FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY - A Klose Call

[der meister 3,197]

Look, I know I have brought this topic up a number of times in the past, so you'll have to forgive the repetition, because I'm going to do it again. As soon as I see the word "FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY" as it pertains to the VHL, I can't help but think of my second player in this league, winger Christoph Klose.

 

Klose was unfortunately the victim of bad circumstances. Perpetually the runner up for the league's award for top defensive forward, the Scott Boulet Award, Klose was a top-line staple across four franchises. The problem was Lord Karnage was always just a step ahead, winning four consecutive Boulets. 

 

He was also a key figure in his teams reaching the Cup finals in five of six seasons with three different teams, a feat that I don't believe has been done by any other player. The one blip on that radar was a Conference Finals exit in S42 with New York, aka a very near miss.

 

With the New York Americans, he won a league title in S41, and the aforementioned Conference loss. 

 

Then came the Cologne Express years, where Klose was part of a dominant trio alongside Bismark Koenig and the legendary Thomas O'Malley. Unfortunately for the Express, they would lose in Game 7 of the Cup Finals against the Seattle Bears, and then Game 6 of the Finals against the Calgary Wranglers the following season. 

 

After two wildly successful individual seasons, he joined the Helsinki Titans, along with linemate Koenig. Klose would go on to notch the Cup-winning goal for the Helsinki Titans in the S45 playoffs, tying the bow on a comeback effort that saw the Titans fight back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Calgary Wranglers.Re-signing for an additional season, the Titans would go on to win the S46 Cup as well.

 

Klose was a player who made every team he was on better. A three time Cup winner, he was a hairsbreadth away from an even more remarkable achievement - five Cups in six seasons with three different teams. He was a shutdown force, and well over a point-per-game player while doing so. He has 5 consecutive 300+ hit seasons, notched 237 goals and 559 total points in 504 games.

 

As I've argued before, the biggest knock on Klose is that he wasn't Lord Karnage, which honestly shouldn't play a role in terms of Hall of Fame recognition, but it did. While it pains me to admit, in terms of individual accolades, Karnage was the superior player, but the idea of only the best player who excels at a particular can go into the Hall of Fame is silly. We obviously have a smaller player base than the NHL, but imagine that for the entire time that Wayne Gretzky played, no other playmaking center could be considered for the Hall of Fame because Gretzky was clearly the best. If Lord Karnage had come along a few years earlier or later, Klose would likely have had multiple Boulets to go with those accomplishments. My best guess is the lack of those Boulets is what kept him from the Hall of Fame.