scoop

Agreed. I can dream, though.

Yes, by looking at the league schedule, and counting. Luckily spreadsheets can do all that work and all I have to do is create the template with formulas and then paste in the schedule output for each season. This particular spreadsheet doesn't convert well to Google docs, so I'm not going to share it. Unless maybe there is demand for it and I can try to fix it up a bit to make it work.

oh like that stuff that they found in Yukon?

The Yukon Rush were a team that had several devout fans. They first came into existence as a VHLM team during the league's first expansion in Season 31. Full disclosure: I was the creator of the team as well as its first general manager, so I am definitely biased towards them. That's not to say that I am alone in my despair that the team is currently defunct. If you look back at the announcement that the Rush, playing in Geneva at the time, were being removed from the VHLE, there were several members vocal in wanting to see the Rush return to Yukon. While others may try to find a way to get them back into the VHLM, I think they would make a fine addition to the VHL, in part because I believe there is one particular VHL team that is in massive need of a new identity. The New York Americans franchise was one of the original eight, though they began as the Hamilton Canucks. It was in Season 7 that the team moved to New York and became the Americans. I wasn't around at that time, and I am unfamiliar with how the rebranding was received, but I do know that the team had a poor reputation for how it was managed, particularly in the early seasons. Although that era of the Americans did not last forever, and the team did begin to turn around when new management took over for Robbie Zimmers, they were still one of the least successful teams during the first couple decades of the VHL. Just as I have ties to the Rush, I am also linked to the Americans as well. I served as the team's general manager in Season 17 and Season 18, and then again from Season 22 to Season 29. I helped turn around the team from being one of the worst, and ushered in an era where New York was one of the best several decades of play. It can be argued when the era of the Americans as the class of the VHL truly began. We never won a championship under my leadership, though I did lead them to four straight finals losses long before Spartan came along. From Season 32 to Season 53, the Americans won six Continental Cups. If we expand that range back to Season 25, they reached the finals in 13 of 29 seasons. In the 38 seasons from S24 to S61, they made the playoffs 30 times and the Conference Finals 26 times. Although the team had quite a long stretch where it was undeniably one of the most successful teams, I don't think this era of the team makes it untouchable when it comes to relocation or rebranding. The Americans have had very little success other than the above mentioned run. Outside of that 38-season span (granted, that is over 40% of the VHL's lifetime), the team has just two finals appearances (S13, S14) and one championship (S14). Amazingly, they were able to move up to a tie for the third-most championships in league history when they won their seventh in Season 53. Having not won since then, however, they have fallen back down the list. All six of the other original eight franchises that still exist, as well as Vancouver, who has 30 fewer seasons, have now won more championships. New York behind all other remaining original franchises in playoff, conference finals, and VHL finals appearances. The franchise had a very successful era, but that era of the team is long gone. Now that I've established that the franchise is one of the least successful overall, let's move on to the team branding. To be completely honest, I did not like the Americans as a team name even back when I was general manager, and I regret not making an attempt to rebrand the team at some point during my time in charge. Speaking on the name, the 'Americans' can potentially be alienating to some members of the league. While I do not think people are going to be offended by the name, or turned away from the league in general because of it, I do not think it does any favors for the success of the franchise. The logo is nothing special, and is in fact very similar to the United; does the league really need to red, white, and blue flag-themed shield logos? We have a lot of red and blue in the logos around the league, so I think something a little more unique would be nice. While I do not have concrete data to back this up, I would wager that the Americans would place high on a 'least favorite branding' poll while also not having many would would call it their favorite. Let's look back at the Rush, now. Why, in particular, should New York relocate to Yukon to revive the Rush? Well, I don't necessarily think it has to be New York, but the Rush are a team that would be supported, and I think New York is most in need of a rebranding in terms of VHL teams. While the Rush could maybe return to the VHLM if there is a team in need of a refresh (I do not pay enough attention to the VHLM to know or care), I would love to see them make the move to the VHL. New York could use a change, and the most beloved defunct team is right there. I do think this, however, is where my bias comes into play the most; given that I do not care greatly for the VHLM, seeing the Rush in the VHL would mean so much more to me. I know it's been a long time since I have been GM of New York, but I still hold the Americans franchise as dear to me, so from a personal perspective, to see them take up the Rush mantle would be particularly meaningful. I may be delusional to think that this would ever happen, so I'm going to try to take an objective standpoint for a moment. Do the Rush really fit as a VHL team? Rather, should we really put a VHL team in Yukon? Just think about putting a team there, and comparing that to the other North American markets where we have, or could have, teams. Yukon, of course, is not a city, but a Canadian territory. I think it's fair to say the team would "play" their home games in Whitehorse, the capital. With a population of roughly 28,000, it would be the second-least populated VHL city ahead of only Davos; but Davos has major cities nearby, unlike Whitehorse. Yukon would be a massive outlier in terms of the market, though we are not actually trying to attract fans to an arena. I do understand that some people are going to have a difference of a opinion than me on this, but I am okay with putting a team anywhere, as long as the name makes sense. Undoubtedly, I have my own personal reasons to want to see the Rush return, but I know others want to see it as well. While I don't think the Americans are a favorite team, I do not actually know what the support looks like for having them relocating be the means by which we see a return to Yukon. I think it makes sense from many angles, not the least of which is my personal desire. A blue and gold color scheme would be more unique than what the Americans have to offer. The Rush are a more beloved team, and a new identity could help revitalize the franchise. I think it would at least help to take away the stigma of the team as, quite frankly, terrible and replace it with an aura of excitement that would come with the return of the Yukon Rush.

