KC15

1. What's your favorite TV show? Really don't watch TV. Really, I know everyone says that. But I do watch shows on Netflix, so...Parks and Recreation. 2. What inspired your username (I abbreviated NotSoGood88 to get my current one) My hometown (KC) plus the last year the Royals won the World Series (2015). 3. What's your biggest regret in life? Bailed out on a summer+academic year college exchange program to Poland when I got super sick during a time Poland was under martial law. Should have stuck it out regardless. 1. What is your favorite position in hockey to watch or play and why? 2. If you could not play for your current team, where would you like to play? 3. What is your favorite breed of dog? If you aren't into dogs (what's wrong with you?!), what is your favorite breed of cat or favorite animal?

Review: Appreciated the article for its ability to help me put a human face on a franchise which was just a team name and branding before. Loved the positivity! Something we'll never have enough of. A few typos (not capitalizing I on several occasions, running two words together, etc.) took me away from the content some, but it wasn't a huge issue. 7/10

Review: Really fun article to read. Excellent word choice and turn of phrase. Kept me ripping right along. No glaring issues with grammar or spelling that would take me out of the moment. Loved the excitement of the play by play. 9/10

It is a brand new season in the VHL with only 10 games played for the Davos Dynamo and so Luc Tessier finds himself looking forward to what will come. The offseason is great in that he gets to go home to France to spend some time with his family and childhood friends, but Luc lives for hockey and his blood starts pumping and his hands begin to titch in anticipation as the season approaches. It’s been a tough beginning to the season for Tessier’s Dynamo. They begin the season 4-6 and though there is a lot of hockey to play, Davos would be out of the playoffs if the season were to end today. But Tessier isn’t worried. He has faith in his teammates new and old and he has faith in his management. What Luc knows he needs to focus on is not what management and his fellow Dynamo will do, but what he will do. Last season was a bit of a disappointment for Luc. His role did change dramatically when Davos began to sign top-notch free agents to improve the team and his huge increase in assists was his reward for that, but Luc knows he needs to score more. So he just keeps skating knowing that “the harder he works, the luckier he’ll be.” 219 words

Review: Well-written article. Always appreciate when the prose is clean, grammar clicks, run-on sentences are edited out, etc. Engaging too from a content side. Enjoyed hearing about a young defenseman making his way in the league. Honest assessment of where he is now, but pointing to the promise of tomorrow. 8/10

Reveiw: I thought the very different take on the article was refreshing. Just jump in and let the reader catch up. I'm afraid I didn't fully catch up, but still enjoyed the read anyway. lol Sign of an article worth reading. 7.5/10

1. It looked like we'd get through the offseason without one of our trademark BIG GUSTAV OFFSEASON MOVES, but that's a false assumption as we just pulled off a trade for Seattle's Isabella Campbell. What are your expectations for this season, now that our roster is complete? First year we have a legitimate shot at the Cup. Lots of challenges along the way, but I'm expecting a stellar season. 2. Time for one of our usual preseason questions: predict your statline for this season! 25G-40A-60P-70HTS-35SB 3. What do you think about the VHLE, now that it exists? Do you think a low earner would have a better experience in the E league or the VHL? Been following the discussion thread in media. Not a fan at first, but softening. A lower earner might indeed have a better experience in the E. 4. You can pick any one thing in the world to instantly snap out of existence. What is it and why? Fear - doesn't seem to hold back the psychos from doing things and makes everyone do things they wouldn't otherwise. 5. What is your favorite kind of soda? Don't drink much soda. Does tonic count? lol 6. What's your worst "stupid driver" story? Worst due to potential outcome was when two semis decided to put the squeeze on me on the Long Island Expressway. Just not looking for little guys like me, I'm afraid. Little enough to make my own lane for a bit and then exit the situation. VERY scary.

