Luffy Richard here! Back with another team spotlight, but this time I am going to be taking a look at the big boys, that is right, ladies and un-gentlemen, today’s extra special media spotlight will be focusing on the Simulation Hockey League’s Buffalo Stampede, and I am only doing this to get over the trauma they caused me during my own playing career. Including having to watch them win the Challenger cup in season sixty. Not to mention that I shared a name with that darn Monkey D. Luffy, which was not a favorable match-up for me, let me tell you. I do feel bad for the people who drafted me in fantasy because of that, but they should have been paying attention!

From season fifty-seven to sixty-five, my entire career with the Toronto North Stars, The Buffalo Stampede never finished worse than eighth, and up to season sixty-three they were captained by the accursed Monkey D. Luffy, or as everyone else called him, the better Luffy.

In seasons fifty-seven, fifty-eight, and fifty-nine the Stampede either lost to the eventual champs (Chicago in season fifty-seven) or lost in the finals (Hamilton and Texas). Hamilton would be a recurring thorn in the Stampedes hides as after their season sixty championship they faced Hamilton in the playoffs and lost four of the five meetings with the Hamilton Steelhawks beating the Los Angeles Panthers in six games to be the Challenger Cup champions in season sixty-three. In my final year as a player the Stampede got their revenge and beat Hamilton in the third round.

So there is some context for my extreme angst against this team, but let us take a look at how the Buffalo Stampede did this year!

The Buffalo Stampede finished the eighty-second season of the Simulation Hockey League sixteenth with a record of 24-34-8 for fifty-six points. I shouldn’t take pleasure in a team that constantly crushed the dreams of my beloved North Stars, but I take a little bit of joy from their current circumstances. Not a lot, and I’m ashamed of it, but this has been a very interesting walk down memory lane to connect my past with the present situation of a fierce rival that was denied a dynasty by a tenacious Hamilton squad.

I think the current Stampede should look to the past and remember the dominance and persistence they displayed season after season. The low times might be here now, but there is always a brighter future on the horizon.

This has been Luffy Richard spotlighting the Buffalo Stampede and giving some personal insight into these former rivals of mine. Until next time, Simulation Hockey League fans,

Luffy Out!