jRuutu

They did not know what hit them when Simo was around! Typical experience for the hardcore fans.

Around 15 games have been played in the season 91 regular season. For Moscow Menace the start has left a fair amount of room for improvement, which is not unexpected for a young team. Despite the quiet start for the team, on an individual level the players have been making some noise. For example, a rookie center Jarmo Ruutu has dropped the gloves on two occasions already. In the game against Prague, when under one minute of the game was played, Ruutu won a faceoff and a moment later went after Fred Hampton, a fight followed, which Ruutu won by a clear margin. Ruutu got ejected from the game. This stunt made headlines all over the Russian sports media. Hampton, 6' 8" and 250 lb, looked like a squirrel being pushed around by a butterfly as Ruutu 6' 3" and 213 lb, dominated the fight from the start. The media was impressed by Ruutu's ability to handle the bigger opponent with such ease. Ruutu got into another fight with Scotty Sundin when Moscow played against Chicago. Sundin, the 1st overall pick of S83, a Chicago legend, provided a much tighter opponent for Ruutu, the fight ended in a draw. Once again the Russian sports media was impressed. Ruutu going head to head with the leading scorer of VHL, a player never known to be a physical player or a fighter, showed remarkable courage and eye for the occasion as finding a way to take a star player out of the game, even for 5 minutes, is exactly what any team hopes to see. Since Ruutu has slowly become some kind of known figure in the Moscow Menace team, and his name is starting to show up in the media more and more, it's perhaps not a surprise that rumors about Russian leadership being interested in the services of Jarmo Ruutu has started to circulate. One of the rumors that seems to be getting more and more traction is Jarmo Ruutu traveling to Ukraine to entertain the Russian troops. In October numerous social media videos showed a figure, looking exactly like Jarmo Ruutu, in a dance studio taking lessons to learn the "Soldier's dance", but later on it was confirmed the figure in the videos was just a lookalike. Ruutu himself also commented on the dance videos by stating there is no way he can go down so low and move like that. Ruutu also posted a copy of his current contract with Moscow Menace, which specifically prohibits Jarmo Ruutu from trying to do the "Soldiers dance" as the organization has a history of foreign players injuring themselves trying to do the dance. At least right now it does not look likely that Jarmo Ruutu is going to entertain the Russian troops, but perhaps we see the Finnish center in the news again soon. The next opportunity for Moscow Menace and for the players to make headlines comes against Helsinki and Seattle, especially the Seattle game is going to be an interesting battle as the teams recently met, the game ended in a narrow 3-2 victory for Seattle.

1. Anyone get a chance to listen to our leaders podcast? If so, how can we get him to do more? Not yet, but lets all team up and start updating fighting until he starts making them more often. 2. We are winless so far. I know we are rebuilding and we all knew it would go like this, but do you still hate losing? I do. I have been eating porridge every morning for some time now, and I have to say I feel a lot better because of it. 3. The lines are getting moved around and the boss is seeing who plays better with each player. Is this a good strat since we really are lacking in builds and things are going to change the way we play anyway? Sometimes you need to switch things around and see if something clicks, hopefully something clicks. 4. Everyone has a hobby. Some hobbies are kind of stupid and I don't tell anyone. Do you have any hobbies that others might not understand why you like it? I write articles to a simulation hockey forum. 5. Quiz time: What skill should every player on the team have a high level of tpe invested in? Only correct answers count. Fighting. If you are not willing to fight, how can you win fights? 6. If you had to make a new player all over again, like right now, what would you change if anything? Bonus question/comment: Have you ever reviewed graphics for you weekly tasks? If not, there are so many that need reviewing and go unnoticed that it should be a real fast task to do. A simple review will sometimes make a member even more motivated to be active. Active=Good. I don't know enough about graphics and/or how to make them, so I can not judge the graphics too fairly.

This is what happens when GMs work with clickers/semi-actives and inactives mostly, the level of effort that is required is low. And understandably so, the actives tend not to stick around that long, so GM's just half-ass it. In my opinion, the active players should be a clear upgrade, the teams and GMs should fight to get the players, even for one season. That would require welfare to be a lot weaker than now and you start to lose TPE right away if you do not claim TPE for a while. VHLE should be a league made just from active players. Instead of deleting VHLE, the league should add one more league: VHLF - a farm league for VHLE where all the clickers and inactive play, they are called up to VHLE if absolutely needed to round out the rosters in VHLE. If VHLE has only 4 teams, even only 2 teams, so be it. VHLF is simmed once a week, a schedule fit for the players in the league. VHLE will get daily sims, pure actives against actives action. Time to put actives first!