Review: Very well-reasoned article, but I come with a bias. When the E was announced I thought, "no thanks". I definitely would want to skip the E. My current player earned just a few points over the M cap by deadline which forced me to the VHL just about as early as you can go. I didn't spend much time thinking about it. First, the advice to skip a few TPE to stay down another year rung hollow in my ears. I've gotten a little lazier since and sometimes do welfare over a media spot, but just drop TPE? To stay down? I don't WANT to stay down. I'd rather play up and struggle a little early on. For me, it's mostly about team identity. I loved the Marlins, but I'm only going to be a Marlin one or two seasons - is that truly my team? Then I go to the E and maybe play one or two more seasons - is that now my team? No, my team is my VHL team where I hope to play out my career - the Davos Dynamo. Back to reviewing. lol I think the evidence given against the idea of the E was strong, but I take Beketov's point. Those were all big earners. How do the mid earners feel? The big earners could skip the E without hurting the E leaving it for those who do value it. Hard to say without asking. To conclude on a reviewing note, whether one agrees or not with the conclusion, the article is clearly well-written and supported. The fact that one can agree or disagree illustrates that fact. Confusing articles just leave one shaking their head wondering what was said - well-written articles expressing an opinion generate comments for and against. 9/10

Review: Always fun to speculate about the draft and focusing just on goalies is a nice angle. I must not have been paying good enough attention as I thought that goalies always fell a bit in the draft, but that could just be very dependent on how desperate the need is at any one time. Anyway, these things tend to be hard to predict, but I felt the analysis was sound and the article was very clearly written. 9/10

Review: Love it. Clever pairings and subsequent write-up. Seeing all the graphics of the logos makes it inherently more interesting to read. The inclusion of the bracket graphics really helped with the visualization of the competition and again broke up the prose. Really enjoyed. 9.5/10

1. Did you think Montreal did the right thing with the offer sheet and trading for Dvorak? Who am I to question the Montréal leadership - most storied team in NHL history? 2. Which team wins the Founder's Cup in the VHLM next season? San Diego. Just an awesome organization with a firm foundation. 3. Who is the most over-rated player in the NHL and Why? Anyone on Toronto. Let's see how many hate posts that generates. Just don't like the club, which is sad because Toronto is such a nice city. Three Questions Which team surprised you the most this S79 season and why is it Davos? Will anyone ever reach the all-around greatness of Wayne Gretzky or do you think that's already happened? When will the Devils win the Cup again?

Davos Eliminated from the Playoffs – Defeat or Defiance? Well, the Davos Dynamo is over having been knocked out of the playoffs by the Malmo Nighthawks. No doubt that was a difficult day in the Davos locker room. Let’s face it, every player wants to win. Every game. Every night. And hockey players live to lift that Cup. What was it that the baseball genius Billy Beane said – at least in the movie version of Moneyball? “If you lose the last game of the season, nobody gives a sh*t.” I get it. From one perspective, if the goal is to win the Cup and you don’t win the Cup, you have failed in your goal 100%. So, now that we’ve had time to reflect, are the Dynamo players down in the dumps and sulking in a corner? NO! We have our heads held high and are proud of our S79 achievements and look forward to S80. Because Billy isn’t really right. It’s not all or nothing. You can fail in your ultimate goal and still feel good about your progress and your achievements. So, let’s take a look at those. Massive Improvement Playoff Success First of all, let’s just put this most important fact out there on the table. Davos went to the playoffs. Doesn’t sound remarkable, does it? But what if I tell you that was the first time since S73? That means a drought of 5 full seasons without a sniff of the playoffs. Ending that drought matters. Alot. Once there, Davos didn’t fold like a house of cards, but kept on skating well. We took down the Prague Phantoms handily in the first round 3 games to 1 earning a well-deserved first playoff win for our incredible GM @GustavMattias. And then on to take on the Malmo Nighthawks, one of the biggest powerhouse teams of the VHL. Did Davos shrink from the daunting task at hand? No, my friend, they did not. Davos, a team that had not played a playoff game in 5 seasons, took the mighty Nighthawks to 6 games. Bet Malmo was sweating. Regular Season Success Ok, apart from playing well enough to make the playoffs, how did Davos do in S79. Orders of magnitude better than they did in S78. In S78, Davos went 26-40-6. Their 58 points was worth last place in the European Conference and only better than the poor Vancouver Wolves who only managed 53 points. In contrast, Davos posted a record of 35-30-7 in S79. Their 77 points (19 better than S78) propelled them to 4th place out of 8 in the European Conference. A big part of their success was their ability to cut their goals for vs. goals against differential by 38 points (-55 in S78 vs. -17 in S79). This was accomplished by both scoring more goals and allowing fewer from the one season to the next. In S78, the Dynamo allowed 242 goals and scored only 187. In S79, they cut their goals against down to 227 and broke the 200 goal mark netting the puck 210 times. To the Future! In just about every single way, the Dynamo performed remarkably better in S79. This is thanks to some really key veteran acquisitions and a developing youth contingent. The future looks bright as those veterans have already resigned and the younger players just continue to get that much better. Better enjoy your time at the top, Malmo. It may be short-lived. 575 words

