Seattle Bears

[Will 4,660]

Seattle's S42 Point Task

In honour of this auspicious occasion, the Seattle Bears are delighted to announce the 14th anniversary edition of their S28 Continental Cup. This edition includes a priceless magazine featuring a contextual background, biographies for every player in the line-up, and invaluable quotes from some of the players. 

With the old VHL Headquarters being burnt to the ground, the VHL had to relocate. Many of the historical documents were lost during that time but our investigative sports journalists managed to find two pieces of audio from this season. You can have it all in this special, 14th anniversary edition of the S28 Seattle Bears! 

Take a look inside the Magazine: S28 Bears Mag

Hear the final 3 minutes of the VHL Finals: G6: SEA vs NYA

Listen to the introduction of the Starting Line-up for Seattle Playoff Home Opener: Introductions

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Introduction:
 
                Season 28 was a defining season for the Bears for many reasons. It was not solely the function of  it being their first Cup win in 11 seasons and fifth ever, but with that Cup, despite the long-winded dry spell, it put them as holder of the 3rd most Continental Cups since the league's inception. (See Table 1). The Bears also captured their 5th Victory Cup and 7th Devon-Marta-Marlow Trophy (See Table 1 and 2 for references), making them just about on par with Calgary Wranglers as the most successful team in the North American Conference. Indeed this was the season that finally said 'we are back, baby'.
 

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Historical Background:
 
Season 26:
 
                For a few season prior to this Cup win, Seattle had been in battle with the New York Americans for top of the North American Conference.  In Season 26, the Americans managed to just squeak out the advantage in the regular season by three points to give them home-ice advantage in the series. The Bears suffered a reality check early in the series, losing the opening by a score of 7-3. Seattle battled hard and won the next two games but thanks to a third period goal by Daniel Braxton, the Americans advanced in six games to lose for the second straight time in the finals to Vasteras - who captured their first Cup since Season 1.
 
Season 27:
 
                 Season 27 showed a dominating presence from Seattle, who captured the Victory Cup quite handily with 122 points and only 9 regular season loses. This strong team featured the likes of Felix Peters, Mitch Higgins, Jarvis Baldwin, Nikolai Lebedev, Elijah Incognito, and CAL G. They were confident going into the playoffs where they were set to face New York once again. However, Seattle did not get off to a strong start. They quickly found themselves down 3-1 in the series and facing elimination early. They dug deep and forced a game seven away from home with Lebedev burying a rebound on the powerplay in the third period, much to the chagrin of the home crowd, whose groans could be heard throughout the stadium. Game 7 was back-and-forth the whole game until a cheap hooking penalty was called against Seattle and Keon Henderson slapped home the series-winning goal. Seattle, absolutely crushed, hung their heads and skated into the off-season with no more than the Victory Cup.
 
Season 28:
 
                   Season 28  was not very different by the end of the regular season. Seattle managed to successfully defend their Victory Cup Trophy, despite finishing with the same number of points as New York - 115. However, they had scored more goals and given up fewer and that gave them the edge to be awarded the trophy. They went into the Conference Finals more fired up than ever before. As if to prove the seriousness of their intentions, in the last game of the season against Vasteras, Seattle crushed them mercilessly, the final score being 11-2.
 
                   Oddly enough, there was a cross-over rule implemented that season and so the playoffs hosted 3 teams from NA. Because New York had finished second, they played the top team in Europe and that left the Bears to deal with Calgary. Calgary had a relatively young team but they still featured the youthful future Hall-of-Famers in Alex Chershenko and Volodymyr Rybak. It was a classic back-and-forth series that went the distance, but despite Calgary's effort, the Bears piled on the shots and shut down Calgary's offense to win the series.
 
                    This was their first Cup finals appearance since they last won in Season 17 so anticipation was high. As expected they met their rivals, New York. During game six, with Seattle leading the series 3-2, Dom Mazzetti took a holding penalty for New York 13 seconds into the game. Lebedev made them pay, blasting a bullet past Glover. Over the next two periods, Seattle managed just 11 shots while New York controlled the play. The clock ticked agonizingly slowly down as CAL G (who had re-named himself JET G for the playoffs) stood on his head to keep Seattle in the lead. When the final buzzer chimed, jubilation broken out in an explosion of energy fit for nuclear war.  Seattle had finally won and to make it all the more sweet, they had just handed their closest rivals another Finals loss, making it 4 consecutive seasons that New York made the finals and failed to capture a single Cup in that time.
 
