Toronto goes 9-1-0 in Lotto Tournament, Vancouver gets anally fisted during draw.

[Peace 1,518]

TORONTO, ONTARIO -- It might seem rather boring, or unnecessary to some [including the GM of Toronto], but it was a rather entertaining handful of games to watch Toronto finish atop the tournament with a 9-1-0 record. I mean it was kinda obvious Prague and Toronto would do well against the other four expansion teams, I don't think anyone predicted anything different, even though the expansion teams were able to squeeze victories out of the established clubs. Winning the tournament boosted Toronto's odds from ten percent to fifteen percent, and during the lottery... well it didn't mean jack shit, as Vancouver -- via Toronto -- wound up with the worst possible pick for the upcoming VHL Entry Draft. 

"Kinda feels good," Legion defender Erik Killinger admitted. "We played well -- unfairly I think -- and Vancouver still got [expletive] during the draw." 

Toronto's first game in the tournament was against the Prague Phantoms, another team -- similar to Toronto -- that barely managed to make the post season play-in wildcard round. Fortunately, Toronto was able to skate away with a 4-2 victory over the Eastern Conference 'we just weren't good enough' club. Chad Magnum, Jeff Blaze and Teemu Lehtinen Jr all had two points in Toronto's first victory of the season. 

The Legions' second game, the fifth game of the tournament against Chicago, was a relatively easy 5-3 win for the boys in blue against one of the four expansion teams. Chad Magnum's three point performance, including two goals on ten shots, led the way offensively with a quality game winning goal. Rookie Joseph Gainer also scored twice while humorously multiplying Magnum's shots by time and a half. Jaxx 'Stud' Hextall made a ton of saves, too!

The Legions' third game -- the eighth overall game played in the tournament -- was pretty much Jaxx Hextall earning his nickname. The stud stopped all twenty six shots he faced in Toronto's 6-0 win over the London United [which really should be the London Knights but copyrights]. Oh, and... uh... who could forget Chad Magnum's marvelous five point game which included a hat trick while taking a forth of the shots the Legion actually registered on net. 

The forth game of the tournament [Game 11] featured the Legion against the Phantoms once again, although the game was eerily different than their previous match up. It's early in the second period, Prague is enjoying a 3-1 lead over the Legion, and Toronto simply turns it on. The gas pedal is floored, and Toronto takes off, eventually tying the game at three a piece less than two minutes after Prague took a two goal lead. The period ended 3-3, but Toronto enjoyed a 18-5 shot advantage, and Phantoms' goaltender McPine certainly kept his team knotted up heading into the third period. Underyew would score his second of the game, and third of the tournament, to give Toronto a 4-3 lead -- the goal would become the game winner as the clock ran out. 

Let's fast forward a couple of games, shall we? In between tournament game twenty one, the Legion played against the United [Game 14] and the Predators [Game 17], with the deciding scores being 4-2 and 4-1, respectively. The game against the Los Angeles Stars, however, was an absolute stunner. It is impressive how LAS G, some bum off the streets of downtown L.A I'm sure, was able to turn aside an admittedly depressingly low sixteen of seventeen Legion shots. The Stars' true power was their defensive play, effectively limiting Toronto's ability to get... well anything going. The final score to this game was 6-1 LAS, and quickly brushed under the carpet by Legion management. 

The game against L.A was important. 

It shook up the teams confidence, and the next three games below display just how broken the Legion looked. 

Toronto 4 - 3 Warsaw in the shootout. 
Toronto 4 - 3 Chicago in regulation.
Toronto 5 - 4 Las Angeles in the shootout. 

Toronto defeated Warsaw 4-1 in the lone game they played against them, but Warsaw was able to take advantage of Toronto's deflated confidence during the twenty third game of the tournament, and we'd argue they were step-for-step if not outplaying Toronto for the majority of the game. The Predators' took an impressive 49 shots, but Legion goaltender Jaxx Hextall stood tall and practically earned Toronto their seventh win of the tournament. 

