VSN Presents: The Longest Cup Droughts and When They Started

[sadie 830]

@ace_five_

After an exciting S94 where the Moscow Menace snagged their first Continental Cup win since S70, maybe it’s time to look at the other teams who are hoping to break their curses too. Today we’ll look at the teams who have gone the longest without a Continental Cup, and check out who got them there!

 

New York Americans: 42 seasons

Last win: S53

Regarded as the most cursed team in the VHL (and rightly so), we have to go back to the S50s to find their last championship, a time when most active players were not yet born. The Americans are still one of the league’s most storied teams and the franchise has indeed existed since S1 (as the Hamilton Canucks until S7). Despite the recent drought, the team has seen superstars come and go, and both players and GMs have taken home many individual awards; they just haven’t been able to get it done.

 

NYA’s S53 championship season was a memorable one, with many players having massive standout performances in the regular season. Here are the most notable:

 

C - Joel Jarvi
72GP, 62G, 100A, 162P
Only one player has since had more points in a season (Podrick Cast @Victor in S62) and Aurelien Moreau @Frank (S81) remains the only player to put up triple digit assists since. Joel was traded from Cologne to New York for the final sixteen games + playoffs and won the Szatkowski, Slobodzian, and Beketov trophies in what ended up being the final season of their career.

 

RW - Diana Maxwell (HoF) @scoop
72GP, 64G, 73A, 137P
Maxwell finished third in points and goals in their best career season, and won the Kanou for the Americans as well. Diana would go on to win both the Brooks and Szatkowski trophies in S54 and S55 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in S58.

 

C - Unassisted (HoF)
72GP, 56G, 79A, 135P
Unassisted finished 5th in league scoring, 6th in goals, and 2nd in assists. They didn’t win any individual awards in S53 but took home the Campbell, Slobodzian, and Kanou in the previous season where the Americans also won the Cup. They entered the Hall of Fame in S56.

 

Awards:
New York Americans: Continental Cup, Victory Cup, Devon Marlow-Marta Trophy
Joel Jarvi: MIke Szatkowski Trophy, Alexander Beketov Trophy, Brett Slobodzian Trophy
Diana Maxwell: Daisuke Kanou Trophy
Tom Lincoln: Mikka Virkkunen Trophy

 

The Americans would take down the Stockholm Vikings in a tense seven-game series but come out on top, with Diana Maxwell earning 24 playoff points. New York has only made it back to the Continental Cup finals once since that S53 win, and lost in 7 games to the S60 Helsinki Titans. They weren’t able to fight their way into the playoffs in S95, but with players like Callum Gary Yannick Janser @Daniel Janser and Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish, and an incredible GM in @STZ, they are bound to give the curse a run for its money soon.

Helsinki Titans: 29 seasons
Last win: S66

Helsinki may have waited this long for a Continental Cup, but it’s certainly not because they’ve lacked cup-caliber teams. Helsinki have lost in 5 straight Continental Cup finals since their last win in S66:

S67 - Vancouver wins 4-2
S73 - Seattle wins 4-2
S74 - Vancouver wins 4-2
S77 - Seattle wins 4-1
S91 - Toronto wins 4-2

It’s unfortunate that they haven’t gotten the job done yet, and I would have loved to see them do it in the early S90s, but we are now 3 seasons removed from their last playoff appearance. Can Helsinki do it the next time their window opens, even with a new GM coming in?

 

Helsinki saw a meteoric rise from S65 to S66, finishing 4th in the league with 68 points one year and then seeing that number skyrocket to 113 in the next one. They won the Victory Cup, and quite honestly, basically anything and everything you can win, including probably the lottery and the Super Bowl. The Titans brought home THIRTEEN awards, which I will list at the bottom and not here. Here were their best performances:

 

LW - Julian Borwinn (HoF) @Jubo
72GP, 51G, 63A, 114P
Borwinn had far and away the most successful season of their career here, outdoing their second best season by 18 points. Clearly, all the awards voters were very excited about this, given the 5 individual trophies they ended up adding to their cabinet along with the team awards. Borwinn had the most points and tied for the most goals with his teammate Thompson, and would win another MVP in S70 en route to the Hall of Fame.

 

LW - Matt Thompson (HoF) @Beketov
72GP, 51G, 50A, 101P
Matt Thompson was instrumental for the Titans, finishing 1st in goals, 3rd in points, and 7th in hits, adding a needed physical aspect to their line which was enormously important for playoff success. Thompson also led the Titans in playoff scoring with 16 points in 9 games and would end their career with 13 individual awards.

 

G - Alexander Pepper
65GP, 49W, 13L, 2OTL, .921SV%, 2.45GAA
Pepper spent their whole career with Helsinki, and got a deserved Continental Cup for it. Their performance in the playoffs with an 8-1 record and a .931 SV% meant they rightfully were awarded the Kanou in addition to the Shaw. S66 was their sole Cup win but the devotion to the Titans means they are remembered as one of the franchise’s most legendary players.