1. I'm not sure exactly what others' schedules look like, but 9 of our remaining 21 games are against bottom five teams in the league, which I imagine gives us a relatively easier remaining schedule than most. I think given what I know about our schedule, I think we can finish in the top three and avoid having to play in the first round. We do still need to start our backup six more times, but we do have one of the best backups in the league. 2. New York, in a bad way. I'm surprised they aren't scoring more. I had them as the standalone top tier NA team. 3. Hosting another game night at my place. When I moved back in December, I envisioned myself hosting something probably monthly or maybe even more frequently, but I've only had one outing so far. It was a lot of fun, and it's not like I have much else going on, I just have low self esteem and I fear that people won't actually want to come over that often. 5. Not great. Just as a recent example, I stayed up past midnight the last couple nights, and my New Year's resolution was a vague "sleep better." 7. Honestly, I do have to say Malmo is one of my favorites. Prague is up there as well. The logos are nice for these two teams, and I particularly likely the color schemes. One thing I would like, though, is logos for these two teams without the text on them. The Yukon Rush, although defunct at the moment, will always be a personal favorite as well. I don't care a ton for the logo, but I love the team name and the color scheme is unique enough. 8. I'll say washing dishes. Even if we are talking about hand washing/drying as opposed to just loading/unloading a dishwasher, if it's something I have to do every day, then I'm going to pick something where I can say roughly in one place. That way it's easier to multitask and put on a show while I'm doing it.

While the playoff teams in the European Conference are all but settled, with Helsinki bowing out of the race, the seeding could go in any direction. From first to fifth, there is just a three point difference. The Nighthawks, atop the list right now, do have a game in hand, so the gap is mathematically a bit larger. Let's just look back to the point totals when each team had played 51 games, and note the five point difference there. Contrast this with the North American Conference, where the last time the fifth place team was within five points was all the way back when teams were just 12 games in, and the gap after 51 games each is 27 points. The tightness of this playoff race is far from typical. Examining data since the 16-team era of the VHL (which goes back to S73), the average range from first to fifth in a conference after 51 games is 19.2. The closest a conference ever was at this time was back in S75, when the European Conference had just two points separating first and fith. In fact, the seventh place team that season was just seven points out of first at that time. This did spread out a bit by the end of the season, as the fifth place team ended up 15 points behind first. Only twice (S77 NA, S87 EU) since Season 73 has the fifth seed been within ten points of first, and the gap was nine points in both of those seasons. It will be fun to watch the remainder of this season play out. Will someone go on a tear and put some real separation between them and the competition? Will a team stumble across the finish line as we head into the playoffs? Or will we see the tightest playoff field in modern VHL history?

