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(GRADED)Deep Dive #2 Shipwrecked
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(This post was last modified: 08-15-2022, 09:54 AM by CptSquall. Edited 2 times in total.)

Back in S57, the Anchorage Armada won the Four Star final over the Anaheim Outlaws 4-1, putting them back on top of the SMJHL for the first time in 6 seasons. They would then go on to make 4 of the next 5 Four Star finals, losing them all. After that last fateful loss in S62, the Armada have not won a playoff game. They failed to make the playoffs twice, and were swept in the first round in their only appearance since S62. In this deep dive, I want to step back in history and look at this era of the Anchorage team to see what went wrong:

The Good (S57)
S57: The Armada finished the season second in the league with 92 points, behind only Quebec with 107. The star of the team was goalie Chimkin Tendy who had a .920 save percentage during the regular season, and helped backstop a team that allowed the least goals in the regular season. A balanced offence was led by Slava Petrova, Theo Kondos, and Pablo Salvatici who all had 50 plus points. LD Igor Victory was a force across the board, chipping in 33 points, 42 take aways. 108 blocked shots, and 116 hits. The Armada were a force to be reckoned with, and they showed it, sweeping St. Louis in the 2nd round of the playoffs, before edging league leaders Quebec 4-3 in the semifinals. They then dispatched Anaheim 4-1 on their way to the cup. It was thought that this could be the start of a dynasty. Sometimes, however, life has other plans.

The Bad (S58-S62)
S58:  The year after they won the cup, the Armada saw the departure of key players Theo Kndos and Igor Victory, but retained the talents of Salvatici, Petrova, and Tendy. Tendy in particular found a new level to their game, leading the league with a .927 save percentage and a whopping 27.18 goals saved above average. Winger Paul Binder stepped up to lead the team with 42 points, while Salvatici and defenseman Jean-Locke Zidane brought the physicality racking up 142 hits and 230 hits respectively. The Armada finished 5th in the league this season, and while they were certainly not slouches there was definitely some regression from the prior season. In the postseason, the Armada took care of business in round 1 beating a St. Louis team that finished near the bottom of the league. They then went on to get back to back minor upsets in Round 2 and the semifinals beating Detroit and Newfoundland who finished 3rd and 4th to Anchorage’s 5th. Ultimately, Anchorage met their match in the Finals against Quebec, the 2nd ranked team in the league. A powerhouse offense that boasted 5 of the top 10 points scorers, Quebec had their way with the Armada on their way to winning the title. Ultimately this was certainly a disappointing result for the Armada, but it was a very solid result for a team that lost some big contributors after winning the cup. The real misery for the boats was yet to come.

S59: The Armada once again found themselves one of the top teams in the league in S59 finishing second in the league to Kelowna. Salvatici led the team and the league with 69 (nice) goals, but was closely followed by Cole Carter who had a breakout year and finished with 68 points. Winger Tokkulu Lakkamaa also finished north of 60 points with 65. Zidane continued his punishing ways by finishing third in the league with 280 hits, while also adding 87 blocked shots. He found the yin to his yang in defenseman Gregory Goode, who was a solid defender, but really chipped in offensively with 55 points. Goalie Guy Fieri had big shoes to fill with the departure of Tender, but he filled them adequately finishing with a .902 save percentage. The Boats rolled through Nevada (4-1), Colorado (4-0), and Quebec (4-2) in the playoffs before falling 4-1 to the league leading Knights in the finals. This loss was likely a matter of depth. Anchorage’s big three was elite, but the drop off after them was steeper. Kelowna had 11 players with 40 or more points on the season, while Anchorage had 4. This would have especially hurt an Anchorage team that had to go through an extra playoff series too even make the final. A second straight loss in the finals was probably hugely demoralizing, but a third was yet to come in S60.

S60: S60 was another promising year for the Armada as the finished third in the league behind Newfoundland and Vancouver. The dynamic duo of Goode and Zidane continued to be an elite pairing with Goode racking up 62 points and finishing third in the league with 47 assists. Zidane took care of the defensive duties and finished the season with the 2nd most hits in the league with 222, as well as leading the team with 100 shots blocked. Carter had another solid season leading the team with 32 goals, good for 2nd in the league. The big surprise was the emergence of Mikhail Novikov, who replaced Salvitici as the latter aged out of the SMJHL. Novikov finished 4th in the league with 67 points, the best mark of any Anchorage player that season. In goal Bean Gamble put up a solid .904 save percentage, tying together an Armada squad that seemed poised to makes some noise in the post season. They swept Nevada in round one, but were taken to game 7 by a solid Colorado team. They then swept Quebec before falling to Newfoundland 4-2. The Berserkers were the number one team in the league that season, with four players at or above 60 points, and one, Robert Black, at 71. They were an elite team the Anchorage couldn’t quite beat, leading to their third straight finals lost, and the first of three heart breaking losses to Newfoundland.

S61: Another year, another solid Anchorage team, although perhaps not as good as years past. The Armada finished 6th in the league in S61 behind a 58 point performance from Cole Carter. Jalal ad Din Afinogenov had 26 goals to lead the team, and defender Josh Jennings brought the physical presence with 134 hits. Goalie Dominik Tretyak had a very solid season with a .912 save percentage. His stats were helped by the strong play of Valdis Vejonis who led the team with 33 takeaways and contributed 117 hits. In the postseason, the Armada got past Anaheim 4-2, but were swept in the next round by the 3rd place Berserkers. This Newfoundland team was once again led by Robert Black who put up phenomenal 81 points on the season. The Berserkers would go one to play in the final that season, where they were swept by Vancouver. Once more the Berserker’s ruined the Armada’s season, but there was still one more fateful encounter to come.

