Claimed: Stockholm Regroup After Finals Loss

[Jericho 917]

Stockholm Regroup After Finals Loss

 

The Stockholm Vikings came as close as possible to a Continental Cup this season when they went into a seven game slug-fest with the defending champions: The New York Americans. Going in most of the league would have favoured the Americans given their overwhelming strength in their forward core, an area the Vikings were lacking outside of their top line. As the series progressed the Vikings made a fantastic stand and punished rookie goaltender M.T. Power in about half of the games and were able to force a game seven. Power was ultimately able to come in when it counted and shut the door super hard in Game 7, crushing the dreams of the Vikings.

 

The Vikings haven't given up on their cup dreams, they were dealt a few blows they needed to address.They lost World B. Free, Undertaker Shawn Muller and Jordan Maverick to retirement as well as Travis Gowecny to Free Agency.This left a young core of players supplemented by Tobias Klingberg and Tyson Kohler. The youth of Xander Finn, Brock Dragonslayer, Lee King Snatch and Rhett DeGrath are a season older, but all of these players had struggles against the Americans and their strong forward core. Team discussions made it clear they needed a little more star power to carry through until the youth could develop a bit more.

 

Chris Miller took a page from 2-time defending championship GM Ryan Power and shipped out all his upcoming picks for the players he needed to supplement his existing roster. Miller picked up sophomore forward turned defenseman Alexander Thrower from Cologne and turned to Seattle for Sven Wolf, Pietro Maximoff and Grigory Kopralkov. Over these three trades (Seattle was done in two separate deals) Miller basically sent out his next two season's worth of draft picks for these.

 

The Vikings at Training Camp, the day after the finals loss

 

In doing this, Stockholm is likely still the top team in Europe, and should close the gap with the Americans who've started aging. Seattle has entered a rebuild meaning that unless Quebec makes some moves we should see a repeat of last year's finals.

 

"I fully expect to meet New York in the finals again, but this time I'd like to turn the tables on them. I was obviously bummed by our loss after going seven games, but I think that our entire team performed at the top of their range. It's easy to forget that we had a second line of rookies, but it was very apparent to Brock, Conrad and I every time we stepped on the ice. We were outclassed, which is to be expected as a rookie in the finals, but I'm hoping to close the gap a bit in my sophomore year. We've all been practicing super hard and one thing we have that New York can't match is youth. Even if they train as hard as we do the majority of their team is getting older. They have to practice harder to maintain their form. We have a biological advantage in that respect." Xander Finn said in an interview. "As a team we are looking to return to the finals and finish what we started. Any less is a failure. Tyson [Kohler] was nice enough to stick around this season because he believes in us, and we want to return the favour. Last year I was a liability in faceoffs who could occasionally put up points when the games turned into clown fiestas. This year I want to at least hold my own against Ravenwing and be more of a consistent force. My rookie season is over and I'm taking the training wheels off. We're going to make this franchise one to be respected in the coming years."

 

 

 

 

[der meister 3,246]

Ravenwing has a soft spot in his heart for the Stockholm Vikings franchise. 

 

Don't worry, though; he's having a doctor look at it later this week.