Los Angeles Stars vs D.C Dragons LA got a flying start to the game as Lekman made it 1-0 just before 2 minutes were played. The first period was an energetic period, both teams had chances to score, Dragons managed to tie the game when Calaway scored. Much of the same continued in the second period, both teams had close to 15 shots, but it was LA who managed to score, Lampi made it 2-1 with their 3rd goal of the season. D.C. tried their best to tie the game in the third, but despite having much of the puck and far more chances - the defense of LA lasted, the game ended 2-1. D.C. will be the unhappier side as the third period offered plenty of chances to score, but LA survived.

It is Sunday morning, everybody is waking up to a new day. I am reading the newspaper, the old bag is doing something on her phone. Finally, both of the kids join us around the breakfast table. It is a tradition in our household for the whole family to get together on Sunday morning when everybody can start the day together, to see the sims; how did each team do, and most importantly to discuss how my player did. A brief moment goes by nobody says anything, the awkward silence can be described as "defeaning" and "sharp as a knife". One of the kids finally says: "Well let's hear it, how did your player do in the last sim?" I put the newspaper down and walked away. As I am walking towards the garage I can hear the old bag tell the kids that there were no sims last night. I am now sitting in the garage and writing this article on my phone. Words can not describe how disappointed it is to wake up to no sims. The breakfast table in this household is a lot more quiet than usual.

The new season is almost here, the teams and players have worked hard during the off-season to make sure the regular season starts well. A lot of uncertainty is in the air, many younger players from VHLE and VHLM are making their debuts in VHL this season, and many trades and retirements have taken place since the previous season ended, so the importance of a solid off-season and training camp can not be underestimated. As we all know, if you start the season poorly, it's not going to be easy to climb back up and turn the ship around. Especially for the teams that are predicted to be fighting for playoff spots, the start of the season is often the time of the season when you can win or lose the whole season. The pressure to start well is often felt the heaviest by the star players in each team. These players are expected to carry their teams and perform in every single game. One of these players is Davos star center Leandro Goncalves, one of two active players who has managed to earn over 2000 TPE in their career! The extra burden for Leandro Goncalves when heading towards the new season comes in the form of starting the season in a new team as the center played last season in Seattle. Since joining Davos, many fans of the team have started to follow Leandro Goncalves on social media. Anything Leandro says or does is seen and heard by thousands of Davos fans in minutes. Earlier today Concalves posted the following status update: "I'm trying to smash tonight." The update was welcomed with mixed feelings. A spokesperson for the HC Davos Dynamo Fans Association was pleased to hear the star player is enjoying their life in Davos, it is not always easy to be comfortable in a new country and city, it can take a while for some players, but at the same time, the lack of confidence cast a worrying cloud over the hopes of starting the season in a positive fashion. Many commentators shared the spokesperson's views, the feedback was mostly positive, but the commentators were also eager to point out that Leandro "trying to smash" instead of "going to smash" is making the player and the whole organization look bad. Leandro's status update was also found by the fans of Seattle and Calgary, the fans attempted to tease the star center a little by asking: "What is his name?". Leandro Goncalves spent the majority of his career in Calgary before moving to Seattle last year. It remains to be seen how the night went for Leandro and whether he was able to smash or not, but one thing is for certain - a lot is expected from Leandro Goncalves when the regular season starts. Publicly coming out with anything else than positive and firm commentary before the season has started is something that can make Leandro and the Davos organization look bad if the season happens to start in a way that leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Have you looked at our roster? What's your thought on our team so far? Looks like a team, interesting to see how the season starts! Are you loyal to the team or are you a traveling type of player. Nothing wrong with either. I am neither, I play where I am needed, and I travel where I want to go. I went to Wendy's fast food here in town. Got home and my burger had no meat. You ever have anything happen like that? Nothing like that, but I once got a chicken wrap and the juices dropped to my pants when I ate it. Have you ever met an NHL legend or very popular player in real life? I met a few back in the day. Never, closest to a NHL legend I have been is me watching them in television. I want to be a high scoring player that plays well with others. What play style are you going for? I will be the great equalizer, I will show all the coaches that no matter how many points the players in my line will put up - there is still work to be done, especially defensively. Spartan has been on vacation for a long time. Does anyone actually miss him? Spartan is always on the holidays these days, how do we know it is him actually doing the GM work when he "returns" and not some random person he pays pocket money, so Spartan can continue his holidays?

