ROOKIE745

And so it begins

Hello readers and welcome to our third quarterly report for the season, we are nearing the end and teams are pushing hard to confirm their spot in the post season, we continue to look at players who are stepping up and perhaps those that are floundering a little bit. One player who is not is Jonathan Ori, it seems he took last quarter to heart and turned it up a notch for this one, he managed to put up 26 points in 18 games, he's done this twice before and falls short of his personal best 28 points in 18 games, something he did back int the final quarter of season 81 with 14 goals and 14 assists. For this time around he scored 7 goals and 19 assists, something a little more in line of what he expect from him. This puts him up to 21 goals and 40 assists on the season, only 4 assist away from 400, 1 goal away from 150 and 5 away from 550 points. Ori is also only four goals away from tying is career high in a season, that being 25, it would be a good way to go out, by having best goal scoring season right at the end of your career. With Ori returning to his better passing numbers hitting 400 career apples is no longer a concern. Finally for his faceoff numbers it's his best yet, winning 442 of 736 for a 60.05 winning percentage, his best of the season so far. The season is nearing it's end and it's sad knowing next quarter will be Ori's final, let's hope he goes out on a high note and has a successful playoffs with the Dragons, the defending champions! (word count 289)

claiming for second and final time

First thing I wanna say for this piece is that I was struggling to find the motivation to type it up and also what exactly I was gonna focus it on, there's a few ways I could have gone with this but after watching Spyro's podcast and him talking about the early to mid S70's it gave me exactly what I was gonna talk about for this piece. As I'm nearing the end of Ori's career and taking a break in general from the league it dies feel like a good time to look back at how I started and offer a few tips along the way. In fact the first thing I'll say here and now is pay close attention to your own motivation in the league, if your ever starting to feel worn out or starting to dread doing TPE tasks cut back on how much you do or take a week or two off, you don't wanna because frustrated and burned out like I am getting to. I made a promise to myself to max cap every week for Ori and I didn't come this close to fail now! Now to actually get this seriously started we have to look back to season 69, funny number I know but I joined a little over halfway through the season and joined the Halifax 21st as my first team, FonziGG was my first GM. I joined at a fun time as the Saskatoon Wild went on to set one of the best VHLM records ever in the regular season and in the post season won the cup, I will always remember that we were able to take a game off the Wild that playoffs, and that my first player Jaxx Hextall faced 40 or more shots for all but one game. Both of my first drafts were interesting experiences, each of them kind of making it feel like no one had faith in me but for those who did I went on to make them proud. In my VHLM draft there most have been confusion about whether I was going up to the VHL or not because I slid deep into the draft, I was at 191 TPE at the time of being drafted and fell to 32nd overall in the third round, finally being picked up by Rayzor and Mr Hatter that ran the since moved to VHLE Minnesota Storm. For them they got a free upgrade in net essentially and what made it more humorous for me was the fact I was replacing the same goalie I had taken over from in Halifax, the Storm had picked them up during the off season probably with the intent of them being the starter but then I fell into their hands for free, one more thing to note was that I reached the 250 TPE VHLM limit before the season started, so you can say that the Storm got a max TPE player at 32nd overall haha. Season 70 in general remains my most accomplished season with winning the Founders Cup in a playoffs where we never lost in regulation, and a regular season where we would post the third best record of the S70's, 61-8-3. Hextall won the Benoit Devereux Trophy as best goalie with 10 shutouts that season, he also won the playoff MVP Skylar Rift Trophy with a 12-0-2 record with a 2.22 GAA and .907 save percentage. He shares this award with his two rivals Lafontaine and Spyro who both won it the season prior. Going back just a little I had both my VHLM and VHL draft in the same season, so before the M draft I had my VHL draft where unfortunately I would get BPA'd, in other words picked by the the system as I was deemed best player available. As a first gen this was pretty disheartening as it felt like you weren't going somewhere you were wanted and that GM's weren't willing to take a risk on you since your new, doesn't help the GM of Davos never reached out to me either, this has kind of left me with a sour taste in my mouth about Davos I have to say. Thankfully it wasn't very long before Peace had reached out to me who had just taken over as the Toronto's Legions general manager position. I know Enorama, the person who brought me to the VHL was trying to trade for me well but Toronto had the better trade offer. As Toronto was heading into a rebuild it made season for my still young player to stay in the M for season 70, less he get destroyed in the VHL, of course again this lead to me sliding in the M draft and becoming an absolute steal for the Storm. One thing I've always stood my and any advice I'd give for a first gen player is don't try to do everything at once, I know some people learn very quickly and come in and max cap immediately but take your time, do the easier tasks first like just making sure to claim practice, welfare, press conference and get some help on trivia questions. Two of these are just clicking a button, one is answering six questions and the other is answering sometimes rather obscure questions, can be a little hit or miss but your GM in most cases should be able to point you in the right direction. Even if you don't do trivia just doing those other tasks will net you eight TPE and take little to no time, if you just stay active my experience is that you will be rewarded with more playtime. Will you feel up for it you can take on articles, graphics or podcasts and start doing the big 6 TPE point tasks. I would go on to play seven seasons for the Toronto Legion as a starting goaltender and unfortunately it was a fairly rough time, I stayed dedicated to the team though and Hexy will always be known as one of the greats there. Drafts to this remain probably the most exciting time in my opinion and brought me the most joy as a first gen player, and both my first experiences are ones I'll remember for both good and bad reasons. Going with a goalie as a first player was a little rough but I was lucky enough to go to a team where I was planned as the future starter and never had a season as the backup, though if you wanna call me the back up in season 69 since I only played 32 games fair enough. You can only be a first gen player once and my first time was definitely one to remember, hope ya'll enjoyed reading this and that's there's something you can take away form it. (word count 1143)

