Kendrick

Meaning Behind the Username (Part 2) The Victory Hockey League is full of personalities that have graced our history from day one. Last week we found out a large portion of information regarding some of the personalities currently gracing us with their presence around the board. The username is somewhat of a sacred selection process for some because it can define the members history by a single mention. Some honourable men pick a name and become that name for their entire VHL existence. Some men choose to switch their names so often you'd think it was a stock on the New York stock exchange. We dove into the meaning behind some of the leagues usernames last week and figured we would do the same this week. Sit back and enjoy some of what can be considered VHL history. YEAH!! is what most people know him by (he will describe why that can be different later). To anyone who knows this member even the slightest; you will have noticed or heard he is from the continent of Europe. Some of us also know he is a diehard St. Louis Rams fan (unfortunately for him). He is known for his quirky commentary and laid back approach to all things. Not afraid to dive into multiple simulation leagues, he is often found in the penalty box over here. YEAH!! will be the first to tell you he isn't the best hockey knowledge expert, but he does like the sport. Let's let him explain how he got his odd username: "I was in a football league called MFA (it was ran by Advantage and Duckberg) originally under the username lynchtheram (which is my last name and the NFL team I support). My player in that league was called Ron Dayne III and he was a fullback, a position which is notable for barely getting any carries (usually max. 2 a game), so to liven up my experience during the live PBPs, I'd post "YEAH!" every time I was given a carry, regardless of if it was good or not (Jericho was very into it, regularly mentioning it on his podcast). One day, two moderators went on somewhat of a username renaming rampage on anyone that was logged on at the time. The vast majority of the changes were "I <3" and then something linked to their player, however my username was simply changed to "YEAH!" and the name stuck. They asked me if I wanted it changing back as well, but I was really happy with the change. The change to XaviYEAH! Woods is a recent one. There's an entertaining wrestling tag team in the WWE called "The New Day", and my favourite member is Xavier Woods, a guy who spends a lot of time outside the ring playing the trombone, even playing video game songs like the Final Fantasy victory theme and Mortal Kombat. So I integrated that into my username. I don't see it being a permanent thing, how long it is before I go back to just "YEAH!" will likely depend on how long that Woods can keep being entertaining." - YEAH!! It appears he not only has a history with usernames but also is a big fan of long responses. Maybe YEAH!! has been hanging around Devise22 recently and caught the paragraph flu. YEAH!! has been pretty exciting to watch in recent years, which is good because his first players were somewhat forgettable. Ron Dayne III and Rohan Davey both ended their careers with a combined total of 0 TPE so they really aren't the best player son his resume. However, recently we've seen Edwin Encarnacion and his current player Edwin Reencarnacion thrive in the VHL and picking up a large amount of goalie sacks. Beketov is a name that recent VHL members will recognize, but it's not what got this member noticed. Most of us old grey VHL veterans remember this member as simply "Sharpe" or "Pombo22". Beketov was the first ever player drafted into the VHL, ever. I kid you not this member has been here from the very start and we can't write this piece without mentioning the doping suspension he was given in that first season. Some called it unfair (Myself included) but he missed an entire period of time from not being able to update. That may turn some people off from this site we call home, but not Sharpe. How did he get his name though? He'll tell us: "When I started in the VHL my username as Pombo22, a name that I had used for years in different ways. With that though, everyone still referred to me as Sharpe; going with my name and my player name. On account of this I changed my username to Sharpe so that it would be less confusing to new members. When I retired Robert Sharpe and created Alexander Beketov I changed my username to Beketov to match. The plan was to change my username every time to match my player name. However, because of how well my career went with Beketov I decided not to change my name again. The actual name Beketov didn't just come out of no where of course. I've always swapped back and forth between North American and European players, this of course started with Beketov who I intended on being a Russian; mostly so that I could use Ovechkin as a base for my sigs without it being weird. His first name (Alexander) came around easily enough because I've always liked the name (which is how I accidentally used it twice in a row) and it has Russian origins. However when I went to select his last name I was drawing a blank. I wanted something easy to pronounce but still Russian