Renomitsu

Review - At the time this was written, I don't think I would have agreed with your first rank. But a win streak is telling, and the Wild's performance against the Reapers wasn't as stellar as most thought it would be. I loved the thought you put into justifying your picks, and the fact that I wanted to disagree but you've convinced me otherwise is always a good sign for a media spot.

Review - Aw, the crew gets together (in a media spot) one last time. I'm glad to see Basaraba get some recognition, as non-flashy defensemen rarely do. I also think it's important to take note of active-but-not-TPE-monster players as you've done here! Well-written, and avoids the no-no of translating attributes straight to words, which I always appreciate.

Review - I always think that a good evaluative piece gets people to disagree with you and ask why. Since flyersfan did exactly that and both points are valid, I think that means a job well done. Tracking this many roster moves/retainees is no easy task, and I can appreciate the effort you put into this piece. Like flyersfan is saying, I do wonder if player mobility will increase with more intense contract negotiations; we've already seen teams force fire sales of their veterans because of cap problems, which you see in most professional leagues nowadays, but we have to carefully balance that with players' desire to feel wanted.

Review - I'm deeply offended that you made a draft that was better than mine, AND you predicted my draft spot exactly. What the heck, NostraMattias? I would have liked to see a little reflection on what your thoughts were on some surprising picks (e.g. FrostBeard at #12) and what might have gone into those. But I deeply appreciate the work and effort put into the mock.

Review - I mean, I'm in this one so 10/10. Just kidding. A couple of click/drag issues (ksAleander Rodriguez) made by mistake, but otherwise well-written and draws on plenty of facts to make things interesting. I did want to see you use your future-telling powers and let us know who you're drafting this upcoming season, but I guess that'll just have to wait.

Review - Wonderfully interesting look at past rookies; you can really see the seasons where Riga went for the jugular, and obvious rebuilding seasons. The sheer number of roster moves for vets and draftees alike - both for picks and for adjusting for the cap - leaves few self-drafted players remaining and really makes you think about how free agency will be with limited cap space. Nice write-up.

LW - Leph Twinger @wcats x2!

To think Matt Thompson also almost signed with Malmo... holy moly.

Dear Calgary, Vancouver, Helsinki, and Davos, Please figure out which of you is better so I don't have to guess the power rankings, Thanks, very confused scrub

Is this the part where we say Malmo's going to take the cup to try and jinx them?

LPLL hitting the boxscore so hard it pushes his stats two cells over

Glade with 9 hits ?

help my GM bullies rookies ?

whoa whoa 17 PIMs, you can't be trying to take my penalty trophy like this ;-;

RIG D1 and D3 earning their paychecks ? Looks like a problem across the league though. There are at least a few minutes of bot players per game even on the deeper teams for some weird reason

Frighteningly close # of shots, but I'm glad we came away with the win

Be that as it may, I'm more worried about this hard-ass serial killer/stalker ref we've got in Latvia, plz send help @K1NG LINUS

I agree that writing a play-by-play is not worthwhile, and I apologize, as my post in the lottery thread was not intended to be taken as such. As with the SBA (but to a lesser extent), the VHL simply sims too many games per day to ask for presentations, and the sim output doesn't give a whole lot to work with in that respect. I do think there needs to be a reason to increase participation in game-day threads, but doing so through sim PBPs probably isn't a viable solution. Even if we were to work with a different sport, I'm not sure the VHL is the right type of league for an intensive PBP posting right now - this is my primary league because I don't want to spend more than a couple of hours a week getting my TPE (even if I'm glad to chat on Discord). But with plenty of new members, I think a few shiny new bells and whistles could improve retention; expansion is one of those bells/whistles but I'd like to think we've done enough of that for a little while.

Riga, Latvia - Apollo Hackett, through six games, is in a three-way tie for first in penalty minutes with 28 through just 8 games. When asked about this, he spoke about the officiating: "Y'know, it's kind of weird. I don't have anything against the stripes, of course, but they keep using this one specific ref. I chirp a lot less than most of the guys in the league, really. But this ref does this weird thing where he'll just skate about two feet in front of me, facing me and doing that 'I see you' gesture over and over again." When asked to elaborate, Hackett just shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, but I've never had the same official for so many games in a row. He gave me a boarding penalty for looking at him the wrong way, but I was just trying to keep track of the wingers we were playing against," he said, "I think he just wants me to keep eye contact with him for 20 straight minutes while I'm on the ice. It's a little unsettling, but you have to play with the officiating." When the tape of each of Riga's games were reviewed by our staff, the disturbing details were revealed. The referee, who will go unnamed here, did indeed spend a large portion Riga's games staring at Hackett while skating close to and gesturing repeatedly at him. However, more disturbing is that the ref frequently stared at the correct active broadcast camera when not looking at Hackett, terrifying several members of our research team. God help us all.

bahahah the EFL NCAA thing was a one-off out of sheer luck. I don't think my school will be accidentally scheduling me for a 100-hour week again any time soon unless they like making me sad.

New set of questions! 1) We're one week into the season, and Riga is 6-1-1, good for #1 in the league. What about the standings has surprised you so far? 2) Anthony Matthews, Gucci Garrop, and Randoms are averaging about 1 point/20 minutes. How does that work? 3) Is a 3-line-deep roster the way of the future? 4) Apollo Hackett's spent 28 minutes in the penalty box, tied for first in the league. What's wrong with him? 5) Which team is the biggest threat to Riga this season? 6) What's the weirdest thing you've seen a new teammate do since the draft? 7) You've got your choice of who to fight in the league, right here, right now. Who do you pick and why? ? Malmo defenseman Jerry Garcia @GustavMattias has been leaving pints of ice cream in coolers in the team locker room. Is this a come-on or an attempt at intimidation, and has it been successful? 9) HHH vs. Hulk Hogan. Who 'wins,' and what crazy KOs happen during the match? 10) @hedgehog337 is a reclusive rich Latvian man. What spooky place does he live in?

I play the system the way it's meant to be played and I HATE it. Like you're saying, it increases activity in a mindless posting capacity. Currently, if I don't do it the TPE gap between me and top players will just continue to increase and it doesn't feel good that that's the case. But because results are posted immediately and there's no pbp presentation, people aren't as inclined to participate like in the EFL. SBA also does sim attendance but has so many games every couple of days it's not realistic to do PBP. Personally, while I've stood to benefit from the lottery at this point more than most, I'd actually prefer it be done away with entirely over being continued as we search for a solution.

JB Rift in the net high af This reminds me of last season's playoff with Kriketers

I looked at the shot totals and just assumed you'd both been turned into swiss cheese personally Glad to see things turned out okay!

Mars might've been quiet this game, but I'm still glad to see Jurri step it up instead and rep the rookie class