Team Canada vs Team Usa The friendliest of rivalries offered exactly what many expected - a close competition. Both teams managed to score in the first period as Maple made it 1-0 for the USA, Cooke tied the game 1-1. Team Canada was the happier side after the first as 1-1 was a far better result than the performance of Canada, who had only 4 shots in the first period. In the second period, no goals were scored. Much of the same continued in the third, a tight battle with both teams having a decent amount of chances, but when only 52 seconds were left in the game, Trilled made it 2-1 for Canada! Those were the numbers when the game ended, a dramatic win for Team Canada.

The final was an entertaining game as Team Canada and Team Europe, both, had over 40 shots, but Team Europe was more clinical in front of the net, the game ended 4-2. One of the more surprising stories in the tournament was the performance of center Jarmo Ruutu, who collected in total of 13 assists in 12 games for Team Europe. Many expected Raimo Tuominen to be the leading center for Team Europe as Raimo scored a solid 53 points in VHLE last year. For comparison, Ruutu had only 16 points. Jarmo Ruutu spoke to the media after the final win, this is what he had to say about the tournament and his performance: "I have watched many episodes of the show "My 600-lb Life", and what I learned is that the role of a feeder is often far larger than the role of whoever is eating. I did not score any goals this tournament, but I managed to dish the puck and feed the guys, we found some nice chemistry early on and it worked for us. I got chances to score also, but luckily the guys managed to score more than I did. This gold medal is a huge win for me and Team Europe, and everybody in Europe. I am delighted. "

Russian center Yaroslav Bogatyrev has been all over the news in the recent weeks and months. Bogatyrev played the previous season in Seattle Bears, but staying in the organization was far from certain as the season kept moving forward. The final nail in the coffin came when Bogatyrev publicly announced they would go to free agency well before the off-season had begun. Since then, the story followed a path that you might expect, the player's camp and Seattle camp were not pleased, multiple teams offered a contract for the player during the off-season, and finally, a contract was signed - Yaroslav Bogatyrev plays in Malmo next season. The question in the minds of many, myself included, is the following: Did Bogatyrev cross the line? Publicly announcing that you will test free agency when the season is not over yet, publicly throwing darts at the management of Seattle and the organization itself - these are all reasonable and respected moves in the minds of many, me included, but to allow yourself to be described a "star forward" in a media publication? That is too much. That media article should have never been allowed to be published. Bogatyrev has a 7.5% career shooting percentage. Bogatyrev should be called a "far forward", if you count the distance he has missed the net with all his shots, and put it all together - you would go FAR. Bogatyrev should be called a "bar forward", only a player who spends more time in a bar than in the practice rink can shoot wide so many times. Bogatyrev should be called a "car forward", only a player who is being driven everywhere can score so many goals on the powerplay. Bogatyrev should be called a "jar forward" because everything else remains closed. Bogatyre should be called a "tar forward", outlandish exaggerations must be met with tar and feathers. Bogatyrev should be called a "Spar forward", the quality of the product and the value better match Spar than a fine brand. Bogatyrev should be called a "cigar forward", the only time Bogatyrev and hot or fire can be mentioned together is when the following sentence is shouted out: "Yo Bogatyrev, stop smoking that cigar here, you will cause a hot fire". And finally, Bogatyrev should be called a "scar forward" for all the trouble he has caused. Parents all over Seattle had to sit their children down and teach them about the dangers of motivational quotes. One wise person once said that you miss 100% of the shots you do not take, this quote was on the walls of who knows how many houses to remind the children that you must always keep going and shoot your shot, chase your dreams, but Bogatyrev has shown that it is also possible to miss almost 100% of the shots you do take. At some point, you have to stop and ask: "Is it time to stop shooting and pass the puck?" To the end, I would like to send my greetings to the good people of VHL, may the upcoming season be a fun one!

Yeeee!

It's been slow going this off season. What do you do for excitement? I wear my hat backwards With the draft over, what are your thoughts on our draft picks? Good picks I would say, early picks look to have potential to be important players for Moscow in the future, and later picks also appear to have enough potential to help Moscow win, that is all you can hope for! Our GM has been on vacation for several days but still managed to do the draft, how well did he do? He is on vacation? If you had a few weeks to burn, what country would you like to go to? Somewhere hot/warm of course. Finnish winter is fast approaching, so I would go sit under the sun and enjoy the warm weather. What is your favorite hobby? I like to read and paint. I paint with my words, I specialize in horror stories, I call them paintings. Do you follow the NHL? What team do you cheer for? I don't follow NHL that much, but I do check the results here and there, and read on how the Finnish players are doing.

