Matt_O

1. We have to write about great VHL playoff performers/performances. 2. Nighthawks, it just is really sick and I'm also a little biased since I played for them. 3. Either Ottawa or Philadelphia, they both are very clean. 4. Aeschylus Jigglejawns CXXXVIII 5. For NA, I would go with New Orleans, and for EU we want Vasteras back. But since that will probably never happen, a team in Rome would be nice. 6. I don't really think there is much of a problem with the offseason, but maybe we can have a small offseason lottery for TPE based on activity, get more people engaged.

Many of you, including veteran members, probably don't know the name Phil Schenn. I was doing a very research heavy media that will come out next week, and I came across him in the all time stats sheet. I noticed him because of his strange career length. As we all know, the maximum career length is eight seasons. Somehow, someway, Phil Schenn managed to play nine seasons, playing from S29 to S38. During this time period, he only managed to suit up for 325 games, picked up a mere 42 points, and had an ungodly bad plus minus of -149. He was a journeyman throughout the league, blessing many franchises with his talents, or lack thereof. In S29, Schenn was a rookie for the Reign. He only played 16 games, and had 9 points. Not bad for a rookie. He played for Riga again in S30, with a full 72 game season and a whopping 0 points. However, he was marked as a rookie again. This is because he likely didn't reach a rookie minimum games played or something, so it doesn't count as his rookie year. However, that year still counts against you for your career length, unless the rules were different back then or I just don't fully understand the actual rules. He played with Vasteras in S31, and had another 0 point season, this time in only 21 games played. Then was moved to the Meute in S32, where he had 7 points in a full 72 game season. In S33, he was no where to be found in the league. Same story in S34, but in S35 he made his long awaited comeback to the Reign. He had a career year, finishing second on the Reign in scoring with a whopping... 21 points. In S36, his history is lost because the index didn't load for me. In S37, he found his way to Helsinki. He played another 72 game season, had 10 points, and finished with an all time bad -96 plus minus. Then, in his ninth official VHL season, he finished his career on a high note, with an incredible 0 points in another 72 game full season. Phil Schenn had three seasons with 0 points, two of which were full 72 game seasons. He wasn't in the VHL for two seasons and was routinely either sent down or cut. He had two rookie seasons. He played nine seasons. His points per game mark of 0.13 is the worst ever for players with 300+ games played. He was so bad, in his final VHL season, he played nine minutes. Not nine minutes per game, nine minutes the whole season. S30, the other season he had 0 points, he played 33 minutes the whole year. Perhaps it's not fair to make of Schenn. If you played a combined 42 minutes over two full seasons, you probably wouldn't have a single point either. However, it's just a testament to how bad Schenn was. Phil Schenn just might be the worst VHL player to ever enter the league. That would be the case, if Anthony Dabarno didn't have something to say about it. I played with Dabarno in the VHLM. He was a first liner, maxed out player. He was great for Saskatoon. His TPE earning and production set him up to be selected 20th overall in the S63 draft by the Riga Reign, a decision Riga would come to regret. Randoms, an elite future player, would slip to 24th in the draft. Dabarno had promise though, he could be great for this Riga team. Unfortunately, he was anything but. His rookie year, he had one single point. He played all 72 games, and unlike Schenn, he played more than 9 minutes that season. He played 100 minutes, about one and a half per game. That's basically nothing, but still more than what Schenn got. In S65, he found his way to Moscow. This way his time to shine, he could finally get playing time and put up some points. He ended up averaging 23 minutes per game, but only 19 points. His points per 20 minute total was eighth worst in the league. In S66, he had only five minutes per game, picking up five points. In his final season, he had only 90 minutes played and had only one point again. His career points per game mark is 0.09, the second lowest all time for forwards with 200+ games played. These two players are among the worst the VHL has ever seen. When I scroll through the all time VHL stats for research, I always find something very interesting or strange. This all started as a quick vhl.com about how Schenn played nine seasons, but it then became about him being unbearably awful, and I had to compare Dabarno too. They are the only forwards with a substantial amount of games played (Dabarno has 286, Schenn has 325) that were just so bad.

