Fire Tortorella

Yeah, things aren't looking too hot in Halifax. We basically threw in the towel with the trades we did over the past week or two. Oh well - at least I still get to start, and I'm happy with that. Lots of talk about the VHLE recently. I don't have any actual comments on it since I haven't gone through the league yet (get to do that next season as a goalie!), but I find it extremely ironic that many of the comments being made are the EXACT same comments that were made about the VHLM circa S30's-50's. While there were individual changes to the league itself, the biggest thing was the change in attitude by members, specifically new or newer members, who wanted the league to succeed. Just a thought - the VHLM has not always been as successful as it is in "current" VHL. I'm not one to usually complain about things like this...but man do I dislike reviewing a lot more than I thought I would, especially since I used to be Head Grader back in the day. I think it's the fact that since the reviews don't really count, no one wants to say anything bad about anyone's work, so it can make it hard to review the mediocre-ish media spots. And I don't do graphics, so can't do a player card or fan 590 version of graphics either.

5148-1669-2300-7265 $5

5148-1669-2300-7265 Doubles Week - Claimed Week Ending 12/19

WUMBO TRADED TO HALIFAX 21ST HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA - The life of a goaltender in the VHL and it's various development leagues can be unpredictable. Unlike forwards and defensemen, there are extremely limited spots around the league for these players to play, especially at a starting position. Young goaltender Wumbo is finding that out for himself. Originally picked up on waivers during Season 80 by the Saskatoon Wild, Wumbo was the newbie of the goaltending duo and primarily dressed as the back-up, although he did get some spot starts. He was then drafted by the Ottawa Lynx, but again as a back-up. The Lynx had a returning goalie who had a few more practice hours than the VHLM rookie. As a result, Wumbo was the back-up again, but this was more of a 1B situation than a true number 2. "Once I was drafted by Ottawa, management told me that I would be splitting time with the returning starter, and might see somewhere around 40% of the starts, at least as of the beginning of the season and how everyone was doing from a practice standpoint. I was perfectly OK with that and thought it made sense and was fair - we were a top team, so the top players were going to play." Things were working out for the Lynx - I don't have the stats right in front of me, but the the Lynx were top in the league at the beginning of the season. However, Ottawa management decided they wanted to strengthen the rest of the roster. To do so, they would have to trade away an asset, and what better asset than a back up goalie who won't be on the team the following season? Wumbo was traded to the Halifax 21st - a struggling team who wanted to try to work their way to contention. He was brought in to try to help settle the goaltending situation, and as a result, help the team win more games. "While the trade completely came out of left field, I can't say I was disappointed to go somewhere that would allow me to be the unquestioned starter. Obviously we all want to win, but we all want to play too. In terms of my development, I think it's more important for me to play than necessarily to win. With that in mind, moving to Halifax might be a good thing for my career." While the 21st had intentions of attempting to make the playoffs, quite frankly, things haven't worked out. After the losses continued to pile up, management made the decision to sell off what skaters remained in order to build for future seasons. This left Wumbo in limbo - while the young goalie has played OK (6-10-2 record, .878 sv %, and a 3.9 GAA), he's not exactly a top goaltender, and most teams already have a starting goalie for this season. It doesn't make sense for these teams to trade for a backup goalie that won't play during the playoffs either. So where does this leave Wumbo...the answer is in Halifax, and he's OK with that. "I understand where we are as a team and the direction management is moving. For the rest of the season, we're just going to try to win as many games as possible and I'm going to continue to improve as much as I can."

1.) Well, I already got traded once. At this point, I think I'd like to stay, just so I can still play as a starter. 2.) Jackbox Night could be fun - allows audience participation so even if you're not playing, you can still participate. 3.) I'm actually almost done! I'd say 90% - just need to get one or two small things for the wife. 4.) I think someone is doing a cooking stream or something? That might be one of the "if we get X amount of donations" ones, but either way, that's what I'd like to see. 5.) Shout out to @WentzKneeFan036 - need you to re-create. Also shout out to our boy @Squinty - time for you to come back! 6.) I have two - one is for cooking reasons and the other is for personal injury reasons. For the cooking one, I had first started cooking and was making Rice-A-Roni. "Brown the rice" accidently turned into "blacken the rice" and it was pretty distrusting - just very crunch and basically inedible. For the personal injury story, I was browning ground beef for something and couldn't figure out why the beef wasn't actually cooking even though the range was on. My mom has an electric stove top, but one of the older ones with the coils, not the flat surface. I had accidentally left the cover over the coils, so the pan itself wasn't getting hot. This must have happened for at least a couple of minutes, if not a little longer. I realized what happened , but I was distracted with something on my laptop (possibly VHL?) and without thinking, I used my index, middle, and ring fingers to slide the cover off the burner like I had countless times before...except all those times, the burner wasn't on high heating up cover. I left skin marks on the cover from where I slid my fingers and immediately filled the bathroom sink with cold water and stuck my fingers in there. Eventually, I ended up at Urgent Care with 3 very burned fingers that started to swell up. Did not tickle.

