New Challenge Ahead For Toronto

[Doomsday 4,130]

 

TORONTO - With the 81st season of the Victory Hockey League coming to a close, things are very different for the Toronto Legion than they were just a season ago. After finishing dead-last in the VHL in Season 80, a young Toronto team that had little to no expectations placed upon them has secured a postseason berth, a dramatic turnaround few, if any, saw coming. However, they won't have any time to rest on their laurels, for the Legion will be moving on to a new challenge that only four players on their roster have experienced before: the VHL Playoffs.

 

For a team mainly composed of rookies and young players, playoff experience is a factor very much lacking on Toronto. Only Guy Lambert, Nathan Steele, Jannik Nylen, and Lenny Sanderson have played in a postseason game at the VHL level, making this trip to the playoffs a big success for what many pundits felt would be one of development for Toronto, rather than competition. But for Matty Fire, Kyle Peace and company, the stakes are about to get much higher. They've pulled off some upsets on top teams, but being locked in as the fifth seed, they'll now need to beat a quality team consistently, in a best of five series. 

 

 

Toronto’s opponent in that series is still up in the air with two games left to play. Regardless of what happens, the Legion will be the fifth seed. However, the Calgary Wranglers and the Los Angeles Stars are fighting for the third seed. Despite being seemingly locked in for a wild card showdown with Toronto a week ago, the Wranglers have won nine games in a row, and are now poised to take on Seattle in the next round instead. Although the suddenly faltering Stars seem to be a more desirable opponent, they are not a team to be taken lightly. With two 40 goal scorers in Pistil Stamen and Dan Dan, LA also has veteran goaltender Rara Rasputin in net, who won the Daisuke Kanou Trophy as the playoff MVP with the Seattle Bears in Season 77. 

 

The playoff experience of Rasputin will be difficult to overcome, but the path to the Continental Cup is never an easy one. Underdogs like the Toronto Legion must overcome the odds and rally when all the chips are on the table, and favorites such as the defending champion Vancouver Wolves face the challenge of living up to the lofty expectations placed upon them. When even being in the playoffs is defying the odds, Toronto is going into the next challenge effectively playing with house money, with each additional success simply icing on the cake of a tremendous season. 

 

Jethro Novacek is an award-winning writer for the MSFL Times, the preferred source of simulation sports news. He enjoys snacking on Christmas cookies, asserting that Die Hard (and Die Harder) is a Christmas movie, and bigAL.

[Shindigs 1,771]

I mean if Toronto doesn't get eliminated in the 1st round, is it even hockey anymore?

 

That being said I wish you all the best of luck!