Renomitsu

5-1 Reign

Americans Titans Express Wranglers

GG Oslo! Unfortunate that we got yet another OTL, but glad to see us being more competitive against top teams.

Maverick and Parechkin putting in WORK on offense. Looking forward to more match ups between these two powerhouses.

Wow. A brilliant performance from Chris, and a super-tight game overall. Some say we're still recovering from the OT/SO with Oslo!

You know I'm always up to write c:

Against Bern no less! Solid performances all around, and a 92.5% save ratio from Fekete. =]

Ha! I'll be doing plenty of writing about the VHLM for the mag and in media spots - maybe I'll get a few more reads once I analyze a bit more of the major league. It's rough to see my team struggle in the regular season, but we have some promise for the future. Give Voss & Fekete a little more time, and hopefully we'll see the fruits of our labor. Europe is absolutely dominating the stats in most cases, and the past couple of days' worth of games has shown that even more comprehensively.

Can I do VHLM Mag & Grader? :C I just like to read and write the things.

boubabi what do i need to do to earn your love

Glad to see you enjoyed the article! =] I'm hoping to highlight the league as a whole & give some insight into a specific team every week, if possible.

VHLM’s Growing Pains – Europe Surging, Brampton Struggling European Overlords Just as many pundits predicted, Europe is having a renaissance season in the VHLM – the Storm, Red Wolves, and Royals are all tied for points at 16 (although Bern has one fewer game played), while the Watchmen struggle to remain relevant, 9 points behind. In inter-conference games, Europe has simply dominated the competition, racking up a 19W-9L-2OTL. And yeah, a 63.3% winning rate is pretty – but it’s the way Europe, particularly Bern, has surgically torn apart some of the North American teams that really impresses me. North Americans do have some pretty good performances against the Europeans from time to time – take the Brampton 6, Bratislava 1 match or the Saskatoon 6, Bratislava 1 match from days 7 and 6, respectively – but it’s mostly the top two NA teams picking on the single rebuilding European team. What’s alarming for the Americans as a whole are complete and total blowouts like this Yukon 0, Bern 9 beauty of a shutout posted by the the Royals, with Zach Parechkin putting up a totally absurd seven goals in a single match; the Blades getting blanked by the Storm, 0-3; or even Saskatoon getting subjugated by Oslo, in which Wesley Babiy posted a hat trick. Now, it’s worth noting seven of Bern’s games are against the anemic Yukon Rush (44 of their 53 goals come from those seven games) – but they’ve also beaten the Red Wolves, had a very close loss gainst the Lynx, and lost to the Storm. Anecdotal evidence isn’t the best way to prove a point, so let’s take some seasonal data from the minors. At the moment, the minors have three teams that have posted one-hundred points or more from goals and assists: the Royals, Red Wolves, and Wild, with the Storm just underneath the threshold at 94. Saskatoon, ostensibly the most competitive team in North America with Brampton just behind, has put up an impressive performance thus far, even going 3-3 against Europe’s three clear contenders. They’ve been able to compete very closely with the Wolves and match the Storm blow-for-blow (2-2) in spite of their lopsided matchup noted earlier. Brampton, on the other hand, is narrowly eking out wins against the Watchmen, with a 4-3 overtime win and a 5-3 victory on Day 2. When it comes to the other three teams, however, Brampton’s 0-2-1, and they’ve even taken a 2-1 overtime loss to Bratislava. One simply needs to look at the rosters for most of these teams for a good indicator of their success this season: as covered in the two most recent VHLM Mags, the Europeans have superior player quality and quantity in most cases. Shots for and shots against are two metrics we can use to compare team competitiveness: Together, our three European powerhouses have a +492 shot differential, even with the Storm have played over half of their games against the America-dominating Wild. In goals for, three of the top four teams are European (with – you guessed it – the Royals, Red Wolves, and Storm in the top four). In spite of all of this scathing analysis, it’s necessary to provide some context as to why there’s such a disparity between the regions this season. The VHLM Pick Tracker shows that Ottawa, for example holds a huge number of draft picks: seven in the first two rounds of S46, and another three in the first two rounds of S47. Even Brampton, arguably a top-two team in North America, holds three firsts in this season’s Dispersal Draft, and Yukon owns three firsts in the S47 draft. The Red Wolves have thrown all of their bargaining chips into the ring this season, as they’ve only retained two draft picks… for the next two drafts. They’ve the depth and talent to make it deep this season, but the Red Wolves of near-future seasons will have to pay for it. In short, Europe is dominating – but we haven’t seen some matchups play out all the way. As more teams play the Wild, Bern plays a few more games (particularly against their European competitors), and the Red Wolves and Storm get their punches in against some less powerful teams, we’ll start to see more relevant standings. What’s up with the Blades? The next topic that deserves some attention is Brampton’s struggles to this point in the season. Under new GM Kel, the Blades had just a couple of picks in the first two rounds, selecting defender Saul Hackett (121 TPE) and S45 prospect Maxime Deschamps (107 TPE) in the draft. With bright young faces like Chris Fekete (G, 11 TPE) and Zach Voss (D, 50 TPE) joining the roster in the past couple of weeks, it’s likely the Blades will have a mid-season resurgence if they can weather their early struggles. The Blades just haven’t been performing statistically, however. As shown in the above graphic, they’re at a paltry +6 in shot differential this season – an alarming statistic for a team that may be competing for the North American title this season. With two solid defensemen bringing up their first line, they’re still in the bottom half of the league in Goals Against and last in Penalty Kill % at 2.73 GA and 71.88%, respectively. The only category they can claim the top half of the league in is PIM, at 8.00 minutes/game – and that’s not exactly something to write home about. The Goals Against will settle down as the season progresses, with Fekete gradually gaining steam as he puts some practice time in and becomes better acquainted with the league. But it’s concerning that Brampton’s top two draft picks aren’t producing as they should; some small part of it can be attributed to not having support on their team, but Brampton isn’t hurting for players. They have a few solid forwards (e.g. Lee Sang-Hyeok and Jefferson Jackson), as well as a handful of defenders (Ken Anderson and Voss), among others. The question is, even if Fekete becomes a force to be reckoned with in goal, will Brampton’s skaters (defenders and forwards alike) be able to capitalize on it?

