Ringless: The S43-S44 Quebec City Meute

[Matt_O 897]

 

Welcome to the sixth and final edition of Ringless. In this series we look at the best teams throughout VHL history to never win the cup.

 

 

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The Meute have been the victims of some unfortunate sim luck throughout VHL history. Their S49 and S50 woes are well documented, and they suffered a similar fate only a handful of seasons earlier, in S43 and S44. They had three future Hall of Famers, as well as an elite goaltender and solid supporting pieces. What could go wrong for this team? How could a team that good win only two playoff games over the course of two playoff runs? 

 

Heading into S43, the Meute had been good for quite some time. They made the playoffs the prior three seasons, including a finals run in S42. The Meute’s success was largely due to making trades for young players. Aksel Thomassen was an exception, however, as he was drafted in S39 due to the GM rule, and he would help lead the Meute to some great success during his hall of fame career. They also traded for Bruno Wolf, another hall of fame forward, from the Bears early in his career. This set the Meute up with two future superstar forwards to build their team around. They selected goaltender Brock Waldron sixth overall in the S38 draft, and these three alongside other supporting players helped the Meute finish second in the North American Conference in S40, in what was a very successful year for Quebec City. They were just starting to revamp their team, and they had already found some success. They didn’t do much in the playoffs, losing in the first round to the Wranglers, but it was a good season. 

 

In the offseason after S40, the Meute wanted to continue their growth, and made some moves. They traded for Travis Boychuk, a young forward, that could secure their second line. They also traded for rookie Rami Jakobssen, who was the final piece of the first line that consisted of Thomassen, Wolf, and now Jakobssen. With these moves in place, the Meute went from 99 points to S40 all the way to 111 in S41. Thomassen and Wolf had monster years, with 136 and 123 points respectively,  while Boychuk's 103 points was a huge boost from the second line. Thomassen and Wolf finished with the first and second-most points in the league that year, while Boychuk finished eleventh. Thomassen won multiple awards, including the Brett Slobodzian Trophy for most outstanding player, Dustin Funk Trophy for most improved, and the Beketov and Szatkowski Trophies for most assists and points, while Wolf won the Scott Boulet as best two way forward, and finally the Kevin Brooks Trophy for most goals. The Meute owned the second-best offense in the league, and looked like they had many great years ahead of them.

 

The Meute dominated the Wranglers in Round One, easily dispatching them in a quick five games. The offense looked deadly, scoring five or more goals three times in the series. In the Conference Finals, they would go on to face the Americans. New York proved they were simply too much for the Meute. They were able to shut down the offense, with one shutout and two games only allowing one goal. They took down the Meute in five games, and it was clear they needed to shore up the defense at some point to seriously contend. They would only get better from here, as Thomassen, Boychuk, Jakobssen, Wolf, and goaltender Waldron all were young players. 

 

During the offseason, the Meute surprisingly decided not to go after any defensemen, but instead picked up forward Milos Denis. This would prove to be a good move, since Denis would have multiple successful seasons in Quebec City, but there wasn’t much of a need for another forward. With Denis’ arrival, Jakobssen got moved down to the second line, and the new first line of Aksel Thomassen, Bruno Wolf, and Milos Denis would be the most deadly lineup in the league. Thomassen and Wolf yet again finished first and second in the league in points, with 141 and 137 respectively. Wolf won the Boulet and Brooks Trophies again, but added the Slobodzian Trophy to his collection, while Thomassen won the Beketov and Szatkowski Trophies for the second consecutive year. Waldron had a great year in net, with a 2.10 GAA and a .920 save percentage, and the Meute finished first place in the league with 54 wins. They had the best offense and third best defense in the league, and many had them as the favorite to make it to the finals, and perhaps win it all.

 

They had a bye into the Conference Finals, and they would face the Americans for the second year in a row. These Americans weren’t the same as last year's team, but they still put up a great fight. They brought it all the way to seven games against the Meute, but Quebec City held on to win Game Seven thanks to Waldron's 40 saves. The Meute won the series, and they were heading to the Continental Cup Finals to face the Cologne Express. 

 

Games One and Two both went to the Express, and the Meute only had three goals in those two games. Game Three went Quebec’s way, but after a Game Four loss, the writing was on the wall. Robin Gow’s overtime winner in Game Five won the Continental Cup for the Express, and the Meute’s run was over. While it certainly was a rough way to go out, the Meute had multiple years of success ahead of them. All of their players were young and still growing, but they just needed one thing to perhaps push them over the edge: a sturdy defenseman.

 

During the offseason, they got their priorities straight and set out to acquire the best defenseman that was actively being shopped around: Jake Wylde. Many know his name because he has the award for best defensive defenseman. After a bit of discussion, Quebec City was able to trade for Wylde to finally secure their blue line, and truly solidify themselves as the best team in the league. However, the move for Wylde wasn’t as big of a splash as it may have seemed. They still finished first place in the North American Conference, but the offensive totals went down from the previous year, going from the league's best offense to third best, while the defense still ranked third. However, goalie Brock Waldron massively improved, with a 1.85 GAA and a .924 save percentage. The Meute, once again, were the favorite to go to the finals.

