Victor

first GM MVP? It's time to push the boundaries.

The season is nearly over. Oslo, Cologne, and Vasteras are about to take their three-way hustle for the Renaissance Cup (barring an incredible underdog run by Rome or Stockholm), but the end of regular season question is – will any of the three teams see their player(s) take the MVP crown? Oslo – the Storm have powered to first place thanks to the triple threat of Wayne Gretzky, Antonia Bucatini, and Jussi Jokineengg, currently separated by just 5 points. Oslo's offensive prowess is formidable and makes them arguably cup favourites, but will voters be able to choose which of their forwards is most valuable? Cologne – VHLE lifer BjornaBjorkson is near the top of the scoring charts again, 5 points clear of Alexandros Mograine, while VHLE lifer Clark looks primed to take home yet another top goaltending award. In a similar vein to Oslo, there is a chance voters won't be able to decide which of the Express' leaders stood out more than the rest. Vasteras – Gianfranco Del Rocco leads the team by a much larger margin than his rivals with an 18-point gap to defenceman Lucy Leitner in second place. Del Rocco himself is 10 points of the league lead though while Vasteras' two-headed goalie tandem of Lovstrom and Vencko sits in the top four of league save percentage. Someone else? Nathan Ecker sits third in league scoring on a wildcard Gladiators team, with no elite goalie and a 26-point lead on his teammates. Is Ecker the one to sneak up on the favourites and steal the trophy?

bestowed upon the winner by Charles himself I hear!

We also need nation states and oil money invested in us, then we can go global and add the VHLA.

True. Untouchable dominance.

You thought I had milked all I could from my list of my most common last names in VHL history? Think again, for that list provides a wonderful alternative – most popular FIRST names in VHL history! On this occasion I will not list out every player to have played in the VHL but instead focus on some of the big hitters. I will also caveat that I did not add any new VHL players who debuted in S93 so apologies if the totals for some of these popular names need to be adjusted slightly (although I'd be amazed if it was by more than 1 or 2). If you do want the full list, then it is available at the link below. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FsUQv-rCKu6bI3y0KCfQVUwJvcBlYH3mWl8iF2Kt5Js/edit?usp=sharing Alex (20) and Alexander (21) Well we have a clear runaway winner. 41 Alexs/Alexanders have graced the VHL (nearly 2% of all VHL players ever). 8 of them are in the Hall of Fame (approximately 5% of the Hall). 3 of them have trophies named after them – Chershenko in the VHLM and the Beketov and Valiq in the VHL. It's a pretty good name to have in hockey (see Ovechkin, Mogilny, and to a lesser extent Radulov). It's only the 44th most popular male name in the US in the last 100 years but as evidenced by the list above, it has a more international impact across Europe especially. Anyway, you guys want me to type out the full list? Of course you do. *deep breath* Abraham, Beketov, Brandner, Buturlin, Carter, Chershenko, Davidson, Deslauries, the Great (good on him making it some 2,350 years after his death), Johnston, Kharlamov, Khavanov, Labatte, Letang, McNeil, Minion, Murphy, Parise, Pearson, Pepper, Povenofsky, Randoulov, Rawnsley (he was actually a CPU but it's not like any other name is particularly close anyway), Sauve, Sclafani, Staal, Stokes, Stoyanovich, Stroheim, Thrower, Torjano, Valiq, Watson, Yengeni, Young, and finally Kachur (twice), Gegeny (twice as well) and Bridges (also twice). These guys will take some time to dislodge from the top. David (22) We do have a nearly one-man attempt to challenge the Alex/Alexander supremacy. In fact, if you split those two, they actually finish just below David, the name which former commissioner David @Knight uses to name all his players. He accounts for nearly half of the 22-man roster with 9 Davids – the Hall of Famers Smalling, Henman, Night, and Walcott and also Blind, Hamilton, Januzaj, Knight himself, and now Rashford. So long as he keeps going, the Alexanders can not get too complacent. John (17) and Jon (9) I'm going to stick this one below David because it's a bit more controversial than combining Alex and Alexander – Jon can be Jonathan and that's less likely to be John although these could be the same name sometimes. More importantly, despite 28 of Johns and Jons over the years, there is not too much quality in their ranks. There's just the 1 Hall of Famer – Locke and only a handful of notable players otherwise with Sleeman and Frostbeard in the level below Locke and Jameson who should be this group's second entry into the Hall. Michael (15) , Mike (3), and Mikey (3)... and Mikael? (3) Quite a mix here, depending on where you draw the line on what counts as a Michael – in any case it doesn't move them up or down from fourth place. The Michaels on their own don't have much star power but when you add in Mikes you get both Szatkowski and Szatkowski Jr and suddenly this group is looking a lot more glamorous. Matt (13) and Matthew (7) A more straightforward combination – Matthew straight from the Bible and the shorter version, Matt. We have the three most similarly sounding Hall of Famers here – Bentz, Bailey, and Bentley, and also Pogge, Thompson, and Defosse for a very strong ratio of Hall of Famers to players (6 out of 20). So clearly this is a good name to have if you want to make a real impact in the league. Ryan (17) The good thing about Ryan is that there isn't really any alternative so we know for a fact there are 17 of them not being grouped with anyone else. One of them is actually just called Ryan with no last name which I think is something unique for this article. There's no Gosling vs Reynolds dynamic in the VHL – the clear leader is lone Hall of Famer Sullivan (the original) although there is also erstwhile all-time TPE leader Kastelic and other noteworthy players. Jeff and Jack – 15 each These two names aren't actually the same name, but they're just joint seventh in this list (unless we add Jack together with John which we are not going to do). None of the Jacks have made the Hall of Fame or have been close with the most successful probably being Shephard, although O'Riley, Sound, and Kowalski were also above average players in their time. The Jeffs have a bit more sparkle with Hamilton and the second Downey in the Hall. Both names can more up quickly to catch up to the Ryans and the Matts in due course. That's about as far down the list as I'm willing to go for my own sanity. Other points to note on the list are the David-like effort by his brother Phil to drag that name up the ranking, although unlike David, @Phil has had no help as I believe all 10 players are his (but we know an eleventh is just around the corner). The 10 Shawns in the meantime are primarily the work of TheLastOlympian (Brodeur, Gretzky, Howard, Muller, and Zyuzin) and 3 Shawn Glades. Mildly amusing is the fact “The” ranks in midtable with 9 appearances thanks to The Charm, The Loch Ness Monster, The Mediocre One, The Process, The Seabasstard, The Board Game Clue on Skates, The Terrible Trivium and current star The Frenchman who is en route to be their first Hall of Famer. I think that's as much content as I can get out of this list, for now anyway.

