Victor

Thanks for wasting everyone's time Helsinki.

Ohhhhhhhh boy

Surely Devise would rig Riga into the finals too.

Where even are the stats and how TPE is allocated?

Did you say you did the TPE on your phone? How did you do the tags and not kill yourself?

2 days after the finals are over is the current plan.

The last trivia of the season is here - still uncapped TPE to play for in the season finale. And of course still capped TPE to play for with the final two questions of S64: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc23hgRyV1AZW6qIyqh06dmntkphLkQt1oSBEYd-nJCQepeXA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Another season, another early playoff exit for the Seattle Bears. Since the famous “Seattle Six” era, so called after the core of the S28 champions and S30 finalists, the Bears have won two Continental Cups and haven't made the finals in any other season. For those keeping score at home, that is indeed 2 finals in 34 seasons. Comparisons to Vasteras might actually be insulting to Vasteras who made four finals and won two of them in their first 26 seasons. I've brought up the idea of Seattle being the North American Vasteras before, back when Vasteras (or rather the Stockholm Vikings) still existed. Now that franchise is gone, the Bears' recent failure really stands out, even when compared to some other recent droughts like Calgary and Davos, or even Toronto's struggles since the threepeat. The strange thing about Seattle is that they do better as the underdog. In S43, the Bears won the cup despite finishing sixth in the regular season. In S59, they were just about fourth. When Seattle wins the Victory Cup in recent years (S52, S53, and now S64), they can't win a playoff series. I had a potential MS in my head recently on franchises most likely to relocate, but am unlikely to ever write it since I had Quebec in third place at the time. However, Seattle came top in my ranking and that only increases now that Vancouver has arrived next door. Is it time for a fresh start? The franchise which gave us Scotty Campbell's records and an early tradition of excellence has hit a pretty major bump in the road where there would probably be some support for a move to Los Angeles, Chicago, or Boston. Or maybe the Bears can move to Europe and the tenth VHL franchise will be in North America? Food for thought as Seattle comes to terms with an increasingly self-perpetuating cycle of failure.

YOU HAVE BEEN THE ONE FOR ME ?

This all could have been avoided if Seattle didn't edge us in the regular season.

Yup, very true. Shame Unassisted has come in between your dominance.

Well, well - didn't think I throw another curveball after being criticised earlier this season? Well, think again. Granted, looks like word spread fast and most people got 2 TPE as per - in fact, better turnout than ever before this season I believe. Anyway, here's how to find the answers: 1. Who led the VHL in scoring with the lowest amount of points? Had this question ready early this season, but had to change the last answer to Matt Thompson as he was after all the 4th lowest scoring top scorer ever. Every option on this list makes up the top (bottom 4) - Unassisted had 109 in S50, Jenskovic 112 in S14 (only defenceman to lead the league in scoring though), but it was another Beketov player, Jason White who set the record with just 107 points in S29. All as per here: https://vhlportal.com/hof/awards/history/8 2. What is Michael Angelo famous for? A classic logical puzzle here: by figuring out which answers were completely incorrect you'd get to the right one. And so: Angelo did not assist the only triple overtime cup-winner - that was scored by Toronto's Lars Berger in S21 and Angelo was not on that team (as you'd be able to find from the index). List of cup-winning goals here: https://vhlforum.com/topic/22385-cup-winning-goals/ Angelo couldn't be the answer to the multiple-season captain question as he was only Helsinki captain for one season: https://vhlforum.com/topic/1061-vhl-all-time-captains/ Angelo was the top scoring rookie defenceman in his season but not the top scoring defenceman, only coming 4th despite 119 points. You'd have to go to the S20 index to find that out. Why would you go for S20? Well because at some point you'd have to check the Angelo assists fact and a logical place to start would be here: https://vhlforum.com/topic/264-most-assists-in-a-rookie-season/ Then, having eliminated all incorrect answers, you could deduce that Angelo also had a good sophomore season and added to an impressive rookie haul. You might also have remembered I made this post in S62 which is the quickest way to the answer: https://vhlforum.com/topic/53496-a-historic-season/ Finally, Michael Angelo didn't paint the Sistine Chapel, that was Michelangelo. 2 TPE (capped) goes to: @Jubo07 @SidTheKid87 @diamond_ace @BOOM™ @GRZ @hejta @Lightningyamasha @Josh. @Sonnet @ShawnGlade @Nykonax @DollarAndADream @TacticalHammer @solas @xsjack @Esso2264 @Anthony Matthews @FBR @Thranduil @Barracuda @Toasty @majesiu @SlapshotDragon @nethi99 @Devise @Hybrid1486 @StamkosFan @SwagSloth @Kisshan @leafsman @flyersfan1453 @Tagger @SpartanGibbles @Bushito @Philliefan @SirRupertBarnes @Kuch9 @Galdoblame @Antone10 @Matt_O @omgitshim @DilIsPickle @eaglesfan036 @Velevra @Quik @Rocketman04 @Arthur @Enorama @Advantage @Inf1d3l @Poptart @Kirby @wcats @Ahma @tunedtorock @BladeMaiden @hockeyis66 @Sharkstrong @SlashACM 1 capped TPE goes to: @Beketov @oilmandan @bluesfan55 @joeyboucher1 @Ty343 Last week of S64 will start tomorrow!

