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(GRADED)Deep Dive #2 - The 44 Win Team That Missed the Playoffs
#1
(This post was last modified: 07-16-2022, 10:14 AM by CptSquall. Edited 1 time in total.)

Winding back the clocks all the way to S59, you encounter one of the most infuriating things to ever happen in the history of the SHL. Probably. The Toronto North Stars finished their season as the 5th seed team out of the 18 in the league. With a record of 44-17-5 for a total of 93 points. 5 more than the team in sixth, and 45 more than the team who finished 15th… a team which made the playoffs… unlike Toronto.

That’s correct. A team with 44 wins and 93 points missed the playoffs while a team with 20 wins and 48 points made it. Why you might ask? Well look no further to 3 of the 4 teams ahead of them in the standings. Hamilton, Buffalo and Chicago joined Toronto in the Great Lakes Division, a 4 team division consisting of 4 of the top 5 teams in the league.

This issue has been improved upon with expansions and reformatting of the divisions, but you can’t go back and let Toronto into the playoffs.

A look into this era for Toronto would show something similar happening two seasons earlier in S57, where the team finished 10th in the league and missed the playoffs, despite teams lower than them in the standings getting in. Of course, the top 3 teams during this time were Hamilton, Chicago and Buffalo.

After being an irrelevant team come playoff time, due in part to their division, in S58, Toronto finally turned it around and finished third in the league, ahead of TWO of their divisional rivals. It should be worth noting that in this case, the 6th seed Chicago Syndicate missed the playoffs as a result of this formatting, but it only hurt them once so that isn’t the subject of this deep dive.
In the playoffs Toronto made the most of their opportunity, going all the way to game 7 of the conference finals. One win, and in fact one GOAL away from a chance to play for the cup. But their shot didn’t find the back of the net in the game 7 OT, and their dreams were crushed.

Following this, coming so close to the finals the season before, the team was poised to make another run at it. Looking good all season and finishing with the previously mentioned 93 points, the team should have been in a position to compete. But instead, due to the playoff format, was sent home early.

The roster itself was loaded with some unbelievable talents. They were led by the future hall of fame goaltender, Harry Carpet. Received excellent play from Bobby Lane, Adam Barron, Mika Kandinsky. Depth was terrific. The skaters had improved from the season before, but they had lost their elite backup goaltender, and had to settle for a lower end backup, whose record ended up being 6-4-2 with 15 GP with a .872 save percentage. The season prior they had gotten a 13-4-1 record with a .920 save percentage out of their backup, Scoochie Stratton. That very well could have made the difference for them.

The sad fact that this team had a 3 season window of being 3rd, 5th and 6th seed in the league and only made the playoffs twice means that they never got their real chance at making some noise. After this frustrating season, the team followed it up with a 6th seed finish and a playoff berth (thanks in part to a new playoff format) but resulted in a 4-0 series loss to Hamilton. Maybe that would have been in the cards had they made the finals in S58. Maybe they couldn’t have beaten Hamilton in S59 a season where despite finishing above 15 other teams, they weren’t given the opportunity to try.

The sad reality is we don’t know what would have happened had this team been in the playoffs that season.

There’s only one thing that we know for sure. And that is that the Great Lakes division fucking sucked.


Word count: 666

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#2

Thanks for the (painful) reminder Smile
I'm still angry about that, because it was so unfair - but unfortunately you can't change the past. Nice summary though!

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#3

@Massive Coiler You have wounded me deeply. Weren't you there in those trenches with us?
Your approved, take your +5 TPE

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#4

07-16-2022, 10:14 AMCptSquall Wrote: @Massive Coiler You have wounded me deeply. Weren't you there in those trenches with us?
Your approved, take your +5 TPE

Delver Fudgeson, mucking and grinding, laid it all on the line just for that result.

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