1. Why does Gustav never give me enough time to prepare good questions? Because he wants you to look bad in comparison to him. 2. Who asks better questions me or Gustav? You both ask completely and utterly exactly the same quality of questions. 3. We have proved ourselves as the most dominant Purple, what do you have to say to Prague?\\ Suck it. 4. What do you think the hardest mode of earning TPE is? How can it not be the Media Spot. 1,000 words?! 5. Best graphic/media spot you saw this season? To be fair, I have not followed closely enough to have an opinion. 6. What celebration will you do if we beat Malmo? Enjoy a nice red - maybe a Gigondas - with firends.

Please ping

1. With London selling off some of their assets, the 6th-place team in our conference should be expected to drop off somewhat, meaning that barring anything going horribly wrong...we're in the playoffs for the first time since S73! What's the first thing you're doing to celebrate? Invite some of my closest friends over to share a bottle of fine burgundy. 2. I've noticed throughout the season that our power play and penalty kill have been consistently terrible, even though I've been experimenting with our setup there just as much as I've been messing with the regular lines. If we had even average units there, do you think it would make much of a difference in the standings, or are Warsaw and Malmo just too far ahead? Might be too far ahead at this point, but one never knows how much ground can be made up. 3. With today being deadline day, the team directly below us in the standings in Prague has decided to make some roster moves. Though none are necessarily major, they've improved somewhat. Should we be any more worried about them than before, or is it business as usual? Nothing gained by worry. We've got our roster and now we have to perform on the ice. 4. Also with deadline day comes the emergence of recreates! Are there any new players (listed here) that you're particularly excited for? Hroch. Jabs is a good guy and will surely earn well. 5. What's a musical artist whose appeal you don't understand? Bjork. Or Yoko Ono. Of course, you did say "musical" so I'm not sure if either qualifies. lol 6. Who's someone you admire who isn't from the USA, Canada, or your own country (if it's neither of those two)? David Tenant, the actor. Scottish. He is amazing in so many different roles.

Learn something new every day. Thanks!

Bratislava’s logo is a tower? Or it looks more like a lighthouse with a wave? But the city is landlocked so is/was Bratislava known for its defense of the Danube?