halfway there boys!!!!

Nah you thinking of Boomchenko - easy mistake.

1. Honestly, I didn't even think I had this one in me haha. Obviously there's a Moscow player coming but I think I'll go back to 1 player once Cast retires so I don't burn out. After that, we'll see how it goes. I recently made a list of names I liked but I've done that many times over the years and not used most of them... so that's not really saying much. 2. Based on the age of players I'll likely get through expansion and other drafts, we'll definitely be trying for a cup in S68 or so, maybe earlier, depending on how the pieces fall. Whether that works or not is not up for me to say, but will be the reason for the answer being either 5 or 10 seasons. 3. Hate is a strong word, but Seattle is the one I have no reason to like. Never played there, been on a few rivalries against them (including now in a slightly watered down way), and think they've been pretty crap for a good 30 seasons now. 4. I don't think there are any STHS consistency woes, playoffs aside, this season hasn't been any weirder than any other. Playoffs are a different matter and as we saw in a 10-team VHL, that will no change. That's somewhat the perk of STHS, else it'd be pretty boring. 5. Well I suppose I'll struggle to answer that based on the above lol. This season's parity was the result of the worst team probably being good enough to finish 5th or 6th in many previous seasons, and the fact that most big teams (including Riga and Helsinki) went for depth over star power. The one team that built the traditional VHL way was Seattle and had pretty sensible results. Of course, Seattle wasn't an all-time great team, hence the playoffs went as they did, but STHS is not to blame for any of this. 6. It is entirely possible it'll happen again, it's all about timing. Generally these seasons happen when there's more young/CPU goalies and that is hard to predict, but it is likelier with more teams. A guess Cast was the perfect storm of circumstances but a high scoring season pretty much happens every 10 seasons anyway so I'm sure there'll be some 150-point performances, at least, to come.

Jheez Toronto gonna make me reconsider my thoughts on S43 Seattle.

First Toronto trip to the finals since the near-fourpeat of S51. Could have been a rematch of that year's final if Riga made it, instead it's against the S48 finalists when it all kicked off (Clegane on the losing side at both ends ? )

Part I - Pick em' (Pick the correct winners of all three games for 2 TPE) Game 3 - Helsinki Titans @ Toronto Legion Game 4 - Helsinki Titans @ Toronto Legion Game 5 - Toronto Legion @ Helsinki Titans Part II - Predict the Score (Predict the correct score and winner of this game for 3 TPE) Game 5 - Toronto Legion @ Helsinki Titans 2-3 Helsinki Part III - Player Predictions (Predict the correct player for each category, 1 TPE for each correct answer) Series leader in points: Louth Series leader in goals: Louth Series leader in assists: Johnsson

Blast from the past indeed.

Oof, can both teams lose the final please? @hedgehog337 - I did say in the LR at the start of the season that Helsinki had a chance.

I'll take that. Between the loser of Helsinki/Riga and Seattle then.

That's a fine coping mechanism you've got there.

Great first overall pick Seattle, well done!

Riga being better than Seattle, what is new here.

Remarkably, this series by Stopko doesn't even register on this list (cut-off: .930 sv%): https://vhlforum.com/topic/35246-greatest-goaltending-performances-in-single-playoff-series/ It's the 7-2 game which lets him down, despite 66 saves. So to record this achievement somewhere, I should note that his 277 saves against Seattle are higher than anyone else on that list. He does now have the best wildcard round performance.