Well, if there's any group they have a slight chance of getting out of, it's Group B. That's not to say it's a lightweight group - Fnatic's almost certainly going to place first - but iG can feel inconsistent at times (even though their highs are extremely high), and ahQ's from a weaker region. I hear ahQ has been scrimming against Chinese/Korean teams for the last split at the very least, though, so C9 definitely has their work cut out for them. If you just look at the other three groups, there are teams that have a very favorable matchup against C9 - KOO & (probably) CLG in Group A, EDG & SKT in Group C, and LGD & KT in Group D.

3-2 Brampton

Royals Storm Red Wolves

Saul Hackett – Scouting Report Name // Saul Hackett Position // Defenseman Age // 19 Height // 6'0 Weight // 200 lbs Handness // Right Hometown // Port McNeill, BC, Canada Notes Hackett was in the running for Defenceman of the Year in the CanadaWest conference for the last two years of his college career. He finished third and second in his second-to-last and last years, respectively. With Alberta, Hackett also won the Sportsmanship & Athletic Ability Award in his last season. Hackett averaged around a point per game playing for Alberta, and is a bit lackluster on the offensive side of the ice. When being scouted for Alberta, athletic personnel noted that he was “a very raw talent, who will need a lot of time to improve his game.” The scout also stated that he has “tremendous upside as a defenseman, but it’s not clear that he will achieve his full potential.” Strengths Passion – Saul’s defining characteristic has always been motivation – whether it’s a consequence of his past or an in-built love for the game, he’s driven and dedicated to hockey. He only started taking hockey seriously in his third year of high school, and as a result has much less experience with the game than other VHL and VHLM players. However, he’s one to practice until someone shuts the lights off on him: that’s just how devoted he is to mastering his craft. As a consequence, Hackett may seem a bit temperamental; he understands that others do not have the same endurance for drilling and practicing as much as he does, but he also doesn’t appreciate others getting in the way of his improvement. A lot of this feeds into his other strengths, as he’s willing to lay his body on the line for a particularly vicious hit, or put in the extra hustle to block a shot. Physicality – As far as actions are concerned, the most obvious of Saul’s strengths is his willingness to man up and stop an offensive. He’s not afraid to put the full force of his body into a hit, and he actually appreciates players that hit him in the same way. While Saul is not the largest defender (he hopes to put on weight as plays in the VHL), he has an excellent mix of technical checking and raw strength that allows him to take most players head-to-head. Adaptability – Built into Saul is an innate defensiveness. He much prefers to be reactive instead of proactive when defending against a player, resorting to a hit when he suspects his opponent may be able to out-maneuver him. When it comes to hockey, he’s a very quick learner, and the same trick probably won’t work on him twice. If the going gets tough, Saul will find a way to bring a particular matchup back under his control, utilizing his resilience and checking ability to maximum efficiency. Weaknesses On-Puck Control – If there’s anything that other sports won’t teach you, it’s how to use a hockey stick effectively. Puck control is something that Hackett has worked on extensively since playing in college and joining the VHL, but it’s still something that is acquired through time on top of careful, focused practice. He has an excellent ability to anticipate shots and passes, but when it comes to handling the puck himself, he’d much rather give it away to a teammate than be forced to deal with it. He’s a defensive defenseman in the simplest sense of the word: he has difficulty with the puck, and would much rather stay on his side of the ice than try something desperate on the other side. Scoring – An artifact from when he started playing hockey, Saul has never been an excellent scorer. He has used the talents of his opponents and teammates to vastly improve his defensive acumen, but he simply doesn’t have a nose for the goal or the technique to back it up. Instead, he allows his teammates that are more offensively-minded to set up and execute on the other side of the ice. Experience – Hackett has played serious hockey for six years, which is something unusual for a player with VHL aspirations. In effect, even though he’s accrued plenty of experience in college playing for a national championship winner, there are still actions that professional players take that he’s not familiar with. In-game, this manifests itself as initially losing a lot of matchups, even those he’s believed to win. He tends to adjust fairly quickly, but the tone of most games is set in the first period. Many pundits interpret Hackett’s strange lack of experience and strong adaptability as a “clutch” factor, when really it’s simply his flexibility gradually overcoming his inexperience. As time goes on, expect Hackett to make a lot of adjustments that allow him to even out early mismatches.

