animal74

Wow! So much for defense!

@Tate it was an honor to duel with you! @Girts & @Scurvy Congrats on amazing careers!

@Frank Great series Wolves! That was a close fought battle.

Two Game 7s!!

Toronto Legion Press Conference (2 TPE for answering all six questions) 1. Biggest question of the season: Will will come back and win the series against Vancouver? 2. What team has surprised you the most these playoffs? 3. Knowing what you know now, which two teams make it to the Final? 4. How do we stop the Wolves' Oreo McFleury? 5. Only Lavelle and Sogaard have scored more than two goals in the series. Who needs to catch fire for Toronto to make it to the next round? 6. What lucky charm is GM Moon hoping in right now?

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Maybe next season!

Me too!

S90 VHL Playoffs: Matchup Preview Toronto Legion (1) vs. Vancouver Wolves (4) As a reward for beating the Seattle Bears in the North American Wild Card round, the Vancouver Wolves will play the North American No. 1 seed, the Toronto Legion. The teams played each other five times this season with Vancouver barely coming out on top with a 3-2 record. More on that later. This playoff rivalry with a rich history started in S41 when the Wolves were closer to Toronto and playing in Quebec City. The Quebec City Meute and Toronto Legion met six times in the playoffs from S41-S64 with four of those meetings coming in the Conference Final. Toronto won four of those series, three of them on their way to winning the Continental Cup. In fact, the Legion were the Meute’s final playoff opponent ever as Toronto beat Quebec in the S64 best-of-three Wild Card round 2 games to none on route to the first of consecutive Cups. The history once the Meute moved to Vancouver took a bit of a 180 as Vancouver has won all four previous meetings in the playoffs from S67-S81, with three of those series wins being steps along the path to the Wolves winning the Continental Cup. But with their last meeting having taken place nine seasons ago, let’s see what advantages might be in Toronto’s favor in S90 as recent history is not. S90 Team Leaders Goals 43 – Mac Atlas @v.2 41 – Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ Assists 64 – Pierre Emile Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito 60 – Siyan Yasilievich @badcolethetitan Points 95 – Ronan Lavelle @Arce 89 – Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ Season Series Vancouver won the season series 3-2 but all three of their wins were by one goal and two were in the shootout. Toronto scored 13 goals against the Wolves in their two victories and the Legion’s power play feasted on the Wolves’ penalty kill all series scoring 8 goals on 26 chances. Toronto was the only team (Los Angeles Stars was the other) to score 6 or more goals twice against the Wolves so we know they can score in bunches. Also, Vancouver won’t have the benefit of the shootout in the playoffs. As for goaltending, both Joel Castle @animal74 and Brandt Fuhr @Tate were both busy but could have been better. Neither goalie faced less than 31 shots in any game in the series and while Castle’s numbers (3.10 GAA, 0.918 SV%) were slightly better than Fuhr’s (3.87, 0.902), the Wolves’ veteran netminder won the series 3-2. Anyway you look at it, it was a fairly close series. Series Leaders Goals 6 – Mac Atlas @v.2 5 – Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ Assists 8 – Siyan Yasilievich @badcolethetitan 7 – Pierre Emile Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito Points 11 – Siyan Yasilievich @badcolethetitan 8 – FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Analfist @STZ Storylines Experience vs Inexperience There is a lot of playoff experience between these two teams! Seven players in this series have played in 50 or more playoff games and there is a combined 17 Cup Final appearances accounted for. Two of the four active Kanou Trophy (Playoff MVP) winners are in this series (Ronan Lavelle @Arce, S85, and Brandt Fuhr @Tate, S86 co-winner – the others are Jesse Teno, S88, and Jake Thunder, S89, in the Davos/London series) and there are members from four of the last six Championship teams. The Toronto Legion added some playoff experience during the off-season as they had none of their own to speak of due to lounging in the bottom of the league from S85-S89. In addition to acquiring Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz from Vancouver the season