1. Passing, just the kind of build and focus I like, pass first!! 2. Not on the team and it's deeper into the season now sooo... all I can say is it's looking rough. 3. Been very busy this season and haven't been looking around plus not on the team, I'll say Ed Nu. 4. Defensively is probably better all but offensively is fun. 5. Video games of course!! 6. Gonna say let's stick with humans and just have super fast replays that they can check, that should be possible in 2065 no?

100% I am!! Would love to get Slapshot in it too.

awww man, this would have been such a fun one to be on, could have talked about a lot of first gen stuff!! Glad I was mentioned in it and would be fun to do one with ya sometime!!

Hey congrats man, if Hexy wasn't my first player or had I got use to everything quicker I might have been able to take a run at the TPE goaltender record but alas, it was not meant to be. Glad your gonna break it and I look forward to how high you go with Booberry!!

Greeting VHL goers and welcome to our second quarter report, in this episode we're back looking at Ori. This first half of the season hasn't been awful for the Canadian center but we get the feeling he isn't entirely happy with his own play either. He did end up one point under a point per game which is always frustrating, while he doesn't talk about it often he does expect to be a point per game each season, of course he always wants to do more then that but it's a minimum for him. So halfway through the season he's got 35 points in 36 games, that means 17 points this quarter, 9 goals and 8 assists. Ori has always been known as a passer so seeing him with more goals then assists is weird, this always means that halfway through the season Ori has only gotten 21 assists, he needs 23 more if he is to hit 400 career assists. One notable fact to mention is that coming into quarter two Ori had scored in his last four games, he would continue that for nine more games, bringing him to a 13 game point streak, very impressive. Finally for faceoffs his win percentage is pretty close to the first quarter, 704 taken and 411 won, 58.38 win percentage, so all he did was flip the 3 and 8. Ori is gonna need to step it up a notch or two in the second half of the season if he is to hit 400 career assists and finish in the 80 point range. Time will tell and we look forward to the rest of the season, until next time folks!! (word count 280)