Having actually won the Kevin Brooks Trophy for Most Goals in a Season with my prior player, Guy Lesieur, back in S75, I decided I wanted to take a little look back at the history of that award and more specifically how much it mattered to overall team success. A Big Caveat One huge caveat – to keep this within the work scope of a 500 word article, I only went back 10 seasons (S78-S69). This is obviously too small a sample to say anything definitive and the methodology is also not robust enough togive a clear answer to the question. But I think the research results are fairly interesting. Methodology First, on the methodology. I wanted to take a look at two indicators of success: point placement in the regular season and how deep did the Brooks Trophy winner’s team go in the playoffs that year. General Analysis and Fun Facts Before diving into the answers to the questions of team regular season and playoff success or failure, I would like to survey the last 10 years of history regarding the trophy. Fun Facts – The Skaters In the 10 years I examined, there were 7 different winners showing that the goal leader is not an easy task to accomplish with all the competition out there in the VHL. The most recent repeat winner was Mikko Lahtinen in S76 and S74. The really dominant force was Julius Freeman who won the Brooks in 3 different years: S69, S71 and with the only back-to-back win also in S72. Julius Freeman is also the only skater in the past 10 seasons to have won the award with two different teams – S69 and S71 with Vancouver and S72 with New York. Fun Facts – The Teams In the past 10 years, seven different teams have boasted having the Brooks Trophy winner on their team. Those teams were Chicago, Seattle, Moscow, D.C., L.A., New York, and Vancouver, however, it is Moscow with the most repeats (3) and Vancouver trailing behind (2). Regular Season Success The Brooks Trophy winner seems to make a huge impact on success in the regular season. A full half of the ten seasons studied, the award winner’s team came out absolutely on top and once they tied for first. The outright winners were: Moscow (S70, S74, and S76) and Vancouver (S69 and S71). Interesting as it means that EVERY time these two teams rostered the Brooks winner in the past 10 seasons, they won the regular season. Chicago tied with Warsaw in the regular season for most points with Robin Winter skating for the Windy City. The other 4 times the Brooks Trophy Winner’s team placed 4th (twice), 6th, and 13th (this latter being the one elimination. So, it seems apart from the one outlier 13th place playoff elimination, having the top goal scorer in the league leads to regular season success. Playoff Success But what about when the games matter most? Twice in 10 years the Brooks Trophy winner’s team won the cup: Seattle in S77 and Moscow in S70. There was also one team who lost in the finals: Chicago in S78. Conversely, there was only one team who was eliminated from the playoffs altogether. Beginning in S73 an additional playoff round was added with 4 teams competing to play-in to the later rounds, so it’s not apples and apples to determine success by how many rounds the team played in the playoffs. I will, instead, talk about whether a team won or lost in the first real round where all teams were competing. Of the 9 times when the Trophy winner’s team made the playoffs, only once did a team go out in the first real round – Moscow in S74. Avoiding an early exit seemed to be much more likely if you had the Brooks winner on your team. However with “only” 3-Cup appearances for the Brooks winner’s team out of 10 tries (30%), having the top goal scorer certainly didn’t guarantee ultimate success. Conclusion Looking at all the data from this admittedly small sample size it seems to confirm the overall hockey common knowledge. The regular season is one thing and anything can happen in the playoffs. 699 words - cliaming the theme week bonus this week and the capped portion week of 8/29

1. This week is THEME WEEK! And the topic is VHL Awards. Our topic can sometimes be controversial--do you think the blue team picked out a fun one this week? Why or why not? It's ok. Certainly hockey related and pertinent to the league. I have been having trouble coming up with something since I don't know that much about the league, but I may have something now. 2. Speaking of VHL Awards and theme week, have you done a point task on the topic this week (or do you plan to)? If so, what's it about? Probably not. Already sent in a VHL.com replacement claim. 3. We've been losing in overtime quite a bit lately. What do you think other teams are doing differently to keep their composure after regulation? Ludes? Truly, I don't know. 4. Another opportunity for some extra earning came this week when the commissioners asked us for our suggestions on making the league better. Whether or not you've commented in the thread, what's something you'd like to see the league do to improve itself? Player profile pics on the player pages. Any way to get more graphics on the site. 5. More on the topic of suggestions, one of mine was to formally rework how press conferences are done--instead of being asked six questions and answering them all and having to wait for questions to go up every week, my idea was to have every post consist of three answers to previous questions and three questions to be answered by someone else, making it so anyone could do a press conference at any time and everyone interacts with someone different every week. This is something we could do informally as well--would you like us to try it, or are you happy with how things are now? I'm happy now and I'm game to give it a go. If I understand though, we might have more hangups than now waiting for someone to post the next three questions. 6. Time for a third question about the suggestion thread--go to the thread (here's the link again, also in question 4) and find a suggestion you like. What is it and who made it? Don't be afraid to tag the author for some positive recognition. Some sort of twice-a-year match-up on a mutually agreed sim platform (EA NHL?) between SHL and VHL. Pick an all-star team from each league and have a 7 game series. Can make it into some sort of charity event. Made by McKelvie.