1/8 of a New York goalie. Good sim for Malmo

For the first time in what seems like a while, I got my weekly point task done earlier than the Sunday deadline. I got it done so far in advance, that it was technically early, as I ended up writing two media spots today. The first one was intended to be a media spot. That was my task for the week ending today, 4/7. After I wrote that, I still needed to write up a VHL.com article, and I decided to write about how my predictions are looking thus far. I figured that would be something I could type up some words about real quick, without having to use too much brainpower, while watching the movie Gone Baby Gone. By the time I finished, I checked the word count and it was over 500, so I decided to just say hey, that'll be my point task for next week instead. That did, however, leave me needing something to write about for my VHL.com article. So I decided to just write about what literally just happened. I could check my word count right now to see if this is long enough already, and it probably is, but I'll keep going for a bit. I just want to touch on one of the trivia questions I had this week. The question was something like "When did Alex Kachur retire," which is yet another terrible trivia question. Let's just ignore for a second that the Alex Kachur in question was a 71 TPE player whose entirely playing career was 14 games in the VHLM, making this an entirely irrelevant player. The question seems more designed to trick people than to even be a trivia question. You could go into the player retirements forum and pick almost any random player and it would be a more reasonable question than this one. Why? Because this Alex Kachur isn't even the only Alex Kachur to have been created in the VHL. Now, given the possible answers, the original Alex Kachur who played from S4 to S9 was obviously not who was being asked about, but they did still exist, and they actually played in the VHL. There has also been an Alexander Kachur and an Alexander Kachur II. While these are not the players in question who are being asked about, and maybe the other possible answers did not include their playing careers, it still begs the question: why is there a trivia question specifically asking when Alex Kachur retired? I was thinking, after I had that question, that maybe we should just do away with trivia altogether and allow people to do a second VHL.com task. But now, as I sit here typing up all this crap, I realize this is what would happen if I had to write two of these a week. Which is exactly what happened this week, as my first one turned into a media spot. Oh, would you look at that, I'll be at 500 words by the time I finish typing this sentence. Whoops.

While my VHFL and Super Coach results the past few seasons have been great, my predictions have not gone as well. Over the past three seasons, I earned a total of 4 TPE from predictions. Halfway through Season 93, I think that my picks are looking a bit better than they have recently. Here is a breakdown of how I feel about my predictions for the current season are looking. Looking good Alexander Beketov Trophy: Skor McFleury Kevin Brooks Trophy: Nikolas Kauppi Sterling Labatte Trophy: Skor McFleury Jake Wylde Trophy: Skor McFleury Although Skor McFleury and Nikolas Kauppi do both lead by four in assists and goals, respectively, I suppose it would still be wiser to bet on the field. However, you can't predict the field, so I'm going to say these two predictions are looking good, as they have to be considered favorites based on how things have gone so far. My trust in McFleury this season is looking like it could pay off. The Labatte Trophy going to Skor is easily the most sure thing right now, with the Wylde just behind it in likelihood. Definitely a chance Devon Marlow-Marta Trophy: Toronto Legion Terence Fong Trophy: Moscow Menace Scotty Campbell Trophy: Skor McFleury Brett Slobodzian Trophy: Skor McFleury Alexander Valiq Trophy: Skor McFleury Again, it's probably safer to bet on the field when it comes to winning the Conference Championships, especially with the way we've seen the playoffs go recently, but my two picks are both in first place in their respective conferences right now. For this trio of McFleury predictions, I am less confident, particularly because McFleury does not score a lot of goals. Don't get me wrong, 13 goals by a defender at this point is pretty good, but Mark Calaway has 17, and only four fewer points. As for MVP and Most Outstanding, that's going to be a hard one to judge. I think the overall numbers that McFleury is putting up are special, when you consider it all, but these awards historically do not go to defenders very often. I think McFleury will have a better case than any that we've seen in a while, and probably any that we will see in the near future as well, but I still hesitate to say he's the favorite to get the votes, even if he'd get my votes right now. Possible, but not likely Continental Cup: New York Americans Victory Cup: Malmo Nighthawks Daisuke Kanou Trophy: Jacob Stone Greg Clegane Trophy: Jesse Teno Scott Boulet Trophy: Larry Abass Jr I wouldn't say that any team is likely to win the Continental Cup; the playoffs are too unpredictable. But New York will be in the playoffs, so it's possible. Malmo currently has the fourth best record, seven points behind first place with a game in hand. A repeat of the Victory Cup is possible, but there is just too much competition to put it any higher. Larry Abass Jr.'s stats are better than the leaderboards show, because he has played on multiple teams this season, but I don't think the offensive numbers will be good enough to compete with someone like John Jameson, even if Abass were to end the season with something like 300 hits compared to 240. Teno is currently third in GAA, but there is quite a gap between them and first. As for Jacob Stone winning the Kanou Trophy, that one is kind of out of place in this category, because there is not much of a basis on which to judge the possibility of it happening, but it's technically possible, and I didn't feel like putting it in it's own spot. If Malmo does win the Continental Cup, you have to think that their best player might stand a chance at the award. No shot Dustin Funk Trophy: Gustav Mattias Mike Szatkowski Trophy: Mac Atlas Aidan Shaw Trophy: Merome Dilson David Knight Trophy: Vancouver Wolves Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy: Riley Martin Spanish Moon Moth could probably have zero more points over the remainder of the season and still be a better candidate for Most Improved than Gustav Mattias, so I feel comfortable saying I got this one wrong. Mac Atlas is currently 22nd in points, and while they certainly could improve their ranking, they there's too much of a gap and too many other competitors to say there's a chance. There are three goalies with at least a 0.010 lead in save percentage over Merome Dilson. Maybe Riley Martin has a bit of a chance, if people ahead of them slump and they pick it up, but they are behind a lot of players in rookie scoring and are less of a two-way player than most of them. This is the one out of these five that I think could maybe be moved up in likelihood, especially with how volatile rookie stats can be, but Vancouver does not score enough for me to think Martin can catch up even if they start getting more involved. As for Frank Chadwick winning the Knight Trophy, I think the fact that Vancouver is currently sitting outside of a playoff spot after they were buyers in the off-season will not bode well with the voters. It's hard to know how others judge this award, but I no longer thing Chadwick has a shot.