The Implications:
 
                     Seattle had won the Continental Cup for the first time in 11 seasons. It was also their first time in 11 seasons that they made the finals. The team was composed of Hall of Famers and led by a very savvy Greg Harbinson but this is only partly the reason that it was a defining season for the Bears. This marked the end of an era in Seattle. For Seattle has not won a Cup since that glorious win. In fact they have not even been in a Finals since. On top of that they have only made it to the North American Conference Finals twice since S28. Indeed it was a defining season because it's the perfect example of "how the mighty have fallen". They went from one of the most consistently successful teams to one of the least. There is little doubt in this author's mind that they'll get back on top. However, seeing as though they have won 2 Cups and 3 finals appearances in 25 seasons (something only Vasteras has managed to pull off) the mentality in Seattle seems to be "will this darkness ever lift?"
 

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Biographies:
 

 
CAL G - G
 
Caillou Gifford, or more ironically known as CAL G, is a VHL Hall of Famer who played between Seasons 26 and 32. When he was signed by player agent Jardy Bunklewirth, he was automatically a part of the Wranglers organization due to the fact that Jardy was the Calgary GM. However, because CAL G played 2 seasons in the VHLm, during which his rights were sent to Seattle, he never even ended up playing a single game for Calgary.  In season 26 with Seattle he won the Stolzschweiger award for Top Rookie with an impressive 11 SO, 0.912 SV%, and 2.15 GAA.  The next season, despite having one of the best record years stats-wise as a goaltender, he failed to pick up any individual accolades. He posted an all-time high 19 SO, 0.928 SV%  and 1.60 GAA. Of course the pinnacle of his career came in Season 28 when he won his first and only Continental Cup with the Bears. He stood on his head in the playoffs, specifically in the finals, where he stopped the highly offensive Americans from scoring, only allowing 8 goals in 7 games, shutting them out in the final game to win the Cup! For his efforts he was co-awarded the Daisuke Kanou Trophy along with fellow teammate Felix Peters. In his final season with the Bears, he ended it with a career high 0.932 SV% and a career low 1.70 GAA, easily earning him the Aidan Shaw Trophy. He played out the finals 1 and a half seasons of his career in Vasteras Where he continued to cement his fantastic numbers, carrying himself effortlessly into the VHL Hall of Fame just one season after his retirement. 

Matthew Boragina - RW
 
Matthew Boragina played the vast majority of his career for the Helsinki Titans. Drafted fourth overall in the S24 VHL Entry Draft, Boragina because a crucial depth piece to finally be able to defeat the New York Americans. His career started bright, as he walked into the VHL with a Dionne Trophy (Top Scorer) and an Oates Trophy (Most Assists) from his season with Ottawa in the VHLM. Although those would be the only individual accolades he would ever collect, his offensive prowess never went unnoticed. By his second year, he had  amassed 111 points, second most in the VHL. In fact, that was the lowest point total he would earn until his Cup run with the Bears, culminating in S27 with 133 points and a Continental Cup. That off-season, he was traded to Seattle who needed a player of his calibre to fill out their squad in order to gain that extra competitive edge. He played on a very strong second line with Baldwin and Peters, collecting 81 points, but more importantly, helping Seattle all the way to their first Cup win. He retired with those back-to-back Cup victories, a handful of good memories, and an average of 97 points per season.

Jarppi Leppala - C
 
This massive 6'8", 250lbs monster of a center was drafted by Seattle's biggest rivals of the era - New York - at fourth overall in the S24 Entry Draft. Jarppi was a classic example of an enforcer. Never much of a scorer, his main function was to get out on the ice, throw his body around, and retrieve the puck. He averaged a bone-crushing 331.8 hits each season. For the first 4 seasons of his career, he remained with New York. In S28, he signed as a free agent with Riga, only to be traded 33 games into the season to Seattle for a second round pick. His type of self-regulated law enforcement on the ice was exactly what they needed to improve the depth of their squad and was the final piece to the puzzle that put together to create the winning side of S28. He led all players in hits in the playoffs with 58 that year. During the off-season, he re-signed once more his Riga, only to be traded again to play out the remaining games of his career with Toronto Legion