Claiming for second time Dec 04

Greeting readers, welcome to part two of our look at who the best M teams are of the S70's. We're out of the bottom of the barrel now and looking at teams that managed slightly better but still didn't achieve too much... For the most part, we do have our first team to win a founder's cup here. With that we can begin! Mississauga Hounds Record: 325-358-37 Rank: 9th with 862 points Goals for: x3 Conference finals: x0 Goals against: x3 Cup finals: x3 Goal differential: x2 Founders Cup: x0 Top Team: x2 Points: 687+175 The Mississauga Hounds have quite the interesting story from this decade, as you can see three cup finals but were never able to bring it home, there’s more to it though and we'll talk about it when we get to it. The Hounds had three stand out seasons during the decade, the rest of them for the most part were pretty forgettable, for instance they started off the decade 16-52-4 and they liked that record so much they would repeat it the following season, I'm not kidding this happened a few times and each occasion it had me doing a double take. Season 72 did see them rise in the standings with a record of 45-23-4 but no progress in the postseason. Next season was another one of rebuilding, 17-47-8 but thankfully they would turn it around faster this time, the following season they reached new heights with a record of 53-18-1, finishing top three in goals for and against and in the playoffs they went on a run. They took out the Wild in an easy five game series, took out the Rush in six before the Marauders swept them aside in a pretty big upset. You might want to remember this for down the road. While losing to a team with 21 less wins then you is no doubt frustrating, Hounds focused on the future and went right into rebuild mode Season 75 came with a record of 19-46-7, the following season was mostly one of them building up as they only improved slightly, going 26-42-4. Season 77 was the big one for them, earning the second best overall record of the decade, the team went 62-10-0, they were top three in all goal categories, the top team of course and went to the finals for a second time. This time the Hounds would take out the Bulls in five in the first round, Halifax 21st in the second round and in the finals, an old familiar face, the Miami Marauders would sweep them to the side yet again, not even a challenge for them. Frustrated again I'm sure all one can do is move on, entering a rebuild for the final time of the decade they had their worst record of 15-56-1. Season 79 was another one above 50 wins, 56-12-4 they were the top team yet again along with top three in all goal categories, they beat the Marlins in five, struggled past the Kings in seven only to meet, you guessed it, the Marauders in the finals yet again. Third time was not the charm sadly for the Hounds as they were beaten 4-1.... at least it wasn't a sweep? To put this in perspective, the Hounds have a record of 1-12 against the Marauders in the playoffs, ya that's not good. The Hounds were a very feast or famine team, granted part of that is just the nature of the M but three out of the four times they made it they went to the finals, it just so happened that every time they made it, so did they're arch nemesis, if wasn't for that who knows, we could be talking about how the Hounds won two or three cups during the decade, but we don't live in that timeline. Las Vegas Aces Record: 364-301-55 Rank: 8th with 863 points Goals for: x2 Conference finals: x4 Goals against: x1 Cup finals: x0 Goal differential: x1 Founders Cup: x0 Top Team: x0 Points: 783+80 Our second team of today is one that barely squeaked ahead of the Hounds via one point, while the Hounds got 95 more bonus points than the Las Vegas franchise, the Aces manage to pass them with better regular season records. Aces started the season off in a rebuild, going 19-48-5 but would see a number of successful seasons following it, in season 71 the team amassed a record of 41-27-4, finished top three in goals for and took out the Reapers in five before falling to the Rush in round two. The team did better in the regular season in S72, earning a record of 48-22-2 and finishing top three in goals against this time but they had no luck in the playoffs. Season 73 saw the team stay near the same record, going 46-21-5 but getting no bonus points. Season 74 would be the best the team got in the regular season, achieving a record of 51-14-7 and finishing top three in goals for and differential, in the postseason they beat the Kings in five but lost to the Marauders in a close seven game series. Now at the halfway mark of the decade, S75 saw them stay successful, 42-25-5 and for a third time in the playoffs they got out of the first round, this time against the Saskatoon Wild, a hard fought seven game series but round two saw the Kings get revenge and push them aside in five. This was the last time Las Vegas earned a record of 40 plus wins, the following season they went 32-33-7, and followed that up with a 35-27-10 record in S77. They did manage to make the playoffs that year and got out of the first round for a fourth time, beating the Wild in five before Miami swept them. Season 78 the team bottomed out at 12-55-5, only makes sense after a number of seasons above 30 and 40 wins. For their final season of the decade they had a nice enough bounce back, winning more than half their games with a record of 38-29-5 though nothing came of it in the postseason. I don't have to say that the Aces were a good, respectful team but never quite became a threat as a true contender, you had to respect them in the first round but they could never get past the second. Ottawa Lynx Record: 356-320-44 Rank: 7th with 906 points Goals for: x2 Conference finals: x0 Goals against: x2 Cup finals: x1 Goal differential: x2 Founders Cup: x1 Top Team: x1 Points: 756+150 Our last team for part two is the Ottawa Lynx, our first Founders Cup winners on the list. There's a level of deja vu for me here, the Lynx started off the decade very strong and kind of melted away into obscurity from there. Season 70 the team had a record of 56-11-5, were top three in goals for and differential and made it all the way to the finals, sweeping the Kings in the first round, beating the Marlins in six before losing to the Minnesota Storm in six. Clearly the Lynx were mad because the next season they only got better, going 59-12-1 for the sixth best record of the decade, finishing as the top team that season as well as top three in all goal categories. In the postseason the Lynx wasted no time, sweeping the 21st, beating the Marlins in six again and sweeping the Rush in the finals. It seems like once Ottawa got its cup for the decade they kinda just gave up? Next season was a big drop although they still won half their games, 36-30-6 was their record and they were top three in goals against amazingly enough. The team did bounce back for next season with another 50 win season, 52-18-2, despite the good regular season they were unable to make any headway in the playoffs. Season 74 was another drop back down to winning half their games, 36-28-8. The first half of the decade was good all things considered for the Lynx, a cup finals and winning the cup not to mention winning at least half their games every season, but the second half of the season is one they wish they could forget, they wouldn't win half their games for the rest of the S70's. A 13-57-2 record for season 75, season 76 would be their closest to getting back to relevance with a 33-34-5 record. Season 77 they earned a record of 25-42-5 and for the finals two seasons they decided to just do the same thing, a record of 23-44-5 for both season 78 and 79. This team crashed hard in the second half and is really what sunk them, they easily could have been a top four team with better regular season and another series win or two in the playoffs. I thought they would be higher myself but clearly I only remember them during the early S70's. At the very least this franchise can say they won a cup during the decade and that is more than what some other teams can say. (word count 1548) (Editor's note: As I was finishing up the series, I was re-checking numbers and realized I forgot to include 15 extra points for the Las Vegas Aces, while this isn't much it was enough to put them ahead of the hounds by the one point, I apologize to Aces fans everywhere, you were better than the Hounds in the S70's)

