Victor

Are the underdogs about to perform the miracle of our lifetimes?? Also Toronto's powerplay needs to give its head a shake.

I have realised today that Toronto vs Moscow is a final featuring the best and the worst regular season team to make the playoffs in S94. The Legion won the Victory Cup while the Menace went in as the wildcard in Europe and if you sort the league standings top to bottom, Toronto sat 1st and Moscow sat 10th in the league. So the Menace are pretty big underdogs in this final and should be happy with a 2-2 split after four games. But is this the biggest gap between the two finalists in VHL history? Let's find out. We know for a fact we need to go back to S83 at the earliest as no Victory Cup winner since then had made the finals until this season's Legion. So let's go through all the regular season champions that did make the finals in a 16-team VHL: S83: Moscow (1st) vs Seattle (2nd) – also tied on points with 113 apiece, as close as a final can be S82: Vancouver (1st) vs Moscow (8th) – a mismatch compared to the previous two seasons but not as large as this season's S81: Vancouver (1st) vs Moscow (3rd) S80: Vancouver (1st) vs Moscow (3rd) S79: Malmo (1st) vs Seattle (2nd) S73: Seattle (1st) vs Helsinki (2nd) – like our first example, also tied on points with 109 apiece Before then only 8 seasons made the playoffs each season (and even fewer in more bygone eras). So in terms of regular season positions, yes this is the biggest mismatch in Continental Cup finals history. In terms of points? S82 Vancouver beat S82 Moscow by 25 points while Toronto this season led them by 26. So based on this sample – also yes. Digging any further requires effort.

Jesse Teno with an unexpectedly prominent role in this draft

I might wait and make sure it happens for them, it would be poetic.

Win in 1st season and (almost) never again. Get resurrected in VHLE, repeat curse.

@Members Vote for the most outstanding player of S94.

Missing the Vasteras curse

just as I was running out of article ideas, we are so back

classic case of the OBC

Week 2 of 2

Tis the last few hours of Sunday. The playoffs are in full swing. There's a bit of familiarity between our four conference finalists. Seattle vs Toronto – that's now the 2nd most common playoff match-up in VHL history. After a 10-season break after the Bears' win in S83, these two teams meet for the 19th time in S94. The Legion already have a 10-8 historical lead, 8 of which came by S51. The Bears have been fighting back in recent decades but are up against it this season with their backs against the wall heading into Game 5. And Riga vs Moscow? That's a match-up which wasn't possible before S65 but has rapidly climbed the ranks with this being their 9th meeting – the clear-cut leader among match-ups featuring expansion teams. Quite impressively, all but 2 of these meetings have been in the conference finals, including a 4-season streak from S69 to S72 – these two don't mess about and only meet at the highest level of the European Conference. It was tied at 4 apiece before S94 so extra bragging rights are up for grabs here.

I have too much best content.

Spoiler alert Also 1-1 x2 is relevant for Del Rocco in those 2 games.

Just keeping everyone on their toes

Probs thought it was a best of 5 and got on the beers.

Da Bearz

Remarkably prescient trash talk

It's Sunday, I'm away and on my phone, but the grind doesn't stop, I need my 2 TPE this week. What is there to discuss? Well for one, we're in the wildcard round. Vancouver, who I predicted to win, have come back to the series up against NY ahead of the Game 5 decider. Moscow, who I predicted to lose, dispatched Warsaw in 4. I was banking on Summers going on a run of a lifetime to close off his career but alas, it wasn't enough. The Predators were heavily outshot in each game and I wonder what their plan is now having gone all in these 2 seasons. It was an admirable effort and honestly I think while you're always up against it when you try to contend off the back of a rebuild that went off the rails, it's still a better look for a franchise to have a proper go at it as it makes them less of a laughing stock. Part of New Yorks problem for a few seasons was they clicked reset so often it looked like they were in a perennial rebuild / playoff drought and that does drain morale. Selling the farm is never as bad as it seems at the time- draft picks often don't land the way you think they might. Is that enough words? The updater who checks this, could you ping me in the next 12 hours or so if its not. Just to be safe, let's add a few words on my rookie season. It was Ok. Part of the reason I would have preferred to go 1st overall in S93, other than for my ego and the fact that's never actually happened for me, is I knew Davos would be a better place to have a good rookie season due to rebuilding and having fewer players. I was right - Bucatini nearly doubled Del Rocco's output in points. But in the grand scheme of things, a 34 point handicap isn't insurmountable over a career and it is good to be on a genuine contender. I'm happy we've avoided 1st place as there's just something off about facing a wildcard team, they always seem to have momentum. Quietly confident is the mood at the moment.

Summers tried his best

I wonder how much anecdotal stuff there is like this. One that stuck with me ages ago was Zero (Builder inductee from a long time ago) said how the fact he started doing podcasts here helped him speaking publicly and just in conversations IRL. I haven't performed a detailed self reflection but I'm sure dealing with the jabs and banter on here as a teen made me less prone to bite at that sort of stuff in life. Is the VHL a force for societal good? (Also RIP EFL which I just learned from this)

Hardly the same thing doing it in copa America

This was a test and you passed xoxo

Like all great successions, it will be botched.

Yeah I actually had you in mind when I was talking about the interactions I've seen on the forum. There's like 2 pages of things I have no context for on VHL.com articles but looks like you guys are having fun so who am I to judge? I'm sure I would have a better idea if I was more involved.