Rain City Repeats as Stanley Cup Champions
Jason Henley becomes First GM to Win THREE Titles
April 16th, 2024
Jason Henley cemented himself as the greatest GM of all time, winning his third AFHL Stanley Cup Trophy on Sunday night as the Rain City Bitch Pigeons defeated the Laval Nomads by a final score of 6-4.
“It wasn’t the way we drew it up, certainly not having McDavid all series long didn’t help,” Henley told TheAFHL.com after the game. “It was great, a lot of mental toughness, our team’s had it all year and we never doubted each other. That was a great hockey team we beat. I’m just so happy for our team and the fans of Rain City.”
In his third Stanley Cup Finals appearance, Henley entered last week tied with Lucas Main for having the most (two) Cup victories in the AFHL. With the victory over Laval, Henley now stands alone as the only GM in AFHL history to win three.
“This is clearly a special franchise and a unique collection of talent,” the AFHL Commissioner Furino said. “This is probably a team that deserves to be called a dynasty.”
Henley believes they have a “unique chemistry” within their locker room and he thinks it’s a competitive advantage.
With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading the way, the Bitch Pigeons can dominate with talent. But it’s mental toughness that has carried them to two titles over the past 12 months.
“Everybody outside our room kept saying things like ‘repeating is hard to do,’ and ‘the Bitch Pigeons aren’t a top team in this league anymore’” said Henley. “But no one inside our room said we couldn’t do it.”
The AFHL Commissioner said he thinks the Bitch Pigeons were able to repeat because they were “a determined, gutsy, talented group of guys.”
“They went through a lot of adversity – they had a lot of key injuries throughout the year, and they were even without McDavid in the Finals,” Furino said.
Now that Henley has three Stanley Cup championships, Furino believes Henley deserves great recognition.
“Henley should be in the conversation when we talk about the greatest of all-time,” Furino said. “He’s a guy who just knows how to win.”
Henley was asked what drives him, and he said, “This (winning) feeling right now. You can’t match that.”
The Bitch Pigeons didn’t like talking about the quest to repeat, but it was always in the back of their minds. They were aware that the 2017-2018 San Diego Gulls were the only franchise to successfully defend their title.
“I remember watching those Gulls teams; it was something special,” said Pigeons forward Mitch Marner. “I knew that if there was a team that could do it – it would be us. We had a ton of confidence, all the confidence in the world – it was something that no one on the team gave up.”
Henley talked about it in his own way.
“Coach drove the point of ‘cementing your own legacy,’” defenseman Adam Larsson said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge to do it. There’s a reason only one team had done it in 14 years.”
Now the question is whether this team can win again. McDavid, Draisaitl, Marner, Dahlin and Kochetkov, who are all most likely going to be elite players for this team for many more years to come, are the foundation blocks. Could the Bitch Pigeons win again?
“Let us have two or three days off,” Henley said, “and then I will let you know.”
