Easily my biggest L in the SHL so far was in my last season. After starting our 4 star defence and going all of the way to the final, we finally had the matchup against the Vancouver Hockey club that had been foretold since the goon squad was all drafted to Edmonton. While there is no doubt in my mind that Vancouver had the best team on paper (and on the virtual ice), I did think we had enough remaining veterans as well as a handful of very plucky rookies - at least enough to take a few games off of them. Getting swept was a pretty bad look. Most of the games were very close, and that's the way she goes. Just disappointing to have my final 4 games in the SMJHL end up that way. I'll always be proud of my zerk bros and sisters, and I know they will come back with a vengeance this year.
Every player in any professional sport will have experienced loss at some point in their career. These losses have a great chance to define who that player is and can sometimes be the make or break moment for their career. Patrick Shepherd has suffered two such instances in his career and they have both contributed to the type of player he is now. The first was in a trip to the Four Star Cup Finals in his junior season with the Maine Timber. After entering the playoffs as a bottom seed and upsetting their way to the finals, the Timber were handily defeated at the hand of their bitter rival the Newfoundland Berserkers. This was Patrick's first season with an A on his jersey and having to rally the other players after a heartbreaking run gave him the leadership experience that he needed to realize that playing for a team was more important than playing for himself. That off season he turned down a contract to join the Baltimore Platoon a year early in a bid to fight for another cup with his teammates in Maine. The second defining loss of Patrick's career came in the expansion draft. After three hard fought seasons on a rebuilding Platoon roster, Patrick was informed that he would be unprotected going into the expansion draft. Patrick had always felt that he would play out his whole career in Baltimore so this news came as quite the shock, but not quite as shocking as being taken in the third round of the expansion draft by the Philadelphia Forge. This gave Patrick a taste of adversity and a drive to prove others wrong. The very next season he was given a shot to play on the Forge's top line and with those minutes he managed to not only have the best season of his career, but also win the Aidan Richan trophy for most improved player.
Coming off the ice and sitting on the changing room bench was an eye opening experience for Friedensreich Hundertwasser and the rest of the up and comers. They'd got to take on their idols, the men they'd all looked up to and wanted to replicate when they first joined the SHL.
They'd thought team Hall of fame would have lost a step, that they would be past it, that they would have regressed so much that it would be an easy game. This was not to be, the youngsters under sold their opponents and due to this got their asses handed to them on a plate. After Olson banged in goal after the 2 minute the team thought it would be a walkover. Instead they would be on the end of a ten goal onslaught.
The team should hopefully use this as a wake up call. Never underestimate your opponents, especially if they are filled with legends of the game. Going forward they won't take their foot off the gas.
Sigs by: Rum Ham, Orbiting Death x2, Enigmatic & Kyamprac
It was a long long time ago back in S20's. In S18 we barely got into playoffs and the playoff streak took as from very good prospects of that time. We had amazing core and excellent picks - best what we could get at that position. We felt that the playoff run won't be for long but it sucked ass a lot when we realized that in S20 we did not get in Play-Off. Interesting, but it was sort of an experimental era of Simon T hockey simulator settings. 55 game era was exactly long as our playoff drought. It helped us to achieve, Randy Randleman, Vlad McZehrl, Hunter Wong, Schnitinifritz Jagr. We got Sachimo Zoidberg and Big Game Boychuk. Birks was gone but we got a juicy return in that trade. We were ready for dynasty after that. Also for my player this playoff drought reached to play more defensive and my player was a shot-blocking machine for a while!
After taking down the grizzled vets its time to show our stuff against the Hall of famers. The game started out bad and only got worse. Makrus couldn’t win a faceoff all game. Lev and Slavakov couldn’t get open to make a shot all game. Pasta tried hitting a hall of famer, but their shins just wouldn’t break. Even Sven’s misconduct didn’t get called because the refs felt bad for us. The team took the loss hard and we needed to come together after such a hard beating. We decided to do a team building exorcise. Everyone had some ideas. Slavakov suggested we all get pedicures, Lev and Sven suggested we move to the British isles and become British to play for their IIHF team, Pasta suggested a nice relaxing day sunbathing on a log in a pond, but because its my story they went with Makrus’s idea, Pizza party and watching hockey movies. After some pizza and beer everyone felt better about the loss. Turns out everyone really liked the movie Goon, they just didn’t know it yet. After a nice refresh the team is back together and ready to face our next obstacle.
Probably the biggest L I have taken over the last few seasons is to my bank account. Having a lofty amount to sit on, I am now about 2 off seasons away from falling into debt. As far as ways to recover from this - I have thought about doing some podcasts and other things to try and get my head back above the water line, but with time going away more and more these days I am not sure if I even have time for that. I know I want to break the 2,000 TPE mark again, which should be achievable still for myself, but if I want to fight regression a bit on this player then I need to lace up my boots and start to earn some money again. Written media is out of the question as is twitter personally, the only real thing for me that doesnt feel like it takes up time is podcasts and contracts, but well this leagues salary cap is so low, only 1 of these 2 things can be done. So Look for MAS to hit the soundwaves in the near future.
