Rift & Calgary In The Cup Finals + A Trip Down Memory Lane

[Devise 4,475]

Can you believe it? Well, actually most can by now because it's already a done deal. The 2 time defending Cup Champion Seattle Bears were ousted in 6 games by the sleeper Calgary Wranglers. One of the more interesting aspects to Calgary's solid season and even better playoff run has been the play of goalie JB Rift. 

 

For me personally, by me I mean me Devise; it has been kind of an ironic run. To give those unfamiliar a little history lesson we have to travel all the way back to S33 to find the irony. Back then I was coming off a Continental Cup win as New York GM in S32. My GM player at the time, Skylar Rift, was an upstart goalie who won the Cup in his rookie season with NY. It was a weird GM run that only lasted a few seasons as I took over in S30 with the intent to rebuild, couldn't find a home for @scoop's former goalie Benjamin Glover and @.sniffuM HoF forward Tukka Reikkinen. Well I could find homes but not on the return I wanted. So after barely making the playoffs in S30, and hilariously causing the Cup winning Toronto Legion from S29 to barely miss out on the playoffs (sorry @sterling) I decided to say to hell with it and go all out for S31 (Glovers last season, Braxtons too but nobody knows who he is) and 32. It took bringing up another HoF forward in Alex Chershenko (@Victor for those counting) to get the job done in S32.

 

Your probably wondering what this mass of tag and history has to do with CGY. Well you see, this is where I and my goalie Skylar gained the monikor of Two-Face. In S33 I decided to step down and hand the reigns of GM over to none other than @Advantage. His HoF defender Ryan Sullivan was still going strong and was a premier player for a Calgary club GM'd by none other than current Prague GM and VHLM Commish @diamond_ace. So it was straight across, Calgary would get Skylar Rift (currently only signed to one season) and New York would get Sullivan and ADV as GM. I made a verbal commitment to Jason/CGY that I would sign with them after seeing what happened in the off-season.

 

Well what happened is, I screwed CGY over hard. No like it should of went this way or I had other plans. Matthew Boragina was one of the premier players in the league, and he was also a free agent. So after discussing it with him, he and I decided to piss the entire league off by joining the Quebec City Meuete in free agency upon the conclusion of the S33 season. This didn't just piss people off because two notable FA players went to the same team, and I screwed over CGY's trade and future in the process. No, QUE already had a weird reputation since a host of notable members were already colluding to get their players there. They were known as "The Valiq brothers" represented by Squinty, Koradek and the still running @Kyle. Even @Frank got in on the action being apart of a pretty hated Quebec squad. To make matters worse, a personal friend of mine, the other Kyle @Jericho couldn't win a Cup with his last player Braxton despite what seemed like a ungodly amount of finals appearances. So, after joining the squad I convinced GM Koradek to trade an entire drafts worth of picks (4 at the time) for Jericho's newest center Kellinger. Essentially, we all colluded and overloaded into a super team. We only won a single Cup, in S35, Quebecs first and the first for an expansion team. 

 

It's a pretty long story, and one that to most members around the board probably has little meaning today. But when I created JB, I wanted to go a full career with a goalie, something I never did with Skylar. Despite winning a Cup and going all out in Quebec, Rift only stuck it out a few more seasons with the team and retired early. I hated being a goalie and only had done it as GM. So as fate would have it now, when I don't mind being a goalie because I'm riding out the last of a second player due to the previous GM rules, I find this Rift helping a CGY squad to the finals. This Rift, the player who was meant to be the anti Skylar, the one who stuck it out as a GM goalie on a team for a time (which I did) the one who earned the most TPE i've earned on any single player, and now the one who is giving CGY a make due on the screwjob his dad got. In a fitting fashion, JB will only be spending one season with CGY. Not due to some screwjob this time though, due to league rules. JB will be a FA for his final season in S71, but due to being a former GM player he won't be allowed to sign with either Toronto or Calgary. 

 

Anyway, it's a fitting end to this chapter of my goalie legacy. I wish Moscow best of luck in the Finals and look forward to seeing how this chapter truly concludes. 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Devise

[Kyle 667]

Good times. Kora and I almost got some beers together on Friday actually. Schedules just didn’t line up.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

Even more ironically, I'm on Calgary with you this season

[Devise 4,475]

9 minutes ago, diamond_ace said:

Even more ironically, I'm on Calgary with you this season

 

Yeah I forgot to mention that part too. STHS has always had a thing for odd narratives here tbh.

[scoop 3,429]

I feel like people should be more familiar with Braxton than Glover, considering he was the better player.

[Devise 4,475]

4 minutes ago, scoop said:

I feel like people should be more familiar with Braxton than Glover, considering he was the better player.

 

You'd think, but given that you were the GM at the time and Braxtons overall success as D got trumped by Low not that long after narrative kind of moved on. That plus Kyle never was active for another player again to the degree he was with Braxton. I feel like off/on you've been around a bit more. Maybe it's just my brain but I feel like I see Glover brought up a bit more than Braxton. Granted, HoF talk with goalies pretty much goes through that avenue.