@rory this appears to be the record corroborated by @JardyB10 https://vhlforum.com/topic/29912-fun-facts/?do=findComment&comment=331139 The link to the game itself seems to be dead even going through the index. Ironically, I may have misinformed Kit at one point that he had 7 goals in this game... which led to his fake news player name: https://vhlportal.com/players/playerfocus/5852 So Anisimov @McLovin appears to have tied the record unless someone remembers more than 6 goals in a game between S43 and now.

This is the worst thing I have ever had to do.

fuck we have Fong now?

The Los Angeles Stars are pretty bad. It's been a while since we've had a team quite as bad as the Stars are in S93. If they lose their remaining 20 games, which is not a long shot given they've only won 3 of their first 52, they will tie the very bad S11 Toronto Legion for the most losses of all time. If they get fewer than 2 points between now and the end of the season (again, within the realms of possibility given they only have 7 so far), they will have the outright least amount of points a team has ever managed in a single regular season. What stands out about this Stars team is that they're probably not the worst roster the VHL has ever seen. With 81 goals to date they are the ninth-lowest scoring team of all time but will probably get the extra 2 goals to escape the bottom 10. They're nowhere near the 400+ goals against that some historically bad teams have conceded in the past, including S81 D.C., who were tanking during peak meta era. But because the rest of the league, except Davos, is on a very similar footing, there's a lot fewer opportunities for LA to pick up points around the league than if there competed in the unequal seasons of VHL's past. Coupled with being the VHL's least successful franchise as of today, this season may well be the nadir of the Stars' existence so far.

Week 2 of 2

trailblazer Interesting, it feels like the original seven are untouchable at this point but NY has to be the easiest to cull if we truly want something fresh.

The anti-Sydney sentiment of all those not from Sydney is always amusing. Bern is gorgeous though, as is most of the country tbf. Same for Australia... I need to move

The Bears simply do not do fringe playoff team.

Is she here?? Do we have a Carson family situation? Or does she just proofread your work?

There's a way to see historical midseason standings??

Eagles soaring

top tier profile picture Mr Skinner

Halfway through the season, the VHLE standings have split into half between the contenders and pretenders. After a lot of parity to begin the season and unexpected wins by the teams expected to struggle, notably defending champions Bratislava, three teams have managed to separate themselves from the pack and are in a close race for the top. Cologne, off the back of four straight finals, looked to be running away with the regular season again but a surge by Vasteras puts them just five points behind. Oslo sits just three points behind Vasteras. These three teams are also home to the six highest-scoring players in the league this season and most of the league's top goaltenders, with the exception of Stockholm's Kaskiniemi-Kekkonen. It seems clear that, barring a huge upset, the Renaissance Cup will be heading to one of these three cities at the end of the season but what impact will winning the King's Cup have? Will it increase the pressure or will it help having an easier first-round matchup in the playoffs? Lots of storylines still to unfold in the E.