Elijah Incognito - D
 
Hall of Fame Defenseman Elijah Incognito was an imperative piece of the Cup runs that Seattle had through Seasons  27 and 28. He was drafted 4th overall to Seattle Bears in the S27 VHL Entry Draft - a very strong draft that included the likes of Chershenko, Rafter, Smalling, and Satan. During his rookie season that saw Seattle win the Conference and the Victory Cup, Incognito posted 53 points and a very impressive +76, good for third in the league. His point production was stifled a bit due to the fact that the Bears already had a strong team and so he did not play top-line minutes but he did enough defensively to earn the GM's trust. During the infamous Seattle Cup Run in Season 28, Incognito's offensive production did go up slightly, seeing him post 64 points, but he was developing nicely into a sturdy defenseman. One cannot see it from his stat-line - as 42 hits and 68 shots blocked seems nothing short of unremarkable - but the fact that his +144 rating over two seasons was so astronomically high that it seems like every shift he was on the ice for, something positive would happen for the Bears. This is probably why he was moved up to the first line for the playoffs. He was a defensive beast on the powerplay - leading the team to the best penalty kill percentage of the playoffs with an 82% success rate. After he lifted the Cup in S28 with Seattle, he went on to earn two more with Toronto and Riga, respectively, picking up Beketov, Labatte, and Fong Trophies along the way. He will always been remembered in Seattle as the piece they drafted to ensure their success and he played his part in ensuring Seattle finally got their hands on that Cup. 

Radislav Mjers - D
 
In Season 26, Seattle added two important youngsters to battle against New York for control of the North American Conference. In the S26 VHL Entry Draft, they had first and second pick and chose Baldwin and Mjers. Mjers posted 74 points in his rookie campaign, just 5 less than Baldwin, putting them at first and third in the rookie scoring charts, quite a feat for a defenseman.  Following Seattle's first unsuccessful Cup run, Mjers responded in S27 with few points, but more defensively sturdy stats for such a youngster.  He picked up 85 hits and blocked shots on the second and third line but unfortunately, he had limited playing time in the playoffs. By the end of the regular season in S28, Mjers had completely stopped focusing on his offense to solely improve his defense. Still on the second line, he improve to 123 hits and a team-leading 113 blocked shots, keeping up with all-star Mitch Higgins. In the playoffs, he only scored one goal - but what an effect it had -  with Seattle facing elimination at the hands of New York once again, the series at 3-2, Mjers scored the game winner to force a Game 7 and finally usurp the Americans. Mjers played out the next two seasons of his career in Seattle, continuing to be a depth defenseman for the team. In S31 Mjers signed as a free agent with Cologne to lead his team in points with a career-high 88. He was then traded to New York in exchange for New York's first and third picks in the S34 draft. For his final year in the VHL, the Americans  traded Mjers to Calgary, where he finished off his career rather quietly.
 

Leeroy Jenkins - C

Leeroy Jenkins was the teams starting right winger for the 28th season of the VHL. Leeroy didn't know then that he would be one of the top players to have ever played in the VHL at that time. Of course Leeroy's original position was a centerman, but the team used him as a winger. On the teams way to eventually winning a cup that season, Leeroy Jenkins would be one of the teams top points earners with 43 goals and 81 assists, which tally up to 124 points on the year. He was a positive player with a +56 rating, he also had the third highest hits on the team with 217 only behind Jarppi Leppälä and defenseman Mitch Higgins. Leeroy started pioneering what it took to be a two way forward with all that he had accomplished on the season. Leeroy Jenkins would be the third highest point netter during the playoffs with 8 goals, 6 assists for 14 points total. The 56 hits in the playoffs was good for second on the team only to Jarppi Leppälä. The Calgary Wranglers would go on to force the Seattle Bears to game 7 in the first series and it would turn out to be a tougher series than they had thought. Leeroy had one of the two goals in that final game which would push them into the second round. The Seattle Bears would face off against the New York Americans for the chance to hoist the cup as the champions of the VHL. The Bears would still struggle in this series, but they managed to win this series in a 6 game manner, instead of 7 games. Leeroy Jenkins would earn the third star during the final game that would see the team as the best in the VHL for that season. Leeroy Jenkins would earn the Mikita Trophy along with teammate Mitch Higgins. He was also featured as an all star during that year.

