Legion Better Than Expected, Probably

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

Legion Shooting Daggers

 

This season, the Legion were heavily expected to be a bottom dweller. While they obviously have not been amazing, they have been able to beat some big teams, and it has left their opponents confused. At this moment with 12 games left in the season, the Wranglers currently hold the last North American playoff spot while being 7 points up on the Toronto Legion. That is not a far stretch to reach for the Legion by any means, but the Wranglers are definitely expected to be the ones in the playoffs right now, and the Legion are not expected to chase them for it.

 

With all that being the case, the Toronto Legion, despite having not much of a roster besides a few future star young guns, have been able to beat contenders. With Roman Sokolov, Bo Boeser, and Verner Reinholdt proving they already belong with the bigs in the VHL, this has proven to be enough to win with only those few players. Torstein Ironside stole the show a few times as well, but the offense has definitely been there when needed. Toronto's offensive core has made opposing goaltenders look bad on more than a few occasions. Let's take a look at some of them.

 

vs. New York Americans (Game #299)

Sure, the Americans aren't on top as much as the other three big teams just under 100 points, but they are still contenders. Just this past sim, the Legion had a huge push to start the 1st Period, going up 3-0. Bo Boeser scored his 38th at 2:15 on a PP marker, then soon after at 5:35, Roman Sokolov scored his 20th. Another PP marker from Sokolov at 7:01 quickly put the Legion up by 3. However, before the end of the period, Essian Ravenwing and Unassisted both tallied their 39th goal of the season, and brought New York within 1 goal. But that was all she wrote. Despite outshooting Toronto the rest of the way, Torstein Ironside held the door shut, stopping 36 of 38 for a save percentage of 94.7%. Jakab Holik's 24 saves on 27 shots, 88.9%, was just not good enough.

 

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vs. Helsinki Titans (Game #250)

This game was a superstar showing for Torstein Ironside. The Titans outshot Toronto 25-6 in the 1st Period alone, but only left it with a 1-0 lead off a goal from Black Velvet. What a stupid name, although delicious as a food. In the 2nd Period, the Titans outshot the Legion 11-8, but Toronto came out of that period with a couple of goals. Jean-Claude Girard scored a PP marker, and Austin Hickey V brought the Legion up 2-1 before the end of the period. Toronto's depth putting in work. Helsinki then came out in the 3rd Period putting all their firepower out there, outshooting Toronto 16-1. Lucky for them, Ironside let in a goal, and they tied the game. Torstein Ironside went on to save every shot in the shootout, and Roman Sokolov potted in the SO winner past Astrid Moon to win the game. Obviously, Ironside's phenomenal 56 out of 58 save performance was the reason for victory here. That's a whopping save percentage of 96.6%.

 

vs. Helsinki Titans (Game #191)

This is a little further back, but still worth mentioning. Toronto's CPUs did a ton of good work this game, and that's expected of such high caliber superstar CPUs. TOR LW3 scored a fucking beauty of a goal to put the Legion up 1-0, before Black Velvet put some garbage past Torstein Ironside. In the 3rd Period, Austin Hickey V went coast to coast, deking past the whole horrid Titans squad, to put on past Astrid Moon, giving Toronto the 2-1 lead. That lead would hold for the rest of the game. Despite Helsinki outshooting Toronto 35-13, Torstein Ironside prevented them from winning with some razzle dazzle.

[CowboyinAmerica 2,911]

The Legion have 4 games left against the Bears/Reign/Express while the Wranglers have 3, the two teams play each other one more time, and Jacob hasn't sat a game yet. I wouldn't call this playoff race over...