Maybe you think you will get to hear about storied rivalries from bygone eras or even the wild matchups that the teams had back in S1. There may even have been times when a large collection of teams were seen together as each other's rivals, battling for supremacy atop the hockey world. But, in a world of divisions, you don't always get to see one built quite like the fucking great lakes! This division is so very frustrating to play in no matter which of the four teams you play for. Imagine, you have TWO teams from S1 who have hated each other all this time in Hamilton and Toronto. Add two strong expansion teams from two different expansion eras, one of whom now as a good handful of rings. Now have the worst one NEARLY on par with the top teams of the other divisions. THATS the great lakes and we all hate each other!
For the Tampa Bay Barracuda, their biggest rival has to be the San Francisco Pride. Both teams have a history of being a failing team in warm climates. For the past five seasons, both teams have been dumpster fires and have had embarrassing moments in the league. Both franchises used to be the home of defenseman Mattias Holmberg, though both franchises were under different names at the point. Any ways, both teams are so bad that the actual rivalry between the two teams is for who is the worst team. Tampa Bay had held the edge over San Francisco for sometime, however recently San Francisco have really challenged the Barracuda in regards to being the worst team in the league. The next few seasons will be interesting between the two teams, as Tampa has started to slip and build a strong team, while San Francisco also had made the mistake of having good prospect depth.
The goddamn Portland Admirals. They weren't around very long before being rebranded (twice, was it?). My first SHL home. There were some awesome peeps there, like JP, Tylar, and others (I'm sorry, bad memory). But I'll always hold them as my own personal rivals. Fortunately you can't actually face them in any capacity. So I vow that my current skater, Rob Wright, will be the Last Official Portland Admiral (this is not factually accurate).
So how do you get closure against a rival? By beating them. Pretty impossible with a defunct team. Or is it? The Portland Admirals are now the San Francisco Pride (a team I hold close to my heart). So, to get my Rival Closure, the Last Official Portland Admiral must beat the San Francisco Pride. This reality is a long way off as my player is currently enjoyed not scoring points in the SMJHL and his SHL career is a few seasons away.
so for as long as i have been in this league theyre has been many rivalries with teams going out of blood. wether it be two top contenders going for a cup or wether it be and old fashioned rivarly. the most memorable moment in my shl carreer has been the one between st louis scarecrows and the Detroit falcons. the best moment for me was when we finally won a cup and the falcons didnt. numerous times around the league you would see members going at it all over from discords to the site and even sending mail to eachothers houses to remeber its more than a fake hockey league its the most important thing of your life. even to this day the rilvary lives on with former crows and falcons still going at it to this current day. sadly the man who invited me to the site is now gm of the falcons.... this is war @nour
Our biggest rival are either the Hamilton Steelhawks or the Buffalo Stampede. First of they play in the same divison as we do, which means we play them the most out of all the teams. So jeah fuck the great lakes division. I also didn't mention Chicago because i like a lot of the chicago players and they dont get my blood boiling when i think about them.
So now who is the bigger rival Buffalo or Hamilton? Well for me it's Buffalo, first off they have Augustus Wang who was drafted in the same draft year as me and plays the same position as me. I allways wanted to better then him. Also does Nicholas Owens play for Buffalo who was my line mate in Anaheim and with whom i won a cup (love you buddy @grum). Still who likes to get beaten by an old team mate. I deffinetly don't! So jeah that is why I consider Buffalo as the biggest rival of our team
The biggest rival for Maine Timbers based on recent history must be the Newfoundland Berserkers. The tough (while probably expected) finals loss during the deep Maine Timber play-off run was the biggest disappointment.
The loss sparked a fire in most of the team with an intense will to want to win every game against Newfoundland Berserkers for seasons to come.
So our most recent 7-1 victory over the Berserkers felt great.
While it could definitely be argued that the Maine Timbers would be the rival for many of the teams we knocked out during the mentioned play-off run, we haven't felt them as our rivals.
So the mane great games we've had against the Armada, the Knights and more recently the Quebec City Citadels, these teams don't quite reach the level of determination the team feels when we have to face the Berserkers.
Given how far the Berserkers have fallen after their period of dominance, it'll be interesting to follow and see if the rivalry keeps alive or if it will die out now that most of the players present during the cup run will be promoted to their respective SHL teams
For the Maine Timber, I think it's fair to say the rival prize goes to Newfoundland. At least, during my time here in Maine. From the moment I joined, they were the best team in the league. The team to beat. They were good the first season when Carolina ended up winning, but they kept beating us. And then, in S55, we went on a miracle run to the finals. Who were there to stand in our way for the very first championsship? Who were there, if not for those who had kept on knocking us down and would continue to do so? We lost that final 4-2 in games. We had made comebacks in our two previous playoff series, and not being able to pull out the upset here hurt just so much. Now they might be a bad team, but that loss will forever hurt. And from around then, they have established themselves as a rival team.
I think that the biggest rivals of the Minnesota Monarchs at this point in time would be the San Francisco Pride. Both of us have been, for lack of a better term, bottom dwelling teams for the last few seasons and have been looking for ways to climb the ranks of the Western Conference. While we have a little bit of a leg up on the Pride, as their "rebuild" started a season or so after ours did, they do have a few very solid players that have been able to help them out over the past few seasons (like Alex Petrenko and Henrik Lekberg Osterman). The teams are kind of at odds, as we have about one line of top end talent while they have a solid amount of mediocre depth. Put these two rivals together and you have a respectable team! But no. Do not do that. Because we are rivals and don't like each other.