Greeting VHL readers, welcome back to out quarterly reports, it's season 86 now and we're one step closer to reaching season 100! Every season brings the end for some players, and for Jonathan Ori that time is coming. He's in his final season of VHL play before he must venture elsewhere to continue playing or, he could hang 'em up and become a play by play or an analyst, time will tell but we're getting ahead of ourselves here. For Ori this was just another set of 18 games to play and he did well, being exactly a point per game. 5 goals and 13 assists puts him at 18 points. He also hit a major milestone near the end of the quarter achieving 500 career points. Ori has never hit 100 points in a season before so it's unlikely he'll score enough to make it to 600 but it's not the last big milestone he can reach, Ori currently sits at 369 career assists, he'll easily surpass 400 before the season is done. Ori has never been a big goal scorer but he should hit 150 before the season is over. Finally for faceoffs Ori took 753 and won 443 of them, leading to a 58.83 winning percentage. Overall just what about you expect from the Canadian center, we'll see you for the next report soon! (word count 227)

1. Mostly shooters, the likes of Destiny 2, Overwatch 2, recently started playing Evil West, trying to clear out some of my backlog honestly. 2. Probably of one of my favorite video game characters. 3. Only leg day, cause it's important. 4. Philippines, meet one cool people from there. 5. I guess something like Tim Hortons lol 6. It's not to rough, I believe you guys can improve!!

It's been quite the journey, two players, been playing since season 69 (nice) and now we're heading into season 86. I've seen the league expand a lot in just the 17 seasons I've been here, four new teams to the VHL, one new to the VHLM before two were moved to the VHLE, a whole new league brought in in season 80. I am by new means one of the older timers here, I don't feel like it at least. Still plenty of people here who have players in the S50's and S40's, hell I'm sure even earlier. Maybe once I get to like 30 or 40 seasons in I can call myself an old timer here on the site. Very much looking forward to Jonathan Ori's last season and looking forward to having a break afterward. Should be no surprise that after max capping for about two years that I am struggling a little bit, my creative juices are running low for hockey topics, I still want to write up big projects but I want it to be none hockey topics. Perhaps working on video game topics and such. That's for the feature though, still got this season to finish and I'm excited to see my efforts for the past year plus to get Orin into the top 25 on the TPE list. He's passed my first player and he's not far from 1600, 1700 might even be possible from the looks of it. Well I've filled this up, best of luck to you all!! (word count 256)