before, the Legion have four players with a total of 218 playoff games played, five Cup Final appearances, and three Cup rings. Interestingly, defenseman Siyan Yasilievich @badcolethetitan leads all players in this series with 74 career playoff games. Vancouver on the other hand, with two finals appearances in the last four seasons, including winning the S86 Continental Cup, have 375 combined games of playoff experience (before their S90 Wild Card series with Seattle) led by 192 games among five of their forward group. The Wolves have 12 Cup Final series and five Cup rings among them. While the larger number of games fittingly translates into a larger number of playoff points than Toronto in total, the current Wolves have scored a combined 87* playoff goals – only two more than the Legion’s 85. Nowhere is the experience discrepancy more evident than in net. Fuhr has 61* playoff games on his resume while this will be Castle’s first taste of the post-season. Vancouver's Wann Kerr and Toronto's Jimmy MacElroy watch a shot in front of Joel Castle. Familiar Faces As is to be expected in the small world of the VHL, there will be a lot of old teammates facing each other on both sides of the puck. Most significantly is Toronto defenseman Jimmy MacElroy @Xflexz who came over a couple of seasons ago from Vancouver and will be facing his old mates, with a few still remaining from the S86 Continental Cup winning team. Toronto’s Jimi Jaks @kelvi and Vancouver’s Oreo McFleury @JB123 were key contributors in the Olso Storm’s third consecutive run to the S87 Renaissance Cup but ultimately lost to Cologne in seven games. Some old VHLM teammates will also get reacquainted: Toronto’s Bobby Bob @Baby Boomer and Vancouver’s Liv Slater @Subject056 (S87 Houston Bulls), Toronto’s Joel Castle @animal74 and Vancouver’s Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ (S85 Prime Minister’s Trophy winning and Founder’s Cup finalist Las Vegas Aces), and Toronto’s Tomas Sogaard @Brandon and Vancouver’s Brandt Fuhr @Tate (S82 Mexico City Kings). Offense vs Defense They say defense wins championships but a good offense helps as well and this series has two of the league's top teams in both categories. Thought to be an offensive juggernaut at the beginning of the season, the Legion instead won more often than not with a stingy defense and ended up with the second-lowest goals against in the league (174, 2.42 GAA). The Wolves on the other hand did sport the league’s third-best offense to the tune of 240 goals for (3.33 per game). Neither team were bad on the other end either though as Vancouver had the 7th best defense (190 GA, 2.64) and Toronto scored at the 6th-best clip in the league (229 GF, 3.18). Both teams ended the season with five players scoring 27 or more goals. As noted earlier, Toronto won the special teams battle in their season series by a wide margin which is surprising as Vancouver’s power play thorough out the season was a hair better, scoring one more man advantage goal than Toronto for a slightly better percentage. Toronto has the slight advantage on the penalty kill as they were ranked 8th in the VHL and Vancouver was 10th. Regardless, both teams will want to stay out of the box as much as possible. And, of course, you can’t talk defense without talking goalies. Castle had better numbers during the regular season although he and Fuhr posted the same number of wins (38) and Fuhr had six shutouts to Castle’s four. This will be a fascinating series to watch as games could end up being barnburners or nail-biters and there probably will be a few of each. Will the upstart Legion be able to get to Fuhr early and make the Wolves pay on the power play or will the Wolves’ experience and championship pedigree shine through and shut down the Legion’s deep forward group? We’ll know after seven games (or less)! *All stats until S89, not including the S90 Wild Card series versus the Seattle Bears

And I have to spend my whole career trying to live up to you!! I'll forever be known as "that guy who was picked after Summers". All kidding aside, you've worked extremely hard and are reaping the rewards. Congratulations on a fantastic season!

@VattghernCZ I'm ready for ya buddy! Former LV Aces teammates going at it!

Great article, but Bob wasn't a rookie. The index is incorrect regarding Rookies. The portal is right for once, haha.

Thanks for all the TPE, @Jason kranz!

Congrats to Davos. Toronto couldn't pull it off.