S62: The Armada were a very strong team in S62, tying for first in the league with Vancouver. Spack Jarrow led the team with 66 points, dishing out 44 assists in the process. A lot of those assists probably came by virtue of Jalal ad Din Afinogenov’s team leading 35 goals. Center Mikhail Novikov was just a bit behind with 57 points, while also adding 95 hits and 88 blocks. Vejonis continued to be a force on the defensive end with 129 hits, 387 takeaways and 66 blocked shots. Tretyak continued to play at a high level, posting a .914 save percentage. After a first-round bye in the playoffs, Anchorage continued their winning ways by sweeping Colorado in the second round. In a highly touted semifinal matchup against Vancouver, the Armada won out taking the series 4-2. This set up a finals appearance against familiar foes Newfoundland, who’s journey to the playoffs included a sweep of Maine and a 5-game series against Carolina. Newfoundland finished 2nd in the league, just 2 points behind the leaders. This powerhouse squad boasted a whopping +113 goal differential, best in the league by a wide margin. Led by winger Emeril Lagasse’s 68 points and backstopped by goalie Jonas Johansson and their .918 save percentage, it’s certainly hard to argue that this Berserker’s team wasn’t elite. And they showed it in the finals, with a clean sweep against the Armada. Perhaps the most painful of them all, as this Armada team seemed destined to break through and bring the Cup back to Alaska. Alas it was not to be, and this loss proved to be the end of an era, as the Armada would fall of the cliff the following season.

The Ugly (S63-Present)
S63: Season 63 marked the first time in a while that the Armada dropped out of the top half of the league. Finishing 11th out of the 14 teams, Anchorage finished the season sub .500. The Armada were once again paced by Spack Jaarrow in the points department, as the winger picked up a team leading 28 goals enroute to 62 points. Defensemen Cup Noodle was an all-around force for the team as well, leading the team with 139 hits and127 blocks, while also finishing 2nd on the team behind Jarrow with 49 points. As it was, the rest of the defense behind Noodle was relatively young, with a lot of rookies and 2nd year players taking major roles.  They also lost defensive anchor Vejonis in the offseason. All told, this was a year of turnover for the team, with a lot of new lines and pairings whose chemistry wasn’t quite there. After 6 straight years of solid results, a down year where the team missed the playoffs by two points wouldn’t be the end of the world assuming the team improved and developed for the future.

S64: Alas, S64 was not the turn around that some had hoped, as the Armada finished 13th out of 14 teams, only edging Vancouver by way of ROW tie breaker. Jarrow led the team in points again with 50 this season, followed closely by Lord Zomp with 49. Defensively, LaCarpetron Dukemarriot II was 5th in the league with 175 blocked shots. Jarrow and LW Paul Koivu also found themselves 8th and 10th on the top 10 list with 161 and 152 shots blocked, respectively. Shot blocking was a strength of this Armada team, as they had 7 players north of 100 shots blocked. While impressive, it says something about the team that they were giving up this many shots. And despite blocking so many, they still found themselves the worst defensive team in the league giving up 283 goals on the season. Offensively, the Armada also found themselves overloaded with wingers, only having to true centers on the roster. One, Red Kirkby was a converted LW who found some success with the position, the other was a rookie, David Howard, who hardly played. While I don’t have the faceoff statistics from this era, I expect that Anchorage was at a massive disadvantage in this department, hurting the team on both ends of the ice. Ultimately, despite having solid players, the team just couldn’t come together to make it work. Their stay in the playoffs was a short one as they were swept by Detroit in the first round. Another year, another disappointing season for the Boats. Perhaps S65 would be better?

S65: S65 was better in the sense that the Armada didn’t need a tiebreaker to finish 2nd to last, edging out Vancouver 33 points to 30. Needless to say, it was a rough year for Anchorage. Zomp was the only Armada player to finish with over 40 points, nabbing 56, although Kirkby was just shy with 39. Defenseman Hardcastle was second in the league with 193 blocked shots, while Richard Dickbutt McFudderdudder II finished just behind with 188. Once again, the Armada gave up a lot of shots, leading to the third worst goals against mark in the league, giving up 282 on the season. This was made worse by their offense posting the worst goals for in the league with only 148 goals, giving them the worst differential in the league at -134. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the biggest problem was for this team, as they didn’t seem too bad on paper. Likely not title contenders, but expectations were still higher than this miserable season. Whatever the case, the team would have to try again in S66 to be relevant.

S66: The current SMJHL season looks to have the Armada finishing in 9th. Nothing too special, but certainly an improvement over the last 2 season. Whether they can pull of a miracle run in the postseason remains to be seen, but for now it looks like the team is trending up. Maybe S66 is a little before their window, but early signs seem to show this is a team on the trend up. Time will tell, but for now the Armada should focus on the games set in front of them and take it one day at a time. Go Boats!  Armada

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@Runningman434 APPROVED! +5 TPE

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