Claiming for second time and PT doubles from store purchase (may still be in the progress of getting approved)

Greeting readers! Welcome to what is basically a follow up from the series I did earlier, this time focusing on looking at the teams in the VHLM. The M did not see any major expansions during the S70's like the VHL did, it was pretty stable the whole way through, only one team was added and that was the Miami Marauders in season 72. For this reason there will not be a separate expansion ranking, as one team being added and only missing two seasons instead of three isn't enough of a difference to warrant a whole extra list. For this list I used the same rules and bonus points as I did for the VHL ranking. Since the M doesn't have an equivalent to the Victory Cup I simply changed it to be called "top team". With that out of the way we can start breaking it down, starting with the bottom three teams of course. Halifax 21st Record: 315-356-49 Rank: 12th with 734 points Goals for: x2 Conference finals: x1 Goals against: x1 Cup finals: x0 Goal differential: x2 Founders Cup: x0 Top Team: x1 Points: 679+55 Man what is it with the teams being near and dear to my heart being near the bottom? Toronto Legion were close to the bottom in the VHL and now the Halifax 21st, dead last by 75 points. Halifax was the very first team I played for, all the way back in season 69 so sadly I didn't play for them in this decade, maybe that was for the best though? On a serious note though the 21st had a rough go of it, with only three seasons where they won more than half their games. The decade started off rough with the team going from a 20-50-2 record, to 19-47-6 and then 21-46-5. While you would think they missed the playoffs in all three seasons they did not, in season 71 they actually did make it to the playoffs with only 19 wins, that's what happens when you have 8 out of 11 teams make it to the playoffs. Now you would think the team was bound to bounce up with the low placements and getting better draft picks, alas you would be wrong. The season following they would put together the worst record of the entire S70's, attaining a record of 4-63-5, one of only three teams to have a season with less than ten wins. Frankly I'm speechless at such a record but what's remarkable and perfectly speaks to the up and down nature of the VHLM is that their following season they earned the best record of the S70's, that's right, the same team owns both the best and worst record of the decade. Season 74 they put a record together of 64-7-1, an improvement of 60 wins!! I'm not sure where it stands in terms of the history of the M but it's only four wins behind the S69 Saskatoon Wild. However despite the regular season success, being top three in all goal categories and being the top team, they flopped in the playoffs, getting upset in seven games by the 66 point team Miami Marauders, a team that had about half the points Halifax did.After that bomb shell in the playoffs Halifax fell hard, but they didn't return to being a bottom feeder, at least not as much. S75 they went 35-33-4 and followed that in S76 by going 26-41-5, two more forgettable seasons for the 21st, S77 saw them jump up to a record of 39-26-7 and finally win their first and only playoff series of the decade, beating Minnesota in six games but then bowing out against the Hounds the same number of games. Season 78 saw them take a huge jump up, going 54-13-5 and finishing second in the M and being top three in goals for and differential. They were out in the first round however, falling to the Bulls in a close seven game series. For their final season they fell by 21 losses, going 33-30-9. And that's it for the Canadian franchise, the only notable thing about the team during this decade was that crazy good season they had, again that was the best of the decade but passed that there's nothing else to speak about. Houston Bull Record: 326-362-32 Rank: 11th with 809 points Goals for: x2 Conference finals: x3 Goals against: x2 Cup finals: x1 Goal differential: x2 Founders Cup: x0 Top Team: x1 Points: 684+125 The Houston Bulls are a team that really experienced being in all three different positions, three seasons above 50 wins, three seasons as a middling team in the 30 win column and four seasons as a bottom feeder with 18 or less wins. The decade started off strong for them going 52-17-3, being top three in goals against and winning in the first round, sweeping the Reapers before being swept by the Minnesota Storm, yea sorry about that by the way. Next season saw them drop hard, going 18-46-6, if thought