Claiming week 2 of 2. I do plan to submit a theme week MS, but I will claim the capped portion of that next week.

1. Is there a way to simulate a real live stream like PBE has? I know that text is generated for the game as it progresses and I wonder if that could be fed as it happened to either this forum or the various discord LRs. The latter is preferable as everyone has that on their phone and follows easily, but forum a little less so. I'm sure it's probably almost impossible or fully impossible, but if only the games for the team your player is on could be piped to the LR, that would be awesome. I'm not sure how many will tune in when it is just a massive text stream, but might if they could tune in for their player. 2. VHL has the best presentation of the forum, I think, than any other league I'm in, but I'd like to continue in that vein. Graphics are cool and add to the flavor of the game. PBE has its graphical stream which just can't be beat, but can we place player pics in places like the player page and/or the update page? Users would have to submit a prepared pic to size requirements, but it could be pretty cool. 3. Force GMs and AGMs on to their own teams as at least the PBE does - and I think SHL and ISFL? It is just completely too weird to have a GM's player playing for another VHL team. Splits loyalties, splits focus of the GM, causes awkwardness of being able to talk strategy in the LR. Just why? I'm not likely to ever be a GM in the VHL, but it would be a huge turn-off for me that things are as they are. I'll hammer away at the focus issue. I don't want my GM concerned about any other team than my player's. Fortunately, my GM is on my team, but ... 4. Am I right in thinking AGMs get no TPE for the job? If so, change that. Please.

1. What car do you drive? A rockin' Honda Fit. 2. Where is your dream vacation spot? Wales 3. Where would you not want to be on vacation? Soviet Union.....oh, I mean Russia....no, I think I mean the Soviet Union. 4. What is the next position you will make in the VHL? Maybe D-man, but I don't know. I love playing on the front line. 5. What would be a funny name for a VHL player? Tie Domi. He's a joke, right? 6. The blues are looking for a fourth commish who should get the role? Anyone but me.

Cool! Gave Hummus God from PBE your discord and he said he'd reach out.

See if this will work: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1112440426

