Renomitsu

Malmo, Sweden – It’s happening again: Condor Adrienne is having a top defender-worthy season, and it’s not really even close. A quick look at the league statistics shows that, even though Malmo is one of the lower-end teams in the league, Condor continues to be a top point-getter (the best one in the league, in fact). He’s on pace for >250 hits – good for ninth in the league, and one of very few defensemen to sit in the top twenty in that regard – and is #2 for goals and #1 for assists, giving him an absurd nine point lead over all forwards, including HHH and Julius Freeman. Throw on top of that 82 shot blocks and a positive plus-minus on a team with a -21 goal differential, and we’ve got ourselves a meaningful defensive candidate for Most Outstanding Player if he continues this pace. It’s been a few seasons since the league last had a 100-point scorer (Adrienne’s on pace for ~120) and suffered its first season without a 90 point scorer ever (the next lowest league leader was S69’s Borwinn, who had 93). It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Adrienne so electric, but it may have something to do with his surrounding cast: his most talented teammate has just 536 TPA at this stage. As one of just two players over 90 scoring (second highest being Lewis Dawson at 93), there isn’t a great reason for why Malmo’s offense as a whole should be prolific… and it isn’t (91 GF). Truly, Adrienne is defying all logic as he continues his easy march to a top defenseman/MOP berth.

1. There have been a ton of trades recently, including ones involving Jet Jaguar, Julius Freeman, and Mat Tocco. What's your impression of how things ended up? 2. Are Moscow and Vancouver calling it quits on this season with their trades? 3. Everyone figured New York would be in the North American Conference's driver's seat. Why are they struggling for top 8 right now? 4. By goals scored, we're the #4 offense in the league. What woke us up? 5. How do you normally keep in shape during the off-season? 6. Why do you think VHL careers only last 8 seasons? Does it age you faster than normal life does? 7. First we had hedgehogs, then Eagles, then SasakaMOOSE, and now we have a penguin on the VHL ice too. What animal is next?

In Baltimore, I participated in peaceful protests and cleanup of the neighborhood my mother grew up in because it was also my community. I was born into privilege - into a house of learned doctors - who loved their communities where they spent their childhoods and completed medical residency in spite of all of the hateful things that were said about it. That was after sitting idly by after dozens of other wrongful African American deaths at the hands of law enforcement, because I thought I could use the excuses of being a 'model minority' and 'I'm too young to understand what's going on here.' In D.C., I taught 4th grade students in the southeast district for a full year specifically because they were like the community I knew back home in Baltimore. These were kids that were as bright-eyed, enthusiastic, and wonderfully intelligent, but weighed down by factors beyond their control - parents both wrongfully and rightfully incarcerated, neglect, neighborhood gang violence, deaths of friends, and barriers to basic needs like transportation and housing. They were weighed down by a community where they feared being stopped by cops at nine years old. They were weighed down by a socioeconomic environment 100% dependent on free or reduced lunches at school, which was often their only reliable source of food. Five years later, I still visit my fourth graders - now rising high school sophomores - because they helped me understand what my calling was in life. These children - denied a chance to grow up in favor of a demand to, denied opportunity, denied peaceful nights of sleep - welcomed me into their home without so much as a second thought, even though I didn't look like any of them. In Richmond, I have stood and protested. My neighbor's house was set on fire by those seeking to take advantage of the chaos. I cheered when the mayor said the statues of the Confederacy would be taken down. I panicked as I helped triage a handful of innocent, peaceful protesters of all skin colors, socioeconomic statuses, and political leanings in the field and in the emergency room because of injuries they sustained while fighting for what should be basic equality for all. I shuddered at night hearing gunshots around my neighborhood selfishly wondering if I was safe before those defying a curfew order that was violated three nights ago. I'm not responsible for much of, if any of the good that comes out of these protests. But if there is any time to put our foot down and make our presence known as a community, it is now. Let's be on the right side of history - fighting for rights of those marginalized by a system that would see them put down without so much as a second thought.