Week 3 claim Edit: I revoked this claim because I was writing a VHL.com and it got long so I am using that as my media. I did not claim anything the week this claim was posted.

1) Meh. I was hoping for more because of the new role as #1, but Zod wasn't as good as I hoped. He wasn't bad though, and he started to pick it up late in the season. 2) We were great in the regular season, as advertised. Unfortunately come playoff time we just forgot how to play. 3) Skating, and maybe a touch into scoring. I'm getting very close to finishing off Zod's player build. 4) I usually like to go back to my home planet Krypton, but they won't let me because of COVID restrictions. It's nonsense, don't they know who I am? A kryptonian would never fall ill to some puny human disease. 5) Malmo. They were my old team, would love to see them win a cup. 6) Finish with 70 points or more. I'm not sure how likely this is, but I had a 66 point year once so maybe I can pull this off.

He isn't a rookie anymore. General Zod is approaching his optimal build, but he isn't set on anything yet. Bumping skating to 99 is my next move, but after that I'm not sure what else. I think what I will do is after getting skating to 99, I will bump checking from 80 to 85 and scoring from 70 to 75. After that, I will start banking for depreciation. Zod has been pretty good, but has failed to take the next big step forward so far. He had a 66 point sophomore season but followed it up with a couple of 50 point years, which for a defensive defenseman isn't bad at all. This year was slightly disappointing though, because I was hoping for bigger things from the big man. He was the powerplay QB, the number one defenseman, playing with a superline in Calgary. It didn't work out as well as we had planned, and a dud in the playoffs certainly didn't help. Zod is hoping to have a huge year next year. As of now, Zod is probably going to stick around for seven seasons and retire before 8, but it depends on the situation. If depreciation doesn't hit as hard as I think, then I will stay. If I am on a true contender, I will stay. We will see what happens.

I already claimed a media for this week, can I claim the capped portion of the doubles next week?

I posted this in VHL.com accidentally, whoops

I was looking around the HOF today, specifically at Campbell, since I wanted to write a media spot about him and talking about what made him so great. This is when I noticed something very strange, so I abandoned my plans to talk about his greatness, but rather his playoff success. Based purely on the stats, Scotty Campbell is a playoff choker. How can the VHL's goat be a choker? Lets look at some of the stats: In 577 regular season games, he had 1239 points, or 2.15 points per game. In 41 playoff games, he had 65 points, only 1.59 points per game. That's still a really good number, but it's a huge fall of from his regular season stats. He also took penalties far more often in the postseason, with 60 penalty minutes in 41 playoff games (1.46 minutes per game), compared to 306 penalty minutes in 577 regular season games 9 (0.53 minutes per game). In the plus minus department, he was a +643 in 577 games, but he was even through 41 playoff games. Perhaps the most alarming stat that proves Campbell doesn't have the mamba mentality is the difference in his game winning goals. In the regular season, he had 101 game winning goals. In 18% of the games he played, he scored the game winning goal. 17% of all his goals were game winners. In the playoffs, he had only 2 game winners. That's only 5% of the games he played where he scored the winner, and 6% of all the goals he scored. Based on all the stats, it is clear as day that Scotty Campbell was a choker. However, upon closer inspection, things aren't as clear cut as it seems. As I scrolled through Campbell's hall of fame article, I noticed some discrepancies in the playoff stats. The career playoff totals for Campbell are completely wrong. Here is what it says are his career playoff totals: Playoffs 41GP / 32G / 33A / 65P / E / 60PIM / 40H / 294S / 22SB / 2GWG Here is what his stats actually should look like: Playoffs 72GP / 57G / 73A / 130P / +32 / 50PIM / 18H / 531S / 45SB / 8GWG While his playoff stats still aren't up to par with his regular season dominance, it is much better than his career playoff stats shown in the hall of fame. I have no idea how this happened, the numbers aren't even close at all, in fact some totals doubled, and his game winning goals quadrupled. At first glance, it may have seemed like Campbell was a bit of a choker, but the career stats shown in the hall of fame are simply incorrect. Campbell also has 3 cups, so he clearly isn't a choker by any stretch of the imagination. Instead of exposing Scotty Campbell, which I sought out to do, I ended up exposing the VHL for not being able to get the correct playoff statistics for their greatest player of all time. His regular season stats were correct, at least his point total was (I assumed everything else was correct as well) I did a little bit more searching around, and I couldn't find any other older player that had their stats incorrect. How did this even happen? 535 words

