14 seasons of hunt a.k.a. Riga Reign playoff streak recap

[hedgehog337 3,483]

 

*if you know what I mean. except I'm not going that far.*

 

 

It's no secret that the result of game 5 between Malmo and Riga marks the end of our record 14-season playoff streak. I do hope that I can top that in my another attempt. But for now, let's go back in time and see how my team was doing in each of these 14 seasons.

 

 

S62

 

Oh, good ol' scoring madness that was still a thing in VHL before the recruitment started to make moves. Never forget the 174 from Podrick Cast as well as other notable performances. Not only Riga was benefiting from this, couple of other teams were also having high scoring guys. I never was expecting to make the playoffs since we didn't have a good goalie, but our scoring got us to the wild card round. It ended in 3 games at the hands of Seattle. Still, it was a fun season.

 

S63

 

Like I was doubting us making the playoffs in S62, I never was sure if we can have a great championship chances in S63. Esepcially with the sub 400 TPE dude like Kallis Kriketers who was created to replace the bust Arvid Aamo. Anyways, I decided to give it a try. First I was ready to give a first pick for an established player Sebastian Ironside. It never happened due to complicated issues so I just drafted Ryan Kastelic who was a definition of a TPE whore back then. I also tried to bring free agents here and surprise, THREE players decided to sign with us (Bassolino, Shepherd, Gow). Suddenly, our team got better although I was still unsure due to a rookie goalie. And to the surprise of no one he didn't perform that well. Unlike the team, especially another tookie Ryuu Crimson who just ran over teams after his hat trick against Quebec in semi finals. That performance made him the first and only player who won the playoff MVP award as a rookie. But most importantly, we won a championship so my doubts were shattered after game 6 in finals.

 

S64

 

We were coming hot from the S63 championship. Despite of two players departing the team due to retirement (Shepherd and Gow) our team was still strong as ever. All of our previous draftees were only getting better and it showed in regular standings where we finished close second. It seemed like we would witness the Seattle vs Riga finals, except we got Helsinki in semi finals. They were doing more or less quiet in regular season, but when the time came we suddenly found ourselves with a 1-3 deficit in series. We managed to force into game 7, but that was all we got. Game 7 loss and our back to back dreams are gone. Disappointing result, but not the worst I've ever experienced.

 

S65

 

Another good regular season although we visibly slowed down at the end. Seattle once again finished first and it seemed that maybe finally we will clash in the finals to decide who is really better. Except we got Toronto in semi finals. I'll go ahead and say that this series was the least favorite of mine in my 21 season tenure so far. I didn't see how Toronto was better than any other playoff team with the 500 something TPE goalie. Instead, they managed to beat it in mere 5 games which I still think was a bullshit. I never saw them being that better than us. In fact I never saw they were better at all. This was the time when I started to be frustrated by STHS as it just was a bad result with zero logic in it. I had so many disappointments after this series, but this probably the only one result I'll always be salty about.

 

S66

 

After another frustrating result I decided to go more younger and sold couple of older players, Crimson and Glade for picks. At the end of the day I had four S66 firsts, including the first overall. As the result of that change we entered the season with 9 forwards which was an experiment from me since I never had so many forwards in my team. I must say that this experiment ended up...decently? I guess. We managed to secure the playoff spot rather comfortably, but personal stat wise it wasn't that pretty. Our star Podrick Cast performed below his expectations and it seemed like so many bodies was only distracting us from showing our true form. We would never know what was the true answer as we just got swept by Davos in EU conference semi finals. This was a notable event for two reasons: the first ever sweep loss in my VHL GM career and this was the last time we lost in the conferene semi finals before S74. So yeah, 7 season streak of being in top 4, I guess that's decent.

 

S67

 

More disappointments, more changes. The longtime Riga leader Podrick Cast was shipped to Moscow alongside with my own player Randoms. It marked the end of the EdwinCast duo as I was almost always playing them together in same line. In return I acquired from Davos younger guys like Pat Svoboda and Elias Dahlberg. That also was a beginning of a long time partnership with the member named Nykonax who eventually became the AGM with his second player. Also also, this was the debut season of a defenseman who then will become the cornerstone of Riga success in early 70's. But then he was just a rookie named Lincoln Tate. As about this season? Nothing much to write about. We started our long time rivalry with Moscow in a quick fashion, winning the series in 5 games. Despite of that, we never were a true powerhouse and it showed in the EU finals between us and Helsinki. It seemed like they were just a little bit better than us and that showed in the scoreboard. 4-3 loss and no finals yet again.

 

S68

 

Another season, another try. I made another good team, but for the good chunk of the season were rather sitting at the mid-table. Then I decided to take actions and realize that Beav isn't happy to see his player HHH underperforming all the time. As of the result the VHL saw a player swap between Quebec and Riga. HHH to Beav, Rauno Palo to Riga. That brought some life to us and we started to catch up other teams and actually were very close to win the Victory Cup. In EU semi finals we managed to banish our Helsinki demons in a low scoring series. It seemed like we can finally bring another finals performance at least. Except we got Malmo and Thompsson. I never thought Malmo was something special without Matt (still don't), but he just made his team 100x times stronger. Despite of Palo effect, our offense was still not ideal and it showed. Loss in 5 games, another frustrating result.

