Claimed: Lucky Legion, and Some Ironside Stuff

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Ironside Is Alright

 

Going into Season 54 of the Victory Hockey League, everyone knew who the contending teams would be, at least on paper. As it stands right now, the same four teams that most thought would make a run for the cup are in those exact positions. The Quebec City Meute and the New York Americans stand right beside each other in the North American Conference with 40 and 41 points, for 1st and 2nd. Over in the European Conference, the Stockholm Vikings hold the number one spot with 45 points, with the Helsinki Titans falling a little behind with 36.

 

The top four teams were well known before the season even began, and it was basically going to be a free for all for whichever teams get in their last conference post-season position. As it stands right now, the Toronto Legion hold onto the third spot in North America with 20 points, with the Seattle Bears on their tail at 15 points. In Europe, the Riga Reign are firm in 3rd with 27 points, as the other teams are far behind.

 

Regarding the Toronto Legion who are going through a rebuild, many might believe they should have been tanking at this point. At this point if they keep it up, they just might make a playoff spot. Although, even if they do make it into the post-season, they will surely be out in four or five games. Unless Torstein Ironside and Roman Sokolov pull of some kind of miracle, there is no hope for them.

 

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Heading into the season, the Toronto Legion knew they had a few rookies making their debuts. Torstein Ironside, Roman Sokolov, and Jean-Claude Girard were given their starts in the VHL, and it was the plan to possibly aid them in that endeavor. Toronto set out and acquired depth, grabbing Vincent Adultman, Sterling Archer, KYLO, and Pavel Varushkin. Jim Lahey also joined the fold through the big draft day trade which moved Toronto down to 3rd overall. This was all done to try and ease the pain of rookie goaltender Torstein Ironside, and maybe give Roman Sokolov and JC Girard a bit of a push, so they weren't just left hanging out there.

 

In regards to Torstein Ironside, it's hard to say if depth even helped at all. With 21 games played, he has a record of 9-9-1. His save percentage isn't exactly great or horrible at 91.1%, however looking at fellow rookie Markus King's 92.8%, it's obviously much less. Although in comparison to King's record of 5-15-2, Ironside's 9 wins is a good start. Torstein's goals against average is also better than Markus King's, with 2.84, compared to King's 2.90. Something to look at here is the shots that both of these goaltenders have faced as well. Markus King has faced 862 shots. That's over 200 more than Ironside's 639 shots against, which is a way heavier game by game load, considering King has only played one more game. King also has two shutouts, whereas Ironside has none.

 

All of this could be due to GM Boychuk sitting out Ironside in favour of TOR G against the top teams in some of the earlier games, but who really knows? Markus King is the higher TPE earning goaltender, and maybe the more shots against are just equaling out to more saves. From what I've gathered in the high shot games against Torstein Ironside though, is that in many of them he gets killed in goals with save percentages under 90%.

 

This is all part of the learning curve for the Toronto Legion and Torstein Ironside's rebuilding woes.