1. Mushrooms. They're one of those things that find their way into a lot of dishes that I am not a fan of. 2. I don't imagine there will be much in the way of TPE celebration; nothing extravagant or anything that compares to the usual holiday or VHL birthday celebration. I'm imagining there will be something like a Top 100 Players or Top 100 moments of all time. Not that the latter really translates well to a sim league, but some sort of top 100 lists would make sense. 3. I'm going to say Leeroy Jenkins. I've absolutely never taken a career approach the way that he did, just taking things season by season signing one-year deals to achieve as much success as possible. I think at some point I'll do something like that. I don't know if it'll be my next career, since I'm going for a goalie, but perhaps with my next forward. 1. Do you have any thoughts on new items that could be added to the player store? 2. Would you retire a player early if in your first 3-4 seasons you were underperforming compared to your peers, even if you were still in the prime of your career? 3. What's your favorite music album? Or what is an album you would recommend I listen to while going for a run? It can be literally anything, as long as it's on Spotify, and I'll listen to it on my next run.

Playing in his sixth season with Malmo, Jacob Stone is the longest tenured member of the Nighthawks. At the conclusion of this season, he will be tied for the fourth most regular season games for the franchise as one of only seven who have played six seasons with the team. When he joined, the team was in a rebuild, finding its identity. By the end of Season 89, Yaroslav Trunov, who was drafted in S87, was the only one on the Malmo roster who had played more games with the team than Stone. Trunov last played with the Nighthawks in Season 91, meaning that no one remain from Stone's rookie season. He has, however, had some long-time teammates in Ash Sparks, Viktor Jensen, and Reese McFleury. All three joined the team in Season 89 and have been key members of the current era of the Malmo franchise. Along with Stone, these three players have all been climbing up the Nighthawk leaderboards. This season has been particularly eventful in that regard, and in the coming seasons we could see even more significant strides. Reese McFleury 180 assists (13th; 5th among defenders) 244 points (6th among defenders) 611 shots blocked (7th) Although Stone is the longest tenured player of the Nighthawks, McFleury has been with the organization since he was acquired as a prospect via a trade during Season 87. After getting the call in Season 89, McFleury has come to be one of the most prominent defenders in Malmo history. So far this season, he has jumped from 21st to 13th all time in assists. If he continues his current pace, he will eclipse 200 career assists and end up just short of the top ten, but assuming he plays at least one more season with the Nighthawks, he will likely be seventh overall when his time is done. In terms of points by defenders, he is just 20 from moving into fourth, which will undoubtedly happen this season. He is already in the top ten in shots blocked with 611. Viktor Jensen 109 goals (14th) 196 assists (10th) 305 points (10th) 21 game winning goals (7th) Jensen joined the team as the first overall pick in Season 89, though he did not make an immediate impact, he has been consistently putting up better numbers season after season. This season, he has already passed the 100 goal and 300 point milestone, and he will be reaching 200 assists as well. He began the season outside of the top fifteen in all three categories, and could finish inside the top ten. If he continues at his current production, he should be in the top five by the end of his current contract. The gaps at the top do get larger, and it is hard to project just how high he could climb even if he were to play out his entire career with