Piggybacking off of @GustavMattias's post from yesterday – the current standings just don’t make a whole lot of sense. Certainly the first ten games of each season might as well be taken from a random number generator, as we’ve seen far more unusual standings with small sample sizes. But D.C., even if they made their lines backwards, should they really be sitting at 9-13 with a -15 GD? Naturally, some of this is a consequence of many teams playing their backup goalie for the first several games of the season (just to get it over with). But D.C. has only played their backup in three or four games thus far, and Stone Wolski has recorded a 9-9 record with two shutouts. When scooting over to Moscow – who offloaded both Smitty and Gritty this past off-season – we see that they’re dead last in the league, partially because they’ve only played 21 games, but probably also partially because they’ve been really, really unlucky. They have the fewest wins in the league in spite of an even goal differential, in stark contrast to D.C.’s -15 and Malmo’s -14. In short, yes, the standings this season are crazy and make no sense. But are we really at a point where a team with a roster like Riga’s, D.C.’s, or Moscow’s may fight for the bottom spot in the league?

1. Who's the most underrated player in the league right now? Jerry Garcia. Underperformed as a defenseman, and now he's absolutely pucking out (??) with his swap to left wing. 2. Who's the most overrated in the league right now? Apollo Hackett. Dude's a hack, just like his name says. 3. Do you think Riga needs a big shakeup? I'm not entirely sure how Riga could afford a big shakeup. It's definitely a buyer's market because of how saturated rosters are; I think teams are trying to sell players but do so fruitlessly because GMs of teams that need players can either (1) afford to hold off from deals that are 'balanced' because of their team state (i.e. not competing) or (2) just wait for a better offer from a more desperate GM. 4. What do you attribute the recent offensive slump to? Wish I could tell you. Our offense has developed a lot from last season and just aren't scoring goals. 5. If you weren't a VHL player what a normal job would you work? Probably go back to college and become an engineer. They make solid money, I've continued to have an interest in chemical engineering, and they don't have any compulsory post-grad schooling to do if you don't want to. 6. What's your player going to do when they're retired? I'll find a nice beach town somewhere and probably want to settle down to start a family. Been focusing too much on work recently.

EFL +6

@McWolf We're done out here

F - Patrik Tallinder @Beaviss

Review Nice work, as per usual! I don't have a lot to say here aside from possible stylistic changes. Some of your phrases are often used with hyphens, e.g. "back to back" -> "back-to-back" (unless we're talking about the Drake song). Otherwise, I felt the article was well-paced and could realistically only do with a bit of re-formatting. The players' names are relatively easy to see, but more clearly demarcating the sections with bold, increased text size, or even centering may help the reader 'reset' a little. One other possibility for change comes in your last paragraph, namely "being acquired last season, his stats..." - some might consider it awkward phrasing. You can get rid of 'being' and just write "Acquired last season, Eagles's stats..." Alternatively, you could write "After being acquired last..." or "Traded to Riga last season...".

Review Overall, I really enjoyed this Moscow outlook - it's not often that players outside of GMs will analyze their team's future, especially when talking about anything beyond this season. The article's formatting is reasonable - but I might suggest trialing adding an extra line between your sections next time just to see if it adds anything. In terms of actual writing - make sure you're including periods at the end of sections; the second sentence in your first paragraph doesn't have a period, and I don't think this was repeated elsewhere. Furthermore, as best you can, try limiting repetition: you started the Goalers section with Raymond Bernard/Bernard/Bernard as your first words, though like the period criticism it only happened in one section. Overall, I only have small nitpicks. Fantastic work!

D - Cinnamon Block @Corco

At least one player from the Season 65 class is destined for the hall – namely one Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, whose S68-70 trophy cabinet is more decorated than the entire careers of most first forward lines + defensive pairs combined on individual teams. Any defenseman that can take home the Slobodzian Trophy in this environment – where high-quality defensemen are a dime a dozen – is a shoo-in. But the rest of his class – including even Brady Stropko Jr. – has been surpassed in TPE and accolades by many of the top S66 & S67 players. STHS is notoriously fickle, and even 1,300 TPE players like Stropko Jr. have suffered from “decent but not great” careers in spite of their obvious high earning capacity. Indeed, like strangely many defensemen thus far, Stropko peaked with a low-60s point peak season, while Smitty’s enjoyed the fruits of multiple 80+ point seasons. And Calgary hasn’t experienced the same level of team success as Seattle, Moscow, or Vancouver. Further down the list, players like Roll Fizzlebeef (1,037 TPE) suffer from similar point numbers in spite of playing at forward and are similarly devoid of individual accolades. Those with any accolades after Smitty – like D/RW Denver Wolfe and Anthony Matthews – earned almost all their accolades in the M, sometimes multiple seasons in. Since those don’t factor heavily into the Hall conversation, even Wolfe’s S67 Continental Cup with Vancouver won’t be enough to elevate him. Gritty has no individual accolades, but as a 1,004 TPE player, he was part of Vancouver’s S67 and Moscow’s S70 championship squads. But we’ve seen time and time again that a pair of championships aren’t enough to even broach the conversation for the Hall, even with better overall scoring and defensive statistics. In short, there’s one shoo-in candidate… and that’s probably where S65’s HoF aspirations end.

