Victor

hipster Phil

I chuckled. Podcast worthy name tbh. #HybridVoice #DoIt4Jardy

I think I'm going to hire you to write 50 in 50 articles. And finish 40 in 40 while you're at it.

I'll never understand what possessed Sandro to throw in the 1st rounder too. Tordahl for Jive would have been a fair enough swap. Oh well, got both Tordahl and Young anyway. The horror of a parallel universe where the Davey Jones trade doesn't happen and Davos goes into S36 with Stark centering the 2nd line.... and jesus christ this is just part 1

Calling three 6-goal wins en route to sweep here.

Waldron just got lit up /endthread

OH NOW YOU REVERT TO THE MEAN WALDRON

So, the two S42 finalists are expansion teams which is a first. They have two goaltenders playing lights out which isn't a first but pretty rare quite at this level. So, what else do the Express and Meute have in common? Well, an almost complete lack of picks and prospects. After a completing a mega deal which saw second overall (Mason Richardson) got from Quebec to Cologne at the S40 draft, both teams have started building up cup contenders. As a biased New York American I saw their situation as quite dire at time, with Quebec having to get through NY and Cologne struggling this past regular season. Yet here we are. Cologne currently has no prospects in the system, having had no picks of note in S41 or S42 and not signing the two players they did draft in the later rounds. They won't be able to stock up much in the next two drafts, their highest pick being a S43 second-rounder (it is Davos' though so #13!). Quebec's prospect list is rather dire, featuring Jack Harkness and Joakim Videl, though they do currently have their full three rounds of draft picks in S44. A draft with seven prospects so far but that's beside the point. How did the two teams arrive at this stage? The Express went all out in S41 and S42 to secure the Richardson pick and then with O'Malley and Richardson in their last rookie contract seasons, went all out in S43 and S44 to acquire Martin Brookside and Robin Gow. The Meute traded their S43 first as part of the deal for Travis Boychuk, with their other dealings detailed here: http://www.vhlforum.com/index.php?/topic/18802-how-quebec-bought-sold-bought-again-and-got-better-in-the-end/ In the end, this may be the best chance for either team to win a championship with this core. The salary cap will be a massive bitch next season at which point Cologne's goalie will retire, while Quebec may need better depth to keep going. One of this team's moves will prove worthwhile and another's won't. The stakes have never been higher.

I've looked back at last season's thread and it seems there were no playoffs at all. When there were playoffs, I do recall the system Streetlight mentioned. Here it is being used in basketball: http://www.vhlforum.com/index.php?/topic/1097-vhl-yahoo-fantasy-basketball/page-2#entry60953 and football: http://www.vhlforum.com/index.php?/topic/2836-vhl-fantasy-football-results/page-2#entry20830

In O'Malley I Trust

so, nothing previous made this an expected result: Waldron's .957 are the greatest save percentages seen apart from Daisuke Kanou's legendary S24 performance (.962sv%, 0.98 GAA, 3 SO).

Everything I say is a lie.

Wahl - 88 overall Mike and Brookside - 83 Waldron - 81 Good play is often the result of facing lots of shots which is defence being not very good. And how was NY's defence better? Take away Bentley and it's Riga/Calgary level. One player can't magically make two others (and CPUs) not shit. You are the only team with 4 actual dmen and at least two of them are decent. Cologne's defence might be better because of Richardson but World Peace isn't significantly better than Yamazaki and Raymond would also be your 2nd/3rd + 4th is a CPU. It is better but Waldron isn't at some significant disadvantage.

I'll link to it once the next player is created. Same reasoning as Jason just a month and a half later.

Wahl, Mike, and Brookside are on another level in TPE. And career stats.

This is better than the episode tbh: http://imgur.com/a/IlWT6

After Game 7s of the conference finals, the Quebec City Meute are making their second ever final appearance while the Cologne Express are through to their first. It took 14 seasons for the original eight VHL franchises to each win at least one cup with the New York Americans securing their first final berth in S13 and the win in S14. As this is the twelfth post-expansion season, the Express have followed a similar trajectory (minus the Shortbus era) and are probably the fans' favourite to win. But the series will come down to quite possibly goaltending. The two teams' seasons were almost polar opposites, the Meute going in with the youngest and weakest netminder among the contenders and relying on two offensive partnerships of Travis Boychuk-Milos Denis and especially Aksel Thomassen-Bruno Wolf to win the Victory Cup and lead the league in goals scored. The Express barely scored at all, especially before the trade deadline acquisition of Robin Gow, and owe much to MVP-elect goalie Martin Brookside. Based on their playoffs so far, Brookside (predictably) and Waldron (out of nowhere) have to be favourites to be crowned playoff MVP depending on who wins the cup. Cologne's offense has woken up but would they have swept Stockholm or beaten Helsinki without Brookside's excellence? Probably not. For Quebec, they definitely wouldn't be standing without Waldron as they were shut down and outshot by the Americans in 5 of 7 games (36 and 39 being the lowest NY shot tallies in those games) yet won 2 of the games they were outplayed in, including Game 7. Just looking at the raw numbers, Brookside's .944 and Waldron's .957 are the greatest save percentages seen apart from Daisuke Kanou's legendary S24 performance (.962sv%, 0.98 GAA, 3 SO). Brookside's .944 is narrowly beaten by Aidan Shaw, also in S24, as well as Marek Van Urho's .954 all the way back in S10. In terms of GAA, 1.42 and 1.53 are again beaten only by Kanou, Shaw, and van Urho (Brookside losing just to Kanou) and Brick Wahl's recent S39 heroics. Those stats could well get worse or become more lopsided. Perhaps Quebec's offence will light up in the final while the smart money is still on Brookside outplaying Waldron much like he did in the regular season. A Cologne championship would make Brookside the favourite for both reg.season and playoff MVP in the same season, a feat only previously achieved by Scotty Campbell (twice) and Alexander Chershenko. But ignore Waldron at your own peril, he may well turn this into the great goaltending match-up since that Shaw vs Kanou showdown.

Mike is that you?

Imma help out Calgary because I can. And I'll drag Jardy in too.

Apart from last season of course.

Brookside's got nothing on Waldron mate. But shit, good job Cologne. I believed in you in pre-season but not at the end of the regular season. But guess this season proves, depth actually matters! All-expansion final, awesome.

Silver lining: New York does not match Davos' four straight finals. Apart from that they did before. But they didn't win so whatever. Shitty silver lining anyway. Ugh, I mean Waldron, wtf steroids was he on this series. Good team Quebec, but we could have won in 5. I guess good luck in the finals. Though it's probably time Cologne had a go.

Well shit. I'll go drink myself to sleep.

No Live tag, rigged.