in origin. I did some googling around and found Beketov struck out at me as fitting both those criteria; thus the name was born. Two Hall of Fame articles and an award later it has stuck pretty good so changing it now seems out of the question." - Beketov With a long history of being in this league it would be expected that he has a large collection of players. He listed some above but that isn't even the half of it. Alex Young, Jason White and Niklas Kristensen could be considered his lesser known players but he does have some better ones. Recently Evgeni Chekhov kicked the can and retired and after him came his current player Jackson Miller. Alexander Beketov was stated as one of his better players and an award winning legend. Last but not least is Robert Sharpe who was his first player and the first player ever suspended and drafted in the VHL. Green is a relative newcomer to the this list and the one before it. That's saying something because he has been with us for almost 15 seasons now. As I recall though Green is no stranger to simulation leagues so it comes with no surprise that the two players he has created are both pretty damn good. The man from Netherlands is a devoted father and husband and will discuss the devils poisons whenever you want (ex. Whiskey). I know his real name isn't Green though, which begs the question; "How did he get that username?": "About 14 years ago when internet was still quite new for me, I needed an online nickname. Seeing a Dutch band I was friends with was called Green Lizard and that I actually had dyed my hair green, I figured gr33nlizard would be my online name, I later shortened it to gr33n and decided to change it to Green afterwards. It's mostly a reference to my hair color, but it always stuck around." - Green A short history to go on about but Green has created two first round players who have done great things. The VHL world was impressed when Remy Lebeau came through it's halls and put up some numbers that make forwards lose sleep. After that he created Thomas O'Malley who is currently enjoying his second to last season in the Victory Hockey League. All in all it's safe to assume Green will work hard and strive for massive career numbers. What do you say about a guy that has won it all multiple times and collected so many awards on the way? Nothing because he is a jerk. I will be told I am going to get banned for that comment as well; we all know it's coming. Sterling has a long history in this league and has achieved a lot of feats that other members can only dream of. I for a fact know his name isn't Sterling or anywhere close to that so I have to wonder where it came from. Sterling, give us a rundown: "I was first invited to the league in the summer of 2007, but I didn't get the link until I had come back from my annual summer camping trip. Slobo brought me here as we'd been members in a few different sim leagues and the WHLFans site. I noted he was using the name of a player from the Prince Albert Mintos of the Midget AAA League here in Saskatchewan so I decided to pick the guy with a cool name - it happened to be Sterling Labatte. Hopefully the real Sterling doesn't come here and feel creeped out. Either way, I've used the name since as it was easier and there was already a 'Jeff' here otherwise that would have been my original name." - Sterling Sterling mentioned one of his players above in Sterling Labatte, who originally set the bar for defensemen in this league and could be considered the Bobby Orr of the VHL. He is currently issuing Jeff Hamilton into the Seattle Bears lockerroom and just saw Tom Slaughter call it a career a short time ago. Grimm Jonsson was a great leader in the VHL, so much so that they named an award after him. Alexander Labatte was a solid goaltender who was a dominate force for years on multiple teams. James Bencharski might be one of the lesser known Sterling players, but he had a pretty large stake in the history of many teams including the now defunct Vasteras Iron Eagles. STZ is an interesting man. He has held many job titles in the Victory Hockey League and has one of the best first-generation talents this league has seen. Also a devoted father and underrated graphic artist in his own right, he has somewhat of an interesting name. Is it three letters put together from something else or is it said differently. He explains below: "For the past 15 years I've been posting on a number of different forums with the username Steezzy. I got it from a game I was playing way back when Xbox first came out called Amped. There was a secret character names Steezy and he was a penguin.. yup. After about 10 years of Steezzy I switched to STZ because at the time I think there was a bunch of people who were abbreviating their names, and mine just kinda stuck.. Then when I joined VHL, just decided to keep." - STZ Like Green above, STZ has only been in this league to see two players of his go through the progression of a VHL player. At first we all bared witness to Ethan Osborne who was an absolute beast on the ice. Then we got to witness Jake Wylde's career start out and in due time, retire. It has been a short journey but one we hope continues on beyond this Wylde experience for STZ.