Having reviewed the eight teams in the VHLM, it's pretty clear that the European Conference outstrips the North American conference insofar as talent is concerned - a notion supported by the Dispersal Draft and retained Entry Draft players. While the Red Wolves and Royals are the obvious favorites for the title based on dispersal, the Oslo Storm have a fairly big talent advantage over the average VHLM team. Sandro Clegane, Wesley Babiy, and Giovanni Reuel are three players with 100+ TPE that have remained on the Storm roster, allowing them to compete (at least for the moment) with the much-hyped Red Wolves and Royals. It's worth discussing the North American talent in spite of the apparent overmatching: the Blades still possess solid overall talent with Deschamps, Lee, and Hackett, and the Wild could be competitive with the newly-acquired Carson Shmyr. The important part in all this, however, is that the European Conference has a TON of human players, and even if MC Hammer/Erik Hedman play out of their minds as inactives, they probably can't overcome the depth of the Red Wolves, Storm, and Royals. It feels like the European finals in the VHLM are going to be more interesting than the overall league finals - and it's not obvious as to who the top two European teams will be. Predictions?

Reign Meute Dynamo Vikings

Reunite the S44 Brampton Blades, but in the VHL this time.

4-2 Helsinki

Motivation - Saul Hackett “Oh, c’mon, Saul!” “What, I showed you I can do it, right?” “Yeah, but do you understand it?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “Saul, if you can’t teach it, you don’t understand it.” Every time he gathers up his equipment, Saul thinks back to one of the fondest memories he had of his older sister – one where he, the child he was, fought her wisdom. She was arrogant, or so he had once believed; who vested her with the authority to indisputably discern what he understood, after all? Her age – sixteen at the time – gave her barely any more life experience than he had at fourteen. Saul fought her influence tooth-and-nail, the rebellious teenager stereotype burning strong within him. And yet it took until her untimely death for him to realize how right she was. Identity Saul’s tale is invariably a two-person story. Henrik and Kaarin Hackett brought baby Saul into the world in Port McNeill, BC – a diminutive town of no more than three thousand. Just two years before, they gave birth to Adrienne, a beautiful girl with a spark of genius and a penchant for hockey that would make themselves apparent before she reached five years of age. Saul was obstinate, especially as a child – he learned how to use the word “no” in his infancy, and was defiant of his well-intentioned parents’ requests earlier than most – and passion was his governing quality. Saul did what you might expect from a normal child – wearing his parents down by running around the house, crying profusely when his own stubbornness led to the tiniest of scratches, staying away from girls because of their “cooties” – right down to the antagonistic relationship he had with his sister. As the younger brother of a brilliant young athlete, Saul always felt as though he was being compared to Adrienne; his grades in language arts could have been “almost as good” as hers, or his performance in math “needing work” to reach the level of his sister. At first, he worked relentlessly to eventually edge his older sibling out in something, anything, but he realized soon enough that it was of little use. She was more insightful, clever, agile, empathetic – to put it simply, she was better than him. As a result, he tried to do things that would differentiate himself from her; he picked up American football in a tiny regional league, opting to use his physicality and size in addition to his wits and instinct to prove his worth. This tided him over temporarily; in high school, however, he realized that his passion was gone. He played American football out of spite for his parents’ adoration for his sister; he performed passably in school so he wouldn’t be compared as frequently to his sister; he picked up hockey early on, but dropped it because he didn’t want another reason to be compared to his sister. In trying to branch out to an activity that would finally end all of the comparisons, he lost his defining trait, and therefore became the same as virtually everyone else. Perhaps he didn’t have a spark of genius; perhaps he didn’t have the talent for hockey intrinsic to his sister; but, at the same time, maybe he didn’t have to give up everything that made Saul himself. Growing Up Adrienne Hackett had made a name for herself in multiple ways: she maintained a 3.9 GPA, took a number of International Baccalaureate courses, and was a star forward on the high school hockey team, impressing with both her puck management and scoring abilities while averaging well over three points per game. She drew the attention of a number of professional hockey organizations, but intended to attend university, prioritizing her “education, and therefore her future” instead of wild dreams of playing professional hockey – this didn’t stop the press and scouts from investigating young Adrienne, however. At this time, Saul was trying to piece together exactly what motivated him. He performed passably as part of the basketball and hockey teams, but felt as though they were essentially guesses at what could intrinsically push him forward. His performance was a reflection of his