EHM The Blue Line

Another trade to report, after we ran into a rash of AHL injuries and needed another body:

To Trencin: G Kjril Mikhailov
To Geneva: C Evgeni Belenki, 2052 5th round pick

Belenki, 24, will be the 4C in Vaduz while Gurevich, Yasakov and Meurisse recover from injuries.

...a week after the trade he got hurt too. You gotta be shitting me.

To Magnitogorsk: LW Flavian Baumschlager
To Geneva: C Martin Shagina, 2053 5th round pick

2049-50 Season

Marius Lueger cemented his future Hall of Fame status with his THIRD straight league scoring title and fourth in the last five years, posting 110 points, which included matching his franchise record of 51 goals from 2045-46.

In fact, the battle for the Art Ross was in-house with Lueger beating out Albert Bulygin by a single point, and no one else coming close. Bulygin cooled off down the stretch but led the league in assists easily.

The club finished first overall again with 56 wins and 115 points, four ahead of St Petersburg.

Our secondary core of Urs Lachkovics, Kevin Kohning and Gernot Knabl continued to improve. The latter two had major breakout seasons. Kohning took a big step forward with 88 points, including 34 goals. Knabl cracked the 40-goal mark as a sophomore in a 74-point campaign. Lachkovics also posted a new career best with 88 points.

Fabian Bieler put in another fine year with 34 goals and 84 points. Wyszemir Demidowicz, however, had his worst season since he was a rookie with 55 points.

On the back end, Alexei Guznishchev led the way with 15 goals and 48 points, and D partner Kabok Medvedev improved to 46 points and continued to develop in his sophomore year.

On the rookie front, Stanislav Bezuhov did well with 30 points and Knut Tikhonov had 11 points in 75 games from the back end. Yaroslav Gurevich also came up for two games late in the year.

In net, Friedrich Endress appeared in 53 games for the second straight year, with 37 wins, a 3.04 GAA and .897 SP. Stefan Surilla came close to those numbers in 31 appearances.

We'll face the #8 Bratislava Velvets, who went 36-38-4-4 for 80 points, in the first round.

In the AHL, Vaduz finished one point shy of first with 109 points. Gurevich broke out for 113 points in just 68 games, putting him fifth in the league. Free agent signing Vitaly Sychev exploded for 60 goals and 102 points to finish in the top 10 as well.

Joseph Lector regressed heavily, putting an end to any hopes he had of making the show with us. He had 69 points. We got secondary scoring from Teppo Tanskanen and Blazej Cowalski. Evgeny Aleksandrov led the D again with 45 points, and future Eagle Olympio Prock had 25.

In net, Gregor Tchelychev won 39 of 63 appearances with a 2.57 GAA and .879 SP.

Bratislava won the opening game of the first round, but we roared back to take the series in five games. However, what should have been our biggest night of the season to date ended up being our worst.

Marius Lueger suffered an abdomen injury in Game 5 that will keep him out three months - ie the rest of the playoffs and more. We'll try, but I can't see us lifting our third Cup without the league's best player.

This means Yaroslav Gurevich will come up for the rest of the post-season. He's got a good shot at making next year's team. After a lot of growth defensively this season, the callup will give himself a chance to develop his offence and make a case to stick.

Kevin Kohning will jump onto the top line with Bulygin and Lachkovics, and Wyszemir Demidowicz returns to the top six beside Bieler and Knabl.

Next up we face the #6 seed Austria Warmongers after they upset the Dublin Drunks in 7.

We took a 2-0 lead, with Bulygin and others stepping up offensively. Then we went to Vienna and got a split, and took the series at home in Game 5.

Our conference final opponent is the #4 Riga Rats, who knocked off the #2 St Petersburg Scepters in 7. Riga finished with 91 points. On the other side it's London vs. Brno.

We split the first two at home, then reeled off three straight wins to take the series and advance to our third Stanley Cup final in franchise history. Definitely did not expect to be here without Lueger.

In the final we square off against the London Giants, who finished third overall with 98 points, 17 back.

Our dominant playoff run continued, as we took the first two games comfortably at home. Our fans started the "halfway there" chants. TV broadcasts showed Lueger watching on from rehab.

In London, we captured Game 3 by a single goal to take a stranglehold on the series. We're one win from our third Stanley Cup, and we've done it without the three-time defending Art Ross winner, indisputably the best player in the game at the moment.

