VSN Presents: The First Dynasty of the VHLE

[Baby Boomer 753]

@v.2

Welcome everyone,

 

We are back for another article of the VSN and this time, we are going to look at the first dynasty of the history of the VHLE. We saw some great dynasty since the creation of the league, the Oslo Storm between S85 and S88, the current Cologne Express since S87, but now we are going to see once again the journey of the very first dynasty of the VHLE, the S80 to S82 Rome Gladiators. During this period of time, the Gladiators made it to the final three times in a row and won the Renaissance Cup in S82.

 

First VHLE Entry Draft

 

Everything started in S80 with the first VHLE Entry Draft, where each team chose their first players that would decide the destiny of their franchise. When you look at the selections of the Rome Gladiators and how much they performed in the following season, you can say that the GM at the time, InstantRockstar, made some pretty good decisions. Indeed, in the first seven rounds, the GM selected Otto Numminen (8^th), Baby Bob (17^th) Hari Singh Nalwa (20^th), Tobias Reinhart (29^th), Gabby Dungan (32^nd) and Flynn Remy (41^st) that would all be really good players for the Gladiators in S80 and even S81 for some of them. He then selected players like Deke Rike (44^th), Ben Aky (43^rd), Tyler Steel (56^th), Russel Dixon (65^th) and Luke Spinelli (68^th) in the following rounds that would all play for the Rome Gladiators from S80 to S82 and win the Renaissance Cup in S82.

 

S80

 

In S80, the Rome Gladiators finished second in regular season in a really tight run for a playoff spot, as only five points separated the second and fifth place in the standings. Indeed, the Rome Gladiators finished the season with a record of 36 wins, 28 losses and 8 losses in overtime for a total of 80 points in 72 games and the Cologne Express with 36 wins, 33 losses and 3 losses in overtime for a total of 75 points, only one point short of a playoff spot. The good season of the Rome Gladiators happened, because of the good performances of some key players. Indeed, Tobias Reinhart won the trophy for the best goalie in the league, that would later on be named after Orion D H Chiester IX. On the offensive side, Otto Numminen finished 3rd in the league for the number of points and Baby Bob finished 3^rd in goals.

 

In the playoffs, the Rome Gladiators faced the 3^rd team in the standings, the Bratislava Watchmen. Before the series started, it was supposed to be a really even one as only one point separated the two teams in the regular season, but the Gladiators completely destroyed the Watchmen in only four little games to advance to the final. In the other semi-final, the Vasteras Iron Eagles upset the winners of the regular season to follow the Italian team in the final. Everything was going as planned for Rome as they led the final 3-1 after four games, but Vasteras won the next three games to win the first ever Renaissance Cup.

 

S81

 

Once again, in the S81 VHLE Entry Draft, InstantRockstar made some really good draft decisions. In the first and second round, the GM drafted Biggie Cheese (7^th) and Robert Wilk (17^th), two players that would help the team a lot in S81. Then, in the third round (27^th), he drafted the goalie that would help the team win the Cup in S82, Boris Tsezar.

 

S81 was in a way really different than S80 as there were now eight teams in the league after the arrival of the Oslo Storm and the Yukon Rush. However, if you take away the bottom three teams, the standing is really tight, as only eight points separate the first place from the fifth place. This time, the Rome Gladiators took the last spot for the playoffs with a record of 43 wins, 23 losses and 6 losses in overtime for a total of 92 points in 72 games, only one more point than the Bratislava Watchmen who did not make the playoffs. Eight of the thirteen players that played for the Rome Gladiators in the regular season finished with at least a point per game and three of the four best players were defenseman. Indeed, Flynn Remy finished the regular with 93 points in 72 games, Biggie Cheese with 91 points in 72 games and Milk Jugs with 88 in 60 games.

 

The winners of the regular season, the Istanbul Red Wolves were the first opponents of the Rome Gladiators in the playoffs, and it was going to be an easy series. Rome took the lead 3-1 in the series, but they saw Istanbul tie the series by winning the next two games to make the series even 3-3. Then, Flynn Remy in the second overtime of the seventh game scored his third goal of the game to complete his hat trick, and to win the series. The Rome Gladiators were now going to play against the Stockholm Vikings in the final of the Renaissance Cup. However, the Gladiators were no match against the Vikings and lost the final series in only four little games.

 

S82

 

Before the start of the draft, InstantRockstar, the GM of the Rome Gladiators traded to the Cologne Express their S82 1^st and 4^th round picks for Arthur Kimura and X Man, two players that will contribute a lot to the victory of the Renaissance Cup. In the draft, the GM drafted DB III, that would become an important piece in the conquest of the Renaissance Cup, in the second round, 13th overall.

 

The Rome Gladiators completed another trade at the start of the regular season with the Istanbul Red Wolves. Rome received the defensemen Drakon Zabastovka in exchange for their

S83 1^st and 4^th round picks. At the trade deadline, the Rome Gladiators made two trades to acquire the forward Raihan Heavems and the defensemen Matty Live. The Gladiators finished third in the league and first in their conference with a record of 45 wins, 21 losses and 6 losses in overtime for a total of 96 points in 72 games. Pekko Viitanen led the team in scoring with 97 points in 72 games and Artair McCloud won the trophy for the best defensemen of the regular season with 91 points in 72 games.

 

In the first round of the playoffs, the Rome Gladiators crossed swords with the Bratislava Watchmen and only needed five games to defeat the Slovak team. In the final, the Gladiators started the series on the wrong foot with three losses in a row against the Cologne Express. However, Rome turned it around and won the next four games to complete the reverse sweep and won their first Renaissance Cup.

 

Thanks everyone for reading, I wish you all a good off-season and see you in another VSN article!

 

Spoiler

@Otto Numminen @Dil @Spaz @Howie McMeeker @jhatty8 @JCV @Ben_Reformed @tylerwest @Rjdixon01 @Lspinelli @a_Ferk @Tomat0 @comrade cat @NerdyCowz @FBR @Xalen11 @wcats @DarkSpyro @RstortonYT @Mattylive3k @Hoopydog @Xdjk93 @InstantRockstar

[comrade cat 303]

 I still remember when we went down 3-1 and popped right back up had the whole locker room filled with cheers!

[leandrofg 1,177]

This is a good one! I want a small article series on this!

[Daniel Janser 2,214]

2 hours ago, leandrofg said:

This is a good one! I want a small article series on this!

you are just hoping for the Cologne article (wasn't there one already?)

[leandrofg 1,177]

7 minutes ago, Daniel Janser said:

you are just hoping for the Cologne article (wasn't there one already?)

 

Ahahah not necessarily on Cologne - maybe past ones too. For ourselves... I'd say it'd be cool to have one on Calgary in the future