1. Not really, but I always root for USA 2. A knee brace for those that kneel before Zod 3. NHL of course, and Zod is the guy who tries to fight at every faceoff and just bull rushes every player possible 4. Strength, every player should get it to 75 or 80, even scoring forwards. 5. Chara, for his huge size, and Adam Pelech, for his shutdown abilities. 6. Of course, we are bringing back the Vasteras Iron Eagles. They never should have left in the first place.

Week 2 claim

@Nykonax for helping me with my To Kill a Mockingbird english homework last year

Day 10

Ello

what sup

After doing my misery index thing this week, I was reminded of how poor some teams have been throughout the last 15 seasons. The NFL has a show hard knocks that goes to a dysfunctional team during the offseason. What if the VHL did that? Here are some teams that I think would likely make the cut: S63-S64: Davos. This is a really easy choice. This team put up some of the worst numbers in the modern day VHL, and were awarded by their tank efforts with absolutely zero first overall picks. This team was a laughingstock for that period of time, before they turned it around with Dahlberg and Davidson in net, as well as acquiring Rylan Peace. S67- Seattle. This was the year where they picked up the majority of their dynasty core. It would have been interesting following the team around in the offseason as the new, often outspoken (Hogan) rookies would have to gel together and learn how to play together. Looking back, maybe it wouldn't be that interesting because they clearly got along well. S70-S71: New York. NY had promise before having to tear everything down for several reasons. They had a couple decent years in the late S60s before tearing everything down again. New York was a very up and down franchise, unfortunately most of their ups weren't that great and their downs were really bad. These are just three teams I would pick for those time periods that I think would have been interesting. I was in a pinch for an article idea and I thought this was a fun little idea.

1. General Zod has been key on the blue line, but he couldn't do it by himself. Our whole defense core has been solid and Lafontaine has been great. 2. We have a cup winning team already, but there is always room for improvement. Maybe some more forward depth, or another solid blue liner. 3. Red Lite would be a great pickup 4. General Zod is bringing his homemade meat sauce and Zod's famous meatloaf. 5. I saw some cranberry things that look like blood clots. Whoever brought them will pay the price. 6. Get back into media spots. I've been a little lazy recently, just claiming welfare since now I can get 5 instead of just 4, but now I'm set for the next four weeks with medias with my most recent.

