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After 44 games Moscow Menace is sitting in third place in the VHL standings. Currently, five teams are between 63 points and 69 points, so differences among the top teams are not huge at the moment. Inside the Moscow Menace camp, the players have reportedly done significantly more "physical" drills in the practice. The players have been ordered to hit more and to play with higher intensity than before. Also, instead of watching videos about the powerplay or breakout plays the coaches have put on bad movies, such as Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) and Ghostbusters (2016) in the hopes the players get more aggressive in spirit. Moscow Menace's coaching staff is reportedly not pleased with how little the team hits and drops the gloves, so by focusing on the aggressive and physical side of hockey, the coaches hope Moscow Menace is going to be more difficult to play against, ultimately leading to more wins and points. In the last two seasons, Moscow had the 10th and 4th most hits with the 8th and 13th most penalty minutes. Currently, The Menace is on pace to finish with the 12th most hits and 14th most penalty minutes. It is no wonder the coaches in Moscow are worried.

The VHL regular season has reached the halfway point. The teams and players are working hard each day to ensure they reach the playoffs. Meanwhile, the staff of each team is also preparing for the future by traveling all over the world in scouting missions to find the hidden gems that could be drafted in the upcoming drafts. Usually, this type of work is done by the scouts, but sometimes exciting prospects or convenient trips can lead staff members higher up in the food chain to take time out of their busy schedules to watch a game or two live. This is exactly what happened to one anonymous Moscow Menace staff member who combined business and pleasure as they traveled to Japan. VHL has historically featured multiple elite-level Japanese players with the likes of Ryuji Sakamoto, Taro Tsujimoto, and Nezuko reaching all the way to 1500 TPE. From the active players, Red Panda is a star. Moscow Menace also has two Japanese prospects Kazuma Satou and Seto Kaiba who could play for The Menace in the future, so Japan is a market where VHL teams could find hidden gems. It is not a surprise to hear that the very first thing the anonymous Moscow Menace staff member did after landing in Japan was getting tickets to a game between Yokohama Grits and Tohoku Free Blades. The rumors suggest the main focus was on Yokohama player Hoshi Tama, a talented defender who is available to be drafted in a few years. What makes Tama exciting is his ability to play with both, left and right-handed sticks, he switches the stick each period depending on how he feels. After taking a nap at the hotel, the anonymous Moscow Menace staff member started walking towards the arena. As the game was not going to start for some time, they decided to see what Yokohama had to offer. After walking a bit the anonymous Moscow Menace staff member realized they could also eat. At this very moment, they walked past an alley, on the corner of their eye they saw a familiar sign at the other end of the alley: McDonald's. Seduced by mental images of a McTofu Sandwich, they decided to go through the dark-looking alley. Just as they were almost on the other end they came by a vending machine: "Underwear - Once New". The anonymous Moscow Menace staff member was not sure what to make of what he saw as even in Moscow with the flexible rules and regulations something like this would be considered odd. They leaned closer to see the available options, only ladies' underwear. "Where is the machine that has Tommy Johns?" - thought the anonymous Moscow Menace staff member to themselves as they started making their way towards McDonalds. Belly full of food the anonymous Moscow Menace staff member was ready to do scouting. The game between Yokohama Grits and Tohoku Free Blades ended 3-3. Hoshi Tama played decently, they got one assist. Hoshi played the whole game with a left stick just to annoy any potential scouts in the audience who hoped to see how well the Japanese defender could play with the right-handed stick.

1. We really seem to dominate in scoring so far this year. How many players do you think we'll have finish in the top 10? 7, the second line will go crazy in the end. 2. Piggybacking off of question #1, how many individual awards do you expect Moscow to bring home this season? I guess something like 5, I think we will have leaders in multiple categories, and of course extremely strong playoff performances! 3. Are you seeing anything in your player so far this season that surprised you, and if so, what is it? I have only 50 hits, I was expecting bit more physicality 4. With so many high TPE players on our roster, are there any players you looked towards to help build your player up to who they are today? Rashford and I have been played in the same line for a long time, I think I got some much needed scoring "flow" from Rashford! 5. With the second half of the season looming, what are you most excited about heading into the second half? Playing against the better teams more often and seeing how we do as a team 6. Our goal differential leads the VHL (+45 in 33GP as of this post). How high do you think it will be at the end of the season? +84

1. Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Or are you just perfect and don't need any? I am perfect and I don't need any. I still made a mental note of never farting in stairwells, you never know if someone is up or down and can hear you. Cant always say the noise was your shoes. Bad for your reputation if you are known as the guy who farts in stairwells. 2. What would your player's New Year's resolution be and why? Shoot more and pass less, be more aggressive in front of the net. Fight your teammates if it helps to spark some energy. 3. Moscow has been feasting in the goal scoring department so far. Is this because we've played mostly rebuilding teams? Or do our high-offense wins over Riga and Davos indicate that our scoring can best anyone in the league? Playing the rebuilding teams help, but we also have a solid powerplay%, we can beat any team in the league. 4. While our offense is clicking, our goalies still have room for improvement. What are some words of encouragement you have for our young goaltenders? Try not to be blame yourself too much, sometimes goals are scored and there is nothing you can do about that. 5. Moscow currently leads the league in the standings, and with the Victory Cup curse looming, do you think we need to tank some games to escape the curse? Or is this the team to plow through and ignore irrelevant curses? This year will be the year when we go all the way and show everybody in the world that no curse can stop Moscow! 6. Who's been the MVP of Moscow at the quarter mark of the season? Will they still be our MVP at the end of the season? Maverick has been a beast, they can make plays and score goals. When you look at their shot totals you can see everytime they are on the ice good things are happening!

16.7.2024 "I am confident in his ability to lead the team and continue to in making the VHL a safe inclusive space for people to be in." 6.1.2025. "He is remaining on the mod team and we have nothing against him, we just feel like his talents have not aligned well with the goals of the moderation team that we are striving for." The Head Moderator of VHL has been fired. The story started with a lot of promise, but in just some short months the suits of VHL have decided to go the other way and hire a new head of moderators. It is interesting to speculate how someone can have all the necessary abilities in July but when January comes around the abilities are gone. The most likely option for "drop in performance" in any VHL job is related to the person being too busy to do the job, but in this case, it is important to look at the following statement: "...,we just feel like his talents have not aligned well with the goals of the moderation team that we are striving for". If the former head of moderators was too busy to do the job, the suits of VHL would have clearly stated it as it would have been only fair and understandable, but now the suits of VHL openly hint that the former head of moderators has managed to go against majority of the moderators with their actions and decisions. Further evidence of the former head of moderators' ability to piss off other moderators can be seen in the long list of "improvements". Better documentation, earlier intervention, efforts against "Toe the liners", communication, and correcting bad habits are all listed as points the moderation team wants to focus on from now on. Or if you turn those around, those are all points the former head of moderators did not put enough focus on. We can only speculate what has happened behind closed doors, but you don't have to be much of an expert to guess that the former head of moderators did not communicate well enough and they did not follow the older policies too tightly. The most likely theme among all of those points was the former head of moderators pulling rank by making decisions on their own and "overturning" decisions made by other moderators. This type of behavior more than likely caused the other moderators to throw their rainbow-colored judge wigs to the corner. How does a coup like this happen in reality? After enough moderators started talking about the "failures" of the former head of moderators, they quickly realized they would be a lot better at the job, so they organized a non-violent protest in front of the VHL headquarters. As the suits of VHL came in to work driving their luxury cars, they were forced to stop as the protesters refused to move, the protesters had also glued their crocs to the ground. As the suits of VHL were not able to escape the moderators voiced their "concerns" in various chants and rhythmic hip movements. The suits of VHL knew time was money, so they acted on this case fast. The suits of VHL also knew it is difficult to find good workers, so they did not outright fire the former head of moderators from the moderating team, which also suggests the coup we saw in front of our eyes was not as unanimous as one might think.