However, the party was delayed. The Giants took Game 4 in another close one. In Game 5, our one-goal lead after 40 led to an OT loss. London dumped us 5-3 in Game 6 and all of a sudden the Eagles train had come to a screeching halt.

One game for everything. We're in the history books either way. We either win it all without the league MVP or we choke away a 3-0 series lead.

The Giants came out flying with an early 2-0 lead in Game 7, and yet again we were fighting from behind. Etienne Grun got us back in it, then goals by Kevin Kohning and Kabok Medvedev four minutes apart early in the third gave us the lead - only for London to make it 3-3 barely a minute later.

Two minutes later, Sergei Gapon scored what proved to be the winner. For the first time, we lost a Stanley Cup final. It will go down as one of the biggest chokes after sailing to a 3-0 series lead.

When Lueger went down at the end of the first round, we resigned ourselves to not taking home a championship. But to come THIS close and blow it really sucks.

Bulygin led the club in points with 27 in 22 games. Kohning had 24 and Demidowicz posted 21. The biggest surprises would be Medvedev with 21 points and Wachter with 19, including 12 goals.

Lueger won the Hart (again) and Endress got the Jennings.

In the AHL, Vitaly Sychev made the 1st All-Star team and Evgeny Aleksandrov made the second.

In the NHL, Lueger and Bulygin made the 1st team, while Knut Tikhonov managed to make the 2nd all-rookie squad.

At the 2050 draft, we again had to swap picks to get the OCPs we wanted. This time we moved up.

To Berlin: GEN 1st (#30), GEN 2nd (#60), Joseph Lector, Teppo Tanskanen
To Geneva: BER 1st (#21), BER 2nd (#51)

After four years of not developing defensively, Lector for some reason regressed big time on offence this year. He was dropped to the Alpines' second line and is now down to 61 OF. It was time to move on. Tanskanen has been here for a few years and he's fully capable of stepping into some NHL team's lineup, so we decided to give him the chance.

Our picks:

21) Vitaly Buteyko, C
51) Paul Pleshette, D
90) Donato Wamser, RW
120) Egon Kronenberg, LW
137) Benjamin Rudhart, LW
150) Joseph Stiteller, D

Buteyko projects as a good two-way fourth liner, a little better defensively, and a good playmaker. Florian Heideck would be the best comparable.

Pleshette, meanwhile, could be the best defensive defenceman we've had since Thile Linesch with a pot boost. He won't bring much offence, and he won't come anywhere near as good as Linesch, but defensively he would blow every current member of our blueline out of the water at well over 80 DF. Rudhart has elite playmaking ability but likely won't make it to the NHL to fully develop it. He should be a strong AHLer though.

We found out Florian Heideck is retiring in a year's time, but no one else is. Albert Bulygin should end up surpassing 1,300 points with two more years on the horizon. Endress staying on means Gregor Tchelychev will have to play two more seasons in the AHL - he could replace Stefan Surilla right now, but moving out Surilla would leave us short a goalie once Endress does retire.

In a similar vein, Yaroslav Gurevich will make the jump but we're going to keep Stanislav Bezuhov as 13th forward because he'll be needed in a year once Heideck retires.

Olympio Prock will also crack the NHL roster, giving us 8 defencemen, so we made a deal:

To Minsk: D Knut Tikhonov
To Geneva: D Vitus Wiplinger + 2054 4th rd pick

We decided to move out Tikhonov after one year in the bigs and keep Burkhard Janz because he's a bit better defensively. Wiplinger returns to the fold - we drafted him in the fourth round in 2044 but sent him to Minsk the following year in the Jacques Rosen trade. He'll backfill for Prock on the farm.

Our lineup heading into the 2050-51 season:

Lueger (96/71) - Bulygin (87/73) - Lachkovics (89/66)
Kohning (85/74) - Bieler (86/66) - Knabl (84/71)
Demidowicz (82/69) - Koell (73/82) - Wachter (78/81)
Heideck (74/73) - Gurevich* (72/65) - Grun (69/72)
Ex: Bezuhov (69/70)

Guznishchev (68/74) - Medvedev (67/75)
Rosen (63/73) - Prock* (64/71)
Gritsenko (42/73) - Krall (57/71)
Ex: Janz (40/72)