the team, but it is possible that he passes Condor Adrienne's team record of 598 points. Ash Sparks 281 starts (4th) 160 wins (2nd) 20 shutouts (2nd) Sparks began his career as a backup with the Seattle Bears for two seasons before Malmo traded for him to become their starting goaltender of the future. Now in his fifth season with the team, he has just recently moved into second place in wins despite being only fourth in starts. The current record holder is Artem Tretiak, who had 222 wins over an eight-season career as a Nighthawk. If Malmo can remain a top team in the league, Sparks does have a shot at the record, but there are definitely questions about how he will hold up in Season 94, given his age. The shutout record, 26 by Michael Johnson, is also within reach, though not something that I would bet on. Jacob Stone 86 goals (3rd among defenders) 243 assists (6th; 3rd among defenders) 329 points (9th; 3rd among defenders) 783 hits (10th; 4th among defenders) 882 shots blocked (4th) Stone, who aims to be the first nine-season player for the Nighthawks, is already in many of the top ten lists for the franchise. That gives him three and a half seasons remaining to add to his numbers. He will undoubtedly reach second among defenders in all of goals, assists, points, and hits, with only Adrienne standing between him and the top spot. While the top hits spot is unattainable, third overall is very likely. For goals, he would need 70 more to match Adrienne and potentially reach top five overall. The countdown is 199 to the franchise assists record and 269 for points. The possibility is certainly alive for Stone to achieve these two records, though he could also be competing with Jensen, who will have one more season of eligibility after Stone retires. Stone will inevitably take hold of the shots blocked record, which currently stands at 1197 by Viktor Alexei Kamenov.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks April Fools should get a whole month.

We are one-third of the way through the regular season, and things are going about as expected for the Malmo Nighthawks. We are up there at the top of the European Conference standings, currently sitting in second place by two points, with first place Moscow having played one more game. They remain one of the highest scoring teams, and the story if very similar to last season. Malmo is getting it done with the most balanced roster in the league, and that shows in the stats. Although the Nighthawks are tied for the second-highest scoring team in the VHL (in goals-per-game), our leader in goals, Phillip Rave, is just 13th in the league. Viktor Jensen does crack the top ten in points, but beyond him, Rave, Jacob Stone, and Ronald Johnson MacWallace III are just barely inside the top 30. Where you really see Malmo shine is in our depth of scoring. We have a league-leading seven players producing at a point-per-game level, with the lowest total on our team having 16 points in 24 games. We have eight players with at least eight goals through 24 games. I understand that scoring is up all around the league, but it is still impressive. Take a look at Malmo compared to some of the other top scoring teams in the league. The Dragons have a player with 22 goals and two with 15. Again, Malmo's leader has just 15, with Jensen's 12 being second. Despite the vast edge that D.C.'s leaders have in goals, they have only scored three more goals as a team because they realistically only have six players who are threats to score with any sense or regularity. Prague, who have the same four goals-per-game as Malmo, rely even more heavily on their stars, with two players combining for 48 of their 100 goals. I think Moscow is the closest to Malmo in terms of a balanced scoring lineup. Other than the Nighthawks, the Menace are the only team that we may see produce eight 20-goal scorers.

until you give a correct answer and get told it's wrong