Claimed: Focus on Forsberg [1/2]

[Banackock 8,143]

Mattias Forsberg has been a bigger name in Seattle than most of the guys for a little while now. While he may not be the big star like McAllister, he is the Draisitl to McAllister's McDavid though. They seem to have a really nice one-two punch going on right now and both are pretty exceptional players playing on a pretty damn good team. However, like McAllister entering his tenure with the Bears, Forsberg's days have been full of gold - despite being on a losing squad for most of it. Unlike Federov, who has exceptional talent but can't seem to figure out how to bust away from mediocrity, Forsberg's offensive numbers have always been pretty solid. From day one he had been kicking around the point per game mark and as both the organization and Forsberg developed and grew, the two began to largely affect one another for the positive. As we look at Forsberg today, we see one hell of a player and I'm sure the Seattle fanbase is very thankful to have such a dynamic, explosive player on their roster. With that, that's take a nice little trip down memory lane to see Mattias Forsberg's career so far with the Seattle Bears.

 

S56 - The Rook Campaign

 

It's tough being a rookie in these leagues, but I'm not sure VHL is the most difficult to try and grow in. SHL you sit in the bottom ranks for sometime before actually climbing out and the same could be said for the GOMHL. In the VHL, you could be a rookie and easily have yourself a 2nd line spot playing with some crazy good players if your team is good enough. If not, you could also be a 1st liner with shit but somehow still manage to score 70-100 points (It makes shit sense, but whatever. Fuck realism). At the end of the day, sometimes it seems like Oprah handing out gifts at her show but instead of gadgets and gismos, she's handing out points - "YOU GET A POINT! YOU DO! YOU DO! EVERYONE DOES!". Luckily for Forsberg, this was pretty much the case for him and the hockey gods and Oprah were all on his side. Though the Bears struggled through the regular season to yet another early season finish as they missed playoffs, this was one of the first years promise started to show. The lotto draft was won and some of their players really started to develop and grow. Forsberg finished the season with 31 goals, 39 assists and 70 points which had him sitting in 31st place in league scoring. Not amazing, but not bad either with all things considered.

 

72 GP - 31 G, 39 A, 70 PTS

 

S57 - Sophomore, but how soft?

 

And enter the turn around. The Seattle Bears organization went out and made some moves. Peter Quill, Fook Yu, Daryll Dortch and Vernon Von Axelberry were all pieces the team brought in to make a bigger splash for the team and to be honest with you and despite what some may say, they did make a difference. One thing you needed to take into account was that the conference was so damn competitive and while some people will make the argument "They still missed the playoffs. What could came if they didn't make the playoffs?". Well, let us tell you that before, the team was shit and below 0.500. I don't even think the team was in talks for making playoffs. Now, they had brought themselves up to a level where that could actually be possible. Succeeding from that point, the team added some big firepower onto McAllister and Forsberg. I think a big issue here was goaltending, but also the lack of defensive strength. For Forsberg though, he didn't quite see the performance gap increase like his organization and maybe some of his teammates did. Similar to Federov's start or stability and patterns in offensive increases, Mattias Forsberg didn't go no where. He hit the same 70 point mark and grew stale, this time scoring 2 less goals on the season. Safe to say, he'd be looking to make a much louder bang next season. In fact, Seattle needs him to if they're going to take the next step.

 

72 GP - 29 G - 41 A - 70 PTS

 

S58 - We're Present and Moving

 

Welcome everybody to the Present. This season was set to be a good one as the league decided to fold some teams, make the league a little smaller which in turn allowed teams and the VHL to get a little more competitive. Despite some potential hiccups (salary cap and shit), things have been running smoothly. In our eyes though, the bracketed salary cap issues will diminish once the TWO PLAYER system vanishes and once again you'll be left with 4 people on every team unless you find some members to come here and help Leonardo DiCaprio (metaphorically, the VHL) back onto the life raft or I'm afraid well freeze and sink to the bottom. Away from that, the Bears added a little more damage to their roster in taking Shawn Gretzky 2nd overall in the VHL contraction draft. This move likely had to have been one of their bigger ones in the off-season, however, they also managed to go our and get elite, all-star defender Fabio Jokinen off of the Quebec Meute. With those two massive deals behind them and the season roughly a quarter of the way finished, the team is rolling high and so is Forsberg. The Bears currently sit in first place with a record of 15-3-1 and Forsberg sits 3rd on the team with 11 goals, 14 assists and 25 points through the 19 games played. For Forsberg, this is a nice little leap in the right direction and we're sure he's happy with it.

 

Final Statement from Forsberg regarding current season and career

My career so far here in Seattle has been very rewarding. While the 2nd year was a little disappointing due to the fact I wasn't seeing an offensive increase, it could have been worse so I took the consistency as a sign of positivity and worked off it to become better for Season 58. Right now, myself and the boys are flying high and really kicking some ass. The season isn't a shoe in though. Lots of great teams out there and anything can happen. In fact, I doubt we're the favourites to win. That honour would likely go to Riga or Toronto, but again, you never know what'll happen. What I do know is that we're all back and trying. Working and training. We'll do what it takes to make sure we have the best chances and assets on this organization to help us succeed at winning. For now, we're going to enjoy the ride, keep working as a team and hopefully continue to find successful consistencies and ways to improve our game to make it even stronger each sim.

 

2 Weeks for Mattias Forsberg (+6)

Jan 1st to 7th

Jan 8th to 14th

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

Review:

It's true, the VHL is probably the easiest to get a starting job in the lineup. As easy as the GOMHL is, it's still hard to get a spot in a lineup. Funny how that happened. But I guess they get a lot more players because of how simple it is to earn TPE.

Looking back on this article is interesting too. You state that Toronto and Riga are likely the two to make it to the finals, but Seattle beat Toronto so that ended up being wrong.