Fire Tortorella

REVIEW GAME 312: This game was a battle between two European Conference juggernauts, the Moscow Menace and the Warsaw Predators. The Menace came out strong in the first period, scoring three goals. Moscow forward Duncan Idaho opened the scoring with an early power play goal. The Seabasstard and Zdeno Chara followed up with goals of their own to give Moscow an early lead. The second period saw more scoring by the Menace, as Paul Atreides joined his teammates on the score sheet. The third period was just as fruitless as the first two for the Predators, who put 51 shots on Moscow goalie Papa Emeritus but couldn't get one past them. Adding insult to injury, Wattson Power added a power play goal halfway through the period, leaving the final score of this game 5-0.

1.) Good defensive depth is always good and is apparently especially hard to come by this season. I don't see how this does anything but help this team moving forward fo rthe rest of the season. 2.) Wumbo is certainly playing and is lucky to be in the Prospect All-Star Game. Looking forward to playing in the VHL next season. 3.) It's always nice to recognize individual players who are succeeding, so I don't see how this can hurt anyone. Would be interesting to have locations that used to have VHL or VHLM teams host these games in the future. 4.) I'd say they're instrumental to the team's success. Every team needs both star and depth players and it seems like everyone on the Predators is chipping in this season. 5.) More and more I think the refs are instructed to create as much drama or keep the games close as much as possible. I used to think it was just conspiracy non-sense but there are way too many primetime games that seemingly come down to the last drive and are aided by suspect at best calls. I don't believe the NFL is necessarily pushing for one team to win over another, just to keep the game as close and interesting as possible. 6.) I've barely watched the olympics this year but like to just watch different random sports. I watched some type of long distance speed skating that was 16 laps, watched some biathlon, and a little curling and bobsled as well.

Game 200 Review: This was a highly entertaining game between two teams in the Victory Hockey League. The 1st period saw a total of 6 goals scored - one for Los Angeles, two for Warsaw, one for Los Angeles again, one for Warsaw again, and finally one more for the Stars. The second period belonged to the Los Angeles Stars, who scored two goals in just over 30 seconds about halfway through the period. With this two goal lead, the Stars were able to start focusing on defense. While Warsaw was able to cut the lead to one goal in the third period, they could not muster anything more in their comeback attempt.

So I'm really liking the new trivia system - the immediate feedback on getting a question right/wrong is tremendous and allows someone like me who got one of the questions wrong to use the new game recap way of earning TPE to earn an extra capped TPE. Something we'll have to think about with trivia - obviously the old way of doing trivia was basically one person per team posting results in the locker room - how do we feel about teams keeping "trivia banks" with the questions and right answers? There's almost no way you can tell me this isn't happening, and I don't know how you really enforce it at this point, but with point 1 above, just seems really over the top and against the spirit of the rules. Oslo - "We don't talk about Oslo" - it's not going well. A quarter of the way through the season we're comfortably in last place and have already begun selling off our assets for future seasons. Due to last year's team not playing the backup in enough games, I only get to play 40 or 42 games this season, and I'm already at 26...so something I was looking forward to (playing in the VHLE) has been....not great.

1.) Hm, that's a good one - there are now a good number of "minor" tasks to earn 2 TPE each. The only thing we don't have is a social media type tasks (a certain number of tweets, whatever instagram calls it, etc...), but I don't see that being much different than a vhl.com article. 2.) For a long time, my answer was Philadelphia - obviously that's not the case anymore. Now, I'd like to see some more Southern Expansion in the US with Nashville (although that's not really that "southern" by US geography), Tampa Bay, etc...or maybe we go back to Hartford? 3.) The standings are very tight right now - Prague and Malmo are right in front of us, but Moscow is right behind us as well. 4.) Not sure - I haven't paid too much attention to my big league team this season, but I'm going to be paying close attention now! 5.) Philadelphia Flyers....but it's a love/hate relationship right now. Favorite player on the team is Sean Couturier - was an underrated player for years, but now he gets the respect he deserves. 6.) Does walking indoors count? But actual answer is going to be grilling/drinking with friends.

The forum content battle was (sadly) lost years ago.

