KC15

I would like to play and manage.

As Luc Tessier wraps up his 3rd season with Davos and looks forward to his 4th in S81 he has been asked by a journalist to reflect on what it means to be a “veteran” in the VHL. Luc is not so sure he is a veteran. What defines that? Is it a certain number of years in the league only? If so, is 3 seasons enough? Or does it have to do with learning the game and being a leader? If so, when have you reached that level of play to be called a veteran? Sure, some things are clearly different for Tessier this season as opposed to his rookie season. He knows the feel of the Davos ice and where things are located in the dressing room and around the arena. He is comfortable living in Davos – in fact loves living so close to his native France. Though there are always new faces on a professional hockey team as people come and go via draft or trade, but he knows the people in the room. But is he a true veteran? Tessier doesn’t think so. His play hasn’t improved enough for him to feel comfortable as a real leader in the locker room. Too many others have more seasons under their belt than he does – or are playing at a higher level with the same amount of experience – for Tessier to feel comfortable calling someone out for sloppy play or giving too much advice to younger players. He is happy helping the rookies get used to the culture of the Dynamo, but nothing more. One thing that has changed though is expectations from the team and from fans. Both have been fairly patient knowing that hockey is a difficult game. It takes time for a player to mature into what he can become. On the other hand, when he came through the doors in S78 all of the talk was about potential. Now there is a growing discussion about reaching that potential. Luc understands that’s part of the game, but he is getting a little nervous. Is he going to realize his potential or will he always be that one for whom it never really came together. That worries him and he knows he was probably squeezing the stick a bit too tightly down the stretch. Luc feels that he needs to use the offseason for more than working on this on-ice game. That practice will come. But he also needs to use the time to get his head together. He needs to come into S81 relaxed enough to play into his game and become the true veteran he longs to be. 444 words

Luc Tessier has not been sleeping well of late. With the Moscow Menace on the verge of finishing off the Vancouver to capture the S80 Cup, another offseason approaches and following that yet another regular season where the Davos Dynamo will try one more time to drive to the playoffs and an eventual championship of their own. Tessier is not sleeping well as he cannot help but feel that the lack of playoff success is in some significant part on account of his disappointing play. Coach continues to let Tessier know that he is on track with his development and it just takes time to achieve excellence in a league as competitive as the VHL, but Tessier cannot help but feel otherwise. He had followed the career of his countryman, Guy Lesieur, and when he compares his trajectory with that of his hero, he can only feel the lack. But Tessier knows no other course than to keep grinding, keep listening to his coaches, and keep striving to be the best he can be. 174 words

Review: Engaging recap of the two games. Felt like I was there. Too much use of the word "would". 7/10

Review: Loved reading about Lesieur's fine teammate, Groovy Dude. Captured the essence of the DC Dragons great. 8/10

1) It is Saturday and Gustav hasn't done a press conference or asked me to do one. Why does he neglect us? Because he has utter disdain for us. 2) Why did we lose to Prague? Because they scored more goals than we did in too many games. 3) Who is someone you would love to poach from another team next season? I leave that up to management. 4) Who should Davos draft in the next draft if they managed to get the 1OA pick? I haven't the foggiest idea. 5) This season we had a few GMs playing for us, do you think this helped us or were they just spies? Not spies, but I do think it's a stupid system. GMs should be forced to their teams. 6) What is your favourite Breakfast meal? Eggs sunny side up, bacon, and grits.

True. Different update scales and different amount of TPE given out make it nearly impossible to compare. Fair point.

It was another fairly disappointing year for Luc Tessier. He had hoped to have a breakout year in S80 and that definitely did not happen. He did up his goals from last season from 16 to 23, but at the same time this came at an enormous cost in assists. In S79, Tessier picked a career hight 32 apples. In S80 that plummeted to 17 – 2 below his S78 rookie season. What really is disappointing for Tessier is that his shot percentage rocketed to 11.11% - the absolute top mark among all of his Davos teammates. And his reward was 7 more goals, but somehow he logged only 207 shots – 29 below his last season’s total and 68 below his teammate, TheCHEESE’s, total of 275. 68 more shots for a winger with a 6th best shooting percentage of 8.36%. The comparison with TheCHEESE is particularly illuminating as the only attribute where TheCHEESE surpasses Tessier is in Passing and that is by a large amount. Tessier 65 – TheCHEESE 85. No wonder TheCHEESE has 39 assists to Tessier’s 17. But Tessier bests TheCHEESE in SC 96-90 and DF 95-89 and yet they ended in a dead time for goals at 23 apiece. Perhaps if Tessier works on his PA he will score more goals? Back to the salt mine for Tessier. Grind through another offseason and hope against hope for a better S81. 231 words

That is, of course, a great point. My point is that in the PBE I can write a 150 word article for 2 TPE and another 150 word article for 3 TPE. 300 words for 5 TPE. Here I write one 500 word article for 6 TPE. That's not good bang for the buck and it is significantly easier to develop one simple thought two times for those 2 150-word articles than it is to develop a longer theme with 2-3 points in a 500 word article. And I do NOT write articles in the "money" leagues to buy training or equipment. I take league jobs like updater and GM. No writing at all and yet it helps move the league along.