 

Awards:
Helsinki Titans: Continental Cup, Victory Cup, Terence Fong Trophy
Julian Borwinn: Brett Slobodzian Trophy, Scotty Campbell Trophy, Mike Szatkowski Trophy, Dustin Funk Trophy, Kevin Brooks Trophy (tie)
Matt Thompson: Scott Boulet Trophy, Kevin Brooks Trophy (tie)
Alexander Pepper: Aidan Shaw Trophy, Daisuke Kanou Trophy
Dan Montgomery: Alexander Valiq Trophy
Matt Bailey: David Knight Trophy

 

Helsinki, having finished first in the league, earned a first-round bye while Davos delivered a 4-0 beatdown of a series to the Riga Reign to advance from the wildcard round. Helsinki had little trouble dispatching them, as the series ended in five games. The Titans would sweep the heavy underdog Vancouver Wolves to take the title with very little pushback from everyone else. Helsinki failed again to make the playoffs this year (6th in EU Conference), but have very promising prospects like Ahsoka Tano @Aimee coming up to fight their way back into contention with players such as Maple Dogwood @dogwoodmaple and Mikko Borisyuk @PacifistKit17.

 

Riga Reign: 23 seasons 0 seasons!
Last win: S72 S95

I’d already written this by the time it had happened, but the Riga Reign are your S95 Continental Cup Champions! But in recent years, before finally getting it done, they always seemed like an exciting team coming into the playoffs, but generally flopped once they made it there. Early postseason defeats have seemed demoralizing but this year, the Latvian club finally took their chance to break out of the drought and fought extremely well in the playoffs so far with star players like Skor McFleury @Alex and Axle Gunner @Steve.

 

But before the recent celebrations, we have to go back all the way to S72, where Riga finished third in league overall standings, just as they did this past year. Calgary and Seattle had 105 and 97 points respectively, as compared to Riga’s 86. Having a record not that far over .500, not many were banking on Riga to win it all, as their highest scorer was actually a defenseman. Let’s take a look at their key players:

 

D - Lincoln Tate (HoF) @Tate
72GP, 16G, 70A, 86P
Tate was the star of the show in Riga, and led the team by 12 points, a decently wide margin. One might think they would have won awards for this, but S72 had a whopping 4 defensemen in the top 8 point scorers, with future Hall of Famer Condor Adrienne @OrbitingDeath being the only player to break the century mark that season. Lincoln did record the most assists jointly with Berocka Sundqvist @Berocka and would finish 8th in overall scoring. They enjoyed a successful postseason with Riga, nabbing 17 points in 13 games. Tate would go on to win the Labatte Trophy in S73, and the Wylde in S74 (they won both in S71).

 

C - Codrick Past @Kylrad
72GP, 34G, 34A, 68P
Past finished 3rd in Reign scoring, and although 68 points may not seem the most impressive mark when compared to the sky-high totals we often see today, Past was an instrumental part of the championship squad, dishing out 103 hits and blocking 26 shots as well. Past finished 1st in Reign goals, and 11th leaguewide; they recorded 16 playoff points in this penultimate season of their career.

 

G - Greg Eagles @Greg_Di
63GP, 35W, .914SV%, 2.67 GAA
Although these regular season stats weren’t especially amazing by any means (Greg finished 6th in SV% and 5th in GAA among goalies who played 50+ games) the playoffs is where we saw the true clutch factor Eagles had. They showed incredible performance after incredible performance, finishing the playoffs 12-1 with a .936 SV% and 2.03 GAA. Eagles turned it up to another level that postseason, and will always be remembered in Riga for it. It was an easy decision to award Eagles the Kanou afterwards.

 

Awards:
Riga Reign: Continental Cup, Terence Fong Trophy
Lincoln Tate: Alexander Beketov Trophy
Greg Eagles: Daisuke Kanou Trophy

 

Riga under the leadership of Eagles, and against the odds, absolutely stomped everyone they came across. They swept HC Davos Dynamo in the first round and took no more time to deal with Moscow. They came up against an extremely skillful Calgary team in the final, but given the Wranglers had barely escaped from 2 seven game series on the way there, fatigue certainly played a role and Riga took advantage. Points to Calgary for winning one against Eagles though!

Los Angeles Stars: 23 seasons
Last win: N/A

Los Angeles is a newer team than all the prior ones, having only come into existence after Riga won the S72 Cup, but regardless they’ve never seen a win in franchise history, so they get to be on this list. Many Los Angeles fans thought it was finally their year in S90, but they were completely throttled by Prague 4-0 in the finals. Regardless, it’s the best run we’ve got so let’s take a look at what got them there.

 

Los Angeles wasn’t even favored to win their first-round matchup, having finished 3rd in the NA conference and 5th leaguewide with 99 points. But their star players came through and brought them pretty far. They ended the regular season 4th in goals for and with the 5th lowest goals against, showing their consistently good play on both sides of the puck.