C - Med - 595 TPA C - Tyrece the beast - 374 TPA RW - Anthony Simmons II - 373 TPA RW - Joseph Jec - 363 TPA LW - Alexandre Crosby - 356 TPA D - Didier Verhault - 330 TPA D - Hezeus Ohmontegue-Steinhardt X - 326 TPA G - Olafur Gunnleifsson - 291 TPA Mediocre players are getting paid like they are elite players, players who could improve the team are left without a contract to make use of worse players - the bots, the lines, and tactics are created by whoever in the manager's office happens to be sober enough before the first sim of the season. Are these clear signs of a team trying to lose on purpose or are these the signs of a team having a poor general manager? Perhaps the signs are a mix of both? We can not be too harsh if a general manager has to captain a boat with multiple holes, it takes time to fix those holes, but not even trying to put something over those holes is something VHL as a league should not tolerate for too long. Listed at the start of this article are free agents that could be signed to improve your team. The S97 VHL Regular Season is once again featuring teams that are performing extremely poorly. When teams have under five wins from sixteen games you can not put that under the classic: "Some teams are always going to finish last" - line. These types of numbers tell a story of a league with too few players. These teams are afraid to do whatever it takes to improve even a little bit as winning even a few more games could mean drafting a couple positions later in the next draft. That might not sound like a big deal, but in the modern market, poor performances in the prior seasons can mean multiple top-level draftees are not interested in being drafted by the team. The safe bet is to draft as early as possible, so you have as many players to choose from as possible. Or you can afford to hear multiple "no, I am not interested" - answers. Should the league be worried? I think so. Wins and solid individual performances do not feel as special when they come against a terrible team. The classic line is still true, someone always has to finish last, but there is a big difference between finishing last with a team that actually looks like a team over finishing last with a team that could be improved quite easily by signing free agents and calling up some younger players from the system. If this type of VHL is the new normal, I think the product is less interesting than in the past. You can not get too excited for the regular season as the level of competition is just not there, which means it is better to just coast it and wait for the playoffs to start. In my opinion, the regular season games should mean something, every sim should be a battle or at the very least a challenge where you go against top-level players who could on a good night steal the game from you.

Prague was lucky to win, Riga was lucky to win, and Malmo was lucky to win. What all these matchups have in common is that Moscow was the clear favorite before the games, Moscow dominated the games, and the other team had to rely on supernatural luck to come out of the games with a win. In the game of hockey, you need to have some luck with you, and as we have seen, luck can help you tremendously, but during a long season, luck can get you only so far. Despite Moscow's unlucky performance in the mentioned matchups - Moscow is currently in first place in the European Division and only one point behind Vancouver, the team leading the league in points. When you consider the fact that Moscow has scored the most goals during this season, and during the last two seasons Moscow has finished first in the regular season, Moscow is once again looking to finish first in the regular season.

1. Moscow is off to a hot start, leading the league so far in goals scored. What did the team focus on in the offseason to start off this strongly offensively? Working heavily on the offensive zone and how to get there is paying off for sure, it will be interesting to see whether we can keep our powerplay as hot as it is now. 2. Maverick Goncalves @leandrofg is currently leading the league in points. Is this something he can maintain moving forward? Will anyone else on Moscow challenge the king of the hill in scoring? I think so, Maverick is a elite offensive player. They now appear to be scoring more goals also compared to last year, so could be a career best year coming up! 3. Moscow currently has only 3 defensemen, as Obuz's parter is a bot. Do you think Obuz can handle a season with a bot, or should I find him a human to play with? I have heard the bots are getting pretty realistic nowadays, so if Obuz does not mind and they treat the bot well - no harm in playing with the bot as long as its fun. 4. Does anything about the current VHL standings or scoring leaders surprise you? Or is everything playing out as you expected? New York maybe, I think I had them finish first in NA in my predictions, but then again seeing how our schedule is - perhaps they have super tough schedule to start the year. 5. There are currently three teams without a win - LA, London and Warsaw. Which of the three do you think will be the first to get a win? Alternatively, which team do you think is actually the worst? Warsaw looks pretty light, only couple forwards in the roster, not a surprise they still the one team without a win. 6. Did you enjoy the holiday break? Both around the league, and also in your own life. Hope you had a pleasant time, and Happy New Year! Oh yes, good times, relaxing times, happy new year!