What's the difference in promoting word vomit? 1) I pay you by word in in-game dollars for you to buy equipment which equals TPE. 2) I pay you to write 500 word articles for 6 TPE. I have no more incentive to be insightful and erudite under either system. Just crank out words.

Wonder how many people would leave the league over that? lol

I think my biggest beef with the VHL/SBA/EFL is that I absolutely loathe having to write 500 words for one article every week. I'd probably not do it if I couldn't get credit across 3 leagues. If I ever drop SBA/EFL, I'm nearly at 700 TPE on my 2nd player and I'll probably settle for the 5 Welfare TPE over 6. Writing 500 words for 1 TPE = not worth it. Funny how much harder it is to write 1 500-word article over 3 150+ word articles. lol

I think the best argument here is that 100 TPE over the life of the player is pretty negligible. I don't think the logos are better here overall than in the PBE and certainly have 0 effect on wanting to play in either. Don't know what we pay for logos here, but it's $0 in the PBE. Some GMs commission artists with real $$, but not required. I'm a GM and paid a teammate in-game dollars and I like our logo. PBE does a ton of charity work and no one is paid to donate $$ for TPE so that argument doesn't hold water for me. The portal is vastly superior here and I'm sure that costs more than the PBE pays. I can only imagine because JCINK sucks. But again, I love the league so our website sucking doesn't affect my enjoyment. Bottom line is that I get why people complain about $$ = TPE. Other part of bottom line is that I'm still here so I obviously don't have a huge issue with our system.

I seem to have no life and am in 8 different sim leagues. Well, actually I do have a life, but I have gotten my sim league earning down to an art using a bunch of cross-over posts and a Word document checklist to keep it all straight. For instance, one article like this actually nets me 18 TPE across three leagues. You know the drill – VHL, SBA, and EFL all share the ability to post one 500 word article in one of the leagues and claim it in all three. Good idea as it allows each league to recruit more players. I do the same in the “money” leagues: PBE, WSBL, SHL, and ISFL. One 150 word post gets me the main PT in all three other leagues, plus if it is PBE, I can claim the VHL.com article replacement PT here in the VHL for another 2 TPE. But it is interesting. I am one of the few that I have seen crossing over between the “money” leagues and the VHL/SBA/EFL trio. The money league players are very reticent to join here, because instead of the monicker “money” league, these three leagues have the nickname “pay to win” leagues. That is because of the donation system that we have here in these leagues. Pay real dollars to support the site and you get TPE in the game. Those that can afford to pay get an edge over those who cannot. I am not sure it is much of an edge in the grand scheme of things, but it is no doubt an edge of some sort. I am wondering if we really need to keep this system going. I am sure the point of taking in money is to cover the cost of our excellent portal and the underlying website hosting that supports that. But how much does that cost a year? How many users would need to contribute $2/year (with no corresponding TPE reward) would it take to support the current model? I know many would contribute that little per year (not season) to ensure we continue our excellence. How much do we have in the bank and how long will that cover the league for? So, are contributions even necessary at this point? Is any of the detail of our league finances available anywhere? They certainly should be. The reason I ask is because our current model of asking for real money donations in exchange for TPE is a real barrier to some excellent users coming into the league. Users who would make this a better experience for everyone. Perhaps we do not want this influx of new users? Perhaps we feel like there are enough users here now and we don’t need to change anything to remain vital? “If it is not broke, don’t fix it?” But surely, new blood is always a benefit to an organization and more great users would mean a more vibrant experience and more confidence in the long term future of the league. I just thought it was worth asking the question. 512 words

1. It is Friday, and Gustav is just now getting to the press conference. What have I been doing all week? Wrong answers only. Developing a cure for Alzheimer's. Only excuse for taking this long. lol 2. It's PLAYOFF TIME, and we're kicking off the wildcard round with a rematch of last year's run with Prague. When we win, how will you celebrate? You don't celebrate until you hoist the Cup. 3. Regardless of how we do in the playoffs, what are your opinions on our regular season? Solid. From the days of being way out of the playoff picture to making it a habit - nice! 4. Press "@" and type the first letter of your username. Describe the first non-you person who comes up on the list who you recognize. @ K13R4N Absolutely no clue whatsoever. But to stay in the spirit of things - tall, buff, scarred cheek. Clearly a D-Man. 5. What's your favorite salty snack? Any kind of chip, but let's go with basic kettle potato chips with sea salt. 6. What's a cool landmark in your country that people from outside of it might not know about? Liberty Memorial in Kansas City - the country's only museum fully dedicated to WWI.

