The Supporters’ Shield is given out to Major League Soccer’s best team over the course of the regular season. In Europe’s top soccer leagues, team play a full season schedule with the team at the top of the league standings at the campaign’s end being crowned the champion. In MLS, like other sports leagues in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, a playoff structure is used to crown the league’s overall champion. 

The MLS season is headed towards its climax with the MLS Cup kicking off in December. For the best sportsbooks bonuses and reviews for bookies in Illinois, visit US Bookies ahead of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The New England Revolution are the 2021 MLS Supporters’ Shield winners – their first-ever Supporters’ Shield trophy win. The problem is that winning the Supporters’ Shield doesn’t mean the Revolution will win the more glamorous MLS Cup trophy. 

What is the Supporters’ Shield?

As previously written, the MLS Supporters’ Shield is given out to the team with the best regular season points total in the league after 34 regular season matches. Despite the league being split into an Eastern and Western Conference, the Supporters’ Shield is given to the team with the most points if all 27 teams were place in a single league table format. 

The Supporters’ Shield was originally handed out at the end of the MLS season. However, after fans of traditional European soccer wanted MLS to be more like the leagues overseas, it created the Supporters’ Shield trophy. Although the league’s first season was 1996, the Supporters’ Shield wasn’t given out until 1999.

Is the Supporters’ Shield important?

The 2021 MLS season is its 26^th overall. While the 2021 season isn’t complete as yet, history is not on the New England Revolution’s side for winning the MLS Cup. Just seven of the previous 25 Supporters’ Shield winners went onto win the MLS Cup. The last team to do the Supporters’ Shield-MLS Cup double was Toronto FC in 2017. Three seasons have now passed since the Reds pulled off the double. 

The Supporter Shield winning teams’ inability to win the MLS Cup over the last three seasons diminishes the accomplishment of collecting the most points during the regular season. As long as a team can qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs, anyone can win it and the Supporters’ Shield winner should not be looked at as the favourite. Only 28% of the team has a team done the league and cup double. 

The Los Angeles Galaxy and DC United have won the joint-most MLS Supporters’ Shield trophies. The Galaxy’s last shield was won in 2011. DC United’s most recent shield was won in 2007. It has been years since either of those teams claimed the trophy. 

The Supporters’ Shield’s importance in MLS is overblown. Just seven times have teams won the trophy and the MLS Cup. Fans shouldn’t expect the New England Revolution to pull off the league trophy and cup double this December as history doesn’t bode well for both pieces of silverware to be won. 

You don’t expect an undrafted Canadian player to do much in the National Hockey League, but Steve Duchesne had other ideas.

Duchesne signed with Los Angeles in 1984 and made the Kings two years later after two seasons in the Minors.  In his first year in the NHL, the Defenseman surprised the hockey world with a 38 Point year and an All-Rookie Selection.  Duchesne progressed into one of the better offensive Defenseman of the game, and he secured 55 Points as a sophomore, which he grew to 75 the year after, which netted him his first All-Star Game appearance.

Duchesne was an All-Star again in 1990, scoring 62 Points, a mark he would reach the following year again.  The Kings elected to retool, and he was traded to Los Angeles in a transaction that reunited Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri.  Duchesne returned as a Free Agent in 1998, but would not complete the season, as he was traded to Philadelphia again.

As a King, Duchesne played 442 Games, scoring 315 Points with a Plus/Minus of +50.

Bouncing between the minors and the Kings through his first two seasons, Goring showed a lot of potential in this period, and in 1971, his days in the secondary league were over.

Goring scored 50 Points in 1971-72, increasing it to 59 and 61 the next two years with a 60-Point year as the follow-up.  Even in the 1970s, Goring was small, listed at 5' 9", and 170 pounds, but likely was smaller than that.  Goring took his game to a higher level with the increased ice time, alternating 70-plus and 80-plus Point years over the next five years.  The hockey writers noticed the cleanliness of his play, as it took until 1978-79 before he had double digits in Penalty Minutes.  Goring won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1978 and was also awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy, a testament to his high output despite his small frame.  

Goring was traded to the New York Islanders late in the 1979/80 Season, where he proved to be the final piece of the puzzle for the team that won four straight Stanley Cups.  

With the Kings, Goring scored 659 Points with only 66 Penalty Minutes in 736 Games.

Charlie Simmer began his career with the California Seals, and after a brief period with the Cleveland Barons, he found himself with Los Angeles.  After playing most of the 1977-78 Season in the Minors, Simmer split the following year with Springfield (AHL) and L.A., but the Left Wing established himself with 48 Points in 37 Games, and he was never demoted again.

Simmer was now on a line with Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor, the famed "Triple Crown Line."  In 1979-80, Simmer led the NHL in Goals with 56 and Power Play Goals (21).  He was named a First Team All-Star and was so again in the year after when he repeated his light-lamping output with 56.  

Simmer could not reproduce the magic of those two years, though he did have an 80 Point campaign in 1982-83 with a 92 Point follow-up in 1983-84.  The Kings traded Simmer to the Bruins very early in the 1984-85 Season, and Simmer left the L.A. with 466 Points in 384 Games.