that was bad enough they were even worse next season, going 8-60-4, dead last for the season and the second worst record overall of the decade. Much like Halifax though they drafted well and saw a huge bounce back in S73, going 55-16-1, being top three in goals for and differential, in the playoffs they beat the Aces in six before again being outed by the Storm in five. As is to be expected the team saw a steep drop off afterwards, dropping 40 wins and going 15-52-5, next season saw a decent jump up to 31-39-2. However they were truly building for S76, 61-10-1, top three in all goal categories, top team and making it all the way to finals. They took care of the Reapers in five, swept the Rush in four and had a hard fought seven game series with the Kings but ultimately fell in the end. This would be the peak for the Bulls of the decade, they have one of the five 60 win records of the S70's which isn't something to scuff at, it's the fourth best. S77 was a drop as one would expect although it wasn't as bad, 36-32-4, S78 was a small improvement going 39-28-5 and winning in the first round of the playoffs, upsetting Halifax in a close seven game series before getting taken out by what seems to be their arch nemesis, the Minnesota Storm 4-0, ya sorry about that one as well. Houston would end the decade going into rebuild mode, going 11-60-1, nothing else to add to that. Minnesota for this decade just seems to be a team the Bulls have a mental block against, they lost three times to them and the one time they made it to finals they didn't have to worry about them, it's kinda like how the Capitals just couldn't beat the Penguins for the longest time, the Bulls just couldn't beat the Storm during the S70's, and my player was there for two of them. San Diego Marlins Record: 352-333-35 Rank: 10th with 844 point Goals for: x2 Conference finals: x5 Goals against: x2 Cup finals: x0 Goal differential: x2 Founders Cup: x0 Top Team: x0 Points: 739+105 Finishing off part one we have the San Diego Marlins, a team much like Houston that had some high points, middling points and low points. Following Houston's lead they had a strong first season, going 58-10-4, finishing top three in goals for and differential, in the playoffs they swept the Rush before the Lynx did away with them in six. The Marlins didn't experience much of a drop in their follow up season, achieving a record of 42-28-2 and making the playoffs again, they took out the Storm in six before again getting beaten by the Lynx in six. Marlins would enter rebuild mode and go 10-60-2 which is the fourth worst record of the decade, coming out of it they went 51-19-2, going into the playoffs they got revenge on the Lynx in the first round beating them in five but in the second round they once again fell, this time to the Marauders in another painful six games. The Marlins repeated the same loop of entering a hard rebuild, this time achieving the third worst record of the decade and one of three records with less than ten wins, 9-58-5. Coming out of that team's worst record for the S70's, they copied they're record from two seasons prior, 51-19-2. Despite the exact same record this time they were top three in all goal categories, what didn't change was results in the playoffs. They would get revenge on the Marauders beating them 4-0 but lose for a fourth time in the second round, this time to the Reapers in five. Once again San Diego hit the rebuild button and went 11-58-3, the fifth worst record of the decade, so yes this team owns the the third, fourth and fifth worst records of the decade, and that puts you near the bottom with those kinds of numbers. Unlike previous seasons the team didn't experience a major bounce back, they jumped up to 37-28-7 which probably isn't what they were hoping for. That 50 win season they were probably betting on came next in S78, getting a record of 50-19-3 and finishing top three in goals against. For the fifth time the Marlins won in the first round but lost in the second, the story this time being them beating the Reapers in six before falling to the Rush in the same number of games. For the final season of the decade the team didn't go into a rebuild, instead they were middle of the road with a record of 33-34-5. While the Marlins have some of the worst records of the decade they beat out Halifax and Houston thanks to four 50 win seasons and getting out of the first round five times, that's really what hurts them the most though, their inability to get out of the second and to the finals, could have had a lot of more points if they were able to. (Word count 1694)

