Victor

We're in trouble only when we run out of words, not ideas Yeah usually have no issue with blabbering on in them and going off on a tangent but my GM wasn't accommodating this week

that's not writer's block, that's a skill issue

Surely D.C. vs Moscow would be the real cold war

I hate it when I don't have a good idea for a 2 TPE article at the start of the week – just means I need to hope something comes into my head throughout the week that I can ramble on about for a bit. Alas, that has not happened. I've already spoken about the potential draft destinations in S93. There's not much to say about San Diego or Del Rocco – we're all doing OK as the regular season winds down. Nothing interesting has captured my eye in the HOF or this season's HOF discussions, there's no juicy drama around the league. Of course in weeks like this I could easily say some nonsense in the team press conference which somehow is the same amount of TPE despite a lot fewer words being needed. Sadly one of the six questions in this week's PC asks me what I thought about San Diego's trade deadline moves and I genuinely have no idea what we did other than there's a bunch of people I don't know in the locker room now. Writing this light complaint is a lot easier than actually looking into that any further. Fear not, I don't actually have writer's block when it comes to the more important stuff. I just drafted my new 4-week Media Spot to drop tomorrow – it's possibly one of the dumbest things I've put in a Media Spot so watch out for that. Anyway, that should do it for now, bring on the playoffs and some storylines to latch onto!

4 point game

Week 4 of 4

Nice

San Diego Marlins, Gianfranco Del Rocco - Stopped by Marc-Andre Fleury They've got Fleury? How is that fair?

no just ramble incoherently. Grading is long gone.

Oh go on it takes like 30 minutes. Go dig out an old ASG roster or something from when you were active and reminisce over old names under the guise of being ASG theme-related Kids with too much time on their hands is the common factor

Damn we are not having a good time in San Diego

Not again

1. 1 more week has gone by and we have basically done a complete 180°. What are your thoughts? - 'Cause I've waited a while to respond to these, we have actually done another 90 degree turn haha, now going .500 it feels like. It was good to go on a nice streak to build some momentum and confidence, you can't win them all and I think this means we can peak again later at the right time. 2. Player update, how has your player been performing. - Better than earlier! But perhaps at the expense of the team. Good to be point per game now and hopefully results will match my personal improvement. 3. Devote and Del Rocco got into an argument after the game against Halifax because Del Rocco got 3 points and Devote only got 1. Do you think it was a valid reason to start an argument and why? - What can I say, I needed a multi-point game. No memory of this one so clearly water under the bridge. We clearly just need enough goals for each of us to get 3 points per game. 4. Waffles or Pancakes and why? - Depends on the type but if you're talking about the best of each food, I feel like getting a good pancake is more of challenge so gonna go with them for the sense of achievement. 5. What do you think our weakest position is to this point? - Gotta be defence. It's not the most important position in the VHLM but if someone matches us in goal and up front then we might be in trouble. 6. If you could make 2 new teams for each league what would the teams be called? - I think I used up all my team-naming juices on Moscow way back when but when we were expanding the most recent time I was suggesting one in Milan with something simple and European like HC Milano. Either for the VHL or for the E I would add another German team although I always struggle with city and name there for some reason. I did like the Paris Revolution which nearly made it in the E. For the M, would just bring back the Yukon Rush and one of the defunct European teams in a NA city, like the Scorpions or Outlaws.

We wipe the floor with you I'm afraid.

We are so back It is so over

Yeah definitely. It's all oversaturated so I'm not sure anyone would care.