 

The Seattle Bears were the Meute's opponent in the Conference finals after they took down the Legion in the first round in a sweep. No one gave the Bears a real chance at taking down the Meute. The roster wasn’t even that great, the GM was inactive, and the Meute were just that much better. The Meute won Game One 4-3, but after that, things started to go Seattle’s way. They won the next three games and took a 3-1 series lead. How could this happen? The Bears were not good, yet found themselves a win away from the finals. The Meute's offense had been lackluster, and the Bears had taken advantage. The Bears jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in Game Five, but the Meute tied the game and forced overtime. In overtime, the Bears would score and win the game and the series, sending a shock to the Quebec City fans in attendance. A few seasons ago, this team was young and had tons of promise. When they lost in the playoffs, it wasn’t the end of the world, as they could always say that there is always next year. This was a reality check. There wouldn’t always be a next year, and this team was starting to get older. S44 was a must win season for the Meute.

 

In what was clearly the Meute's final chance at a ring, they went all-in. They acquired goaltender Niklaus Mikaelson, who had just beaten them as a member of the Bears, and Brady Stropko, a forward that also was a part of the Bears team that had taken them down. This was perhaps the most impressive team that the Meute had put together. They had the second-best offense, finishing with just one less goal than the first-placed Express, as well as the third-best defense, with only five more goals against than the first-placed Stockholm Vikings. Thomassen had 108 points, Stropko had 105, Wolf had 102, Boychuk had 101, Denis had 96, and Wylde had 92. This team was loaded with elite talent, and they had six players in the top 20 for points in S44. This was likely the team's best and final chance at a cup. They finished first in the league again, their second Victory Cup in three seasons, and got a bye in round one. They would face the Wranglers in the Conference Finals, who they had a very intense rivalry with.

 

The Wranglers had a very solid team in S44, as goaltender Hans Wingate, who would eventually be inducted to the Hall of Fame, helped lead the team to finishing second in the North American Conference. They didn’t have any stand out names though, the complete opposite of Quebec City. If the Meute wanted to win, they needed their big names to shine. In Game One, Bruno Wolf was the one who stepped up, with three points in a 4-2 win. The Meute would need more of that if they wanted to keep winning. Unfortunately for them, they did not get much of anything in Game Two, losing 3-0 with only 18 shots on net. It would be a similar story in Game Three, losing 1-0. This was looking very similar to what happened the season prior. Game Four was clearly a must win.

 

The Wranglers scored first, as Rami Jakobssen, who once was a member of the Meute, gave the Wranglers the lead late in the first period. Brady Stropko would answer back in the second period with two consecutive goals to give the Meute the lead headed to the third. In the third, the Wranglers would tie the game, and then score again just fifteen seconds later to take the lead, and that was all she wrote. The Wranglers won Game Four, and had the Meute on the brink of elimination. It was a demoralizing loss for the Meute, it seemed as though the series was already over, and the Wranglers did not let up in Game Five. After a four goal first period, the Wranglers cruised to a 6-0 Game Five win, defeating their much hated rivals in Quebec City. The S40 and S41 Meute had championship aspirations, and it looked like they were set up very nicely to win one, if not multiple cups in the future. The closest this team ever got was a five game finals loss. It was clearly over for the Meute.

 

Thomassen and Milos Denis were both shipped to Riga, Bruno Wolf was traded to New York, Wylde was moved to Calgary. They made the playoffs in S45 thanks to a weak North American Conference, but got swept by none other than Calgary in the first round. The Meute began a rebuild, which led to them forming perhaps the best team in franchise history in S49 and S50. Neither of those teams would win anything either, suffering a fate that the S43-S44 Meute also suffered. 

 

This will be the final edition of Ringless. There simply aren't enough elite teams that never won a cup, and many of those really good teams that didn’t win a cup happened before S20, which is where the VHL archives end. Thanks to @Victor for his list of the best teams to never win a cup, which was used plenty of times to help find teams for this series. Next on VSN, we will be launching a series called,  “Hall of Very Good,” which will talk about the best players that aren’t in the Hall of Fame. 

 

@Frank @philthethrill81 @STZ @DollarAndADream  @Hybrid1486

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by Matt_O

[Matt_O 897]

For some reason the graphics I added into the article aren't appearing so now this just looks like a huge wall of text, I'm not really sure what happened with that

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

Niklaus Mikaelson still gives me nightmares. What a run for that guy.

 

I still credit some of the Meute's woes to Kesler not willing to put Boychuk on the 1st line for a game or two in the playoffs. Wolf/Thomassen were being shutdown consistently, and putting Boychuk either up there with them, or swapping Thomassen to the 2nd line could have mixed it up and provided some goals.

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

As the Wranglers S44 GM this was a really fun read for me. Awesome read, one thing you wouldn't have known unless you were there though was there was a pretty good rivalry between Calgary and Quebec in S44, as Quebec (mainly Kesler and DT) pretty much always initiated trash talk and ate their own words when they lost to Calgary

 

Check out the awesome game thread after CGY won

 

 

 

[Beketov 9,107]

S44 Wranglers was definitely one of the most fun teams I've ever been on. That underdog run was legendary.

[CowboyinAmerica 2,913]

Missed this one while I was gone over the weekend. Fun look back @Matt_O! Ditto on the S44 Wranglers team, probably my favorite VHL season.