Against Chicago? Toronto cruised to a five-three win against the Phoenix, but this time the Legion got burned. They got complacent, even though they never stopped trying, and despite a 3-0 lead heading into the second period it was all tied up at three just six minutes into the third period. It really was all Chicago until Underyew scored the game winning goal at the seven minute mark, his sixth of the tournament. 

And finally, while it may look like Toronto took revenge on the Stars, it was anything but a proper smack down you hope revenge wins are. Thirty five minutes into the game, Las Angeles had a three-one lead over the Legion, until Underyew slapped in his seventh of the tournament and drew Toronto within one less than half a minute after the Stars scored their third goal of the hockey game. Momentum shifts, though, right? To star the third -- just over four and a half minutes in -- the Stars increased their lead by two once again, leading the Legion 4-2 with just over fifteen minutes left in the game. Toronto fought back though, luckily, and tied the game up at four by the thirteen minute mark. Overtime would settle nothing, so off to the shootout we go. Jaxx Hextall stopped two dangerous scorers, while the bum off the streets would end up only blocking a weak shot from Killinger of the three he faced.      

"The tournament was alright, I guess." Peace stated. "I still don't really see the point of it, other than keeping people engaged now that the playoffs are a tad longer with the wildcard round." 

"From that perspective I understand it," The Legion GM crossed his arms. "Having as much of an impact on lottery odds as it does, well... that seems like it needs some adjustment. Five percent boost for a team that barely missed the playoffs, seems kinda unreasonable, even though we were technically a lottery team. I doubt we'll see any change soon... until it royally fucks someone. Worst team int he league gets second overall because the sixth team that was a point or two out of the playoffs got first." 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Peace

[Beaviss 4,949]

Thank you for trying... your efforts were wasted though

[Peace 1,518]

2 hours ago, Beaviss said:

Thank you for trying... your efforts were wasted though

 

No they weren’t, we won the tournament AND got to see Vancouver get fucked. Win-win, even if the pick is at 6. Not even top five, it’s great.

[Quik 4,113]

16 hours ago, Peace said:

until it royally fucks someone

 

 

Not sure if serious, but if you think the lotto tournament could royally fuck someone...here's the lotto % ranges:

1. 25-35%
2. 17.5-27.5%
3. 12.5-22.5%
4. 7.5-17.5%
5. 5-15%
6. 2.5-12.5%

Teams still can't fall more than 1 spot (your welcome btw, there were votes for full chaos). Fail to see how anyone gets fucked over though.

[.sniffuM 1,741]

I do think as the amount of lotto teams continue to grow it'd be cool to either (1) lessen the fall protection from 1 to 2 spots or (2) do it like the NBA (and possibly NHL idk) where it's a lotto for the first X number of spots and then the remaining spots go by lotto order of the teams that don't have picks yet, but that'd probably be a change best left for when the amount of lotto teams becomes 8.

[Quik 4,113]

24 minutes ago, .sniffuM said:

I do think as the amount of lotto teams continue to grow it'd be cool to either (1) lessen the fall protection from 1 to 2 spots or (2) do it like the NBA (and possibly NHL idk) where it's a lotto for the first X number of spots and then the remaining spots go by lotto order of the teams that don't have picks yet, but that'd probably be a change best left for when the amount of lotto teams becomes 8.

 

tbh, it's unlikely we get to 8 teams in the lotto any time soon, if at all. if/when another expansion comes around, it's more likely we move to 12 team playoffs.

 

lowering fall protection to 2 is a possibility with a 6-team lotto, but probably not until things normalize and we're in the next cycle of rebuilders/contenders at the earliest.

[.sniffuM 1,741]

1 hour ago, Quik said:

 

tbh, it's unlikely we get to 8 teams in the lotto any time soon, if at all. if/when another expansion comes around, it's more likely we move to 12 team playoffs.

 

lowering fall protection to 2 is a possibility with a 6-team lotto, but probably not until things normalize and we're in the next cycle of rebuilders/contenders at the earliest.

 

Yeah I anticipate an 8 team lotto would be for when we get to 20 teams next season.

[Peace 1,518]

Second claim.