Nikolai Lebedev - LW
 
Season 24 marked the season that Seattle could consider themselves fortunate with the draft. Seattle had three first round picks and with their final pick of the round them somehow manage to select Nikolai Lebedev. Arguably, Lebedev was the second best player that came out of that draft, behind Daniel Braxton, so the fact that he was still available to be picked at 8th overall, was a large contributing factor to their Cup win in S28. In his rookie season, he posted 37 goals and 74 points along with the best plus/minus rating on the team. In fact, he was only 7 points back of the team leader, Peters, and first in rookie scoring. By his second season he had 54 goals and 111 points, establishing himself as a prolific scoring. However, in his third season, in S27, he was struggling to accumulate points on the first line, ending the season with 77 points  - which  was just 7th on the team. However, during the famous S28 Cup Run, he had a phenomenal bounce-back year. Topping the VHL in goals with 61 and points with 128, he earned himself not only the Brooks and Szatkowski Trophy, respectively, but also the Dust'n Funk Trophy for most improved player.  As Lebedev's player agent reminisces: 

Aah S28, the year I won the VHL

During the playoffs that season he, along with Peters collected the most points (15) and he had the best plus/minus rating on the team. Seattle couldn't have won without him. 
 
He played two more season with Seattle before being  traded to New York in the off-season of S30. In true Bears spirit, he refused to sign an extension in NY and headed over to Toronto as a free agent to play out the final three seasons of his career there. 

Felix Peters - C
 
Felix Peters was automatically drafted to the Bears in Season 24 because his agent, Greg Harbinson, was the GM of Seattle. It was the first year of Harbinson's rebuild and it showed with Peters' -48 rating. His sophomore season saw him top the team in scoring with 81 points, as the line of Jones-Peters-Lebedev was all the offensive depth they had. S26 brought about some major competitive changes, bringing in forwards Baldwin, Fyodorov, and McAwesome. Peters revelled in it, posting 113 points - second in the league in scoring for centers. In S27 he kept up his production, accumulating 108 points, as the chemistry between Baldwin and himself was bewitching to watch. S28 saw Peters move down to the second line to allow for the Lebedev-Leppala-Jenkins line to wreak havoc upon the VHL. Peters still managed a 100+ point season, posting 51 goals and 105 points. But it was in the playoffs where he did the most damage. Exploiting their depth, swapping Leppala for Peters on the first line, Seattle managed to steamroll over their opponents, with Peters and Lebedev leading the way. They both amassed 15 points and had 3 game winning goals between them. For his magnificent playoff performance, he co-won the Kanou Trophy along with teammate CAL G. 
Peters played out the next 2 and a half seasons with Seattle gathering 229 points in 162 before being trade to Davos during his final season. As consolation for leaving his beloved team - he won another Continental Cup with Davos and hung up his skates on top of the world. 

 
Jarvis Baldwin – LW
 
Jarvis Baldwin joined the Bears in S26 as the top overall selection in the VHL Entry Draft. Baldwin notched 79 points in his rookie campaign, but he really hit his stride in his second year, starting a seven year stretch of consistent offensive dominance. He led Seattle in goals and points, helping them to the Victory Cup in S27. Jarvis output regressed a bit in S28, mostly due to the addition of more offensive options to a talented Bears roster, namely Leeroy Jenkins’ acquisition and Nikolai Lebedev’s breakout year. Baldwin’s 44 goals and 108 points were considered a down year for him - even though he manned the second line for the season. His scoring truly highlights his offensive prowess and the Bears’ S28 firepower. The ability to send out such a weapon on the second line was instrumental to the Bears' success. After hoisting the Continental Cup in S28, Baldwin would go on to put up two and a half solid seasons with the Bears before being traded to Vasteras. He was there for one full season following the trade and finished out his last year with Calgary. S28 was Baldwin’s lone Continental Cup, but he made the playoffs in all but one season. He was consistently one of the league’s top scorers, which finally paid off for him in his last season in the VHL, when he led the league in goals and points and brought home both the Scotty Campbell and Brett Slobodzian trophies, as the VHL’s most valuable and outstanding player. A S34 inductee to the VHL Hall of Fame, Baldwin will be remembered as a consistent offensive weapon and for hoisting that Continental Cup in S28 with his Seattle Bears.