Victory Cup not Continental Cup

That's ok. We accept folks of all beliefs in the VHL...

Credit: @v.2 The Race for First Place: The Final Countdown Shortly after the halfway point of the season, VSN delved into The Race for First Place outlining the six teams that were legitimate contenders to capture the Victory Cup having finished the season with the league’s best record. With only 2-3 games remaining for each team the race for the Victory Cup still hangs in the balance with those six teams (Los Angeles, Prague, Toronto, D.C., Davos, and Vancouver) within eight points of each other. Although the standings have changed dramatically during the second half of the season, at this stage the Cup can only now be potentially won by four teams. We outline the possible fates below: Toronto Legion Current: 44-12-13, 101 points, 1st Previous: 24-6-9, 57 points, 3rd Last 10: 5-2-3 Remaining: Riga, Seattle, Calgary Last Victory Cup: S67 Once again, a lack of success in the shootout may cost Toronto a chance at the franchise’s first Victory Cup in over 20 seasons. They’ve gone 1-3 in four shootouts over the last 10 games, losing valuable points to Vancouver, Seattle and Prague. Couple that with regulation losses to Vancouver and Davos, the team one point behind them, and the Legion have to be pretty much perfect to end the season to guarantee first place. HC Davos Dynamo Current: 48-17-4, 100 points, 2nd Previous: 24-12-2, 51 points, 5th Last 10: 8-1-1 Remaining: Moscow, London, D.C. Last Victory Cup: S37 The defending Cup champs have been on fire, riding an earlier 12-game winning streak to streak ahead of three other teams and possibly pull the European Conference title right out from under Prague. The best defensive team in the VHL has held opponents to 2 or less goals in 8 of the last 11 games while the offense has come alive as well scoring 4 or more goals in 7 games in that same span. One of the few teams that seem to have Toronto’s number might have one more call to make – for first place. Prague Phantoms Current: 46-18-6, 98 points, 3rd (on ROW) Previous: 28-8-4, 60 points, 2nd Last 10: 3-6-1 Remaining: London, Malmo Last Victory Cup: S88 Like their team’s namesake, the Phantoms have seemingly disappeared on the ice at the most crucial time allowing Davos to overtake them for European Conference lead. The only team on this list with a losing record over their last 10 games, and despite continued strong special teams, Prague has forgotten how to keep the puck out of their net allowing four goals per game in that stretch. D.C. Dragons Current: 46-18-6, 98 points, 4th Previous: 27-10-2, 56 points, 4th Last 10: 6-3-1 Remaining: Davos, Moscow Last Victory Cup: Never won The Dragons have continued their reputation as the highest-scoring team in the league and that offensive prowess has kept them in an enviable position with a chance to not only take the North American Conference but also the Victory Cup. A lot will have to go right, of course, for that to happen but with recent wins over each of the three teams ahead of them, their destiny is almost fully in their control. Vancouver Wolves Current: 44-19-6, 94 points, 5th Previous: 24-12-2, 50 points, 6th Last 10: 7-1-2 Remaining: Malmo, Riga, Seattle Last Victory Cup: S87 One of the hottest teams in the second half of the season, the Wolves have momentum coming into the playoffs which should scare any team. A couple of key wins against Toronto boosted their chances to sneak higher in the standings but, alas, it was too little, too late. They still do have a shot to wrest 2nd-place and home-ice advantage from D.C. though. Los Angeles Stars Current: 45-21-3, 93 points, 6th Previous: 30-8-1, 61 points, 1st Last 10: 5-4-1 Remaining: Calgary, Malmo, Warsaw Last Victory Cup: Never won Oh, how the mighty have fallen. While the Stars have picked up their play as of late, a five-game losing streak recently saw them drop out of the Victory Cup race. While a playoff spot is guaranteed, LA will have to wait until next season to try and win the franchise’s first Victory Cup. With so much at stake during this final stretch of the VHL’s 90th season, the tension and excitement will only grow during each minute on the ice. Things will undoubtedly shift, the balance of power being so precarious. Who will find the will to win the Race for First Place and claim the Victory Cup?

