A Brief History of Davos vs Riga - Part 2

[Victor 11,043]

S31 and S33 – Riga finally wins a series, but still serious voodoo afoot

Riga went through a rough patch, probably their roughest ever, after S21 and it wasn't until expansion that Riga and Davos met again. Typically, an underestimated Dynamo team won a cup in S31 after upsetting an ambitious team from Riga, including Ansgar Snijider who had only moved from Davos to Riga in free agency the previous off-season. But the real telling sign of how lopsided this rivalry is actually came in S33, when Riga finally beat their archnemesis. However, the fact that this first round series had to go to 7 games and featured a historic performance by Elijah Incognito tells its own story, as the Dynamo stumbled into the playoffs by default, thanks to having the services of David Smalling and Phil Rafter for most of the season (Rafter was traded at the trade dealine). Otherwise, this was the bare bones of the S31 team and still they pushed Riga to the very limit.

 

S37-S39 – Davos does another threepeat over Riga

For anyone keeping track, by the end of S39 Davos (not Avangard) had played 9 series against Riga and lost just 1 when they weren't even trying to be in the playoffs. This period is a particular highlight for me as I was the Davos GM and in typical Davos fashion built up a team with no real superstars (but a lot of iconic players like Thomas Landry, Davey Jones, Jarkko Olsen, and Shane Baker) but one which somehow made four finals and won two of them regardless. Riga was the victim on three occasions and this was probably the closest the off-ice rivalry got to S11 levels. That can at least be partially be attributed to chief conspiracy theorist Kendrick returning to the Reign as Kameron Taylor, with another similarity to S11 being the Davos GM (me) also being commissioner. We also had Jardy for a bit so we had the simmer too, which didn't help matters.

 

It was good to see Riga convincingly get the cup they deserved in S40 once Davos went into a rebuild, as I know for their side (including members like the Gows), this was significantly less fun than it was the Dynamo. In truth though this was the end of the great lineage of Davos vs Riga despite five more playoff series to follow and it is fitting that it featured another loud and outspoken Davos team – a tribute to nearly 30 seasons of proud and winning history in Switzerland.

 

S45-S46, S49-S50, S56 – The last few meetings that I don't have too much interesting to say

As noted above, S39 was a bit of a cut-off point for the rivalry and also for Davos' ridiculous streak of success they enjoyed ever since moving from Avangard. In a serious rebound, the Dynamo went through a long cup drought – 22 seasons – the longest of any franchise not named Vasteras. They had their moments though, and two of those, the finals runs in S50 and S56, featured underdog Davos teams upsetting heavily favoured teams from Riga, in line with most of their shared history.

 

There was also the forgettable spell of S45 and S46, when Davos won 8 out of 8 games against Riga but then ran into the Helsinki juggernaught that won back-to-back cups anyway. And finally there was one more Riga win in S49, in a very weak European Conference so again not the most satisfying of successes over their oldest rivals.

 

Overall though, since S39 Riga can safely claim to have been the more successful franchise of the two, in large part thanks to not having to face Davos for most of their brightest moments. Is the tide turning back now that conferences have been reintroduced? Certainly the start of the S66 playoffs suggests this is the case, but Davos is a long way from becoming the almost incomprehensibly unbeatable franchise it was in this rivalry's heyday.

 

 

This one for Pavlov.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

That Riga team had me, @Positivefan036, @Jamie, @Mike, @sherifflobo as the core I think, with other players rotating in.

 

And @jack...but then I had to trade him to get the cup  

 

JARKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

@Molholt

Edited June 18, 2019 by flyersfan1453

[jack 498]

27 minutes ago, flyersfan1453 said:

That Riga team had me, @Positivefan036, @Jamie, @Mike, @sherifflobo as the core I think, with other players rotating in.

 

And @jack...but then I had to trade him to get the cup  

 

JARKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

@Molholt

 

I was the derozan

[Victor 11,043]

10 hours ago, jack said:

 

I was the derozan

You were on the Toronto team the one time they beat Davos though right?

 

Also when did you come back??

[jack 498]

2 hours ago, Victor said:

You were on the Toronto team the one time they beat Davos though right?

 

Also when did you come back??

True. 

 

And like...Saturday, haha