Day 9

Day 8 Happy Birthday Josh

I have absolutely nothing to back this up, but I would also theorize that this is a TPE level that sees a higher amount of inactivity more so than it being a VHLE specific issue - you've been here long enough to earn some TPE but then realize that it's either not for you or you're just not actually that interested in it (such as those who are in another sim league, because this perfectly describes me in every other sim league).

Day 7

Day 6

Day 5.

Day 4

So Halifax seems like we're improving since I joined - not that I'm the cause of that or anything, but I wasn't really paying attention to them before. When I joined, we were last in the league, but not we're second to last, so we've got that going for us at least, but... It seems like we're trading away a bunch of players, so it doesn't seem like we're going to really make any noise in the playoffs (if we make it?). That kind of sucks, but the big upside is that I get to play every game (for now at least). I'm going to guess that at some point we'll pick up a second goalie off of waivers to give someone else a home, and that's OK. The league is doing the annual charity drive starting this week. Honestly, this might be the best "new" thing we've done in the past however many years. The first year we did it, I was hoping we could just get to like $500 or something, but we hit multiple thousands, and it's very, very cool we're able to do that almost every year.

Day 3

1.) Well, I'm cheating, but we are no longer dead last! We are now second to last! So things are improving, and in the VHLM (almost) anything can happen! 2.) The first thing I'm doing is finding someone else to be in charge - I ain't got time for that shit no mo'. 3.) Well, I'm still getting to know my new teammates since I was one of those brought in, but everything seems pretty good here so far, minus the not winning a ton part. 4.) @Jerichohacking @Kesler's account because his password was password. That and "shipped me off". I just realized this didn't say "VHL" memory, but oh well. 5.) Assuming there is no one else inside: My laptop (too much stuff on it that would be annoying to replace), our "cash stash" for obvious reasons, and then...some yearbooks? They're sentimental and timeless I guess. 6.) Eliminate Vasteras.

sixth

Posting.

REVIEW: A nice article about something you'd hear an actual professional athlete doing. It's a nice change of pace and honestly, I'm surprised I don't see more similar articles about charity work. Presentation is good enough - maybe some people would like to see a picture or formatting or something, but to me, it looks good. Would be nice to see this turn into a storyline about the actual work being done. 8/10

REVIEW: A nice article detailing a couple of games. I enjoyed that this wasn't just a straight regurgitation of the output of each game and that you included your own comments both about the game and just humor in general. Layout is very easy to read. A possible "improvement" would be to tag the members of the players you mention, but that's a lot of work and if I'm completely honest, I don't know if I'd even do that...but something to consider though! 8/10

So, Ottawa is still kicking ass and taking names. Have only 1 regulation loss to start the season, which is pretty good. As I'm writing this, I wonder what the VHLM team with the most points and/or the least regulation losses is. I have to imagine in Old VHL(M) some team must have come close to a perfect season. Lots of chatter about the moderating survey. As I said in the thread, I don't want to dismiss the survey (and I honestly don't - I think it raises some valid points) but it is important to remember that generally speaking, those who are going to respond to a voluntary survey are those that feel strongly in either direction. On the whole, I think the moderating team does a good job, but like any of us, there are maybe some things that could change or be more consistent. However, I want to scream this as loud as I can to people on a variety of topics: THIS IS A SIM LEAGUE FULL OF VOLUNTEERS - NOT EVERYTHING WILL BE PERFECT

1.) It definitely seems like it! I wasn't on the team last season so I can't speak to how the team was then, but we're definitely clicking on the ice right now. 2.) Yeah, I'm doing well in the games I played and the team as a whole is doing really well - can't ask for anything more. 3.) VHLM - Ottawa. VHLE - Bratislava. VHL - Moscow 4.) Leonard the Lynx is pretty good...I was going to go for the alliteration too but I would go with Larry the Lynx 5.) Hm, that's a good question...I'm going to go with Max Torq since he leads the team in hits, so he has to be pretty tough. 6.) Gifts? We're supposed to buy each other gifts???? Looks like everyone is getting Wawa gift cards!

Honestly, couldn't tell you, because it's been a while. I want to say it was probably right before covid (so maybe January 2020?) though now that I'm thinking about it I think I got some of the books for Christmas, so maybe it was before then. Either way, I go through phases when reading where I'll read a ton before bed, but there were a couple of books that I waited a month or so before starting the next book.

Have to also remember that those who feel most strongly about an issue are those likely to respond to a voluntary survey. The "things are just fine/average" folks generally don't participate.

Average chicken nuggets > Average french fries Good french fries > Good chicken nuggets