We used to have an All-Star Game. An absolutely standard, not particularly adventurous, conference vs conference game at the end of each VHL season. 3 lines of forwards, 3 pairings of defencemen, and 3 goalies from both European and North American teams took to the simulated ice under the special All-Star format which meant high-scoring games (I'm talking 7-10 goals for each team). This sounds like a relic of the past although everything from the past is a relic technically. But it's worth saying that there were 53 of them, running without fail every off-season from S1 to S53, until the All-Star Game died abruptly and nearly took the VHL with it. (the final statement overemphasises the importance of the ASG to the social fabric of the VHL – correlation does not mean causation and all that) For around 46 seasons, the players were voted into the ASG by the public, a terrifying thought today but somehow a completely acceptable method at a time when people didn't take things too seriously but yet found it in themselves to not troll the voting process. There were some exceptions to this of course but no memorable dramas have survived for posterity so for all intents and purposes this set-up worked for the older VHL generations. After Season 46 I felt compelled to document every single player to be voted into the ASG over the years and then publish a an all-time ranking. It is not much more interesting than a re-ordered list of the players who made the Hall of Fame in the first 45 seasons (with some exceptions), but that in itself is indicative of what I mentioned above about the voting being historically done on merit. The list, although not the underlying rosters, survives at this link: https://vhlforum.com/topic/9276-all-star-appearance-records/ The league promptly decided that was a good time to revamp the game with an ambitious attempt to make it more than just an off-season footnote (including moving it to mid-season like the NHL does). Did the idea succeed? No, given the ASG died a quiet death only 6 seasons later, but circumstances dictated that more than anything else – nothing was surviving in the barren wasteland of non-recruitment late 40s and early 50s VHL. But a draft and mixing up players between teams was a good idea especially in a time of increasing disparity between conferences. The All-Star Game stopped, started and sputtered throughout the 50s (there was an edition in S55 in between none in the adjacent seasons) before being picked up and rejuvenated by young whippersnapper Beaviss in S57 who took it out of STHS and instead streamed it live. As a time-consuming task both in terms of streaming and also manually creating the players beforehand, it required a lot more dedication than the previous version but Beaviss provided that throughout the 60s all the way through to S74. This is probably the version of the ASG most familiar to the older members of the newer generation of the VHL (the league's millenials?) although also increasingly a distant memory. Here's an example of how this looked, although in hindsight it appears to be just Beaviss screaming in an echo chamber: https://vhlforum.com/topic/54964-s63-vhl-all-star-game/page/3/ It is also worth noting that at the same time as Beaviss led the more laid-back, live, version of the ASG, the league implemented All-VHL Teams starting in S62. These are voted by the BOG and the results included in the seasonal awards ceremony (and subsequently contributing to Hall of Fame conversations) – although no game is played, these have filled the gap of recognition provided by the old All-Star rosters pre-S47. Does an informal game have a revival in its future? I don't think anyone will object but given it will require organisation and effort, and doesn't fill a burning need in the market, I wouldn't count on it.

No

4peat?? Surely not.

I'm not sure you need the first for the second to happen tbf

We'll promote Rome from the E and hand them the top two picks.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Gianfranco Del Rocco will be drafted 2nd overall in the S93 VHL draft. Given the respective TPE gaps between highest-rated prospect Bucatini and Del Rocco, and Del Rocco and Devote, only a GM curveball would change that outcome (all the less likely given you'd have to reach significantly for the first goalie or defenceman at the moment). So who could draft 2nd overall? Anyone who finishes outside of the playoffs thanks to the draft lottery, which means there will remain uncertainty throughout the season, given Chicago and Riga, currently in the bottom six, are still very much in the race. Three teams are increasingly being cut adrift however – Vancouver, Seattle, and Davos. A fourth, Warsaw, is being pulled into the same group but their pick is actually owned by Davos too, so there are clearly 3 favourites at the moment in the race for the Italians. I've played for all of Vancouver, Seattle, and Davos so as it stands I wouldn't be adding a new franchise to my list although that's not particularly high on the priority list. The Bears I played for most recently, Rara Rasputin getting a championship in S77 under obviously the same GM as now – I'm sure they'll be very successful again if I was to re-join. The Wolves I played for twice when they were still in Quebec. Ironically, one of those seasons was with Frank as GM too, although the best individual performances came with Greg Clegane in S49 and S50. I never won a cup with the Meute though, so going to Vancouver would mean a chance to sort out some unfinished business under a GM I have also met IRL in the intervening period. Finally, Davos was a team I GMed to two cups in S36 and S38 – you could easily argue Alex is the Dynamo's most successful GM since I left and like the other two teams I'm sure the rebuild will be quick. I retain a soft spot for Davos and was glad to see them back on top, but of these 3 teams it doesn't look like there's a bad option.

We are staying so classy in San Diego

What we mean by forum content