I find this concept rather funny for the likes of Winnipeg when you consider that all other teams are reasonably distant from ourselves to the point where we're not really competing for fandom strength of any kind and, as far as I'm aware, the only bad blood we had recently was over some media piece talking about trades and even that was ages ago. I would reckon that our "rivals" are teams on a similar level of quality of play at the moment and not much else. Even then, it sounds a tad ridiculous to think that those are some real blood-seeking, injury-causing duels for our club is thankfully league leaders in terms of gentlemanship and sportsmanship, something that those uncouth dastardly creatures of Edmontonian deliverance or those scallywags from the Lone Star State seem to lack, which shows very much in our duels against themselves. A poor show, but not rivalries in any way or shape.
Player Page - Update Page
Former Players: Yoshimitsu McCloud (LW, #64) - Won a Four Star Cup once, knew ninjutsu, picture editors hated him, never tried free agency
Anton Harrier (LW, #90) - Won WJC gold, liked skateboarding a lot, went to the finals with Manhattan, kept his seat glued in LR
I'm pretty sure Hamilton is everyone's answer, as they are the cool kids and world-beaters. Similar to every baseball team hating the Yankees in the '90s, the s50's in the SHL is all about Hamilton. These guys were bottom of the barrel, and jettisoning players ad had a dead locker room until Drunken Teddy worked his lovable magic and Aaron Wilson started crunching numbers. They have become the dominant franchise, and I hear their locker room is pretty good, too.
Calgary is another franchise that Edmonton regularly buts heads with. The battle for Alberta is alive and well in the simulated leagues, and at one point every postseason, Calgary Dragons and Edmonton Blizzard duke it out. traditionally the winner of this head-to-head goes to the finals (my memory might be biased, but i wont open the index to check).
improving players and strategies to beat calgary and hamilton are goals #1 and #1A.
I would say for the Anaheim Outlaws, the biggest rival for us in our whole twelve seasons of existence would be the team that also was initialized in Season 45, the Lethbridge Lions. The Lions, which many of you will know them today as the Newfoundland Berserkers.
The rivalry obviously started right off the bat simply due to each team starting up in the same season and having to do the Expansion Draft where they competed in picking players from the current teams in the league. Anaheim got the better of Lethbridge in Season 47 and Season 48 Playoffs Round 2, eliminating the Lions in Season 47 by a sweep, and in Season 48 by a score of 4 to 2.
It wasn’t until Season 49 that Lethbridge struck Anaheim back with a brutal blow. Former S46 Anaheim Draftees JNH and SDCore were selected to be the GM and co-GM for the Lions, making things between the two organizations very personal every time they met up on the ice.
As a Minnesota Monarch prospect, I am a little bit unfamiliar to the team's current big rivals, but based on what I am seeing, it is very likely to be the San Fran Pride, who are at times the closest level opponent in the western conference, while also being the best measure of how our team is fairing at the same time. As both the Monarchs and the Pride are in the long rebuilding stages of the league, it is always a closely contested matchup, which can be few and far between at times for both teams. If either of us want to do well in a season, the first step of that is taking the close games off each other, making the matchup extremely important to both teams and always a game to make sure to focus on. I personally hope we can pull out of seeing the Pride as a rival, as that would mean we are getting stronger as a team, but as things are now, the matchup is one neither team wants to lose. 179
For the Raptors, it would have to be Anaheim. I can’t really say why. It’s not that I can’t, I simply don’t really know why! But ever since I saw another member do a post above, saying that Colorado “weren’t shit” I’ve been 100% on board. We have a command in our discord, that if you say ! Followed by sucks or something like that, the bot will trash talk Anaheim. And for good reason I say! For me, it starts with the name. I mean, Anaheim. There’s a city that i always have to think twice about when i spell it out. So that’s a pain in the ass from the jump.
I’d also say QCC, I don’t think it’s really a two way rivalry, but they’re so good this year, that whenever they come up in the schedule, we also look forward to it. Great way to see how we measure up against the best
thedangazone Rookie Mentor Committee
S40 & S42 Challenge Cup Champion
I think a team as old as Los Angeles would probably have plenty of rivals in the western conference especially from all the years they have been around. Calgary comes to mind as a huge one in the past especially when Wasty was GMing here for the Panthers as the Dragons would just edge out Los Angeles over and over and it had to be tough seeing them win a lot of cups when Los Angeles had some really great teams that came up just short. Plus when thinking of all time great GMs Esa and Wasty are usually 2 of the top names to come to mind from over the years. Personally a big rival now for Los Angeles, at least for me, is New Orleans. After everything that has happened over the past few seasons with my personal departure from the team as well as the Panthers now having Fuzz as a GM and Jimmy Slothface on the team, both from NOLA, it has become an apparently coup to overthrow the old team and show our own dominance. Doesn't hurt that they're also in our division so we'll be seeing a lot of them behind us in the standings for the foreseeable future.
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