Haven't read the books yet, but I know where that's from!

Welcome back Matty!

I'm in! Would it be draft or pick 'em?

Toronto Legion Home Stretch Press Conference (2 TPE for answering all six questions) 1. Will the Toronto Legion win their first Victory Cup since S67? 2. Who will finish as the top team in the European Conference - Prague or Davos? 3. How many games will we win out of our final six? 4. Who will end up second on the Legion in scoring behind Ronan Lavelle? 5. Will Montgomery Burns finish in the Top-10 of rookie scorers? 6. Will Joel Castle get another shutout this season?

Game Recap Game 527: Seattle Bears 5 Prague Phantoms 4 Fighting for their playoff lives, the Seattle Bears took a huge step as they hung on to down the European-leading Prague Phantoms 5-4. Although Prague's Velociraptor Greg @samx would open the scoring on the power play in the first period, Seattle would score five consecutive goals to put Prague against the ropes. The Phantoms would mount a comeback in the third, led by Nikolas Kauppi’s @Tetricide two goals (including his league-leading 4th SHG) and by outshooting the Bears 20-14, but it would be too little too late. Both goalies faced 40 shots but Seattle’s Clueless Wallob @DMaximus saved one more than his counterpart, Matt Murdock @Acydburn, despite Seattle’s dismal performance on special teams (1-9 PP, 2-4, PK, 1 SHG allowed). Yaroslav Bogatyrev’s @Bojovnik 43rd goal moved him into 2nd in the VHL past Prague’s John Jameson @Frank (who had two assists) and his 9 shots moved him past Riga’s AK92 Wit da Hoodie @hedgehog337 to become the league’s shot leader with 517. 3 Stars 1 - Yaroslav Bogatyrev (SEA) – 1 G, 1 A, 9 SHT 2 - AirRig GoodBrandSun (SEA) - 1 G, 1 A, 9 SHT, 4 SB @Rhynex Entertainment 3 - Babay Shrimp (SEA) - 1 G, 1 A @Blazzer

Game Recap Game 525: Malmo Nighthawks 3 Calgary Wranglers 1 In a game that barely had any playoff implications, there was still lots of pride to fight for as the Nighthawks took on the Wranglers in an inter-conference matchup. Malmo drew first blood from an unlikely source as defenseman Malum Maellard @frescoelmo scored only his fourth goal of the season and his first on the power play at 15:57 of the first period as he made Calgary’s Rip Wheeler @ScottyP pay for a tripping call. Mo Probert @Yahtzee snuck another by Wrangler goalie Merome Dilson @MexicanCow123 at 15:05 of the second period and the Calgary answered less than 30 seconds later on a zack martinez @Sam_19 power play marker, his 8th PPG and 23rd goal of the season to take the team lead. But Probert would get his second of the game and 26th of the season early in the third period for the insurance marker and Calgary wouldn’t get any more by Nighthawks’ netminder Ash Sparks @DarkSpyro. Calgary super rookie Steve Lattimer @pugsood wouldn’t get on the scoresheet but he led the team with 11 shots. Probert would add 3 hits to add to his league-leading total of 318. 3 Stars 1 - Mo Probert (MAL) – 2 G, GWG, 10 SHT 2 - Ash Sparks (MAL) – 33 SV from 34 SA (0.971) 3 - Malum Maellard (MAL) – 1 PPG, 5 HIT

Claim 2/2

Toronto Legion Press Conference (2 TPE for answering all six questions) 1. We are back to 2nd place in the VHL! What has been Toronto's greatest strength this season? 2. What type of shot is your player known most for (wrist, snap, slap, backhand, deflection)? 3. Which team do you think would be the best first-round playoff matchup for us? 4. What is the best movie or TV show you've seen in the last while? 5. You get to pick three artists/bands to create your ultimate concert. Who are they? 6. Today is National Peanut Day. What's your favorite thing with peanuts in it (provided you're not allergic)?