Was going to write this about 2 hours ago, but got distracted on Youtube watching James Hoffmann videos about burr coffee grinders and cheap/moderately expensive espresso machines....so this is going to be even less researched and off the cuff than usual. Oslo so far is doing average, and Wumbo is doing average. I'd guess the Storm are somewhere around "hockey .500" and my stats are relatively average. I've had a couple of games that were good, and a couple of games around a .900 save percentage. Warsaw seems to be doing average as well. I'd guess we're a little above hockey .500 considering the last sim was 3-0. Our roster is a little light so I'm kind of surprised by that, but that seems to be the case around the league this season. My real quick point on the light rosters is that this is an issue that comes up from time to time due to the cyclical nature of some of these draft classes but is now more pronounced due to the VHLE. I'd wager it's something we'll take a look at in the BoG but I'd caution against any moderate/large changes without multiple seasons of numbers to draw conclusions from. I did the new game recap PT earning for the first time and it was pretty fun and easy. I think it's a mroe "fair" way to earn TPE than the old method of trivia, which was basically finding a buddy or LR that posted the answers for you. I'd definitely recommend this method of earning TPE to anyone who needs a way to cap and doesn't feel like reviewing or doing a fan590 or whatever these have been called since like S30.

REVIEW: Nice 555 word media spot! 10/10

GM 83: Moscow Menace (1) vs Warsaw Predators (5) REVIEW: In this entertaining regular season match between two European Conference teams, the Warsaw Predators demolished the Moscow Menace by a score of 5-1. An early power play saw Warsaw take the lead after a nice passing play resulted in Chicken Wing shooting the puck into the net for their 5th goal of the season. Two quick goals by Bogdan Trunov and Brendan Marner resulted in a 3-0 1st period lead. As the period was ending, Duncan Idaho put Moscow on the board, but that was the last time Moscow would menace the Predators in this game. A 2nd period short handed goal by Tynan Sylvester put the game out of reach and a 3rd period goal by Brendan Marner (their second of the game) was the final nail in the coffin. Tater Tot was excellent between the pipes for Warsaw, stopping 37 of 38 shots, while Papa Emeritus stopped a respectable 49 of 54 shots. GM 88: Warsaw Predators (5) vs Helsinki Titans (3) REVIEW: Unlike their previous game against Moscow, this match between Warsaw and Helsinki started as a close affair but ended with Warsaw taking home all 2 points. The Titans' Nico Pearce was the only goal scorer in the 1st period. The second period was filled with goals, as Flynn Remy put the Titans up 2-0 only a couple of minutes into the 2nd period. Chicken Wing then cut the lead down to 1, but Helsinki's Magnus Verlander quickly gave the Titans a two goal lead again. Towards the end of the period, the Predators were given a power play - Brian Moreau made them pay and once again reduced the lead to one. Whatever the Warsaw coach said in the locker room during the second intermission must have worked, as the Predators scored 3 unanswered goals (Zach Kisslinger, Bogdan Trunov, and Zach Kisslinger again) put Warsaw on top. Tater Tot stopped 54 of 57 for the win while Xavier Booberry stopped 47 of 51.

1. Entering this season where do you see yourself? 2. Who is your favorite player in the VHL? 3. Who is someone you're looking forward to playing against this season? 4. Which team other than Oslo would you like to see succeed? 5. Who would you say is the leader of this Oslo squad? 6. With it being announced that Oslo has to use their back up goalie for 40 games this season -- Do you see this ultimately hindering the squad? 1.) I see myself in Oslo as a member of the Storm! But to answer the question how I think you meant it, I'm using this season to prepare myself for next season, which will be my rookie season with the Warsaw Predators. Unsure at this time if I'll be a backup or a full time starter. 2.) My favorite player in the VHL is Wumbo - who else would it be? 3.) I look forward to testing myself against the best, so whoever is the VHLE leading scorers is who I like to play against. 4.) I'd like to see Warsaw succeed, since they are my VHL team. Seems like they're off to an OK start so far - not good, not great. 5.) The GM and the coach are the ultimate leaders, are they not? 6.) It's not ideal, especially since I don't believe the backup goalie earns TPE at this point, but it is what it is.