In another career, the end of the 40s was simultaneously a hopeful and difficult time in Manhattan. Hopeful as we made three Eastern Conference Finals in a stretch of four seasons. Difficult as we lost each one of them. Combined with other real-life factors, that was around the time I decided I needed a break from sim leagues, including the SHL. I departed to inactivity that September if my recollection is correct. The tough times continued in my absence, and the conference finals remained the ceiling the team couldn't break through. After three months absence, I returned. The L wasn't just in losing those series. It was in having been considered the heart of the locker room and leaving at a time when they needed to take heart the most. Sure, they carried on, though I'd heard the difference was not desirable. The lost time would prevent my player from reaching his peak, but it was necessary time away looking back on it. You can't realize what you're losing in relationships until they're over or not in communication. And it felt like the return was the necessary spark for the S52 Cup run afterward. L's don't have to be total losses.
The worst Ls my player has taken so far are the ones with Team Sweden. We've had an immensely strong team for several tournaments now by we just cannot do any better than bronze. Every season I get my hopes up that maybe this time we'll at least make the finals. But alas, even if we dominate the group stage we're unable to keep it up in the playoffs rounds. It's always extremely disappointing because Stammer and now Jess have/are working so hard to build a fantastic nation. Which they have. But FHM has decided that Sweden is not to win any medal better than bronze.
Luckily the international tournaments are so short and far between that I always manage to rebuild my hopes and dreams of an IIHF gold medal. Just in time for the new tournament to start and for us to once again be on the wrong side of the puck luck. But I'm sure next year is our time!
I feel like I've taken quite a few L's on this site as a user. My biggest one, though, was by far the first. As I was really hitting my stride with my best-performing (and first) sim player, Buster Killington, I got dinged with a tampering charge. The punishment, the ruining/apparent cursing of the Portland franchise, and the public reaction forced me to retire. In hindsight, I really should've just sat out a season from the site and cooled off. My player was OP. But I didn't; I retired and recreated with an enforcer just a few seasons later. There are other low-lights of mine, including "running" the Updater team and abruptly leaving, getting in squabbles with people on here because I didn't like how they were carrying themselves on the forum, and probably other ones I've successfully suppressed from my immediate recall. But this new career for me as Donair and with FHM and the new LA Panthers, I feel reborn. It's been an awesome experience and I only hope I can change the minds of those few who I still might technically have a problem with from history.
This is Atticus Hale's third season in the league, so not a lot of experience quite yet. However, there have been several minor Ls over the past couple seasons such as long slumps and demotions. Playoff losses are always tough, but the losses in the past two seasons have been especially hard to swallow. The Carolina Kraken were in great position to make a deep playoff run in both of the past two seasons. After first round byes in each season, the Kraken were unfortunately eliminated by the Quebec City Citadelles in the second round of both seasons. As a player, that has been the biggest L so far.
As a user that strives for perfection and wants to elevate Atticus Hale to HOF caliber status and achieve as many accolades as possible, my biggest L was missing an mPT at the end of last season which ruined my perfect PT streak. It's been tough to carve out time for PTs recently, but I'm still going strong despite that miss. I'm hoping this will be my biggest L.
Prompt 2
Last season was the Regina Elk's inaugural season in the SMJHL, and it was a very bumpy ride. We had a lot of new players so it was expected to be a tough time for the team, and even though we had a tough regular season, it was to be expected. Because of the way the divisions worked last season, we did get to have a shot at the playoffs, offering us a glimmer of hope in achieving something in the playoffs. Something to cap the season off on a good note and carry with us into next season. Our round one matchup was against the Kelowna Knights, a good team, but we thought we could take a game or two off of them to give us something to cheer about. Games one and two ended with a 5-4 OT loss, and then a 5-2 loss, leaving us down 0-2 as we went back to Regina to play games 3 and 4. Because the first two games were somewhat close, we felt confident heading into game 3 at home. This game ended up being the most disappointing loss of my short career. Not only did we go down 0-3 in the series, but we got crushed in front of our home crowd. The final score was a 7-1 loss, erasing any hope we had of avoiding the sweep. Sure enough, game 4 resulted in a 6-3 loss. That 7-1 loss was definitely a tough one to swallow, and has made me more eager to make the playoffs this year to hopefully make up for getting crushed by Kelowna in S61.
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Keygan Registered
S45, S48, S49 Challenge Cup Champion
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The most devasting loss I have ever experienced on this site was back during Kelowna's threepeat. I was at the current time the manager for the Montreal Militia and we were up on the Knights three games to one going into the final days of sims. We had run a lot of tests to make sure we were set up for success in regards to the final two games and we expected to win one of the two to finish off our run to bring home the championship. I remember something to the effect of a ninety percent chance to win one of the two remaining games, which made it all the more devasting to watch as JR clicked sim once and I lost, and then clicked a second time and I lost again. I remember shedding a few tears as it was my first time really losing on the site, and I felt as though I let the entirety of the team down.