Teno and Summers all timers

I guess we have to eliminate you then

@Beketov triggered

To decide what franchise is most in need of a rebrand it makes the most sense to look at how old each team's logo is. After nearly a quarter-century of VHL seasons of teams slightly modifying and re-using existing logos from other leagues and sports, since S24 all logos have been original, some designed by the VHL's own graphics community, and most of the more recent ones being purchased from third-party designers. Quite a few continue to stand the test of time. Let's count them down. S81: Riga The newest logo in the VHL belongs to the Riga Reign who avoided a rebrand for nearly 60 seasons beforehand and are only on their third logo overall (all variations of the orange lion). I think this one got quite widespread approval and is certainly an upgrade on the previous version so it would be unlikely to be changed any time soon, even as a big change is about to take place in Riga's GM position. S75: Calgary Another long-awaited change to an old franchise's appearance took place just six seasons previously, as the beloved derp horse was retired after 50 seasons to make way for a more imposing stallion. The Wranglers have also only gone through three variations of the red horse and the current version is likely here to stay for a while. S73 expansion teams: Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Warsaw S68 expansion teams: D.C. and Prague S65 expansion team (Moscow) and S66 expansion team (Malmo) I am grouping all the expansion teams together (which is actually half of the league) for a specific reason: unlike the rest of the teams' logos, these were purchased using the league's donation money with the thought process that these were long-term investments and won't be replaced on a whim in the short-term. Of course, these expansion teams have all been around for at least 20 seasons now but as we have seen with Calgary and Riga above, and indeed many more examples to come, this is far from a long time in VHL terms. Just as importantly, these are actually a solid set of logos, most of which I think there is no great clamour to replace. The exceptions might be LA and London and purely on a personal level I think LA is the franchise most in need of a fresh start but I'll let someone else dive into that topic in more depth. S53: Helsinki The Titans aren't far off from being joint-oldest on this list as their logo change in S53 was only a cosmetic one really, polishing up and slightly recolouring the version they got in S24 when all teams rebranded to in-house made logos. However, given Helsinki did give themselves an uplift 30 seasons later, they fall in the midtable of this list. There's nothing that needs improving for them but maybe they'll want another small makeover in the near future. S52: New York The next three logos are a tale of how logo changes can sometimes seemingly alter history. The Americans had lots of success following the S24 rebrand and were arguably the league's most successful franchise in the following 30 seasons. However, just before their back-to-back championships of S52 and S53 they swapped to this logo and after that initial short-term success.... well you guys probably know most of the story. One finals appearance has followed in the 40 seasons since, so if there's any franchise that needs a rebrand just to dump their loser era it's New York. S47: Toronto In a similar vein to the Americans, the Legion's logo swap immediately led to threepeat, the first of its kind. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster since but Toronto's logo just seems to work for them and also harks back to the version they used in the league's first decades. In fact, the S47 rebrand replaced a very unpopular logo so this change was welcomed and despite being one of the oldest ones in use now, it doesn't feel like there is much clamour for change at the moment. S44: Davos Until the recent renaissance under Alex, this, even more than New York's, was the league's most cursed logo. The Dynamo were definitely the league's most successful franchise before S44 and then they just stopped being that. I also personally preferred the logo they replaced, although I am biased as I was the team's GM just 5 seasons previously. Davos has turned things around a bit now but it's the third-oldest logo in the league so I say get them to switch it up and leave that cup drought firmly in the past. S31 expansion team: Quebec, now Vancouver Funnily enough, given what I said about the “new” expansion franchises above, it seems to be the fate of expansion teams in the VHL that they are stuck with their logo for life. Cologne never replaced theirs and have been resurrected with in in the VHLE, the Quebec's was considered so good that it survived the move to Vancouver (more of a translation rather than a rebrand). In fact, not touching the logo was one of the conditions for the move being allowed to go through. It is still unique in being a logo designed by the team's GM, in this case founding GM Pavel Koradek. What has changed over time is that this is now the second-oldest logo in the league so perhaps popular opinion could be swayed towards a change. It is such a simple yet effective one though. S24: Seattle Fittingly, the oldest logo in the VHL is in Seattle, also home to the league's (soon to be by far) longest-serving GM. The Bears logo does predate Bana's reign (yes there was such a time) and is the only logo to survive from S24, when all eight franchises at the time got custom-made logos, having survived until then on versions ripped from existing teams. Seattle until then (ignoring their 1-season stint as the Everblades) had used the Hershey Bears logo, swapped to fairly similar one in S24 and haven't looked back since. Time for a change? Maybe under a new GM...