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Calgary Dragons End-of-Season Press Conference
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(This post was last modified: 02-17-2022, 01:56 PM by Muerto.)

Dragons  Dragons  Dragons  Dragons

The Calgary Dragons have been eliminated in the first round of the Season 63 SHL Playoffs, dropping a heart-breaking 5-4 decision at home in Game 6 to the victorious Seattle Argonauts.

It has been a chaotic season, to say the least. For Interim GM RIko Muerto, he found himself in an unexpected position, taking over the GM duties after the sudden departure of long-time manager Mike Izzy. He sat down to address the gathered media in a post-game presser. What follows is an unedited and unabridged transcript of that presser:

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:muerto:  *sits, coughs, adjust microphone_

Hello, thank you all for coming. To begin I want to thank the fans of this organization who have continued to be rabid supporters of the team even in what we would all consider to be a down season. Your support means everything to us!

Secondly, a huge thank you to the Dragons players who endured a really tough season at times, but never gave up. I thought that as a team, we got stronger as the season went on, but we were often plagued by a lack of goal-scoring. I certainly blame myself for that, it took some time to get some lines that really gelled, and it cost us a few wins early on, and we finished a bit lower in the wins column than projected. But we saw some really gritty performances during the season, we were able to get wins against some tough opponents, unfortunately we also dropped some games that I think were winnable, so finding that consistency was challenging. But we kept working and building and we got into the playoffs, and you know, Seattle's a really strong team and they made some moves this season to put themselves in a great spot to be contenders, and they deserved the win. But we are so proud of the players for just sticking together and playing for each other, getting a split in those first games was huge, we fought hard at home for another split, game 5 was really incredible for the team to take it to overtime after falling behind 4 goals, and then putting up such a great fight against a great team in game 6 here in front of the fans, I really feel we can say every player gave their best effort and didn't hold anything back, just in the end we fell a bit short, and now here we are with no games left to play.

It's always sad when the season is over, even if you didn't really expect to win. There's also, though, a little bit of relief. It's been a rough season for the team in a lot of ways. I feel I should talk about it since you all probably want to ask about it, but, yeah. I'm not sure where to start!

This is a team that is used to stability in management, Esa was a great GM, certainly someone whose model I tried to emulate in Winnipeg when I was GMing there, and the transition from himself to Izzy seemed to be a natural one for the team. Izzy did a lot of good things for the team, he cared a lot and tried to make everyone's experience a fun one. For example his tweets and game day graphics were something everyone enjoyed. From my own end, when the season began I had no intention or expectation to wind up where I am now, talking to you all about this. I've been with Calgary as a prospect for a few seasons but paid more attention to the SMJHL than the SHL. When I stepped down from the Aurora I thought I would be done with management, except at the IIHF level. But that changed when Wally was hired to be the new Toronto GM. I was a bit surprised to hear this, as far as I knew Wally and Izzy had a good working relationship, but I started hearing through various grapevines that Izzy was having a fit about it, and saying some things that were way out of line, to Wally personally and in GM chat especially. I was a bit shocked because I had at that point not seen this side of Izzy myself, although I now understand this was not the first time. But I was worried it would lead to him either getting fired or quitting. Anyway, I reached out to Izzy to let him know he could use me for whatever he needed and not to stress about things. After a bit of conversation, he asked me if I would be willing to take on the coGM role and help with the things he could use help with. So I said, sure, no problem, I'll take care of the background side of things like budgets etc and he could focus on doing Izzy things.

About a week or so into the season, just after the new year, he expressed to us in CGY that he'd been battling covid and really wasn't feeling well. We told him to take some time off, relax, get healthy, take care of yourself first. And so we didn't hear from him for a few days, until boom!

Wtf moment #1 : he posts in media that he's stepping down. No warning, no notice, just ... done. Oof! This obviously leads to a lot of confusion in CGY but also nothing but concern for Izzy. Obviously RL>SHL and I would never tell anyone that they shouldn't put their health and their family first, but still. But we say ok, let's deal with it, show must go on! At that point, after discussing with CGY War Room and with Head Office, that I would take over as interim GM until a new GM was hired, apps put up with reasonable deadline, no problem, right?

Haha oh you sweet summer child.

