Victor

can someone run this through the AI checker

What have I done

Seeing Prague and London in the wildcard round this season felt like a serious case of deja vu. Aren't Prague and London always in the wildcard round? I decided to see if the numbers back me up. There have been 20 seasons of the current wildcard round in each conference (S73-present) This is the 8th time Prague has contested a wildcard round, the 3rd time against London, who themselves are making their 7th appearance. By comparison Helsinki and Riga have 4 wildcard appearances to their name. Moscow and Warsaw have only contested it twice each. Davos and Malmo ruin the feeling I have with 7 and 6 appearances each, in particular given Davos did 3 straight seasons from S84 to S86. Yet they don't seem like a perennial wildcard team like Prague and London do. Is it just me? Maybe it's because in North America the spread is much more even (Seattle 7, Calgary 6, D.C. 6, Vancouver 5, Los Angeles 5, Chicago 4, Toronto 4, New York 3) that no one stands out – I'm pretty surprised Seattle is that high which might be another factor. The Bears have had lots of success in that time period, finals appearances and championships. London and Prague by contrast took a long time to make their first final – Prague still has only two to their name, London just their one cup in S88 – so not only do they have 15 wildcard appearances between them but it's also most of what we've seen of them in the playoffs over the years. Anyone else feel the same? Or just some unconscious bias on my part? Do London and Prague just need to get a room?

Gianfranco Del Rocco Scouting Report Gianfranco Del Rocco's only full regular season has come to an end and as the playoffs start it is an opportune time to reflect on how things went and what can be improved ahead of the next step into the VHLE. Having hit the threshold for training hours before the regular season started, Del Rocco wasn't able to improve during the season but that means that upon graduation from the VHLM he will have a chance to make some significant progress in the areas of his game in which he is lacking. That is, if the lessons from the S92 VHLM performance are learned... What went well Generally well-rounded game With 31 goals and 33 assists in S92 and 38 goals and 40 assists across his whole 1-and-a-bit season VHLM stint, Del Rocco has delivered on his promise of being a well-rounded game. Decision making has largely been strong, knowing when to shoot and when to pass, which is a good foundation for future success. Taking one for the team Slightly more surprisingly, Del Rocco has also immediately taken to a more physical game in the VHLM, laying down 141 hits in S92 and putting his body on the line with 47 blocked shots. This is a side of his game we didn't see prior to the VHLM but is an encouraging sign in that he is not being complacent and is willing to adapt to the more demanding professional leagues than what he was used to in Italy. Positive locker room presence Based partially on name recognition, Del Rocco was named San Diego captain immediately upon arrival. Whilst not the loudest leader, preferring to let his on-ice contributions do the talking, it has been a pleasant experience without any controversies, a good confidence boost after moving to North America. There was also a healthy relationship with S93 draft rival and teammate Jean-Pierre Devote which bodes well for a sensible mindset throughout Del Rocco's VHL career. What can be improved Consistency Throughout the season, Del Rocco has been incredible streaky, 1-2 good games followed by largely anonymous performances, which averaged out to around a point-per-game pace for the season. A good introspective look should be taken to understand how much of that will be solved by more training and how much is an attitude problem and needs some serious work. Shooting efficiency A 9.7% shooting percentage for the season is not a bad return but as an offensive-minded winger, we expect Del Rocco to deliver more efficiency on that end and convert more chances. This can be improved by prioritising higher quality shots and working on power and accuracy of the shots he does take. 50 goals should be the aim in the VHLE. Bigger role on his team The letter on his jersey added both pressure and credibility but Del Rocco was only sixth in team scoring in San Diego in S92. For a highly-rated prospect like Gianfranco we would expect a bigger role in his team's offense and whilst the Marlins were blessed with lots of quality forwards this season, Del Rocco has to step up going forward to make sure he doesn't just become one of the depth players.

1-1 we will take that, good job I at least showed up for Game 2.

It's time to make beef stew

5 hours to submit?? This is ludicrous

Clarke was the glue

Can you throw vapes in the same place as batteries

in the 3x list. two of them didn't make it

thought the title was your new player name

very clearly a separate name "the sole criterion being that the players made it to the VHL"