Not saying it is a problem, but the answer is VHL GM term limits.

FTFY

And this is a complete non-starter for parity reasons, especially when "money" is fake.

I'm not commenting on the issues in the article (because I'm sure they're valid), but on the idea of the VHLE being broken....it's the second full season and the first "full" off-season (kinda) - if it was fully functioning perfectly I would have been extremely surprised. There are going to be issues that have to get sorted out that either weren't thought of originally or that have become apparent during what is essentially "live testing" this league.

This sounds correct. I'm relatively (but not 100%!) certain that STHS does not allow you to make the captain a goalie, but on the site, there's no rules against it.

In addition to what Spartan said, it also becomes extremely messy during the transition between GMs. I don't remember the particulars, but previously, if the team got the GM player "for free", then they weren't able to trade them away and receive any additional assets. If the player for the new GM was on another team, we'd have to find a way to barter a trade between the two teams that was "fair", and the majority of the time it wasn't fair at all to the team losing the player. All in all, this led to a ton of messy transitions and one off rulings - it was impossible to create a fair blanket rule about the transitions because the situations of each team was always different. Keeping the GM player not automatically attached to the team has made GM transitions 1000% easier and more fair than before. This rule has been in the league for a while now - it's not a surprise. If you (as in everyone, not you in particular) don't think you can separate "you the GM" and "you your player", then you don't have to apply for a GM position. This is also from someone who wasn't in favor of this change at the time, but it's proven to be a good one IMO.

Wait a second, I'm sad now

It's the eve of the beginning of the season! Well, the day before the day before I guess, but close enough. I sort of went through the motions with my last player - I'm more excited for the start of the season than I have been for a long time. I was thinking about this the other day (and it might be a fun thing to have the rest of the league comment on, no matter how long you've been here) - what are the VHL related changes I was right about and which ones were I wrong about? I'll start off with wrong - I was 100000000% wrong on the portal. I thought having to set up a separate site to do all that the portal does would be too confusing and be the death of the league/forum, which were the same thing at the time. Ironically enough, I was kind of right about the forum, but that was more to do with discord and the general movement of society at large than the portal change itself. The change I was "right" on was Project Player Two (or at least I think I was, since I can't find the thread in the BoG). For those who don't know what PP2 was, members had the ability to have two players at once. However, this led to a lot of burnout (and some other things) and was eventually removed. I was against it from the start...I think. I also proposed an active backup goalie salary cap exemption back in 2015, but it never gained traction until years later.

I believe there is at least one father-son combo (or maybe uncle-cousin?) but I couldn't tell you what their usernames are. I don't think there are any "second generation" members like you mean though. Nice to have you back!

REVIEW: I know this was written a couple of weeks ago, but I really want to give you props @DC21 for writing this article. I am assuming you're a new member and not a returning member from this time period, but not many members who weren't around then would choose to go back this far into VHL history to write about. It's nice for those who weren't around then to learn about some of these VHL greats. This would also make a great series to keep reviewing and bringing to the forefront these older players. 9/10

REVIEW: Ah, the decision. Funnily enough, I still remember watching that with @Squidwardwhen we were on a family vacation down the shore and being extremely annoyed with how seemingly every single commercial on ESPN/ABC leading up to it was about "the decision." But I guess that's the point, right? You want as many eyes as you can on making an important decision...like joining the Mississauga Hounds! Players with an attitude are always fun to read about, assuming they stay in character and are able to walk the walk. Good luck this season! Overall, a solid article - 7.5/10.

Oslo Storm Press Conference Questions 1.) What are your goals for your player for the upcoming season? 2.) What are your goals for the team for the upcoming season? 3.) What is your favorite thing about the city of Oslo? 4.) What's an interesting fact about yourself? 5.) There's a new way to earn TPE - game recaps - do you think it's a good idea, bad idea, something you'll use? 6.) What's one thing you'd change about the VHL, VHLE, or VHLM?

As someone who works in commercial insurance, you have no idea how much all of this is making me cringe.

1,000 words exactly, claiming week ending 1/23 and week ending 1/30.