Endress (71/88)
Surilla (68/83)

lewis94 wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 3:37 am We had a pretty good 2040 draft class. The first two are pot boosters with 90+ con who immediately got their boosts:
26. Urs Lachkovics, LW
Could be even better than Goermer, but has the same defensive warts.
56. Zelimir Wachter, RW
Has the chops to be the best two-way, hard-hitting power forward in Eagles history. Tailor-made for 3RW and the top PK unit.
74. Beat Koell, C
Decent hitting C, could be a fringe NHLer.
86. Jaromir Reisenauer, D
Should be a top pair AHL D with decent offence.
107. Yann Labiche, RW
116. Evgeny Aleksandrov, D
144. Jurgen Wertheim, D
146. Pavel Stanchinsky, G

This is now our best draft class of all-time. Lachkovics is a top line winger who's elite at both shooting and passing. Wachter is a terrific power forward who plays in all situations. And Koell turned out to be way better than a "fringe NHLer" - he's a stud checking centre who hits and defends at a high level and can handle the puck as well as anyone. He and Wachter are probably the best checking line duo we've ever had.

We had three players in the 2051 All-Star Game: Lueger, Lachkovics and just like we all expected, Kabok Medvedev.

In his third NHL season, Medvedev is on pace for 59 points, which as far as I can tell would be a franchise record.

Lachkovics is also having a big year, while Albert Bulygin has taken a bit of a step back after several years of dominance, but will still come close to the 100-point mark.

In other news, Stefan Surilla has stolen the starting job from Friedrich Endress, with 38 appearances through 57 games.

Beat Koell suffered an injury in late February that will keep him out for two months, so the rest of the regular season and most of the first round of the playoffs. That means Stanislav Bezuhov will get into about 25 games to grow further before becoming a full-time regular again next season.

2050-51 Season

It was another year of predictable accomplishments, but also some surprises.

Marius Lueger won his FOURTH ART ROSS TROPHY IN A ROW with 43 goals and 112 points. Once again he beat out a teammate for top spot, but it was not Albert Bulygin. Instead, Urs Lachkovics had his big breakout at age 28 with 40 goals and 106 points. He led the league at one point, in what was a huge year for him. It took Bulygin till he was 30 to top 100 points. He finished 12th in the league with 95 points, including 42 goals, and was player of the month for March.

We're running out of adjectives here to describe Lueger. He's unquestionably the best player to ever come out of Switzerland. He's now got five scoring titles in six years, and has an average of 101 points per season for his career. If he retires at 35, so in three years, he'll become the only Eagle to reach the 1,500 point plateau, which would likely never be matched. He's also just 20 goals shy of 500.

Oh, and we finished first with 117 points, eight ahead of Paris.

Fabian Bieler had one of his best years with 37 goals and 86 points, but other secondary forwards dipped considerably. Kevin Kohning dropped from 87 points to just 62. Gernot Knabl went from 74 points as a sophomore to 67. Wyszemir Demidowicz's age and usage-related decline continued, from 55 points to 47, although he did have 29 goals.

Our two rookies did well, though neither will be Calder finalists. Yaroslav Gurevich finished with 20 goals and 45 points, after an extended stretch in the top 9 replacing Koell. Olympio Prock had 29 points. Gurevich developed more than Prock, but both are looking good.

On the blueline, Kabok Medvedev faded later on but still tied Thile Linesch's franchise record of 54 points by a defenceman. Alexei Guznishchev had 41.

Florian Heideck, in his final season, rebounded a bit with 36 points. He was mainly a role player throughout his career, but a good one with a fair bit of pop offensively. He scored 38 goals and 66 points in 2045-46. He retires with 655 points in 1,218 career games.

Stefan Surilla's play was the biggest surprise of the season. He outplayed Friedrich Endress early on and hung onto the starter's job for the most part, winning 38 of 55 games, with a 2.92 GAA and .902 SP. Endress appeared in 30 games, with 17 wins, a 3.15 GAA and .891 SP. Endress has declined a bit, so Surilla could keep the job next year.

In the AHL, the Alpines finished in fourth place with 104 points. The Ostrava Hvezda ran away with first, with 126 points.

Vitaly Sychev and waiver draft #1 centre David Amdahl tied for the team scoring lead with 76 points. Sychev scored 48 goals, while Amdahl put up that total in 65 games.

Knut Skvortsov had a breakout year with 64 points, with help up front from Kabok Yasakov and future Eagle Etienne Schwab, who posted 39 points in 64 games as a rookie. He's ready defensively, but will never produce more than AHL level offence. Evgeny Aleksandrov paced the back end with 44 points.