Mitch Higgins – D
 
Mitch Higgins was drafted with the last pick in the first round (8th) of the S23 VHL Entry Draft by the Helsinki Titans. He was almost immediately traded to the Riga Reign, where he would debut in S24 before being traded to the Seattle Bears in exchange for Gunnar Axelson and Wesley Kanaan for the closing stretch of the season. Higgins’ rookie campaign earned him a share of the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy (Top Rookie) with Benjamin Glover. He also made a quick impression on Seattle, earning Captain honors for the season, which he would hand over and then reclaim for a three-season stretch from S27 to S29. Higgins’ play steadily improved, topping 100 points in S26, as the team started to hit its competitive stride. S27 was another solid notch in Higgins’ career, but S28 is where it all came together for the captain and his team. Higgins totaled 111 points and 81 assists to go with his solid defensive play. He was arguably robbed of a Sterling Labatte Trophy, but did bring home some individual hardware with the Messier Trophy (now the Grimm Jonsson) for top leader and the Mikita Trophy (now the Alexander Beketov) for most assists (4-way tie).  More importantly, he helped his team to the Continental Cup with 9 points and the most minutes played during the playoffs. Higgins would stick with Seattle for the rest of his career, with the exception of a brief stint in Helsinki during S30, before being traded back to Seattle to finish out the year. He spent every year with the team as its best defenceman, and is one of the team’s most iconic figures. Higgins became the third member of the “Seattle 6” to enter the Hall of Fame, a deserved honor that the captain received in S42’s Hall of Fame Induction
 

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Quotes:
 
Greg Harbinson:
 
"The S28 Bears team is still my favorite team I have ever been a part of in my 30+ season career in the VHL. A lot of that had to do with who was on that team. It was a good group that was building towards a Cup with most of the team being around for the rebuild. The rivalry with NYA also made that season better than most and that we were able to pass them on the way to claiming a Cup after seasons of meeting in the conference finals, made it sooooo sweet."
 
Nikolai Lebedev:
 
"That entire S28 run was surreal. Everything just clicked for me as a player and the Bears as a team. The locker room was alive, we were winning and I was on fire. We had been on the cusp of the championship for so long, so to finally win it made all of the previous seasons worth it."

[CoachReilly 688]

da bears

[Victor 10,940]

Great spin on the last cup win for Seattle (btw, they did make the final in S30) and amazing work here. I'm gonna have to listen to Phil's sexy voice some time tomorrow.

[Molholt 2,185]

Great spin on the last cup win for Seattle (btw, they did make the final in S30) and amazing work here. I'm gonna have to listen to Phil's sexy voice some time tomorrow.

 

Yeah that's why we wrote about it

 

[Victor 10,940]

fixed my embarrassment. I need sleep.

[Molholt 2,185]

fixed my embarrassment. I need sleep.

 

Hey get out of my posts

[Higgins 3,618]

Flippy mag so hawt

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

Very proud of those who helped. Mainly Molholt and Phil for all the work they did. They did the lot of it.

[Victor 10,940]

Very proud of those who helped. Mainly Molholt and Phil for all the work they did. They did the lot of it.

Phil 4 GM

[Kesler 1,514]

Your saying Bushito didnt do anything?

[probably not noah 346]

Factual error: Lebedev did not finish in Toronto. That was that other Lebedev. Nikolai Lebedev played his entire career save for his last season with the Bears. When he went to the Americans, it was only so that the Bears could use the resources to rebuild. 

 

Bear4lyfe.

[Molholt 2,185]

Your saying Bushito didnt do anything?

 

Literally not a thing.

 

Molholt & Phil all day.

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

Literally not a thing.

 

Molholt & Phil all day.

 

Except my one little article I wrote

[gregreg 930]

             

[Kesler 1,514]

Lmao what a great fucking GM. He sets the precedents.

[gorlab 4,321]

tl;dr

[Phil 5,119]

Factual error: Lebedev did not finish in Toronto. That was that other Lebedev. Nikolai Lebedev played his entire career save for his last season with the Bears. When he went to the Americans, it was only so that the Bears could use the resources to rebuild. 

 

Bear4lyfe.

 

fuck.

 

I ctrl+f lebedev, forgetting there were two of those fuckers - must have missed the first name

 

And guys - seriously - listen to those 3 and 4 minute audio clips...

[Victor 10,940]

Yeah it doesn't help that the other one was a Nikita lol.

[Molholt 2,185]

If we had one mistake, I can live with it. Especially since Phil did about 80% of the writing and research for this project, I had the easy part of just putting it all together.

 

Vote Phil for the Grimm repeat, S43! 

[Munk 1,298]

I'll pass Phil didn't help me with my hw

[Phil 5,119]

tl;dr

 

At least listen to the total of 7 minutes of my podcasts <3

 

I'll pass Phil didn't help me with my hw

 

You didn't ask! I'm always here for you munkie <3

[Victor 10,940]

HAHAHAHA

SEAAAAAAAATLE BAAAHHHHHHRRRRS