Rigged like an oil field. GG Tits

Close one men. GG Toronto

Well done again mates! GG Reigners!

Good win gentleman!

Wagner is hot tonight! The kid is hot tonight!

With Phil around and how quiet Hurley has been, I don't see it happening. But I do agree he has been loyal to Calgary

4-2 NYA

I doubt it. He is pretty calm until someone says something stupid. Plus, Burrows has a history of going out of his way to cross the line with what he says. There are some things you just don't say. It's funny though, you have a hard time thinking he'd say something because of the Bourdon/Rypien stuff but you think he might say something about the whole addiction thing. Since when did those two things become so independent from each other? I'd argue that alcohol addiction leading to suicide is just about the same level as Rypien committing suicide over mental illness. Whatever was said, I don't think Burrows is an angel here.

Gotta love it! Good win guys

Haha I have a hard time fathoming what you just said. Burrows is scum, regardless of the past with Rypien and Bourdon. He is one of the dumbest guys I've seen in the league. I can't stand Tootoo, even more because he is on the team I support, but I would not put it past Burrows to say something across the line.

Good start gentleman versus a tough team!

But Kyrie Knight was a HOFer!

Maybe Chris is mad about being ripped off! God Chris how could you do this

Glad you are happy Banock!

You'll love NYA, Chris is a good GM. Glad you are happy.

This means we've been updated, yes? No I'm doing that atm I just mean accurate as in transactions for line making purposes Oh that unimportant stuff, I see haha

This means we've been updated, yes?

The mismanagement of the assets is the punishment though. Let's say a GM for a team goes inactive right? That has happened before. He misses out on trade opportunities that season, he isn't drafting or scouting/talking to potential prospects. He isn't promoting growth within his team, likely creating a situation where many players want out. We finally find someone new to take over the mess, and that person has to deal with more punishment on top of the mess they are taking over? This doesn't directly apply to the Cologne situation since I wasn't inactive, just not committed to doing GM work this past season. It helped that I did all my trading last off season as well. But in general, more punishment to teams already with issues doesn't really seem fair to me. To me the purpose of the GM rule is a fair straight across the board balance for every single team. They get a free player. Period. That is what I always thought the point of it was. It mean that any GM taking over for a team provided they had a new up and coming player who had yet to be drafted would be allowed at least that, regardless of other assets. One player to begin to build a franchise around. The fact that teams who benefit from better management than a team reeling from mismanagement issues gets all those extra opportunities and then we go ahead and punish the team already in a worse situation by forcing them to pay for a player the other teams would get for free doesn't make sense to me. How does that encourage new GM's to want to take over for franchises in turmoil? How does the at any way help boost the turmoil team out of turmoil, so we have as many teams that are good places for new members to land as possible? So what's stopping greg from becoming disinterested next off-season when he has acquired a 2nd round pick for you and gives the GM job to someone who isn't drafted yet. Cologne then got two free players and two free draft picks after Greg's player is traded. See where this goes?

So Ryan what you are saying is that a team with GM issues (not turmoil, that word doesn't really apply) shouldn't be punished, but we should let good GM's sit there and not get rewarded at all? This is their reward for being good GM's without issues, they get to watch another team who mis manages assets and has their GM step down because of lack of time have to give up a pick. Plus it's a 2nd round pick, not sure why there is such issues with it. You overthink it.

Sometimes the league decides that someone from Toronto should takeover Seattle and that someone from Seattle should takeover Toronto instead though. I meant to add. Promoting within doesn't exactly always work, I get that part. However, there does have to be compensation headed to either the other team or the draft class (in the draft class' case it is a forfeited pick).

Ryan, thats why promoting internally is highly recommended. If you can't do that then you have to go elsewhere. No greg player has no rights, you're correct there. Which makes it all the more evident that the team escapes issues by getting a free player and a potential draft pick. Regardless they cancel each other out. The precedent has been made as was said earlier and I don't see why there is a disagreement on your end. You're arguing with me, who saw the full out hammer of this rule 10+ seasons ago. So obviously I'm going to assume things stayed the same in this manner. GM players aren't being taken away from the draft haha, they were never really in it technically. No one would scout a GM player because they know his rights automatically go to that team. However, people may have looked at gregreg hyping his player before this and looking to draft him regardless of how close it was. I just don't see your stance here.