Claimed:Mission Accomplished [Final 6/6]

[RomanesEuntDomus 442]

Mission Accomplished

 

They’ve done it. More than a decade after entering the league in the S31 expansion and after a long rebuild that started all the way back in Season 37, the Cologne Express have finally won their very first Continental Cup! After a rather pedestrian regular season the whole team stepped it up in the playoffs, led by their franchise players Thomas O’Malley and Mason Richardson as well as veteran depth players such as Logan Laich and Ron World Peace. The best players for the Express however were two guys that had just joined the team for S43, off-season acquisition Martin Brookside and deadline pickup Robin Gow. While Gow ended the season as the leading playoff scorer, most people see Brookside as the frontrunner for playoff MVP after magnificent postseason campaign. The goalie had only two regulation losses in three rounds of playoff-hockey, sported a ridiculous 1.66 goals against average and saved 93.9% of the shots he faced. While Brookside’s arrival in Cologne hadn’t been met with a lot of enthusiasm from the Express fan-base at first, since his acquisition marked the end of the tenure of long-time Express goalie and fan favorite Blaine Olynick, the Express brass quickly learned to love their new netminder after he carried the team through both the regular season and the playoffs.

 

 

 

With two newly acquired players playing maybe the most important role in the franchise’s first cup-win, a lot of praise has gone to Cologne’s General Manager Ryan Power as well, and rightfully so. Power, who had taken over as GM just prior to this season, didn’t just bring in two crucial pieces along with some depth guys such as Chris Raymond and Alistar Graves, he also took what he already had in Cologne and implemented one of the most effective defensive systems in the league. Power didn’t just take all the praise for himself though and also acknowledged the work of his predecessors Joey Kendrick and Alexander Schneider. Kendrick, the man who had brought the Express to Cologne and who had GM’d the team through its early years, is still involved with the organization through Mason Richardson, a player that he is close friends with. Schneider, the transition GM between the Kendrick-era and what might soon be known as the Power-era, brought in the majority of the teams current core, including Thomas O’Malley, Mason Richardson, Logan Laich, Godavari Yumalatopinto and the longest tenured player currently on the Express, Ron World Peace.

 

Schneider, who had described himself as a transitional GM, surprised a lot of people when he stepped down last summer, but in a short statement after the Express’ cup win stated that this was exactly what he had hoped for: “I think I did a decent job building this team but back then I felt that we needed something else to truly turn this team into a winner and that “something” was a more aggressive GM, someone who could add on the foundation I had built and who would find those few missing pieces that we still needed. And I’d say we found that someone in Mr. Power, the last thing I would’ve wanted was my pride getting into my way and having me cling to my position while deep inside I knew that someone else was the better choice at that point. I don’t need to have an official position with the team to still feel a part of the success, my goal always was to bring the Express their first championship so now I can say: Mission Accomplished!"

Edited April 25, 2015 by RomanesEuntDomus

[Frank 5,058]

 

"We'll smoke em out of they hidey hoes."

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

Content: 3/3 - Big ups to the Cologne Express. They had a hell of a ride through the post-season.

Grammar: 2/2 -

 

"after magnificent postseason campaign" - after a magnificent post-season campaign

"after the Express’ cup win stated that" - he stated

Appearance: 1/1 - Great

Overall: 6/6

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