Gregor Tchelychev started 62 games in his third AHL season, almost identical to the first two, with a 2.24 GAA and .901 SP. Rookie pro Heinz Braun was a strong backup, winning 15 of 20 games with a 2.00 GAA and .906 SP.

We face the Espoo Tigers (again) in the first round of the playoffs. They finished with 82 points, exactly .500.

You might remember the last time we faced the Espoo Tigers, they upset us in the second round. Well, this playoff run got off to a disastrous start. We lost both games at home. Then we lost in Espoo, putting our backs against the wall.

We made some lineup changes, putting Endress in net for Surilla (5.36 GAA, .797 SP) and replacing Helmut Krall with Burkhard Janz.

We took Game 4. Then got some momentum with a win at home. We won Game 6 back in Espoo too. EHM is known for this, of course.

Beat Koell finally returned to the lineup in time for Game 7. We ran a third line of Gurevich-Koell-Wachter.

Espoo got a dream start to the winner-take-all contest, taking a 2-0 lead within 10 minutes. We responded with goals by Lachkovics and Rosen in the second period.

Just 21 seconds into the third, Lueger buried his fourth of the series. Bulygin added an insurance marker seven minutes later, and we needed it, but hung on for a 4-3 win to pull off the reverse sweep.

It's nowhere near the same, but helps heal some of the pain from having it done to us in last year's final.

Lueger won player of the week - and month - for his efforts, and was nominated for the Hart along with Lachkovics.

The 7th seed Riga Rats upset Bratislava in five, so we face them next. Riga only finished four points ahead of Espoo.

We split the first two games in Geneva, then won Game 3 in Latvia, only to drop Game 4 on a game-winner with four minutes left. Then we lost another tight game in overtime, putting us on the brink of elimination again.

Our response was pitiful. In Game 6, we went down 4-0 before getting two back, but we still lost to a #7 seed. Not a great end to the season.

Riga went on to upset 3rd seed Davos in 7, and advanced to the final, where they knocked off East #4 seed Ornskoldsvik in five games to become one of the unlikeliest Cup champs in league history.

Lueger won the Hart and Surilla got the Jennings.

Gregor Tchelychev was named to the AHL 1st all-star team for the second time. Lueger made the 1st NHL team and Lachkovics was relegated to the second despite finishing second in the league, because both are technically left wingers, even though Lachkovics played the right side on Lueger's line. Gurevich and Prock both made the 2nd all-rookie team.

Our picks in the 2051 draft:

30) Kurt Froberger, D
60) Jozef Nagyov, RW
90) Sergei Barabanschikov, C
93) Alexei Stashenkov, C
120) Mario Jakobs, D
150) Paul Kiep, RW

Froberger could be very similar to Valeri Tysmainitsov with a pot boost - better defensively than anyone on our current blueline (though not as good as Paul Pleshette) while also bringing a bit of offence.

Nagyov has several good ceilings but not enough to be more than an offence-first 4th liner. Barabanschikov brings a good shot and one of the best names in Geneva history, but won't make the show.

Froberger got his pot boost immediately, along with Pleshette and Hansel Rippel. That's three straight drafts where we've taken a future top 4 defenceman. Along with Medvedev, the back end should be looking good in a few years.

Well, the dreaded news was put off for a year or two but it finally came. Albert Bulygin will retire after next season, when he will be 38. The Belarussian beast currently has 537 goals and 1,233 points. His decline has already started, particularly on defence, but he might have another 100-point season in him.

Also retiring is Friedrich Endress, so the Surilla-Tchelychev era is coming soon. That will be the worst tandem we've probably ever had, but if Surilla can continue what he did this year, we should be OK.

Our lineup for the 2051-52 season:

Lueger (96/71) - Bulygin (87/69) - Lachkovics (89/66)
Kohning (85/75) - Bieler (86/66) - Knabl (85/71)
Demidowicz (82/69) - Koell (73/82) - Wachter (78/81)
Gurevich (76/71) - Bezuhov (72/72) - Grun (69/72)

Guznishchev (68/74) - Medvedev (67/75)
Rosen (63/73) - Prock (66/73)
Gritsenko (42/73) - Krall (57/71)
Ex: Janz (40/72)

Surilla (69/83)
Endress (68/88)