A Tanking Cautionary Tale: The S32 Ottawa Ice Dogs

[CowboyinAmerica 2,891]

 

VHLM Spotlight: The tale of the S32 Ottawa Ice Dogs

 

These days, the VHLM has a number of rules to make sure that teams don’t tank for draft picks. Some may think that’s a silly rule, but it has a basis in history: Back in the day, it was the emergent (and perhaps only) strategy to try and win. And perhaps no team did this better than the Season 32 Ottawa Ice Dogs, two seasons before they would be renamed the Lynx.

 

Leading up to Season 32, Ottawa traded the entire farm multiple times for draft picks. That, coupled with extreme tanking, all led to what they figured would be one season of glory. Ottawa would have the top three picks, 6 of the top 9, and 9 of the top 14 picks in the S32 VHLM Draft. They steamrolled the regular season and seemed poise for that ultimate glory.

 

But there’s one problem with extreme tanking: It doesn’t actually guarantee a championship. Perhaps not even close.

 

The Draft

 

Taking a look at the Season 32 VHLM Dispersal Draft means taking a trip through history, both at the way the VHLM used to be run but also some of the greatest players of the 30s. What would end up as the Season 33 VHL Draft would be extremely packed, with two Hall of Famers and nine different players that would win VHL titles.

 

Here’s the top 14 (stopping at that point for a reason) of that draft:

 

ROUND 1

1. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Wesley Kellinger

2. Ottawa Ice Dogs: GIYGAS

3. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Niklas Valiq

4. Oslo Storm: Felix Zamora

5. Oslo Storm: Keiji Toriyama

6. Oslo Storm: Karsten Olsen

7. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Tomas Valiq

8. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Mattis Trumbauer

9. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Jamie Shetler

10. Oslo Storm: Riley Stevens

 

ROUND 2

11. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Odin Tordahl

12. Brampton Blades: Bodie Broadus

13. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Cody Inko

14. Ottawa Ice Dogs: Dan Jones

 

If you didn’t notice the common theme, I helpfully bolded it for you: The Ottawa Ice Dogs absolutely dominated the draft. Ottawa had already carried over a goalie in Mack Hudson from the previous season, but they were able to completely remake their roster from head to toe with all of those draft picks. The first pick, HOFer Wesley Kellinger @Jericho, would also be the first pick in the VHL Draft the next season. Niklas Valiq (actually S32 VHL Draft eligible) and brother Tomas Valiq would go top four in their respective drafts. Even the 11th pick here, Odin Tordahl @BOOM, would go on to be a VHL Hall of Famer.

 

In short, the Ice Dogs were stacked. But they weren’t the only team to try this strategy. The Oslo Storm managed to have the other four picks of the first round, but overall lesser selections than the Ice Dogs. Picking Zamora @frescoelmo, Toriyama @scoop and Olsen @CowboyinAmerica gave them some semblance of firepower and at least a bit of a fight against Ottawa, especially paired with returning forward Damien Sandow. Other teams, notably the Saskatoon Wild and Brampton Blades, also had some players stay down from Season 31.

 

But really, would any team be able to put up a fight against an Ottawa squad with that much talent?

 

The Regular Season

 

It sure didn’t seem so when the regular season hit. Ottawa came out hot in its first nine games, beating North American Conference competitors Saskatoon four times and Brampton once en route to a perfect 9-0 record. (That would eventually be broken by the Bern Royals in an upset.) And while not everything would be perfect - they notably would lose two of their first three games against Oslo, for instance - Ottawa simply refused to lose.

 

In total, the Ice Dogs finished with a 58-11-3 record on the season, good for 119 points tied for the most wins in the regular season over the previous six VHLM seasons. And while they were pushed hard by Saskatoon in particular, the Wild were never able to overcome those early season losses - even a 9-1 stretch to finish the regular season still put the Wild with 115 points, four short. The Storm would finish with 110 points, and the Storm with 101 points. (Remember, tanking from other teams also gave these competitors some easy wins.)

 

It was truly a team effort that defined the Ice Dogs winning, which makes sense given the team’s spectacular depth. Two scorers in the VHLM topped 100 goals that season - but Ottawa’s leading scorer, Wesley Kellinger, had just 61 goals. But Ottawa had five different players top 30 goals on the season, while three others were in double digits. And while defenseman Niklas Valiq did lead the VHLM with 101 assists, Ottawa similarly had four different players top 40 assists as well. Goalie Mack Hudson was also solid, if unspectacular - third in save percentage (.913), but first in GAA (2.05) due to the excellent defense in front of him.