Wtf moment #2

Literally the day before apps closed, and incidentally the day before trade deadline, I wake up to a bunch of HO members asking me wtf is up with Izzy and that he's been dropping some shitty stuff in their DMs. I haven't even had my coffee yet and here comes a fucking waaaave of facepalm after facepalm moments. So near as I can tell, Izzy saw some post Valor had made about how they were going to be the new GM, and lost his fucking mind. And here's the thing - it wasn't true. Apps weren't closed, HO hadn't made any hires yet, and we could have told him that. But, no, he chose to go off on Head Office and say some things that got him suspended. and that suspension was deserved. I don't condone it or excuse it, and I certainly don't share or agree with the things Izzy said. But when the suspension was announced, the team didn't really know what was said, as HO chose not to release the transcripts. All we knew is that it didn't sound like the Izzy we knew - and the screenshots about this that Izzy had shared with the team were selective and omitted certain things. So of course some of the team rose to defend him, all they have ever known of Izzy is a person who was so committed to the team and was the literal face of the franchise, and to see someone you care about get trashed and not know why, it is only natural to want to stand up for them. However, more of the truth came out and people came to realize that it was true that Izzy said some things that were well beyond what is acceptable. So we were in a position of wanting to support and encourage our friend to get better, but also that he seriously fucked up, and tried to make himself look good to the team by not revealing the worst parts of what he had said to get suspended.

I've been pissed about it and really expected better from Izzy. I know he's not an evil person but he said some vile things and I hope, I really do, that it was just stress + sickness + anger management issues that led him to say those things, and that it is not who he is or how he thinks in everyday life. I've had mostly good interactions with Izzy, I realize not everybody has. People are complicated. I get that. But Izzy made the team look bad and kind of tarnished us all because to a lot of people, Izzy *is* the Dragons. But he's not. The team is always bigger than one person. It's filled with fun people from all over the world who like to share pics of food and beer and talk about hockey and football and just life in general or whatever is going on. Sure there's a few longtimers and we sometimes sit in our rocking chairs and crankily talk about how things used to be better, but there's so many great people that just want to have fun and enjoy being part of a great team and connect with others and cheer on their players and teammates and the team in the silly little sims that ultimately don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. It's so not worth getting worked up about. If ever you're feeling stressed out or angry or pissed off at someone or something on the internet, seriously go for a walk around the block, go for a smoke, go for a hot tub, anything! But don't lash out at people or engage in personal attacks, fighting hate with more hate is never the answer.

Anyway. we just want to move on and forward because it's all we can do. The Dragons will endure, we'll be back again next season and looking to improve. We've got a few great longtime players winding down their careers, some young players ready to move into more prominent roles, we've got a solid defense, we have a great young franchise goalie, and we've got 3 picks this draft to bring in some new players and new people who can have a great opportunity to be part of the next generation of Calgary legends. There's still some uncertainty as to what will happen with the GM position. I know there's a few positions open but I would encourage anyone who is interested in having an opportunity to head up a team to consider us!

Now, I am opening up to questions if anyone has anything to ask! Fire away!

Interview What are your expectations for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series?

So far I have enjoyed the Star Wars content that Filoni/Favreau have put out. I know they aren't involved in this one, and so it probably will have a different feel. It's a bit worrisome knowing that they had to delay production to do an entire rewrite of the scripts, but I guess we shall see how it goes. All I know is it will be a lot better if it had more Grogu.

Interview How did it feel to be thrust back into the hot seat?

Well it certainly wasn't something I expected to happen and it's not something I want to commit to long term, but I have always enjoyed GMing so it was kind of fun to be back in that role. It was important to help provide some stability for the team, and get us through a rough patch, and I think it was generally agreed that having had the experience of doing it before, that I could help ease the transition into the next era. I felt I did ok in acquiring some more draft capital for the team to boost our prospect pool but other than that, FHM still frustrates me and I would have preferred a little less drama. Looking ahead, I would hope to ease off a bit as we expect to see a new GM hired in the offseason, but I would always make myself available as a resource to help out in whatever way I can.

Interview What are your expectations coming into next season?

The Dragons are in a division where we have fallen a bit behind some of the other teams like LAP, SFP, and SEA so I think we have got to look to the future, and find ways to keep our young players engaged and active and grow into superstars. As said, there is a bit of unknown as to who will be the new GM and what their plans might be, but there is a solid core to work with and some spots opening to maybe bring in some Free Agents to shore up the roster. This will be an important draft as we look to bring in some quality people who can be ready to crack the roster in a couple seasons. From a personal standpoint, my own player will be coming up to SHL next season and I am excited to start my career in earnest, and especially to play alongside Lilja and Duncan and ASM and some of the other young players, we are all hungry to prove ourselves and we have long careers ahead of us!

Interview Is a hotdog a sandwich or a taco?

Possibly, yes.

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norway                             IIHF Team Norway                          norway
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#2

What are your expectations for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series?

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S50 Challenge Cup Finals Game 7
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#3

How did it feel to be thrust back into the hot seat?
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#4

What are your expectations coming into next season?

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#5

Is a hotdog a sandwich or a taco?

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Fuck the penaltys
ARGARGARHARG
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