very good 9.5/10

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

How do you write about yukon without mentioning their greatest GM and arguably the greatest vhlm gm of all time

Edited November 23, 2021 by WentzKneeFan036