 

Plus, it’s notable that Ottawa would not stop there. During the season, the team would acquire defenseman Gregory Glass to pair on the top line with Niklas Valiq, and he would score 40 points in 46 games. At the trade deadline, Ottawa would also snag future S34 first overall pick Doug Clifford @Frank to bolster the forward core even more.

 

In short, the Ottawa team did what it set out to do during the regular season. They just had to do it again in the playoffs to finish things off.

 

The Playoffs

 

Maybe you can guess what’s coming, but at the time, nobody saw any reason to predict anything but an Ottawa victory. Due to the structure of the playoffs at the time, they only had to win two series to take it all.

 

The top teams in each conference (Ottawa and Oslo) received byes to the semifinals, while second and third place in each conference would face each other in a wild card round. In this case, that meant Saskatoon and Brampton beating each other up before facing Ottawa, even though both had more than 100 regular season points. And in an upset, Brampton would actually take the series in seven games to gain the right to face the Ice Dogs.

 

If Hollywood was writing the story, you know what would be coming. The ultimate matchup in the finals: The team with all the firsts in Ottawa against the other team that tried tanking, but less effectively in Oslo. The juggernaut against the also rans for Season 32 supremacy.

 

But there’s one wrinkle that I haven’t talked about much that many people also forgot about at the time: Brampton was actually really, really good. Goalie Evgeni Chekhov @Beketov easily led the VHLM with a .923 save percentage during the regular season, and left winger Filip Forsberg had stormed through the VHLM to lead in both goals (116) and points (209) en route to a shared MVP award. Although Brampton didn’t have Ottawa’s depth, it was clear that the Ice Dogs needed to take the Blades seriously before ever getting to the Storm in the finals.

 

Clearly, they did not. The Ice Dogs would fall behind Game 1 by 5-1 before trying to come back, but failing in a 5-4 defeat. Game 2 wasn’t even close, a 6-3 Blades victory with Chekhov outdueling Hudson. And while Ottawa would take a nailbiter 1-0 in Game 3, it was clear the Blades were here to play.

 

Game 4 was the do or die for the Ice Dogs, and after falling down early to the Blades after two Lucas Smith goals, they fought their way back to 2-2 entering the late third period. But then, with less than four minutes left in the game, disaster: another Lucas Smith goal for a hat trick would cause the Ice Dogs to fall 3-2, and make the series 3-1 Brampton. From there, it was more heartbreak: Brampton would win Game 5 with a goal in the final minute (from Forsberg, naturally) and set the dominant Ottawa team out to pasture.

 

That depth that Ottawa held so dear from the draft really let them down in those five games. The stars were still there, to be certain - Kellinger finished with 8 points (3 goals and 5 assists), while Tordahl and Niklas Valiq each averaged more than a point per game. But ninth overall pick Jamie Shetler had no points in five games; second overall pick GIYGAS had just three. And even vaunted pick ups Doug Clifford (one goal) and Gregory Glass (one assist) would basically do nothing to help the Brampton steamroll. 

 

The End

 

Oslo would indeed take the finals series over Brampton in five games with that core of Sandow, Zamora, Toriyama and Olsen, but the real story was the fall of the Ottawa Ice Dogs. Coming off perhaps the most dominant VHLM Draft of all time, the team seemed to have the ability to put everything together. But it’s important to remember that even if you tank, it’s not a guarantee. There are always other strong teams out there, and particularly when it comes to the VHL, Simon is gonna Simon.

 

The Season 32 Ottawa Ice Dogs would have it all. Until they didn’t.

 

[CowboyinAmerica 2,891]

Already had an article to claim this week but wanted to do the Theme Week.

 

1500+ words, claiming this one in VHL and SBA for the weeks ending:

 

6/30

7/7

7/14

[Victor 10,950]

Got nothing on S26 Vasteras.

[CowboyinAmerica 2,891]

On 6/19/2024 at 12:06 PM, CowboyinAmerica said:

Already had an article to claim this week but wanted to do the Theme Week.

 

1500+ words, claiming this one in VHL and SBA for the weeks ending:

 

6/30

7/7

7/14

 

Claim 3