Victor

Outside of Calgary, https://vhlforum.com/topic/31244-quebecs-win-streak/

Think the GMs should be incentivised to poach players and/or do stuff like weekly rankings and otherwise generate hype. *I say GMs, I mean BMs

Switzerland v Belgium was one of the most fun games I've watched in a while. Was ready to switch off after Belgium scored 2 and Swiss needed 4.

Go for it!

We no longer on fire.

We on fire.

1. Lack of an absolute elite TPE player. Cast is now in the top 10 players league-wide, Preencarnacion and Bassolino just behind, but Seattle, Calgary, and Quebec have some monsters from the S56/S57 era. That could be the difference. 2. Honestly, it's scary to think about it. I really don't want to get my hopes up, but I don't think a player will be better positioned for a while to get into the top 3 all-time, maybe even push Szatkowski's 971. So hopefully this 3-season stretch is somehow only the beginning. 3. I think both will benefit equally. Both are on pace to crack the 800-point mark comfortably which for me is the first consideration for the HOF before anything like who did they play with. Extrapolating current careers, Cast and Thompson would be the first ballot Hall of Famers but I don't think it'd be much more than a season's delay for Preencarnacion, and that's if he doesn't win any individual awards - I'm sure he will though. 4. I don't think the S64 draft is quite deep enough for Riga's pick to be an instant VHL player - I could be wrong here. So if there isn't a very good buying opportunity (and based on the age of the players likely available for sale I don't think there will be), there's no harm having more prospects in the pipeline in case anything goes wrong with S62/S63 classes. We gained a lot this off-season through FA and could lose it just as quickly, so I definitely don't think there's a pressing need to sell all the picks. 5. Something would have to go terribly wrong in the next 5 seasons for Cast, Thompson, and Preencarnacion to not make it. Sterling should get a few Shaws at some point and secure his place. Gate is well positioned but defencemen are tougher to predict, but if he doesn't, a forward like Louth might so I'm going to put a preliminary prediction of 5 players. We'll all be in a great position to exploit the talent gap at the top once the S57s retire so it is looking good. 6. Sebastian Ironside. He was nearly the highest scoring center at one point and is still doing very well on an average team. But Jake Davis maybe even more so... thought he'd be overshadowed by other Seattle players and ended up not picking him up in fantasy, despite him having a hot start from the very start of the season (with the draft still going on).

Love New York.

kewl

The Quebec City Meute and the curious case of underachieving teams There have been relatively few surprises thus far in the S63 VHL regular season. The top four spots are occupied by the four cup favourites and it's not yet clear who will have home ice advantage in the playoffs, while the lottery teams are about as mediocre to bad as expected. Minor upsets were caused by the Toronto Legion, who continue to give some hope of a wildcard round upset, but they are also relativ ely in line with expectation – the big surprise was that GM Ryan Power chose to build a team in this way in the first place. Instead, perhaps the most unexpected development has been the curious drifting of last year's finalists, the Quebec City Meute. No longer a young and up and coming team, this was expected to be the season the Meute really made a name for themselves. With, on paper, the best defensive pairing in the league in Casey Jones and Colton Rayne, the Meute have certainly kept it tight at the back and Tristan Iseult has benefited as the Shaw and Clegane Trophy favourite given the odd struggles of Norris Stopko. But in terms of goals, there has been a dearth of those, and Quebec finds itself staring at the prospect of a wildcard round to start the playoffs. Only 1 player, Veran Dragomir, is scoring above a point-per-game mark, with 55 in 51 games, despite being the 4th highest forward in TPA league-wide. This is not a new development, as even in high-scoring S62, only one Quebec player (Rayne with 101) cracked the 100-point mark. It's also far from a new development in the VHL in general, with the Meute having a large amount of historic examples to look at with both hope and dread. S42 Cologne Express When I look at the current Meute, the S42 Express is the first team that comes to my mind. Three seasons on from coming away with the top two picks in the highly stacked S40 draft, Cologne appeared in the same state of mediocrity. Their top scorer was Thomas O'Malley, with 78 points by some distance the lowest of his career (he'd end up being one of the few 900-pointers in VHL history). They had 85 points, some way behind the three favourites New York, Quebec, and Helsinki. Then lo and behold, the Express turned up the style in the playoffs, won the franchise's only championship, and shook off the offensive shackles going forward. In S43 and S44, they became the VHL's most entertaining team, O'Malley twice leading the league with 50+ goals and 130+ points, and a host of other forwards from Bismarck Koenig to Christoph Klose to Xin Xie Xiao all benefiting. They lost two straight finals, but overall are definitely an example of how things can still turn around for Quebec. S41-S42 Helsinki Titans At the same time as Cologne found a way out of their strange mire, their European rivals in Helsinki provide a cautionary tale of how things might never get better. A much hyped team which accumulated highly rated young players like James Faraday, Don Draper, and Jake Wylde never really got going, despite high TPE levels. In Season 41, the Titans won a playoff series but went out to Riga in the conference finals, after a very mediocre regular season where their top scorer, Faraday, only had 73 points. Things improved in S41 when Helsinki got a first-round bye and Faraday got up to 98 points, followed closely by Naomi Young on 95, but this more promising regular season was followed by another conference final defeat. The Titans then blew things up and although that rebuild ended with back-to-back cups in S45 and S46, that was little consolation for the players who put the effort into a couple very disappointing runs. S61-S62 HC Davos Dynamo Of course, Quebec doesn't have to look that far back for examples of a similar situation. The recent version of Davos broke an uncharacteristically long cup drought but was still an odd team. They never really excelled in the regular season and lived life on the edge in the playoffs, despite getting over the line in S61. The Dynamo were led by Gabriel McAllister, his generation's finest player, but he didn't crack the 100-point mark during his time in Switzerland, again despite a very high-scoring S62 league-wide. Now back in Seattle, McAllister is back to his best, cementing his first ballot Hall of Fame career with likely another Scotty Campbell Trophy. Similarly, Joseph Bassolino, probably Davos' second best player, struggled to make an impact on the league in his Dynamo days, but a move to Riga (and defence) puts him currently second in league scoring, 86 points through 51 games already being a career best. It may be that Quebec still manage to pull off a Continental Cup win in the next season or two, but for guys like Dragomir, Beau Louth, and Samuel Gate, perhaps their best chances of individual success lie elsewhere. So which will it be? Will the Meute go the Cologne route of it all coming together suddenly and gloriously or will this be the modern day Helsinki – good on paper, but underachieving on the ice? Or perhaps they'll go for the middle route – the team succeeds but the players do better when they move on. It could still go any way.