Europe the best Europe!

Team World vs Team Asia Team World got a flying start into the game as Francis made it 1-0 when 1.19 was played. Team Asia managed to tie the game as Romanov made it 1-1 around halfway of the first. Those were the numbers after first, Team World the dominating team with shots 10-4. The second period was more even, Team World had more shots, but it was Team Asia who found the back of the net as Kasanova scored to make it 1-2. In the third much of the same continued until 15 minutes was played, Team World collapsed completely, Team Asia scored three goals as Zilla, Kagamine, and Moo Moo scored within just over two minutes! Tough blow for Team World as the game was an even match for the most part. The game ended 5-1 for Team Asia.

Lately, three promising players have entered the world of VHL. What all three have in common is that they are from Germany, they share names that are fun to say out loud, but the names also carry a certain load. It is not a surprise these players have received extra attention from the VHL community. Some have wondered why the league has not forced the players to change their names or simply prevent them from playing in the league. Despite not being huge fans of the names, some have been more supportive as the league has gone to great lengths to make sure everybody is welcome to join. I have not been in space, but I am wearing Adidas shorts, and I have Hugo Boss fragrance that I sometimes use, just like many others - I am torn. On one hand, I too would like the names to be changed as it is a bit too much to also have to look at these names on my screen, using the products is one thing, but somehow and in some weird way, seeing the names in VHL and in the index makes it more personal. When I stare at the names on my screen, I am somehow saying it's okay, by being silent I am supporting these names and what they represent. So it feels like. But on the other hand, I do not want to be known as the person who said "You are not welcome here" to someone. I like Adidas and Hugo Boss products, and one day I would like to visit space. Maybe a happy compromise is that the names are changed and we all continue using the products as they are now - nice and useful things.

Some weeks ago I speculated about the possibility of hiding welfare behind a paywall. The idea or thought was that to claim welfare you would have to pay for it with real money. The money would be then used to run the site more smoothly. (At times bots have attacked the site and spammed various threads all over the place). I also speculated about a "season pass", which would allow any user to double the rewards they get from normal donations, for example with the season pass the user would get 10 uncapped TPE, or 2M for the player store instead of just 5 uncapped TPE or 1M for the player store. The feedback was for the most part supportive and friendly. However, today it all changed when a good sir, eagle_3450, released their commentary on the whole concept. Like a shark when they smell even the tiniest amount of blood in the water, eagle_3450 swam in and tore the whole concept into pieces. Each word as sharp as the teeth in the shark's mouth. Each sentence as powerful and majestic as the beast itself. I will now attempt to respond to the good sir, eagle_3450, and to their criticism, which could be described as harsh but fair. "First: VHL not having many donations is my fault just for existing I guess." We all must look into the mirror and ask ourselves: "Am I doing enough? Am I being the best possible person I could be?". That goes to VHL and everything else. I think it is as clear as day here that eagle_3450 is feeling guilty for not doing as much as they could. While it is incorrect to say the lack of donations is 100% the fault of eagle_3450, but it is not 100% correct to say the lack of donations is not the fault of eagle_3450. "Second: You want to lock the way that I get TPE behind a pay wall, that I can't pay for because I need to use my money for other things. " This selfish attitude is what is preventing VHL from growing and reaching the heights we all know the league could reach. You could speculate whether VHL is doing enough to make donating as attractive as many other things outside of VHL. Perhaps a season pass would be a decent place to start to make donating more attractive to more and more users. "Third: You want to make the VHL basically P2W and give people the ability to speak in BOG meetings for only $30 when they shouldn't be able to at all. " In my opinion, BOG meetings and any other league meeting need to have a voice coming from the regular users of VHL. And what better voice than someone who cares about the league enough to pay some cash to represent the good people of VHL in these inner circles? "Fourth: Bots claiming welfare is not an issue, since the programming and runtime required for it to actually make it into the VHL would be too tedious for someone to create when they could just target an easier site. " And what better place to practice creating bots and training them than a place like VHL? We can not close our eyes to the bots and pretend they are not out there when they are among us already! "Fifth: Why do I have a responsibility to donate, not everyone is able to, not everyone has the money to, it makes no sense to lock TPE earning behind a paywall for the people without much a]money or time. " Spoken like a man watching two people fight, one is clearly getting the upper hand, but instead of stepping in, the man is standing there with his phone in their hand and filming it into TikTok; "someone please go help the other person. Not me though, I must film this to TikTok". At some point VHL needs to make hard decisions, it is better to start preparing yourself now and not later. "Sixth: This is literally the worst change that could ever happen for me, and all forums have bots, it wont change much. " Good sir, eagle_3450, I sincerely hope you take a good and hard look at yourself in the mirror this evening and ask yourself: "Am I doing enough for VHL, am I being the best possible VHL user right now?" 550 without the quotes

Europe with the hot start!