Review: One of my favorite articles ever! What a hilarious and clever way to describe how the user got the AGM position. Well done! Good pacing, grammar, spelling, and all that. Thought putting the phone message in blue was a nice tough. Set the important news off from everything else. Thanks for this! 10/10

Review: Enjoyed it. Not just here's who scored in which period, but those scores were placed in context - 5th goal of the season, etc. Writer obviously has command of the English language. Great word choice/turn of phrase, good grammar, excellent spelling. Some don't care about that, but I find it hard to read an article with a lot of mistakes. 9.5/10

Press Conference is honestly one of the boring TPE tasks for me, how would you make it more exciting? Can it be made more exciting. 2 TPE is 2 TPE though. I can get excited about that! We have had a couple of big sims and a couple of bad sims. Why do you think the team is so streaky? STHS. Always blame STHS. Did your player get a degree before the VHL or did they go straight into Hockey? No degree. Following his dream first. What is the worst injury you have had? Been pretty lucky. Broke my clavicle in juniors. Are you scared of the dentist? If so, why? Not scared. Don't like going though. If you play Board Games, what is your favourite game at the moment. If not what is your favourite video game. If you play neither, how do you pass the time? Favorite board game might be Monopoly based on how many times I've played it.

We are well into the S80 season and with just roughly one fourth of the season to go (22.2%) and so it feels like a good time to check in on Luc Tessier’s development in the Victory Hockey League. He was fairly called out by a couple of team analysts at the end of last season for not being quite there with his game and one wonders whether Luc has given them enough to revise their assessment. Team Performance Before we launch into Luc’s performance, though, let’s take a quick look at the team. The Davos Dynamo are having a solid season posting a record of 29-23-4 thus far. Their 62 points put them in third place in the European Conference 3 points above the Prague Phantoms and 4 points above the Warsaw Predators. Most importantly it puts Davos 12 points ahead of the first team currently outside the playoff scene – the Riga Reign. As long as Davos can maintain their current level or play or even elevate it, a playoff spot seems to be in the offing. Goal Scoring So, let’s dive into Tessier’s individual performance. Luc has scored 20 goals thus far in S80. This ties him for 5th most on the team and is a solid step forward as with 16 games still unplayed, Tessier has already surpassed his total for either of his first two seasons in the VHL (18 and 16 respectively). If we were to project out his total for the season based on his current rate, we could expect 25-26 goals on the year. That would certainly be a bright spot in his season as that would be nearly a 40% jump over his prior best mark. Shot Accuracy This is a really important stat for Luc. He believes that if he is going to take a shot, it needs to have a realistic chance of hitting the back of the net or he should be passing to others will more finishing skill. This is a banner season for Luc in this regard. In his first two seasons, Luc was shooting with 9.3% and 6.8% efficiency. That S79 stat truly concerned Tessier and he worked all off-season and into S80 to improve that. The hard work paid off and Luc is now gunning at 11.8% - good for best on the team. Assists This is an area where Luc has definitely taken a step back. In S79, he had a breakout season with 32. Thus far in S80, Tessier only has 16 – projecting out at 20-21 on the season. This would be more on par with his rookie season, but with the big leap forward in goal scoring, I think we can chalk this up to his evolving role on the team. Face Offs Tessier continues to improve in this very important facet of every centerman’s game. In both of his first two seasons, Luc was winning less than half of the time he steeped into the circle. In his 3rd season, Tessier has broken this barrier and is currently winning 51.5% of the time the puck is dropped. That is still 3rd among Davos’ three centermen, but he is nipping on the heels of Isabella Campbell at 51.75% Conclusion All in all, it has been a good year for both Davos as a team and for Luc Tessier as an individual part of that team. One can only hope for continued improvement.

Review: Fun read. Thought the three phases of retirement angle was a nice tough culminating in getting back into the sport himself as a participant (scout) and not just a spectator. 8/10

Review: Fun read. Did not see the fantasy hockey mogul thing coming, but makes total sense. Well-written. I breezed through it. 8/10

1. Our collective nemesis @Berocka was put on the BoG. What's something you'd like him to know that the league needs? Affiliate status with the newly formed WSBL. 2. This week is theme week, with the theme being "life after VHL"! Do you think it's a good idea for theme week? If not, what would you like to see as a theme? Love it! Love the chance to talk about my player's life. 3. The trade deadline is Monday, and as a team with no cap space, we're a team that can't really buy. Are you comfortable enough with how we've been performing to be optimistic for the playoffs? I'm always optimistic. I believe in my team. 4. NHL hockey is back! What's your realistic prediction for your team this season? Devils - still on the upswing. Chance to make the playoffs, but maybe just outside that goal this season. 5. What's your NHL hot take? The puck should be orange. 6. What's something from another country that you'd like to see more of in yours? UK-style pubs where all ages can hang out together.

