Mr_Hatter

Thanks I was originally doing 2 a week, but then I realized I was writing so much I could just split it into 1 per week Haha. Keep an eye out once I finish the minors! I'll probably move on to the VHL

Word Count: 529, claiming for week ending 7/28 #3 Monday, July 22nd: The last few weeks have been crazy. Some of the result have definitely gone our way, but simultaneously some of the games we didn’t show up and dropping. It’s really discouraging to beat the leaders of the league, Minnesota (spoiler alert), and then drop games against worse teams! To be fair, the team we lost to (twice!) is Halifax, and they have had our number all season, at least we’ve split the games. Speaking of which, who is making these schedules? We’ve played Halifax 6 times so far, and play them next again. That's 7 times, and I don’t think we’ve played any other team more than twice! It’s absurd. The games have been weird, all over the place. We’ve each dominated, and there’s been close games too, including a shootout today that unfortunately we did lose, but neither team has really taken control of the season series. When you look at the standings and the performances, I think we are the better team, but at the end of the day when we lose focus we are really susceptible to hemorrhaging goals. Despite being in third place right now, we have let in more goals than any other team in the top six. And I know that Acyd always says its a team game, and that everyone needs to pick it up on the defensive end, but I can’t help but feel responsible. My save percentage has been way too low. On the other hand, I do feel like my skills are really improving. Working week in and week out on hockey has let me focus so completely that I think I’m really taking strides at improving my game. Before I get ahead of myself though, I just have to say, playing against Hali so many times has led me to really respect their goalie. That dude is a brick wall, I swear. This is his second season in the VHLM with Halifax, and he really is insane. Right now, he is putting up a save percentage just north of 90%, which is good, but when you consider that he has played against us 6 times already, and we have, if not the most, then damn near the most shots per game in the whole league. He really is nuts. Gunnarsson really puts in a shift man. Anyway, on to the most exciting part, we beat Minnesota! The first ones to do it, but since then Yukon has too. But damn if that didn’t feel good. I’m still a little disappointed letting in 2 goals on only 12 shots, but hey, they were both while we were down a skater, so I’m not gonna stress it too much. Let me tell you, it certainly didn’t stress us out too much that night celebrating. In fact, we may have partied too hard. I don’t quite recall everything, but there is this bit about a zamboni and a Burger King drive through that I can’t seem to get out of my head. So that might have had a little bit of an adverse effect on our game the next game, but hey, what are you gonna do?

The Music of the VHLM By A. Simon-Cowell-Type Part 4 Welcome back to The Music of the VHLM! Welcome to the 4th installment of this series. This week, we are taking a look at the current leaders of the VHLM, the crème de la crème as it were. I am talking about Minnesota. Minnesota Storm Souls, by Hippo Campus Minnesota took the season by storm, excuse the pun, with 13 wins in a row. Such a hot start must have come at a price. Enter the song, Souls. Of course, I’m sure the line “back to the room where we sold our souls” is metaphorical, but seriously, what deal with the devil did GM Rayzor pull to assemble this squad? Well played, well played indeed. I look forward to seeing if this team can put together a title winning run in the postseason, but it is by no means guaranteed, as they dropped the 2 of the last 7 games. Still a great run of games, but not unbeatable. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next week as we continue the coverage

1) Of course, I think everyone's goal is to be the best player ever. I want to go into the VHL and help my team compete and win trophies. Individual recognition would be amazing, but first priority is results. 2) I came up with my name by being born with it brother, or at least a spin-off of it. 3) I play my position because I feel like as the goalie I can really singlehandedly win the game for the team if I play well. That, and it was the only position that didn't necessitate being a lights out skater. 4) I was beyond pumped for that win, because Minnesota has been a tremendous team this season. That being said, I feel like that win is nothing if we don't take care of business in the other games, and we've dropped a few since then. 5) Yeah, I think it will change. I think we will have more. 6) I think that our captain, Underyew, has really stood out as a player that is a positive force in the locker room, and a real leader.

+10 Raymond Bernard (once the other updates get cleared, I'll be past 100)

Skaters: A Skater Bot, See You Later Bot Bobcat Jones (Ottawa Lynx) Goalie: Ken M For what it's worth from someone who just joined, this seems like an awesome place, and I hope I'll be here for a few more birthdays to come

Review: Great work on this Media Spot, as the other commenters noted. I think the structure of it is really good, well spaced-out. I also like how you covered different areas of the team, from trades to stats. Overall great work! (and go Lynx )

Review: I love how you structured this. It felt like a very well-informed magazine article; some background, stage-setting, complete with the direct interview part at the end. Really enjoyable read, good work!

Review: Hey there! I really like the article, I thought it was cool how you structured the interview with 3 players answering each question, I feel like that made the piece feel a little special compared to a lot of media spot interviews. Great job!

Review: Hey, really good write up here. I think there are a couple structural things that could improve, like a few spelling mistakes and awkward formatting, but overall you did a really good job with this! I enjoyed the read.

Review: Really good work with this interview! The formatting looks great, and I really like your writing style, it feels very natural. Keep it up!

Review: I really like the form of this Media Spot, the weekly recap. I think you did a great job with it. The game write-ups are in depth, and the formatting looks great! Good job.