I wear pants in the sauna, and no pants around the dinner table.

What type of player do you have or working towards? Role model, enforcer? My career will be described as "the reverse phoenix", I will fly in all shiny n shit, but crash down to the ground and turn into enforcer - never starting to shine again. The team is going to be young and grow together. I like this idea, do you? With the help of modern medicine players can remain younger for longer, I just hope rookies mistakes are still tolerated during the "veteran" years. What is the one thing our GM needs to improve in the locker room? Less rumors about free agency market What motivates you to even be in this league? I like to make new friends. When I show my articles to the old bag - I sometimes get a like. Here I sometimes get two likes. Do you have any plans during the off-season break? Gotta work hard and get ready for the rookie season, I must shine brightly like a star or the sun early on. What is a bad habit you want to stop doing? Eating without pants on

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/erlantz-jokinen/episodes/For-points--for-practice---short-28-e2ajlfl 6 minutes

5% increase, too little to see with your own eyes, but the boost in confidence? Many VHL front offices are walking to the draft with a totally new mindset.

When you look at the standings and the roster of Moscow Menace, it is not a surprise that Moscow is one of the teams rumored to go after free agents during the upcoming off-season. In total four players are going to retire when the ongoing season ends, five players are going to be unrestricted free agents, and only two players in the current roster are under contract for season 91. Even when some of the prospects join from VHLE and VHLM, the team has plenty of space in the roster and more importantly - under the cap. The fans in Moscow are notoriously demanding, missing the playoffs multiple years in a row, even during a rebuild, is not something many of the fans are willing to sit through. But is it a good idea to sign superstar players in the hopes of just making it into the playoffs? Not if the players want to sign long contracts. Moscow has in total of five first-round picks in the next two VHL drafts, that alone is plenty of picks to collect some serious talent into any roster, but Moscow also has six second-round picks in the next two VHL drafts. The nice cap space now is quickly gone if the organization signs a couple of top-level free agents. In a few years' time, all the prospects will require contracts, and when the expectation from a first-round pick is that they, at the very least, make it into the VHL one day, Moscow is going to have a solid roster in the near future. When you think about the fans of the team, it is natural that the idea of adding players like The Frenchman, Yaroslav Bogatyrev, and Art Vandelay into the team makes perfect sense. Such additions would almost certainly push Moscow into the playoffs. All three players have spoken to the media about their intentions to test Free Agency next off-season. It is true that Moscow desperately needs to defender or two to round up the roster, but defenders are a lot easier to find when you take the good old roster page out and those three are in there leading the group. If the mentioned free agents, or any other upcoming free agent, are willing to sign for a short-term contract - the additions make the perfect sense for all parties involved. Not every team is necessarily that active during the off-season, they might be in a nice place or they just don't have the cap space to make anything too interesting happen, so they do not go after the free agents that hard. When the regular season starts, maybe the games are not going as well as they hoped, who enters the picture then? It is the top-level players in short-term deals. The closer to the trade deadline we get, the more likely it is that teams who have started poorly want to change things up. If the roster of the struggling team looks solid otherwise, the players who joined a team like Moscow during the off-season might be tempted to join the team for a deeper playoff push than they might enjoy in Moscow. In such a scenario Moscow would be more than happy to sign top-level players from free agency now as they would get some kind of asset in return. For the players, the excitement of doing this slightly differently would be an additional bonus as it is less common to sign for a rebuilding team on a short-term deal, and betting on yourself you can find an interesting opportunity closer to the trade deadline.

What are your expectations for this upcoming season with a few new rookies moving up to the team? Cup finals, I have heard the team is going after FA's hard. If that plan fails and the FA's go to other teams, I don't see why Moscow could not be a playoff team at least. Are you a team player or a stat chaser, or both? Both, winning is nice but so is seeing your playing do well in the sims! Spartan seems to have the team well organized and he is on top of everything. What would you like him to change or not change? Give us more money on the side, nobody needs to know. Who is the practical joker in the locker room? Left Alone, they do all kinds of crazy stunts and pranks, just so players will leave them alone How many seasons will it take Moscow to become and dominate force and a cup holder? 1 more season Pink or brown? Yes, how do you like your steak? Brown as night