I am here

Great achievement in any sport must come at the expense of others. Alec Martinez just scored the goal of his life, and the Kings are Stanley cup champions. On the other end? The Rangers suffer bitter defeat, and Lundqvist can only hang his head in misery. The only way to fully understand is by experiencing the epic highs and lows of VHL sim hockey. On the other side of every win, celebration, comeback, or upset, there is defeat, frustration, and disappointment. In S66, I created the VHL Misery Index, an arbitrary system I used to calculate how miserable each VHL team has been over the past fifteen seasons, dating back to S51. Almost ten seasons later, I've decided to bring it back to see how much has changed over the past eight seasons. If you want to see the results from S66, click here. If you want to see how the point system works, click here. In case you don't feel like reading how the point system works, I will just quickly sum it up. It is split up into three parts; the previous five seasons, seasons 6-10, and then season 11-15. The most recent years carry the most weight in the index, and as we get further removed from the present, the point totals lessen. For example, an S73 cup win would be -40, but a S62 cup win would be -10. The lower the point total, the better. This list will not included any of the four newest expansion teams for obvious reasons, and it also won't include Prague or DC. I wanted to put Malmo and Moscow in, but they just didn't have enough seasons. Perhaps in the next edition, they will both be included. I also included each teams worst moment from the last 15 seasons, as well as how much their ranked changed since the last edition. 8. Seattle Bears Previous rank: 2 (310) Misery score: 45 How did the Bears turn their score around so much in eight seasons? Well, it's a pretty easy explanation. The previous edition cut off at S66, only two seasons prior to the beginning of the Bears dynasty. Since then, they have four continental cups, the primary reason for their low score. The score of only 45 is absolutely insane. In the last edition, Helsinki's score of 95 was the lowest and it was so insane I had to redo the numbers to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. This is half that score. It's hard to be miserable as a Bears fan when you won four cups in recent memory, forming one of the greatest dynasties of all time. Just imagine if the S63-S65 Bears teams didn't underperform in the playoffs. Those teams won back to back victory cups, and this misery score could be nearly at 0 or even in the negatives if they had played up to their skill level during those years. Worst moment: Back to back semi finals upsets in S64 and S65 7. Riga Reign Previous rank: 7 (152) Misery score: 110 The Reign are another one of those teams that are always good. S75 has not been the case, but luckily for them this season is not counted. They brought their misery score down by 30 points since the last version, mostly due to their championship in S72, as well as a finals appearance in S69. They have made the playoffs every year since S63, and have made it to at least the semi-finals in all but two of those seasons. In the Podrick Cast era, they only won one cup (S63), and often times disappointed, notably in S64 against Helsinki in the semi finals and in S65 against the Legion. Despite those tough losses, the Reign were still one of the most consistent franchises in the past 15 seasons, and this misery score reflects that. Worst moment: Getting destroyed by Toronto and Davos in S65 and S66 6. Vancouver Wolves Previous rank: 4 (268) Misery score: 150 The big improvement in score for the Wolves is a result of two things. Firstly, their cup wins in S67 and S74. Secondly, their worst stretch as a franchise in the original misery index came during S58-S60, which isn't included in our updated version. Those two factors combined really swung in the Wolves favor, who have had good fortune as of late. When I come back to this in 5-10 seasons, I wouldn't be surprised to see Vancouver in last place. They have a really bright future that has a cup win before they even truly hit their prime; sounds an awful lot like the recent Bears dynasty. Vancouver has had some rough moments, such as getting swept in S66 in the finals, losing in the S62 finals against Keaton Louth and the Wranglers, or even when they were forced to play a computer goalie in the playoffs because they broke the Louth rule. The Wolves are in a much better spot now then they were ten seasons ago. If you are a Wolves fan, this score reflects how it's hard to forget the tough losses of the past, but you still can't be too upset because of your more recent success. Worst moment: Being forced to play a CPU goalie in the playoffs in S64 5. Helsinki Titans Previous rank: 8 (95) Misery score: 160 The Titans had their best stretch of hockey from S64-S67, with four straight finals appearance, but only one cup. This is the key reason for their very low score in the previous misery index. Eight seasons later, that success is less weighted, and their lack of more recent success really brings on the points. The past two seasons they have made it to the finals, but the three seasons before that saw two wild card eliminations as well as missing the playoffs altogether in S71. The back to back losses to the Legion in the finals were tough for Titans fan, especially in S65 when it went the distance before Toronto won game seven. S67 was also tough, since the Wolves got their revenge in the rematch against Helsinki, but at least that loss could be soothed by the cup win the year prior. The Titans have had a lot of recent success, but their mini stretch of mediocrity from S70-S72 is what hurts them. Worst moment: Losing back to back finals to Toronto in S64 and S65 4. Calgary Wranglers Previous rank: 5 (230) Misery score: 200 The Wranglers have been a pretty consistent franchise over the past 15 seasons. They haven't gone any extended stretches of being bad, which helps their score out by avoiding the