brothers from different mothers I think it's fair to say

Hello and welcome to one of my most unhinged projects yet. I have scoured through the VHL archives to identify every single instance of a repeated last name in history, the sole criterion being that the players made it to the VHL (i.e. VHLM and/or VHLE lifers are excluded). This also means that whilst the list includes all active VHL players as of S92, it doesn't include anyone who is about to come up to the big leagues or has announced their draft eligibility. 268 repeat last names were identified throughout VHL history and then sorted to identify the most common last name in the VHL's storied past. But since the work was done to identify each name, I will make it a countdown from names used twice all the way to the all-time leader at 12. Behold. Names used 2x in VHL history 188 names have appeared twice in the past and whilst the list is copied in below, I won't dwell on it for too long. This section contains Hall of Famers and completely forgotten journeymen, it has brothers, fathers and sons, and even families separated by multiple generations. Most frequently, it contains completely random and coincidental repeats, separated by as many as 90 seasons. There are two facts of most interest in this category: Two names have a 100% Hall of Fame success rate – Sterling (father) and Alexander (son) Labatte, as well as the Clegane brothers There has twice been a pair of Mario and Luigi in the VHL – the Linguinis and the De Rossis Names used 3x in VHL history 55 more names added to the list in this category which doesn't really have any fun tidbits to pull out – seems to be a higher proportion of recognisable names than in the first section. What this exercise has been actually helpful in is identifying some duplicates I had in the all-time stats spreadsheet from the 60s. Not sure how those happened but they're gone now. Perhaps one other thing worth mentioning is that in addition to the two Ryans in the above 2x list, there was also a man simply named Ryan in the VHL at one point. Unfortunately that Ryan counts as someone with a last name so the Ryans do not manage to make the cut for the 3x list. The Top 24 We are now in the top end of the ranking, as at 4 appearances each, the pool dwindles considerably. There are 13 names which show up exactly 4 times: The Bakers (Abel, Joseph, Patrick, and Shane) The Carters (Alex, Donny, Jared and Jared the 2st (sic)) The Clarkes (Daniel, Dean, Jon, and Will) – two of whom, Dean and Will, are unrelated but were both of the cup-winning S70 Moscow squad The Downeys (Bahr, Jeff (both the S1 and much more successful S68 incarnation) and the original Jeff's brother Ryan) The Eagles (two Gregs, Henry, and Tom) – brought to us exclusively by @Greg_Di. Greg Eagleowski sadly doesn't make the cut. The Funks (brothers and Builders Dust'n and Raymond and decades later playoff hero Rayz and the less notable Frank Jr) The Kings (Kevin, Markus, Roctrion, and Thomas) The Komarovs (Evgeni, Pavel, Sergei, and Vladamir) – also the sole work of one man, @Gooningitup The Matthews (Anthony, Luke, Mitchell, and Wesley) The Millers (Alec, Jackson, MF Percy, and Nicholas) The Syndergaards (two Aksels, Thomas, and Tomas) The Williams (AJ, Justin, Robinson, and Tyrone) and the Youngs (Alex, Christopher, Naomi, and Zachary) 5 names then, fittingly, show up 5 times over the years: Davis (David, Finn, Jake, Jasper, and Roque) – almost entirely hauled up the list by @Josh's obsession with the name Hamilton (brothers Phil, Jeff, and David (Phil and Jeff making the Hall) and also the lesser-known Drew and Josh) Knight (Blake, David, Jordan, Ricky, Steven) – remarkably only once used by either @Phil or David @Knight – the actual Knight brothers choosing to be Hamilton brothers in the VHL instead Reinhart (Asher, Jerome, Reylynn, Tobias, and Tyler all being prominent in the 80s) Tremblay (Dan, Danny, Pierre-Marc, Steve and the man himself (not really), Simon Tremblay) Then in joint fifth place... 6 Hunters (Alyksander, Blade, Braxton, JaKobe, Jeff, and Kurtis) 6 Jokinens (Alvaro, David, Diego, Erlantz, Fabio, and Fernando) – courtesy of the Finnish fiends @Ahma and @jRuutu 6 Smiths (Cody, Jacob, Josh, Lucas, Steve, and Trevor) – all extremely forgettable just like the name In joint third place we have the Wilsons (Aaron, Al, Connor, Dusty, Jesse, Josh, and Wade), 7 completely unrelated and largely irrelevant players, and the Gow brothers (@Fire Tortorella and @eaglesfan036) who have brought 7 Gows (Austin, Bernie, Jeff, Jim, Robert III, Robin, and Shayne) to the VHL before branching off into more creative names. Jones is the second most popular last name in VHL history with 9 players (Bob, Casey, Dallas, Dan, Davey, Jay, Kered, Mason, and Ty) over the years. Davey Jones as part of the 30s Dynamo and Casey Jones who had a Labatte-winning rookie season in S57 and then was part of the USA's most prolific World Cup years are easily the most successful of the Joneses. Clear at the top it's the Johnsons though – 12 of them specifically. We've had Bossman, Brent, Gabrial, Gabriel, Kobe, Leroy, Michael, Miles, Phil “The Rock”, Regie, Reid, and Ricky. Yes I was also hoping for a more impressive list but Michael and Phil have definitely elevated the Johnsons' profile in more recent season and Kobe is active in the VHL as we speak. Will anyone catch them? Only time will tell.

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.