Victor

For years now, I've maintained a spreadsheet which shows how many Hall of Famers there were per Continental Cup champion. The most is seven on the great Davos team of S24 but back in the day there were multiple teams with 4, 5, or 6. The average has fallen to 2.6 per team now (2.7 or 2.8 if you exclude some of the more recent winners whose players are still active or only recently retired), as a result of expansion and good players being more evenly spread out – the last champion with more than 3 Hall of Famers was Calgary in S62 and only S78 Warsaw has even had 3 in the 16-team era. You can go through and analyse the list at your leisure but in this article I wanted to focus on one fact I find quite interesting and currently relevant as Seattle has won the S93 championship. On the ranking tab of the spreadsheet, you can see all the teams who won a cup despite having no future Hall of Famers over the years. Naturally there's not many – 10 of which 3 should come off the list relatively soon (Pierre Emile Bouchard being on the HOF ballot for S86 Vancouver, and John Jameson and Jesse Teno being slam dunk inductees in my opinion from S90 Prague and S88 London respectively). Last season's D.C. Dragons have a couple players in The Frenchman and Mark Calaway who are on a generally good track so I think that roster will produce a Hall of Famer in due course. Which leaves six teams (maybe five but too early to tell with S91 Toronto), of which four are Seattle, and three of those during Blake Campbell's GM reign. That's enough to be something of a trend I think even considering that Seattle has won the most Continental Cups of any franchise. OK, Bana had nothing to do with S43 – the only cup in a wretched 30-season spell for the Bears and a team that no one was ever quite sure how it won in spite of an inactive GM and no real standout players. Since Bana took over though, the theme for Seattle seems to have been to prioritise team chemistry over individual brilliance. Clearly, it's worked spectacularly, with 8 cups in 45 seasons and it's any GM's dream but it's still interesting it is so consistently the case for the Bears. Even the dynasty of the late 60s / early 70s only had two Hall of Famers regularly (Rayz Funk as the face of the franchise, protected by Hulk Hogan), other than an ageing Maxim Kovalchuk in S68 and S69. Since then, only 3 Hall of Famers have dressed up for Seattle – Andrew Su, Taro Tsujimoto, and Xavier Booberry – all very briefly before retirement having made their name elsewhere and all not winning a cup with the Bears. There are no former Bears currently on the Hall of Fame ballot (apart from Voittu Jannula who left back in S17) and no current Bears who are definitely going to end up there (granted, the team is quite young for the most part). Despite this, the Bears have three championships in the same time span now. Notably it's often difficult to pick out a standout playoff performer from Seattle, a particular struggle this season where their 11 players are separated by just 12 points. Often the Kanou has gone to the Bears goalie almost by default and indeed the last six playoff MVPs to come from Seattle were goaltenders (Funk x4, Rara Rasputin, and Em Em Flex) although that streak is due to end in S93. Instead, due to the GM's wheeling and dealing style, there is usually a few older players acquired for the cup run who have one of their best performances in Seattle but retire without having serious Hall of Fame aspirations. Jim Bob in S77, Zeedayno Chara in S83, and now Henry Eagles in S93 are perfect examples of that type of player Bana seems to love. To prove the rule, the more star-studded teams that Bana has assembled are the ones that have fallen apart in the playoffs. His first serious contender way back in S53 featured big names in Jeff Hamilton, Pietro Maximoff, and Zach Parechkin but couldn't make the finals. Ditto for Matt Thompson and co ten seasons later. The formula is clear now – cohesive teams with a lot of good but not great players pulling in the same direction – and this also explains why the quick rebuilds that Seattle does often catch people off guard as the teams contend for the cup sooner than expected, this season included. Is it a formula that can be easily replicated by rival GMs? I would think so, although it is natural to be more inclined to pick a superstar or two to build around instead of treating those as expendable and staying more loyal to the depth players who eat up less cap space and can step up when needed. Fundamentally, while the no Hall of Famers policy is partially by design, you can't necessarily predict who will end up in the Hall and clearly the Bears do not specifically seek to avoid anyone who has a shot at induction. If Severus Targaryen for example keeps up the momentum from his breakthrough season then the S93 champions will have a Hall of Famer and this niche statistic loses a bit of sparkle. Plus while Seattle has won a lot of cups during Bana's tenure, it comes out as around one every 6-7 seasons, which means other teams still have plenty of opportunities to win their own way. Time will tell if the Bears keep building teams like this, if the S93 roster will go on to bigger things or if this is the peak of their careers, and indeed how long Bana will keep going but for now, given another successful playoff run, it is time to celebrate nearly 50 seasons of almost undisturbed commitment to putting collective over the individual in Seattle. DA BEARZ.