 

C - Todd Cooke @KRZY
72GP, 41G, 77A, 118P
Cooke is a player that Stars fans will count themselves lucky to have watched, and was incredibly loyal to the team, playing every season with Los Angeles. In S90, those fans were treated to a 118 point season, a season that propelled them to a Scotty Campbell Trophy win. Cooke finished with the most points in the league as well as sharing the trophy for most assists with Ryuji Sakamoto. In addition to these, Todd would win the Brooks trophy for most goals in the S92 season, the final of their career. When it was all said and done, they had put up the 2nd most goals, assists, and points in Stars franchise history.

 

C - Napoleon Dynamite @thadthrasher
72GP, 40G, 49A, 89P
Somewhat overshadowed next to fellow centerman Cooke, Dynamite was fantastic to watch as well. In addition to their 89 points (good for 10th leaguewide), Dynamite threw 183 hits and blocked 42 shots, something you don’t see as often from these star players. Dynamite put up 18 points in the playoffs (9 goals and 9 assists) in 15 games, and set the bar for physicality throughout, inspiring the Stars to the finals.

 

G - Art Vandelay @Gustav
65GP, 45W, .925SV%, 2.37 GAA
Vandelay was the face of the franchise for most of his career, and similarly to Cooke, spent it all with Los Angeles. In S90, they managed to set their career high in wins with 45 and were it not for surefire Hall of Famer Lachlan Summers @kirbithan, they would likely have had a shot at earning themselves some individual hardware. Vandelay shined in the playoffs as well with 8 wins, a .927 SV%, and a 2.38 GAA through 15 games but ended up running into the wall that was the red-hot Matt Murdock @Acydburn that season.

 

Awards:
Los Angeles Stars: Devon Marlow-Marta Trophy
Todd Cooke: Mike Szatkowski Trophy, Alexander Beketov Trophy, Scotty Campbell Trophy

 

LA shocked everyone at the beginning of the playoffs with a clean sweep of the Dragons, but the Toronto Legion proved a little tougher to dispatch. The Stars needed seven games to take care of them while Prague only took 5 to beat Davos and exhausted from the fight against the Legion, Los Angeles were taken down, blowing a 3rd period Game 4 lead and losing to an electric Perry Laperriere @KaleebtheMighty overtime cup winner.

 

And while we're at it, let's see who the teams that have gone the longest without a points leader are.
 

Mike Szatkowski Trophy

Seattle Bears: 14 seasons (S81)

Justin Lose @youloser1337 72G, 70A, 142P

Lose also took home the Scotty Campbell, Kevin Brooks, and Brett Slobodzian Trophies and had an unprecedented 72 goal season.

 

Vancouver Wolves: 15 seasons (S80)

Jivere Zolnek @Sixersfan594 46G, 87A, 133P

Zolnek won the Alexander Beketov Trophy en route to Continental and Victory Cup wins with the unstoppable Vancouver Wolves.

 

Malmö Nighthawks: 16 seasons (S79)
Gunnar Odinsson @BOOM 57G, 76A, 133P

Odinsson wound up winning much more than just the Szatkowski, including the Slobodzian, Kanou, and Funk in a season where Malmö was able to win it all. They were

 

Helsinki Titans: 26 seasons (S69)

Julian Borwinn @Jubo 42G, 51A, 93P
This was the penultimate season of Borwinn's illustrious career and the 8th of 9 individual awards he would win, before receiving an invitation to the HOF after retirement.
 

New York Americans: 40 seasons (S55)
Diana Maxwell @scoop 55G, 61A, 116P

This was Diana's final year with the Americans, and would go out having won 2 Szatkowskis, 2 Brooks' and a Kanou. Of course, Maxwell would eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame just as Borwinn was.

Congratulations to Riga on finally escaping from shame and good luck to the other three trying to win their championship! New York holds the 6th and 7th picks this year, Helsinki moved all the way up to 2nd, and Moscow holds LA’s 5th pick. Everyone get ready for another exciting year, and maybe we’ll see a 3rd consecutive drought ended in S96!

 

Spoiler

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Edited 8 hours ago by sadie

[Gustav 6,331]

Fun Vandelay fact: I wasn’t ever in the running for top goalie (that I remember), but I was nominated for MVP a couple times because the team didn’t have much scoring that season. Vandelay COULD HAVE been my second player in a row to win MVP twice and no other awards. 

[LucyXpher 1,177]

Amazing article!  New York at 42 seasons is crazy! 
I also had no idea the Riga drought was that long-- kinda makes me feel extra special to be part of ending it 

Now to work on Halifax at 33 seasons without a Founder's Cup, still the only VHLM team not to win one...

[BOOM 8,662]

Ah, those were the days.... when I still knew how to build a decent player.