Kisshan coming for Cast's top line spot.

I thought you guys were European? Is Team World the mercenaries of the WJC?

You know you're old when you look at the stats leaders of the WJC and struggle to recognise any names. Given it's already the medal stage of the tournament it's probably to late to start getting to know them now, so I'll just wait for them to become household names in the VHL. At least the fact the two best players are Riga Reign property is certainly quite pleasing. So instead I'll decide which team I think I might like the most based on where they're from. Canada – The home of hockey. The birthplace of hockey and the centre of the hockey world. Always favourites and often winners. Couldn't be me. I love an underdog. USA – In theory, the underdog to the dominant hockey nation that is Canada. But how can anyone cheer for the US and claim they're supporting the underdog? Absolutely not. Europe – This is close to home. Love Europe. So many places to visit, so many different cultures in such a small space. Not that good at hockey but as a single unit, including Scandinavia, can still be a force. But no. Brexit means Brexit. Asia – Quite a vast continent. I've never been so can't comment. Unless you count Turkey (editor's note: You don't count Turkey). Not particularly known for hockey, although they have claimed Russia which is very much known for hockey. Still, to much of an unknown. World – What presumptuous bullshit is this? You represent the whole world, do ya? The United Nations of Hockey. This makes me angry. I'm angry now, well done WJC.

Phil Hamilton and Theo Axelsson are definitely free to be claimed now.

Haters Gonna Hate

1. Absolutely expected haha, I think S62 will remain statistically my best over my whole career. The key target was 100 points and remaining among the league's leaders. Both are currently on course to being achieved, I think I've been in top 5 in points for most of the season, which is roughly in line with the TPA leaderboard, and still might sneak away with another Brooks Trophy. 2. It's us because we have depth but STHS sometimes doesn't like depth when the playoffs roll around. I think the biggest threat is Seattle because McAllister is a modern great and one of the VHL's best ever playoff performers to boot. 3. As in between now and November 2019? I can't even imagine to be honest, things move so fast these days. I reckon either the portalfication of something which we currently aren't even considering to be on the portal, or expansion. 4. I was against them but I'm also still against 5th place getting a playoff spot. So I guess from the current set-up, it is a more logical system, although it is a shame we won't see Riga pissing off actual tanking teams anymore. 5. Marry - Preencarnacion, since we already have so much on-ice chemistry, Fuck - Bassolino cuz I'm getting Latino vibes from him, and kill Kriketers and bring back Aamo.

This is what I'm talking about - fuck playing the wildcard round.

Me gusta. Cast adding a third period hattrick at 6-1 like the soulless bastard he is.

Quebec slipping into darkhorse territory for the playoffs, clever.

Canmore from S58 probs

All those saves but the CPU broke you. ?

gotta keep you on your toes

How would you know, you weren't allowed to do PTs in season 1.

Gow with some sim.

Gow strikes back