And love it

Well a title in the first season is part of the curse. We'll have to check back in S105.

Fair enough Oslo, you had our number all season. The Vasteras curse lives on.

@Members

1. The Seattle Bears have defeated the D.C. Dragons for the fifth straight time, improving to a 5-0 all-time playoff record over the capital's finest – now one of the most lopsided matchups in VHL playoff history. What it means for the final result is up in the air though – the Bears went on to win the cup the first two times they beat the Dragons in S71 and S73, but lost in the finals after making it past D.C. in S79 and S84. 2. For the first time ever, the European Conference playoffs were contested solely by expansion teams – Moscow, Malmo, Prague, Warsaw, and the conference champions London. Not a great showing in S93 for the old guard of Riga, Helsinki, and Davos. 3. Just the one brand new playoff match-up in S93, with New York and Chicago facing off for the first time. The Phoenix have now played each of their seven conference rivals at least once since coming into the league in S73. Although it will take time for all the expansion franchises to meet every team in the other conference, this now means there is only one conference match-up yet to take place: Warsaw vs London.

Super GM and super coach, hedge will be missed.

A win against Oslo.

Sjin'd

You can not stop us, only Vasteras can stop Vasteras.

Victory Cup curse is real

Thank you all for your nominations! Receiving more than 1 vote and therefore a place on the ballot are... @Banackock @LucyXpher @Spartan also receiving a vote each were... @AJW @Ahma @Beketov @Joel Main @Tetricide @UghSike @ace_five_ @dlamb and @dstevensonjr If you would like to know what you got nominated for, please PM me. I won't be able to respond promptly as currently travelling but I can let you know when I'm back next week.

64. The VHL and the WWE are doing a crossover. They’ve picked a bunch of players and you are one of them to become a fighter. What is your name and finishing move? The Italian Stallion, finishing with a big old might kick in the groin. 66. A famous poet wrote a poem about your player season. What is the title of the poem? The Italian Stallion Gallops Through Sweden 67. When your player is feeling gassed in the middle of a game, what is there go to for piping up their energy? I reckon insult the family, that will get the juices flowing quickly. 68. How was your preparing for playoffs? Whole season has been one long preparation for it in the E, especially when it became clear the first round would be against one of the fellow contenders. No change in routine, just jumped straight in. 69. Elon Musk has been a hostile takeover of the VHL. What does he rebrand the new league to? Y because its next to X in the alphabet and also Y would he do that. 70. If the three commissioners got into a battle of the death, which one would win and what would their weapon choices be? Josh seems to be in best shape based on what I've heard. Unfortunately he's a coding nerd so I feel like Bek as the wise head would pick a more sensible weapon. I think he wins but maybe I'm underestimating what Acyd brings to the table.

Week 2 of 2

There is life in the vikings yet... and a nice game of ping pong with Cologne, as expected.

It was 100% success rate, all you had to do was get a time machine and travel back to 2014.

It was vhl chat, barely any activity there

Bek needs to pay attention to Discord smh

I saw that the other day and was like oh yeah such a random thing happened. Only like 87 points too. Real dead puck era.

Chased their goalies twice now we gonna get overconfident ffs

No surprises here, Warsaw and Chicago peaked in S76.

Hello folks @Members The Elmebeck trophy is back, looking at the top members from the last 2 seasons / 4 months (S92-S93) / basically so far in 2024. Every member can nominate one other member who they feel demonstrated great work ethic, passion for the VHL, and/or made some notable contribution which in your eyes made them stand out. There are no restrictions on who you nominate, but we will not necessarily vote for someone in a position of power. This should whittle it down to a few candidates which the BOG will vote on prior to the off-season awards ceremony. To nominate a fellow member, simply fill out the short form below:

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?