I recently watched a twitch stream that was made up of the commissioners of six different sim leagues. Those present were: PBE, SHL, ISFL, SCFL, EFL, and GFSA. Can you see who was not present? Yes, yes, the SBA, but who really cares about that? lol No, our beloved Beketov was not there to represent the VHL. I want to explore why that was the case, why it was super cool, why we should be working to get into the next round, and what I’m doing about it from my humble little end. Why the VHL was Conspicuously Absent from the Stream It is pretty simple. Bek didn’t know about it, because Bek and the VHL were not invited. SBA wasn’t either before anyone goes off on that tangent. Well, here’s a fair point. You can’t participate in something you don’t know anything about and you are not invited to. And as much as it could be a lot of fun to whip ourselves up into an “us vs. them; why is VHL always being pooped on?” frenzy, I believe there is nothing sinister afoot. Basically, the people on the stream were already in contact with one another based on a shared charity effort and just naturally tried to get things going with those they already had a recent relationship with. These leagues had worked together to raise money for COTA (The Children’s Organ Transplant Association). I believe we were invited to join that effort, but declined simply because we had already done some charity work recently and you need to space those kinds of efforts out some. Why It Was Super Cool There were several things that were fun about the stream from the very, very simple to the more profound that could have a huge affect on our league. One of the very simple things that was fun was just getting to put a face with a voice that has been heard on streams of games and other league events or a “voice” that just comes across in the written word. People rarely look like I picture them. Another thing that made the stream so interesting is that users from each of the leagues had the opportunity to submit questions for the panel ahead of time and could even give a shout out to favorite people in shared leagues that were announced by the moderator from time to time. Some of these questions were actually quite thought provoking asking, for instance, about how Covid has affected our leagues and what will happen when things open up and people have more opportunity to leave their computer screens and interact in the “real world”. Other questions talked about how different leagues handled similar issues like player progression and what tech solutions might work in other leagues. And yet other questions just led into great, funny stories about things that have happened in the leagues over time – just pure fun. It was also just great to see the crossover between the leagues that we all know about, but to also learn about leagues we’ve never been exposed to. For me, the GFSA and SCFL fall into that category. Seeing all these different people in the various leagues – some in multiple leagues and others in only one – also made me feel like part of something bigger. Not just the VHL, but the sports simming universe as a whole. Fun! And it was cool to get a bit better understanding of the army of very dedicated and hard-working people it takes to run a sim league and to remember that they are really doing the work simply so the rest of us can have as enjoyable experience as possible. Very cool and when you are confronted with some real jerks in your life, it’s nice to be shown all these selfless people as well. Why the VHL Should Be Working to Be Involved in the Next Stream Ok, didn’t I just say it was fun? But to delve a bit deeper, I think there are three more specific reasons we should want to be involved. Participating in a stream like this just gets you a little more excited about our hobby. That excitement translates into greater commitment to the VHL and makes for a better experience in our own user-created hockey universe when we return from the shared twitch stream. Interest in any league can wax and wane. These kinds of special events can help recharge the batteries. Great ideas are shared in these kinds of streams that can materially change the user experience of another whole league full of people. Our systems (banking, updating, etc.) are top notch, but anything can be improved upon. And the SHL banking system was acknowledged as superior to other similar money-based leagues and with the SHL commish promising to start conversations with their tech team about what it would take to port it over to another league, it might just find its way into a few more leagues. We might not need the help in banking, but what other improvements might we find in other areas if we were in regular contact with all the other leagues in such a public forum? Finally, this kind of forum is an excellent tool for recruiting to each of the leagues. These people are already sold on the fun of sim leagues. Many are in two, but know little about the third and fourth. Great stories are told that make it sound like so much fun in that new league they are learning about. People are impressed with the way a commissioner handles themselves and they think, “I ought to join that league. They seem to really know what they’re doing.” We would surely get that benefit if Beketov were able to be part of the panel. Multiple people on the panel reported a large boost in recruiting after the first stream and I am living proof that the second stream had a similar effect. I had retired my ISFL player a while ago, but the stream got me charged up again and after thinking it had been a long enough rest, I recreated as a DE just this morning. I wouldn’t have even had the ISFL on my radar had I not watched the stream and had it not been so interesting. Steps Am I Taking to Get the VHL On Screen for the Third Stream First, I had already contacted Bek to see why no VHL this time around. That has put the opportunity on our commissioner’s radar. And I’m writing this Media Spot, right? That raises awareness in the whole VHL community. I’ve also already followed up with my PBE commissioner and received a promise to keep the VHL front and center of any plans for an eventual third stream of sim league commissioners. I’m going to contact my SHL and ISFL commissioners as well. I think this is a great league and I want us represented. Conclusion If we want this niche hobby of sports sim leagues to thrive, it is going to be important that we always look for new and creative ways to promote it. I think this stream of a panel of sim league commissioners is one of these ways. 1207 words: Claiming for the weeks ending 8/15 and 8/22