How the S87 Victory Cup winner lost to a 12th overall team

[VattghernCZ 985]

 

S87 was quite a season for the Wolves. Despite some huge departures in the offseason, including their postseason scoring leader and star defenseman Biggie Cheese and team captain Alexandre Leduc, the S86 Continental Cup winners were riding high and were ready to prove they're still one of the league's top teams, despite cap situation and the need to graduate prospect players in the big league forced them to move players they'd undoubtedly prefer to keep around.

 

To replace Leduc and to round out the core 4 forwards, enter star winger Nezuko. Pierre Emile Bouchard, named the team's new captain, was eager to show he's among the best the league has to offer, and an S86 Daisuke Kanou winner Brandt Fuhr was tending the Wolves crease. This team was not planning to slow down, even with a few rookies sprinkled through the lineup.

 

And slow down they did not. They really hit the ground running, and were consistently at or near the top of the standings for pretty much the whole season. The only little hurdle in their way came in the last quarter of the season, when they went 9-6-3. And when the worst quarter of the season is still a winning record, you know you're doing something right. After the regular season was wrapped up, thanks to league's best offense and stellar goaltending Vancouver was the only team to reach 50 wins and triple digits standing points, as they finished with Victory Cup winning 50-16-6 record and 106 points, 9 points ahead of the second place Calgary Wranglers.

 

For Seattle, the regular season went nowhere near as smoothly as for the Vancouver. They were hovering around or slightly under 50% most of the time. The rough road eventually lead the brass to make two huge trades - acquiring two star forwards: Riga's defenseman-turned-winger Tavish DeGroot (49GP 18G 32A 50P with Reign) and D.C.'s winger Vasile Lamb (53GP 33G 31A 64P with Dragons). They joined Hulk Hogan 2 to create a strong forward core surrounded by talented youngsters, which complemented their underrated defense. Both forwards fitted in seamlessly, and carried on scoring above a point-per-game with the Bears, and were the reason Seattle was able to finish the season with a stronger stretch and snatch the final wild card spot with 33-31-8 record (5th in NA Conference, 12th overall). In the wild card round, Seattle faced Chicago Phoenix (36-33-3, 4th in NA, 11th overall) and was able to win the series in game 5 overtime. Playoff series don't get closer than this one.

 

 

When I first started writing this, I knew the Wolves won 5 out of the 6 games between these teams in the regular season, and seeing the records on top of that, my immediate reaction to Bears eliminating the Wolves was "FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY!". That's what lead me to write this MS. But looking deeper, they were matched much more evenly than I realized. 3 out of the 6 games needed extra time to settle. And after regulation, the things can go any way. While the Bears were the better team on man advantage, ultimately the goaltending and a bit better 5v5 play lead to the Wolves having slightly better goal differential and taking 10 points out of possible 12 - but still allowing Seattle to steal 5 points.

 

 

The teams were not matched as evenly in the postseason. The Wolves simply played like the better team. They almost doubled the Bears' shot total, and now had a slight upper hand on man advantage. The biggest difference between the teams however was the rate at which they were able to convert their chances. You can't blame a goaltender for series loss, when your defense is lacking that another stellar defender playing behind Bouchard. Fuhr has proven to be better than the .897 SV% would suggest. The Wolves ran into a hot goaltender...and got FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY.