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[Triller 1,669]

Off-season Woes

After a disappointing removal from the playoff conversation last season the London United looked to retool the team a bit and welcome some rookies into the fold.  Playing a forward short may have really hurt the team last season and being able to fill those roles should hopefully be a big boost.  The core will stay intact but some secondary pieces have been moved around.  Up front the team welcomes Thor Odinson and Nick Sansoe.  After grinding their way through the VHLE they are finally able to make their debut as one of the United.  Another change up front comes in a trade with the Moscow Menace.  London acquired Deron Nesbitt in exchange for Adam Rage and London's S92 2nd Round Pick which was a big acquisition to help fill out the lines on defense.  Through free agency, GM Jacob Carson brought in another San Diego Champion in Jack Jeckler.  Womp Jr was sent back down to the VHLE while Siyan Yasilievich went to test the Free Agent waters.  With the transactions completed, London had its team.  This season, the veteran United players will need to make an impact and work together to foster another winning environment.  Molly the Cat, Igor Molotov and Leonard Triller up front with Board Game Clue, Hunor Solyom and star goaltender, Jesse Teno holding down the back.  The team has a balanced spread of talent on the ice and everyone will need to contribute to compete.

 

Being named the assistant captain for the third time, the team shows the confidence they have in Leonard Triller and his abilities.  He is in the hot seat this season and will need to come into his own and solidify his play style.  After extensive talks with his GM, Triller's development plan was laid out and his training began immediately.  He continues to strive to be a top playmaker in the league and will put that at the forefront of his training.  London struggled last season in the scoring department so his goal scoring capabilities will also be addressed.  A point per game is the goal for the season but Leonard hopes for much more as well as a deep run into the playoffs!  He loves the core group in London and hopes to make a stronger connection with Molly the Cat on the ice.

 

First Half of Season

To say London is struggling in the first half of the season would be an understatement.  With a 16-16-4 record the team needs to find a way to put up points and get back into a good place.  With Jesse Teno doing everything possible, the team's goal scoring woes continue to plague them from last season.  Line chemistry seems to be off and it is showing.  London’s core is failing to make the impact that they expected to make and GM Jacob is trying to figure out a solution to change the team's fate.  With such an abysmal outcome so far combined with the mediocre S89, does the team ponder a restructure or does London ride this out to the end of the season?  The locker room is not optimistic but with GM Jacob on the case and nothing to lose, hopefully changes can be made.  No one on the team has broken into any of the stat leader lists and do not look like they will be.  The second half of the season will need to be a real one eighty if London hopes to make the playoffs at all.

 

Leonard unfortunately is having a subpar season so far.  His stats are lacking and fall far short of what he had achieved last season.  Even with his scoring up 4 more than last season at the halfway point, his assists are down by 10 giving him 6 less points overall.  The sophomore slump might have been a delayed hit.  Triller is shooting way more than last season which is something that will hopefully help later in the season if the team can make a push but he seems to lack chemistry with his current linemates.  With changes incoming, hopefully things can start to click.  His physicality remains intact from last season with 79 hits but as a top forward in the lineup Triller needs to shift his focus to putting up points rather than dropping bodies.  Hopefully this mentality can sink in and he can make the change.

 

TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB
Vancouver Wolves	4	3	2	5	2	4	12	7	2
Calgary Wranglers	1	0	1	1	1	0	2	2	0
Los Angeles Stars	3	0	2	2	-3	0	13	5	2
Chicago Phoenix	4	2	0	2	0	2	21	8	0
Seattle Bears	3	2	1	3	0	2	15	5	1
New York Americans				0
DC Dragons				0
Toronto Legion	2	1	0	1	0	0	11	11	0
NAC Totals	17	8	6	14	0	8	74	38	5
TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB
HC Davos Dynamo	5	0	2	2	-3	4	17	12	2
Moscow Menace	2	1	2	3	1	0	13	8	1
Malmo Nighthawks	3	1	1	2	-1	8	14	6	1
Riga Reign	5	4	2	6	2	2	30	5	2
Warsaw Predators				0
Prague Phantoms	2	0	1	1	-1	0	7	2	1
Helsinki Titans	2	0	0	0	-1	0	7	8	1
London United				0
EUC Totals	19	6	8	14	-3	14	88	41	8
TOTAL	36	14	14	28	-3	22	162	79	13

 

Second Half of Season

GM Jacob Carson should win the David Knight Trophy for the changes made in London this season.  The changes made to the lineup and strategies is a master class in working with what you have and finding the sweet spot to win games.  The team at one point went on a 12 game winning streak only matched by Davos who managed the same success at the same time as the United.  Though the end of the season dipped, the team managed to secure their spot in the wildcard series against Helsinki with a record of 35-33-4 which puts the second half of the season at 19-17-0.  The LR was on fire for the last 36 games as the team achieved some major success while allowing their players to get into stride and start to put up some points.  Molly the Cat, Leonard Triller and Igor Molotov found the chemistry they needed to rally for the second half of the season.  With Molly and Leonard finishing above a point per game, one would wonder what kind of production they could have had if the chemistry was developed earlier in the season!  Molly leads the team in goals with 39 and Board Game Clue takes top spot in assists with 49.  Jesse Teno, despite the team's record, had a not bad season.  A .925 in save percentage and a career best 6 shutouts for second overall in the league.  Jesse allowed the team to take home some close games as well as really showing up in shootouts.  With the wildcard set, London looks to solve the problem that Helsinki has been all season.  With an 0-6 record against the Titans, there will need to be some lofty changes in an attempt to take this upcoming series.