The S97 regular season schedule of Moscow Menace has inspired Menace fans around the internet to speculate what is going on. In the first 25 games, Moscow plays against North American teams only four times. When taking into consideration the poor quality of games in the European division last year, many have wondered what kind of effect playing so many games against potentially weaker teams has on Moscow's form. You don't have to be a hockey expert to know that it is the tighter games and games against better teams and players that help to reveal weaknesses in the tactics and lines, it is the battles against the top players that help players and coaches to see where the players need help with the most. When a team plays against potentially weaker teams night after night, the players can almost coast by as the quality difference on the ice is so great. The players will get to put up solid numbers, which will help to boost morale and confidence, but when considering improvements and working towards the main goal - the playoffs, these types of long runs against weaker teams are not good for any team and player. Was the schedule made like this on purpose? Some fans have gone as far as suggesting the schedule for Moscow Menace was made "EU heavy" to ensure Moscow Menace can finish first in the regular season, which would mean Moscow is first for third time in a row. Having a strong start to the season will almost certainly mean Moscow finishes high in the standings as the quality of the players in the roster is solid, the team has elite veteran players with elite younger players, so even if the "real games" are rare in the early parts of the regular season, Moscow Menace team can rely on the veteran players to guide the team on and off the ice. The Moscow Menace general manager, Euron Leonidas, has deep connections to the top of the league. Having a favorable schedule is more likely to happen when the general manager has an open line to the top. There have been some rumors coming in from inside the league that suggest Euron might have pushed his luck too far by trading up to 2nd overall and acquiring Kazuma Satou in the S97 draft. The Moscow Menace GM notoriously managed to acquire the 1st and 2nd overall picks in the S94 draft while remaining competitive, a move that was according to the rumors seen as "not fair" by the league leadership. By moving up to the 2nd overall position and drafting an elite-level prospect, once again Euron managed to show the whole league that just because you are at the bottom does not mean the top should not be allowed to finish first. The schedule could be seen as a way to get back at Euron and make it that much more likely the good feeling of a hot start will cause Moscow to stop working hard. As mentioned earlier in this article, the easier schedule has its clear disadvantages. Despite Moscow having two great regular seasons in the past few years, the regular season success has not translated into playoff success, Moscow did not make the finals in either of the seasons. If and when Moscow once again finishes first in the regular season and does not make it into the finals, the meaning of this regular season schedule will certainly start even more speculation among the Moscow fans.

12 goals, 8 goals, 5 goals. That is how many goals have been scored in the Moscow Menace games so far in the S97 Regular Season. To some such numbers might tell a story of easy mistakes and players still finding their rhythm, but you should not forget Moscow Menace is one of the most entertaining teams in VHL. The team is full of talented players who can make difficult tasks look very easy and simple tasks look very difficult. Give-and-go passes into tight spaces in the offensive zone when one mistake leads to a certain 2-0 rush the other way looks almost poetic when the Moscow Menace players get the cycle going. On the flip side, dumping the puck behind the net and then rushing after it aggressively is something only a few in the Moscow roster are able and willing to do. Moscow is a team made of artists. Goals are going to be scored, magical moments are going to be seen. Moscow is here to entertain.

1. It's the holiday season, how's your player spending this time of the year? There is going to be lots of chocolate and ham eating to ensure there is plenty of extra fuel in the tank when regular season starts. 2. Aside from your player, how are you spending the holiday season? Any fun plans? Just going to enjoy the time off from work/school? Went back home for few days, spent time with family, ate well, then back to work. 3. It's been a quiet offseason due to the holidays, do you prefer quieter offseasons or would you rather be kept busy during the 2 week break by various tournaments, forum discussion, etc? I don't mind the quiet off-seasons, but of course it is fun to see some tournament action with the international games for example. 4. Rookies Deadpanda and River Harrington are making their VHL debuts this season. How do you think they'll fare? Any words of advice for the rooks? Take one game at a time, work hard, but also try to enjoy the ride, time goes by fast. 5. If you could change your player's nationality, would you change it? If yes, what nation would you change it to and why? To Russian, I could be a politician after my playing days are over. 6. Wrong answers only - what gift do I want for Christmas? Adult coloring book, tom of finland theme

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