Review: I actually really like how different you made this from a traditional Media Spot, I think its obvious you took a lot of care in writing out the weekly recap, and I think you did a great job!

Review: I know its been a while since this was posted, but I think its really cool to look at this interview in retrospective of how you guys did, ie very well! Great article, I love the setting you put the interview in and well done with the formatting.

517 words, claiming for the week ending on 7/21 #2 Monday, July 15th: Wow, what a first couple weeks this season has been so far! We are off to a really great start, currently at 5 wins and 1 loss (We also lost an exhibition match in the pre-season in a shootout, but that doesn’t count). I’m super proud of the team, I think we are really showing the rest of the league that we have what it takes to go far this year! Right now we are third, but only one behind Philly (who we beat today! More on that later). The only other team ahead of us is Minnesota, who we don’t play for another month. I gotta say, they are looking pretty scary right now. We are scoring at the same level as them right now, two goals ahead, but they have only let in 7 goals in as many games, compared to our 18 goals in 6 games. Their goalie has been in the league a couple years, which makes me feel a little better, but I can’t help but think I need to step up my game if we want to push past them. And their special power play and penalty kill units have been crazy effective so far, above 30% on the PP and above 90% on the PK. The thing is, regardless of how good our team is doing, I’m not going to be happy until every game is a shutout, and let me tell you, so far none of them have been shutouts. There is a lot of room for improvement on my end. I think my issue might be focus. I’ve been doing well when it counts. I’ve performed well in shootouts, and I had a great game today against the reigning champs in Philly, their only goal came when we were short-handed, so I won’t stress it too much. I just have a tendency to leak goals when it “doesn’t matter.” And sure, so far it hasn’t mattered too much, but its only a matter of time before we are playing against one of the worse teams in the league and I’m not on my game, and boom there’s a loss where we should have won. I know its a team game, but hockey is one of the few sports where a goalie can just win the game for his team. I know that can be me, but I also know that if that is going to be me, I’m going to have to put a lot of work in during training, because I’m not there yet. I just can’t stress enough how good this group of guys is though. There’s a feeling in the locker room that we are really going to be able to compete this year, and honestly I think we have shown that to be the case so far. We just need to keep our focus, put in the work, and the results will come. For now, we just need to go through it one step at a time, take every game like its the championship and every practice like its a game.

A man of culture I see

The Music of the VHLM By A. Simon-Cowell-Type Part 3 Welcome back to The Music of the VHLM! This is our third article, and this week we are going out of the American heartlands of Houston and Las Vegas, and heading up to the Canadian cities of Saskatoon and Mississauga! Saskatoon Wild Are You Satisfied, by Reignwolf This song from Saskatoonian indie blues rockers Reignwolf just exudes grit and determination. The Wild exited the playoffs last season in the second round, and respectfully took fourth place in the regular season, just points behind the 2nd and 3rd place teams. Altogether, a decent showing. But the question for the Wild is, are they satisfied with a middle-good performance, or do they want more? At just 6 games played in season 67, they have split their games even 3-3 W/L. So far, it seems they are satisfied - but there’s a whole lot of hockey left to play. Mississauga Hounds Fight the Good Fight, by Triumph The Hounds finished last season in the lower echelons of playoff teams, but as a playoff team nonetheless. If the first 6 games of this season have anything to say, it seems as if they might be in a similar position this season as well. If they are going to change this, they are going to have to really buckle down and get to work. In other words, they need an 80’s training montage. And “Fight the Good Fight” by the Mississauga band Triumph, contemporaries of Rush, is the perfect prog-rock tune to lift the Hounds out of the slump and return to form. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next week as we continue the coverage!

1. I'm super positive of the way the team has been playing! I feel like I could really get my save percentage up but I think I have been pulling through when needed in shootouts and difficult matchups. 2. I think we could cut down on the penalty minutes. Some mistakes have led to us being on the backfoot too often on the kill. 3. I am ecstatic that Ottawa drafted me! In the pre-draft process they were around the top of my list, and I hope I can help take the team all the way! 4. I think you are both doing a wonderful job keep it up! 5. I think I like Vancouver a lot, it seems like an attractive destination; but really I'd be happy with most groups. 6. Overall, I have really been enjoying myself, especially in the Ottawa locker room.

Malmo over Moscow 4-3

Vancouver Toronto Malmo Seattle

I will have to do that then haha

Review: Hey, really good article! The writing is very clear and informative, and the questions you asked did a great job of painting a picture of the player. I like how you formatted the question and answer with the names of the speaker, and bonus points for a long media spot! Good job!

Review: I really like the tone of your writing, your player's character really shined through! I think the media spot could maybe us a title or an image to help give it a bit of context, but overall you did a really good job with this. Well done!

Review: Great work! I'm not sure if it is my browser but it looks like the image is a little messed up/not properly inline with the text, though like I said, could be on my end. Other than that I love how you formatted the question and answers, super readable. I thought it was cool to get inside the mind of a GM that has done fairly consistently well. Great article!

Review: As someone who is new to the VHL, this is really a hilarious article to read. I love the tongue-in-cheek humor you put in it. The image adds to the theme of the media spot, and I like how the quote is set apart, marking it distinctly from the rest of the piece. Great work!