playoff drought multiplier. However, besides an S62 cup, they haven't won anything else. They had a finals appearance in S63, S70, and S72, but lost all three of those appearances. Recently, the Wranglers have elevated their level of play with Jacques Lafontaine in net, but it wasn't enough to make a serious dent in their score from the last version. Overall, the Wranglers can be described in a way that's very similar to how I described them eight seasons ago. I said they were a consistent playoff team, but never did enough in the playoffs. An S73 finals appearance and possible cup win would have changed this score tremendously, but blowing a 3-1 lead in the semi finals to the rival Seattle Bears was an agonizing way to go down. Worst moment: Blowing a 3-1 lead to Seattle in the semi finals in S73 3. Toronto Legion Previous rank: 6 (227) Misery score: 290 The Legion began their first rebuild in a long time in S70 after a long run of being a consistent playoff team and also having no draft picks. The rebuild has been starting to turn the corner, but unfortunately their three playoff misses and wild card loss from S70 to S73 cost them 180 total points on the misery index. Their back to back cups in S64 and S65 are also weighted much less now that they aren't in recent memory, which hurts their score. S67 was the last prime chance for Toronto to win another continental cup, as they completely ran through the regular season, finishing well in first place, with 13 more wins than second place. The regular season dominance didn't end up mattering though, as they got smoked by the Wolves in the semi finals and only won a single game. Since that point, they have been on the decline. They are on the rise, but their lack of recent success is what drives this score to where it is. Worst moment: Getting upset in the S67 semi finals by Vancouver 2. New York Americans Previous rank: 3 (290) Misery score: 375 It's tough to be an Americans fan right now. They are the only team that hasn't won a cup in the past 15 seasons, not including any expansion teams. They had to rebuild from S62 to S64, and then the team had tremendous promise. They looked like a great young team on the rise, but everything changed so quickly. The Americans lost young pieces to expansion teams and by trade, the GM went inactive, and the team fell into shambles. A once promising team was practically left for dead. Esso became the new GM and had to tear everything down, causing the Americans to miss the playoffs and pick up even more misery points. From S67 to S71, they had only one playoff appearance, which was a wild card round loss in S69. They had some success after that rebuild, including reaching the semi finals in S72, but after a couple of seasons of success they had to tear it down again. The Americans missed the playoffs in S74 and are on track to miss it again this year. Maybe after another rebuild, they will be able to truly contend for a title. Worst moment: GM Spade goes inactive, team falls into chaos 1. HC Davos Dynamo Previous rank: 1 (367) Misery score: 395 This franchise is truly an enigma. Davos seemed like a mess when I wrote the first misery index, but they somehow have gotten even worse. Even though it seems like they have a really solid young team and a direction now, they have just been so inept on the ice. The last continental cup for Davos was all the way back in S61, seemingly a lifetime ago in VHL time. It doesn't seem like they will be able to turn the corner and win one again soon, despite actually having a pretty solid roster. They had to rebuild after a finals loss in S62, and managed to become competitive again in S66, despite having awful lottery luck during their rebuild. They had a star studded team, and even swept the Reign in S66 before getting handled easily by the Titans. They missed the playoffs the next year, lost in the first round the year after, before going on a three season stretch of missing the postseason. A wild card exit in S72 and then a first round loss in S73 continued to pummel this franchise into the ground. S74 seemed like it could be a good year though. Their young additions from the S72 draft were becoming truly elite now, and younger prospects were becoming good players as well. That wasn't enough for Davos, as they missed the playoffs in S74 because of a tiebreaker. I've come to the conclusion this franchise is cursed. Eight seasons have gone by and they are still the most miserable franchise in the VHL. You can't even really blame the GMs either, since they had really solid teams that just struggled to put it together. Hopefully in the next edition of the misery index, they won't be first place. Who am I kidding, they probably will be. Worst moment: Missing the playoffs in S67 after it seemed they were turning the corner Since the last misery index, the VHL landscape has changed drastically. Six new teams were added to the league, resulting in multiple different playoff format changes. The Bears went from one of the most miserable teams in the league to by far the least. The Wolves have gone from a team that seemed cursed at times to a two time champion and the team with the brighest future. The Legion went from back to back championships to third place on the misery chart. However, throughout all of this, some teams stay consistent. The Reign stayed in second to last, showing how consistently strong they are. The Titans may have moved up in the rankings, but they still are a great franchise with a pretty low score. The Americans struggles have still continued. Even with all this change, and the handful of teams that haven't changed much, one team rises above them all in terms of consistency. HC Davos remains the most miserable team, a true achievement for their consistency. In life, there are three certainties: Death, taxes, and Davos being the most miserable franchise in the VHL. The full data table is here: 2,185 words

Hello everyone

Gosh darn I forgot about this for day 4 but Im here now

Malmo from S66-S69 was really active

I'm here

Ello

Hello