VHL News Reporter: Guy Lesieur played his last game in the VHL for the DC Dragons in S76. What has he been up to, we wonder, in the past 3 ½ years or so? Best chance to find out is just to ask him so we contacted him through his old agent and he was kind enough to give us a quick phone interview with us from his home in the outskirts of Paris. Guy, what have you done with yourself these past few years? Lesieur: Well, Dougie, it has been a mix of things for sure. You know, the VHL is a real grind. Practices, games, travel, more games, more practice. You know the drill. It’s a thrilling ride, but it takes its toll on your body and also on your mind. Most people don’t see that side of it, but it’s there. So, for the first 6 months or so I really just concentrated on doing nothing. As much nothing as I could do. Well, not nothing, but nothing strenuous or mentally taxing. Just spending a lot of time with my parents and extended family and with my friends. That was really rejuvenating. After that I took another year or so and did some travel around Europe and also to Australia and New Zealand. Had never been to either and really wanted to, but just didn’t have the time to make it feel worth it. After retiring from hockey, I had that time. And then I started thinking about something I have really been interested in all my life and thought maybe I would even take on as a career until I realized I really did have the skills to maybe make it one day in the VHL. Dougie: What’s that Guy? Lesieur: Haute cuisine and fine wine, Dougie. I’m a Frenchman. What can I say? We all love that at some level. It takes some big cash to go to a fancy restaurant, but every French person can enjoy a beautiful meal if they take the time to learn. So, with retirement and no real need to make piles of francs, I decided I would open up a restaurant. Well, eventually I want to have at least two and a cooking school. I want to start with a fine dining experience that also introduces simple country dishes to help our city folk not forget their roots. That is up and running now for about 8 months and it’s doing really well. Once we know that is more firmly established, say in another 2-3 years, we’d like to open up another one in the country that would also introduce some fine dining options at prices our rural citizens can afford. Dougie: I don’t think I saw that one coming. I mean, lots of guys hang up their skates and go into the restaurant business, but not with exactly that type of vision. Lesieur: I know. That’s why we thought there might be enough of a market to make it viable. Not a lot of others attempting this. But I wanted to work with food, but with a mission to bridge the city and the country. It’s a small thing, but if there is any way we can bring the country together a little bit more than it was yesterday, I’m all for that. We’ve made a good beginning and I hope we can keep it rolling. Dougie: Good luck to you, Guy, and thanks for your time. Lesiur: Any time, Dougie. 583 words

I have just finished watching the Squid Game. I think it was a good show. What is the best show you have seen this year? Hmmmm....I can't even remember what I've watched (all on Netflix). I'll go with Endeavor. Speaking of TV shows Amazon released it's doco on the Toronto Maple Leafs. If Amazon were to do one on Davos this season what would make some interesting TV? The struggles of a highly-touted first rounder (Tessier) finding out how fast and strong VHLers are. Should we think of making any trades come the trade deadline? I really try to stick to my knitting. I'll worry about Tessier. GMs can worry about everyone. It is getting nice and warm in Australia now and I have already had a few beach days, how cold is it getting for everyone else and what are you most looking forward to in Winter? Don't love winter anymore to be honest. (for the next two questions look into one game that Davos has played) How do you think your player performed this game? Sure liked that game against the Predators when Tessier scored two goals. What do you think your player needs to do more to have a bigger impact for the team? Just need to keep improving the big 4: SC, DF, SK, and PH

It looks like #4OA Centerman Luc Tessier is bound to disappoint again this season. After posting two fewer goals in S79 than S78, he is on pace only to match the number her had in his very first year in the VHL – 18. Not only that, but he is on pace to see his assist numbers plummet. In S79 he notched an impressive 32 helpers. This season he is only on pace to tally 15. That is not just stepping back from a good year, that is regressing to a number lower than his rookie season. What accounts for this poor showing? It looks like he is working in practice and giving it his all on the ice during games, but nada. One thing to note is that though his shot efficiency has gone up from 6.8% in S79 to 8.6% (4th best on the team) so far in S80, his actual number of shots has fallen off. He is on pace for fewer shots this season over last and he has dropped to 8th fewest shots on the team. The only two players with fewer shots are d-men Peepants and Tavau who have 60 and 40 SC ratings vs. Tessier’s 95 so one would hope he would have more shots than these two. It seems the only thing for Tessier to do is keep grinding and hope things turn. Maybe he’ll also regain his position as centerman that he had to cede to the more experienced Campbell when that acquisition happened. 252 words