 

As for Leonard, in the last 36 games of the season, has 21 goals and 33 assists for 54 points bringing the season total to 35 goals, 47 assists and 82 points.  GM Jacob Carson had lit a fire underneath Triller for this part of the season and he responded by leading the team in points with Molly the Cat close behind at 77 who also had 48 of those points come in the last 36 games.  With Leonard’s focus leaning towards points, his hits and shot blocks dropped from last season but allowed him to stay out of the penalty box a bit more.  Got to be on the ice to make the plays and hopefully this change will allow Leonard to step up in this upcoming series with the Helsinki Titans.  Playoff time!

 

TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB
Vancouver Wolves	4	3	2	5	2	4	12	7	2
Calgary Wranglers	4	1	5	6	4	6	21	7	1
Los Angeles Stars	4	0	2	2	-4	0	17	7	2
Chicago Phoenix	4	2	0	2	0	2	21	8	0
Seattle Bears	4	3	1	4	1	2	20	6	1
New York Americans	4	2	4	6	3	2	15	4	2
DC Dragons	4	3	3	6	1	4	19	5	0
Toronto Legion	4	4	1	5	0	0	20	11	1
NAC Totals	32	18	18	36	7	20	145	55	9
TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB
HC Davos Dynamo	6	0	2	2	-3	4	22	13	2
Moscow Menace	6	3	10	13	5	2	37	10	2
Malmo Nighthawks	6	1	2	3	-2	8	25	11	1
Riga Reign	6	4	4	8	3	2	38	5	2
Warsaw Predators	5	4	8	12	5	0	30	9	2
Prague Phantoms	5	2	2	4	-1	0	22	5	3
Helsinki Titans	6	3	1	4	-5	2	38	13	3
London United				0
EUC Totals	40	17	29	46	2	18	212	66	15
TOTAL	72	35	47	82	9	38	357	121	24
S89 TOTAL	72	21	44	65	-2	48	288	164	46
DIFFERENCE		14	3	17	11	-10	69	-43	-22

 

Wildcard vs Helsinki Titans
The United are ready for a push into the playoffs and Helsinki is the first wall to smash through.  The locker room is optimistic and everyone is ready to go!  The Titans are confident coming in having swept the regular season series but the United are very comfortable with this type of matchup as regular season records always go by the wayside when the playoffs begin.  They proved this in their S88 championship run.  This series went back and forth with both teams finding the back of the net quite often.  With 33 pucks finding pay dirt in this 5 game series, the goalies were working overtime.  Leonard hit the ice hard and started the off-season with 5 goals and 4 assists, netting a hat trick in the last game of the series to help London take the wildcard series.  Molly the Cat took on a solid playmaking role with 5 assists and 2 goals but firing off 36 shots causing Fukka Rask to have rebound issues.  Jesse Teno once again showed off their playoff form with 174 shots coming their way, stopping 157 for a save percentage of 0.902, keeping their team alive when it counted.  Next up for London are their conference rivals in Davos.  The Dynamo crushed London in the regular season series winning 5 out of 6 but as London has shown, playoffs are a whole different beast.

 

TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB
Helsinki Titans	5	5	4	9	2	2	28	4	2

 

Conference Semi Finals vs HC Davos Dynamo

The locker room is buzzing in London in anticipation of round 2 against Davos.  With some playoff history and the lively rivalry between goalies Teno and Summers, the series is one to watch and every player is feeling it!  London hopes to get out to an early lead but the opposite presents itself when Davos takes game 1 and 2.  Game 1 has Davos shut off the United offense with a shut out but game 2 ends up much closer showing London hasn’t lost its edge yet and that they do have secondary scoring.  Like the S88 series VS Davos, London shows up for game 3 and 4 in a big way and take both to tie the series.  The team is scoring again and it is coming from all over the ice.  The whole team is putting up points to secure the wins.  If this continues, London will be rolling into round 3.  Game 5 continues with the scoring trend but Davos comes out firing to match.  Defense seems to have joined in on the offensive onslaught and both teams seem fine to keep their goals taking the brunt of it.  Davos pulls off the win in game 5 putting them up 3-2.  London is on the ropes and needs to take game 6 to avoid an early off-season.  The offense for both teams shows up again but the Dynamo continue their dominance and take game 6 with a 5-3 win sending London home for the season.  Leonard Triller showed up to this series but could not push his team over the edge.  Ending with almost 2 points per game at 11 in 6 games played, Triller has shown that he is a reliable factor when it comes to the playoffs.  The chemistry found with his linemates in the second half of the regular season brought him further success in this series.  Molly the Cat racks up 10 points in the series and Molotov comes in with 7 giving the first line 28 points in total.  Not enough to extend their time in the playoffs unfortunately.

 

TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB
HC Davos Dynamo	6	5	6	11	0	2	28	7	2

 

Leonard Triller wraps up the playoffs with 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points in 11 games.  He sits tied in second for Points and Goals, 5 games back from the overall leaders after the playoffs had come to a close.  An impressive showing and one that Leonard is very happy with.  Individual achievements are always nice to have but that Championship is still something he hopes to have with the core in London again.  There might be some major turnover in London this season but hopefully GM Jacob is able to bring back some free agents and find a new fit at center after Igor Molotov rides off into the sunset for retirement.  Leonard will look to maintain his game going into the off season and work on meshing with Molly the Cat and his new line mate once someone is brought in.  Next season will be interesting to watch.  Let's go, United!

 

Playoff Stat Totals

TEAM	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	SHT	HIT	SB		W	L
Helsinki Titans	5	5	4	9	2	2	28	4	2		3	2
HC Davos Dynamo	6	5	6	11	0	2	28	7	2		2	4
				0
				0
Totals	11	10	10	20	2	4	56	11	4		5	6

(+2000 Words)
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Edited October 23, 2023 by Triller

[jacobcarson877 2,541]

Such a weird season, but hoping for some stability and action this time around!

[Triller 1,669]

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