David O'Quinn

The Travel Crisis The VHL is a great, expansive and expanding league, ranging through the various cultures of hockey, stretching from Seattle, Washington to Riga, Latvia, a distance of nearly 8000 Kilometers between them, covering 9 time zones between all of its teams. As the league ramps up its expansion efforts and expands to one of the worlds most prominent centers of hockey, Moscow, Russia, adding nearly 300 KM's to the girth, a very real issue comes to light for the players and staff in this league... the distances cause insane amounts of travel time for many players. For a player playing for Seattle, a flight to Moscow could last nearly an entire day, that's a day missed practicing, playing hockey, training, and just spend more or less sitting around and waiting. So, let's hypothesis. Say, I'm drafted to the recently announced Moscow team, and at the start of the year, the team goes on a road trip. From Moscow to Seattle, they play every team within a span of two weeks, how far will I travel, and how much time will I spend traveling vs playing hockey? Let's say the schedule is hypothetically this: Helsinki -> Riga -> Davos -> New York -> Quebec City -> Toronto -> Calgary -> Seattle Moscow to Helsinki is at least 1hr and 40mins of flight time, to play 60 Minutes of hockey. Seems fine so far. Next, we go to Riga, which is another 1hr 10 minutes for another 60 minutes of playing hockey. Our last stop in Europe, getting to Davos from Riga takes about 3 hours on a nonstop flight, adding up to 6 Hrs of flight time compared to 3 hours of playing time, which is, again, fine. Our issues really start to pop up when we reach America. From Davos to New York, up to 16 hrs of flight time for 1 hr of playing time. Overall, from Davos to Seattle and all our stops in-between, you end up with an astonishing 31 hours of time spent flying for 5 hrs of hockey, not counting transportation back and forth between hotels, arenas, airports, etc. Hockey players are resilient and will more likely than not manage this fine, but expanding further east could be disastrous for the league, creating extreme fatigue for players, who spend much more time flying than doing much else. Many of you reading this may point out a personal issue many of us have also faced, the distant time zones. While Seattle may be playing in Moscow at a reasonable time in Moscow, most if not all Seattle fans will not be able to watch the game live without structuring an entire day around this hobby of theirs, and that's anything but realistic. While options to circumvent this is available, most prominent being the ability to watch a full game using various streaming services after the fact, this leaves the potential for fans to have the games they look forward to spoiled by fans who are ahead of them simply because of where they live. There are a few solutions, but the one I would put forward to the league is this: Make the re-playing of games free to fans, just include up to date ads. Much of hockey's income is based off ads, and this could be an incentive for teams to increase their revenue, instead of charging fans ridiculous costs to rewatch games. TL;DR, Most players will spend significantly more time traveling than all other activities combined, especially if a team is slated to go from Seattle to Moscow, and this is a burden upon both fans and players. The VHL is a business, and I can't blame them for expanding as such, but pity your fans who've given you the economy to do so. This is reporter Rogers Pennies, signing off. 639 Words, claimed for the week Jan 28-Feb 3

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Alright, after consideration, I accept! Waiting on the portal offer.

+4, the newbie!

I have interest from other places as well, but it's appreciated. We'll see how it goes!

This is the biography of Dave O'Quinn. Early Life Born in Cape Breton, Canada, Dave was greeted by 7 younger siblings throughout his life, living in a small household with a hard-working father, who was rough around the edges, aswell as a loving mother. Surprisingly late in his young life, David only started playing the great sport of hockey at the age of 13. He had a natural aptitude for it, and by the time he had reached high school, he was instantly the star of the Northside Junior Vics. Alongside hockey, David graduated from Highschool with honors under his hard-working spirit. His life took a great turn around this age, as he met the love of his life, and only a year later, they had their first child, with one more to follow five years later. Stardom As David went through life into his late 20's, he kept his three loves: His Children, his Wife, and his Sport. He hadn't stopped playing hockey since he started, having won the 'Top Defenseman in Cape Breton' award along the way.... and he was only getting started. At the age of 25, he enrolled in the University College of Cape Breton, to further his education, and additionally joined the Universities team, which simply went by 'UCCB'. As he had been all his life, he was a star as soon as he joined the team, gaining the respect of his teammates, and hate of his rivals. At the same time, his children were getting older, and it was more important than ever for him to be a father. This is why, at the age of 29 after winning the National College championship with UCCB, and the award for the Top Canadian College Athlete of the year, he denied himself an incredible opportunity, after having been invited to try out for team Canada, to stay home and be a father, and temporarily stop playing hockey. Recently As Dave has gone through his early 30's, he's focused on being a father. Having become the manager of his hometowns local rink, the coach of a local youth team for a year, he had been supporting his family the best he could. But the sacrifice of hockey had its toll on Dave, and he grew restless. He denied the opportunity of a lifetime, and had come to regret it. Finally, when he turned 33, the Hockey Gods gave him another chance. He was given the opportunity to declare himself for the VH leagues, the VHL and VHLM, to make more money for his family than he ever could at home. His kids were older, his wife could retire to focus on the kids, and he could go back to the sport he loved. He took the opportunity, after many weeks of deliberation, with the support of his family, he declared. The Player Although he's not the fastest skater, he's big, smart, and extremely skilled. David has always been a leader, and he's always had a natural talent for the game, scoring goals and getting assists like nothing, but never shying away from playing defense and throwing a big hit. To say briefly, he was a leader and team player above all else. Achievements Individual Canadian College Athlete of the year Top Cape Breton Defenseman of the Year A Great Father Team 2x Canadian College Champions 1x Cape Breton Junior A Champion

Player Information Username: JohnOQuinn Player Name: Dave John OQuinn Recruited From: Member (Recruited by Enorama) Age: 33 Position: D Height: 75 in. Weight: 207 lbs. Birthplace: Canada Player Page @VHLM GM

Player Information Username: JohnOQuinn Player Name: David John OQuinn Recruited From: Member (Recruited by Enorama) Age: 33 Position: D Height: 73 in. Weight: 223 lbs. Birthplace: Ireland Player Page @VHLM GM

Player Information Username: JohnOQuinn Player Name: Paul John OQuinn Recruited From: Member (Recruited by Enorama) Age: 25 Position: G Height: 78 in. Weight: 200 lbs. Birthplace: Ireland Player Page @VHLM GM

Hey all! Just a hockey fan who's been into EHM for a long time, and heard about this. Looking forward to getting started!