 

S69

 

Yup, another try. Interesting fact - I was interested to sell Palo for younger guy or picks, but decided to keep him. It seemed like a good option as our team was performing better in that regular season. Especially our defense and Kallis Kriketers who were holding on the fort all season long. Kallis posted his career best stats which was also a big thing in the leaguewide. At that moment, goalies were usually sitting around .922-.925 or even less, but .931 with a very low GAA was something special. It continued in the playoffs where opponents offense were just smoked by our defense and Kallis (Helsinki and Moscow appeared to be the victims) And finally, after all of these years of failures we managed to make into the finals. And against Seattle! A S64-65 dream matchup, only it happened a couple of seasons later. And this series started great with a 4 OT showdown. First 4 games were really close....and then Kallis crumbled under the pressure. It was very unfortunate becasue we were outshooting them all six games long, but it all got annulated by our goalie who couldn't fuel himself anymore. 6 games loss and no cup. The most disappointing result in my tenure so far, but not the worst.

 

S70

 

Some of our main forwards retired after that season (Dahlberg and Palo) and I had to decide what to do next. Sell Kastelic/Svoboda and make a hard retool or compete again? I chose...something between that. Dubious deals for ACL Tear and Aston Martin with one decent one for Codrick Past and nothing more than that. And that with my plans on getting multiple big TPE players. Well, shit. Our team still performed nicely, but I didn't have a feeling that we can take out the Moscow powerhouse. And you know what? I was right. We managed to pull a revenge on Malmo in EU semis. And then predictable happend. We were no match for the Menace. 5 games loss, we out.

 

S71

 

You already know the drill. Another try. This time I decided to not throw picks away and actually draft with them. The first round picks were Kyl Oferson (Nykonax) and Pengu. Then I brought a free agent Dan Baillie with an idea to finish his career in a team that drafted him. We were once again decent, but never spectacular. Just sitting somewhere in the middle in standings and trying to secure another playoff appearance. And then the bomb happened. Malmo's new GM was not believing they could do anything anymore so he decided to make a firesale at the trade deadline. I took the chance and made a blockbuster trade. Bunch of picks, Aston Martin, Dominique Williams and Dan Baillie to Malmo; Phil Marleau and Acyd Burn to Riga. This was an exciting moment, except there was one big black hole in this: I never fulfilled my promise to Dan Baillie that he will finish in his OG team and sent him to a team that wasn't competing much anymore (still made the playoffs though). Still feeling uncomfortable about this. Anyways, that was really a big deal that was supposed to elevate us to the legit contender status. Except it didn't really happened. We were still somewhere at the middle of the pack trying to fight for the playoffs. Acyd Burn never meshed up well with our guys despite being a high TPE forward (nice joke, Simon) and we were still inconsistent. We even dropped the first two games to Prague in EU semis (mind you, the only two playoff wins in their history so far) but managed to turn this into our favor as they were just gooning instead of playing a hockey game. And once again, we face Moscow in the conference finals and this time we came a little bit close. Still, loss in 6, we out.

 

S72

 

We entered this season without Acyd Burn whos FA right were shipped to Davos. Other that, not much roster changes were made. So our offense was still doing very inconsistent...at the first half of the season. I was starting to fully believe that having higher TPE defensemans that forwards isn't going to do much wonders for us. Then something interesting happened. After another lines change our offense started to mesh well together and we started to climb in standings after a taking all of our three or four games in a row against Davos. At the end of the season we finished first in EU and things were looking fine. I still was exepcting a good fight between Davos and the Moscow in EU playoffs. Except we got two sweep wins in a row. Our offense was running wild with our defense doing a legit ''quarterback'' job and Eagles stealing games all the time. We made the finals once again and this time we were facing a very scary opponent in Calgary. And first two games showed that it won't be easy for us. I once again was expecting a very tight fight. Except another lines change happened which basically put Calgary to sleep. The other three games were taken by our team and that was it. 4-1 series, 12-1 playoff run in total, we are champs once again!

 

S73

 

Since we became champs I didn't change my roster much. Unfortunately we had to say our goodbyes to Busser and Hackett. But I still thought we could be good enough to make the finals once again at least. The regular season was fine. We didn't finish first in EU conference, but I felt we can make it happen in the playoffs again. And at first it seemed very good for Riga. Taking our rivals Moscow out in 5 game was a great start to do it. Except we got Helsinki that scored a lucky game 7 against Malmo (which was never supposed to happen, in fairness. Helsinki was better than that). I'm not sure why Simon decided to turn on us so quick, but we suffered a sweep loss at the hands of our another long time rival. Perhaps the loss of Hackett and Busser finally showed up and our defense wasn't as much powerful as before.

 

S74

 

Well, another try then. Another season with no much changes in roster since the trade market was pretty weak, especially forward wise. Some of our players started to regress and our first round pick Jeffie never panned out so our depth was not at the top level. And what a surprise (/s), we didn't look like a true powerhouse except for the start of the season when we went like 17-2. Individually, this season was fun. Tallinder with the most points in the regular season, Oferson hitting 100 as well. Tate and Sasakamoose with great numbers too. Still, it was the depth that brought us down. And yeah, you know the drill. It showed. In the EU semis against Malmo. I was expecting more tight series, but they just expose our lack of depth by taking the series in 5. Not the best way to end our playoff streak, but it is what it is.

 

 

Well, these were interesting times for Riga. Consistently being in the hunt, winning a couple of championships, great individual stats and some frustrating results. Regardless of anything, this was a memorable run, but now it's time to pull myself and go to sleep for like two seasons or so. In any case, we will be back!

 

That's it and I'm out.

 

25/10 - 01/11

02/11 - 08/11

09/11 - 15/11

16/11 - 22/11

 

Edited November 1, 2020 by hedgehog337

[Victor 10,851]

This one is going down in history for sure, great run.

[hedgehog337 3,483]

week 3 claim

[hedgehog337 3,483]

week 4 as well