Losing the legs under us?! I've been 1,000 TPA for three seasons now, as if I'd slow down now.

EFL +6

1. We're about a half dozen games in. What's your impression of the season so far? 2. Some players made a position switch over the off-season. How successful will Jerry Garcia be now that he's a LW for Davos? 3. What chronically under performing player will finally have their time to shine this season? 4. Suppose you were the GM of a brand-new expansion franchise, like Miami in the VHLM this season. What would you call it, and where would it be situated? 5. What kinds of special talents does a teammate of yours have off the ice? 6. Why does STHS always spit out really weird results at the start of each season? 7. If the league had jersey/equipment sponsors, which product/company would you want your player to be sponsored by most? 8. I think I've figured it out! Hedge has found a way to clone himself, and he has his clones alternate doing his work while they are at home while he sleeps in his office! What do you think of that?

D - Apollo Hackett @Beavissx2

G - A Red Guy @Corco

F - Keven Foreskin @Beaviss Two picks for you!

F - Scott Greene @Corco!

@Beaviss F - Hunter Hearst Helmsley F - Mat Tocco F - Owen Nolan D - Hulk Hogan D - Jeff Downey G - Rayz Funk @Renomitsu - Group Manager F - Scott Greene F - Keven Foreskin F - Patrik Tallinder D - Apollo Hackett D - Cinnamon Block G - A Red Guy @Corco F - Boris the Forest F - Benny Graves F - Chad Magnum D - Erik Summers D - Roque Davis G - Greg Eagles @animal74 F - Ambrose Stark F - Jerry Garcia F - Hiroshi Okada D - Lincoln Tate D - Lance Flowers G - Solomon Crawford @enigmatic F - Jet Jaguar F - ACL TEAR F - Soren Jensen D - Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen D - Condor Adrienne G - Michael Johnson @Zyrok F - Julius Freeman F - Mikko Aaltonen F - Tyler Barabash D - Micheal Gary Scott D - Victor Pavlov G - Jacques Lafontaine

That’s right. I said it, @GustavMattias is changing and making some irrevocable, horrible mistakes. I’m not even talking about Davos as a franchise (seriously, dude had like 50 first round picks) or any of their recent player transactions. I’m talking about THIS ABOMINATION: It’s with a heavy heart that I must report Gus has begun to stray from the very roots that made him who he is today. On joining the site, Gus was one of the members I trusted most to remain on the defensive side of the puck and write long media articles. But as I’m sure you’ve seen over the last few months, he’s become a different person. It’s as if becoming Davos GM and appointing himself Grand Poobah has wriggled its way into his head, damning him from heights of long media spots and making him… eugh… offense-first. Gone are his days of shot blocking and walking around unassumingly in public. Instead, he’s decided to feature in goal scoring and… dare I say it? Graphics making! GRAPHICS instead of writing painstaking media articles that take longer to research than write. I don’t think he’s even REEEEEE’d at the word defense in the last several months. Let this be a warning to those of you who suspect a management role is in the cards: it immerses you in the most hellish, challenging landscape imaginable, and warps your mind in a way few believe to be imaginable. This isn’t Jerry Garcia, the sterling pure-defensive ace of Malmo that we’ve come to know and love since he entered the VHLM in Season 65. No, I hardly recognize this man any more. [/sh*tpost]

blocked

1. The S72 VHL Draft brought us DeFenz Mann, Jay Jones, Bobby Wyman, and Joe Jacks. Any words for them (or for your other draftees)? 2. Davos has made some pretty significant moves through the offseason, with a half dozen early draft picks and picking up Jerry Garcia & Acyd Burn. Do they make the playoffs this season? 3. Okay, early predictions - who takes the NA Conference title? 4. Who do you think the breakout player of S73 will be? 5. The offseason and draft often bring up memories of minor league teams. What's your fondest memory from when you were back in the M? 6. Why do you think the VHL was able to play through an entire season despite the pandemic? 7. I'm pretty sure the Riga board of trustees is a literal zoo. Which animals did Hedge choose to trust with Riga Reign decision making?

EFL +6

me interest