personal investment – he averaged 10 points, 3 assists, and 8 rebounds on the basketball team, and leveraged his physical stature to become a passable defenseman on the hockey team. Academically, he made a rapid ascent in his first year of high school, taking after his sister instead of pushing her away. Spurred on partially by his lackluster performance in years six through eight and significantly by his sister’s concerns for her own future, he realized that even if he hadn’t found what fundamentally motivated him, he should at least set a solid foundation for whatever it is he would do. Saul came to respect his sister, in the same way so many others had. Improving (or really, establishing) a relationship with Adrienne had a rocky beginning, with Saul initially failing to understand her thought processes and feeling that what she did was excessive and unnecessary. Why should he have to be able to teach someone else in order to show that he himself understood a concept, after all? Certainly, being able to solve problems about simple Mendelian genetics was enough to get an A in one quarter of biology; it didn’t take a robust proof to show how alternate interior angles had the same measurement. Initially, his frustrations were outwardly apparent, and his sister simply dismissed them as “part of growing up” – a fact Saul now acknowledges as correct. He was passionate, occasionally hot-headed, direct, and reactive – she was calculated, organized, and precise. Saul began to see that his and his sister’s “styles” of learning weren’t irreconcilable: instead, they were complementary, working synergistically instead of antagonistically. And disaster struck. Understanding Adrienne was comfortable in her senior year, with full knowledge that she would be attending McGill University on a full scholarship, intending to play hockey as a walk-on instead of on an athletic scholarship. She passed away just weeks before her eighteenth birthday, the victim of a seemingly non-fatal car accident paired with an un-diagnosed nervous system condition. The community rallied around the Hacketts, providing their sincerest sympathies; but the fact of the matter was that Adrienne was dead, and nothing was bringing her back – not even a painstaking, hours-long, but ultimately fruitless emergency procedure to restore her consciousness. Saul was overcome with grief at the news of her death. More than a decade and a half into his life, he had finally matured and did not simply acknowledge, but appreciated the qualities differentiating him from his sister – and she would never know it. He loved her patience, her unwavering idealism in the face of his anger and frustration, even if this generosity was the cause of his annoyance in their formative years. Even though he previously despised her for her apparent perfection in sports and academics, he had taken her teachings to heart – and he felt as though he had developed psychologically more under her tutelage than with anyone else. He knew that depression was the last thing that she would want him to fall prey to following her death; and Saul recovered, becoming stronger instead of crumpling under the stress. Assuming the mantle of his sister, Saul pursued academics and performed on the hockey team with a seemingly eternal flame – but with his own flair. His methods were often brash, but resourceful; his play on the ice physical, but adaptive and more refined. When he graduated, he committed to the University of Alberta and attended on a full athletic scholarship, earning a spot as top-four defenseman as soon as he stepped on the campus rink. In time, he would earn a CIS National Championship with the Golden Bears, and frequently made sports news with both technically-sound and exceptionally physical hits on opposing forwards. The young defenseman’s tenacity and passion were palpable – but more importantly, he served as a mentor and leader to the university’s younger defenders in his third year of college. Saul’s devotion knew no bounds – he knew he had to carry the burdens of his sister in addition to his own, and as a result, had groomed the following generation of Golden Bears for future success. After that year, however, he finished his degree – an honors degree in biological education – and declared for the VHLM. A rare, but recent press conference asked of Hackett: “What motivates you?” He responded as follows: “Whenever I go home, I ask myself: ‘Have I done everything I can? Did I leave everything I had out on the ice?’ I struggled for the longest time to find something – anything – that would motivate me. People would tell me, ‘if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,’ and so I fought desperately to find what that was – but I never could. I buy into the idea that if you love what you do, you work all day, every day, harder than anyone ever has, because nothing can take that motivation, that drive, away from you. You can never expect doing what you love to be convenient or simple – hell, you might hate yourself at times – because you want to be the best, and even being good is never simple. When it comes to what you love, just being ‘good enough’ will never be ‘good enough.’ If you ever want to be worth a damn – to your family, to your friends, to those looking up to you – you have to be able to look in the mirror and be proud of who’s staring back.”

Blades Red Wolves Lynx

4-1

Huh. Looks like my player only has the updated defense, which is what I had when I only had 30 TPE...