Victor

pew pew pew

A good story regardless, but goes without saying if it's based even partly in truth then you're not alone.

This week is really shedding a light on the league's narcissists isn't it @OrbitingDeath

BAILLIE BAILLIE BAILLIE NANO NANO NANO

3 shutouts in 4 games ?

The GOAT

Portal has ruined research

Another Cast appearance, what a week to be alive.

elite shootout lineup

What sort of ego maniac would do this.

20s Scandinavia OP

He was never on the ballot.

He did add two of mine so guess you can be the third wheel.

The fact Riga was one of the best reg.season teams in S32 and then struggled to get past Davos' 3 players in S33 and the goalie swap... what a bizarre 2 seasons.

Ironside is in HOF, were you not informed?

Good.

So far they've just been there tbh.

12 powerplays lmao.

Very nice.

Just over 1,000 words god I'm so good at this.

What a brilliant theme week. I can combine it with an idea I had earlier and go on a signature ego trip. How, you may ask? Well, the minimum dream team requirement is 3 forwards, 2 defencemen, and 1 goalie. With my former players I meet this criteria + now have 2 additional goalies. Plus, I wanted to rank my players in a while. Let's go. 1. Alexander Chershenko First on the teamsheet is this absolute rockstar of a hockey player. Chershenko was the most fun I had with a player, for a multitude of reasons including a couple exceptional locker rooms in Calgary and New York and it being during my activity peak as I became commissioner towards to end of his career. But the player's success certainly helped. Chershenko picked up trophies pretty much every season, was an all-time great scorer, scored a cup-winning goal in Game 7, got a VHLM award named after him, and is very comfortable in the title of best playoff skater outside Scotty Campbell. Having 3 centers in my arsenal means I have to push two out on the wings and although they were all good in the face-off circle, Chershenko will take the honour without a doubt. 2. Greg Clegane Clegane on the other hand is a perfect example of the weird karmic justice handed out by Simon's sim engine. I was at my least active with Clegane, disappearing for large chunks of 3 of his seasons, while he went on to be the best regular season goalie of all time. It would be a lie to say I missed out on enjoyment though, with a very entertaining back-to-back championship to start his career, my first and to date only foray into free agency, and of course the epic battle that was CLEGANEBOWL, the S51 finals which had no right to live up to the hype bestowed upon it by Jardy and myself, yet did exactly that. Clegane was no slouch in the playoffs it should be said, just not as reliable as Chershenko. 3. Podrick Cast His 174-point season almost certainly was the catalyst to me completing my comeback to the league and ultimately finding the energy to GM an expansion franchise. That entire first half of his career with Riga really helped me rekindle my love for the VHL and his career points pace had me hoping he could actually eclipse Chershenko. Unfortunately, things took a bit of a nosedive after S64, although S67 was still good fun, but instead I had to refocus my enthusiasm on Moscow and playing up the Cast-Thompson rivalry. That was a pretty unique experience and probably what pushes Cast above my third center. 4. Lars Berger This was a career about a lot of unfulfilled expectations and entirely my fault for expecting too much. Or was I? Berger was the first ever player to hit 1,100 TPE and I'm not sure anyone else in his time had 1,000, but fell just short of scoring awards, instead picking up 3 Boulets – the classic hits over goals dilemma. In a similar pattern to Cast as well, Berger peaked in the first half of his career, with all 3 cups (including one triple overtime cup winner), one of which (S18 Calgary) remains the most excited I'll ever be about opening a VHL result. Ironically, Berger actually has more career points than both Chershenko and Cast, but still felt a bit disappointing in the end and ultimately why I made another center straight after. 5. Matt Bentley Right, that's all my forwards out of the way, leaving us with the real disappointments. I was again lucky in that Bentley's worst seasons were overshadowed by GM success as he was a key part of a very enjoyable young Davos team which went to four straight finals. However, after taking one for the team early on, as Bentley became one the Dynamo's stars it became mildly more irritating that he kept on being outdone by some guy called Conner Low. Bentley did ultimately win two Labattes and make the Hall of Fame as well as being my only player to never miss the playoffs, and actually looks good statistically in hindsight. However, my quest for perfection could never be satisfied by this one. 6. Vase Trikamaki My first player, the only one to go less than 8 seasons, who was clearly the least talented I had (in TPE, statistically, just in general). Yet Trikamaki couldn't disappoint me because back then I didn't set myself high standards. The fact he won a cup with the team he was drafted to and then got a top goalie award means I really couldn't ask for more. Plus, by the end of Trikamaki's career I was a GM and gaining recognition in the league. A fine backup for Clegane, at least until he's hopefully surpassed by Rasputin. 7. Vladimir Pavlov This fraud is actually having a good season to end his career to make me feel bad about putting him last. No, my decision is final, you don't dump so much TPA into 1 and a half point-per-game seasons. Pavlov peaked in S70 as part of an unreal 1-2 punch with Smitty and even then, every Moscow player in S70 was unstoppable. The only thing salvaging his career is that GMing Moscow has been great fun, although that is also the reason he is a defenceman.... Never making a defenceman again, especially now that I have a complete pairing for my dream team. So, the roster therefore is: Podrick Cast – Alexander Chershenko – Lars Berger Matt Bentley – Vladimir Pavlov Greg Clegane (Backup: Vase Trikamaki) I believe that's about 8,000 TPE there (don't quote me on the math, I did it in my head just then). Truly elite stuff of dreams with one nightmare (Pavlov). Bring it on VHL, I don't need anyone else. Tagging everyone mentioned in this article: @Victor

Zoiderberg >

S68 is when we expanded to 12 teams so it's been 6.5 seasons in uncharted territory k. 1. Seattle ...Let's move on to number two 2. Riga One cup in S72 with just 1 loss in 13 games, another finals appearance in S69, and still haven't missed the playoffs since S61 3. Moscow Only other team to win a cup since S68, which was the last time we missed the playoffs. 4. Vancouver Hard done by the arbitrary cut-off, having won the cup in S67. Unlucky not to add to that despite a better roster in S69-S71. 5. Calgary Seem to make the finals when Seattle doesn't and then losing them. Still, consistently near the top after a rough couple seasons before S70. 6. Helsinki Just coming off their S63 draft peak in S68, went through a quiet retool to come back as a contender now 7. Malmo Caught lightning in a bottle in S68, then spent until now trying to catch it again but might just move up this ranking soon. 8. New York Continues having the worst luck despite putting together very competitive rosters, but did have a few more exciting runs before this rebuild. 9. D.C. Yet to win a proper playoff series in 3 attempts but very close to doing so each time. 10. Toronto Have done OK despite having no draft picks for about 5 seasons. Possibly being too nice but they literally had less than an expansion team to work with. 11. Davos Actually still had a good team in S68, then nosedived with a record 3 straight last place finishes and waiting to deliver on their promise now. 12. Prague Expansion team or not, they've won 2 playoff games in their entire existence to date.

Each correct answer is worth 1 capped TPE at the end of the week. Don't reveal the answer in public, but if you're not sure, ask around, here, or in the special trivia Discord channel. You also get 1 uncapped TPE if your question gets used. Submit questions by PMing me. Here's the form for week number 3 of S74. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzHH64S10ohGah9SecX77czakCsH2DkXkuv4sCcUZH8Ayc0A/viewform?usp=sf_link

you're welcome