1. Hard to say since it does need to stay focused on the VHL for the most part right? I guess fun locations to expand to and such. 2. Maybe a slight step down? Nothing to major though, the team still seems really strong. 3. Three Days Grace or Eminem 4. The standard turkey and mash potatoes with gravy. 5. Well if he was still here Sigard, but I'll say Dusty instead. 6. Nope!! Just keep grinding away and be ready for Ori's last season!!

The VHL is approaching the end of an era, season 86 will be the final time we will see players drafted in the S70's playing, once the season is over it will surely spark a coversations of who were the best players drafted in the S70's. While these topics are fun it's definitely not on the minds of the players. While a number of season 79 draftees have opted to retire early, including two teammates Ori had in Seattle, he has decided to stick it out for his final season. "You only get one go around in the VHL, I wanna make the most of it." Ori told reporters. While moving from the west coast to the east coast is a big one it isn't quite as big as when he moved from Helsinki to Seattle, not only that but there is a familiar face in D.C for Ori. Nezuko was a number one draft pick back in season 81 for the Titans. He played for the Titans from S82 to S84 before heading to D.C and helping them on their way to winning the cup. Ori played with him on during the S82 and S83 seasons before he left for the Bears in S84. "It's good to see him again and always fun to be reunited with a former teammate. We've been taking a lot of drills together and he's giving me the tour around D.C. There's still new things he's learning despite having been here a year now." While Ori gets his barrings in D.C the Dragons are gearing up for the season, everyone is asking if they can defend their cup win, and well only time will answer that question. (word count 283)

review time: This was a great recap to read through with a lot of love put into it! Recapping the failed expectations from last season, to retirements and roster changes to the success of the season that ended not to long ago. A very good choice in pictures and good use of bold and a bigger font size helps with starting the next part of the story. My only real complaint here is the length of the last two paragraphs, they are definitely a little on the long side and could have used being split up for an easier reading experience. Overall though this is still a great MS and I think it deserves a 10/10.

review time: This was a fun interview to read with some a sense of humor, I to would be upset after the lose and not getting my "shipment" before the game, perhaps there was tampering? Anyway the post is well paced and spaced, it's an easy read with good replies from Marner. I wish there was a bit more flavor in the visual style though, good have put the replies in italics or put the questions in bold. Using a different font size to could have added a bit or underlines, I have to admit a picture of coke would have been a nice touch for this piece to. Overall a good read with some personality behind it. 8/10

1. San Jose Sharks, on their current roster Timo Meier or Tomas Hurtl. 2. Having spent a whole career there the Toronto Legion, long suffering franchise. 3. I really don't know, don't pay enough attention to see who is talked about all the time. 4. Moscow loose in the finals again? 5. Pizza, just pizza. 6. No, never am.

Transaction ID: 2EW21230Y55999917 doubles week 5 uncapped TPE 1 million store cash

The offseason can feel like it lasts forever sometimes, especially when you don't make the playoffs and or get eliminated early in them. For Ori this offseason feels very painful as it is his last. After next season Ori is forced to retire from the league so there isn't an offseason to be had, this is the last time he gets to look around and know he'll be back for another go around. "It's been very emotional for me this time around, things are up in the air, I don't know where I'll be playing and I have think about what comes next, it is good to plan for the future." Ori hasn't heard back from Bana yet but considering we're not far into the offseason for all teams yet it's understandable. Speaking of, the D.C Dragons won the cup and Ori was lucky enough to be there, now why was he there? Because none other than the Toronto Legion fan favorite goaltender invited him. "I go to the VHL playoffs whenever I can, I had a spare ticket and wanted to surprised someone, Ori is a player I've admired for some time and wanted to get to know him better, so I gave him a call and here we are. Lucky us that it just happened to be the game the Dragons won it all in." Said the Canadian netminder. Hextall of course never got to win the cup in the VHL but he did win one in the M, Ori is hopping he can end his career on a high note, just like some of the Dragons players who were playing their last season. (word count 276)

claiming for second time Nov 6th. also claiming for doubles

I wanna preference this at the start that I am not the most well informed on this but I do know it's been a talking point, admittedly I'm a little late to the conversation as I haven't seen as many articles or media spots on it lately but I needed something to talk about. I was around for eleven seasons before the E became a reality and I thought it did it's job fine enough. I know that it was basically go all in on winning or tanking and for sure it'd be great if they could find a way to solve the issue, but I guess part of my view of it has been that it's a necessary evil. Granted it's easy for me to say that, I'm just a player and I've never been on the board or even a general manager. New players could have a really great time in M or a horrible depending on the team they got on, I was fairly lucky in that Hexy got on a good team in season 69 with the Halifax 21st, and the run we had was very memorable and we were the toughest out for the titan that was the Saskatoon Wild that season. Hexy's follow up season was in Minnesota with a team that would go on to win the cup, and when I returned to the VHLM in season 78 with my new player Jonathan Ori, I was back in Minnesota and we went on a run to the finals, it was another great experience. I'm talking about this because I definitely feel lucky with the time I've had in the VHLM, but I can also imagine a lot of players that sat on tanking teams in very quiet locker rooms. Not always the GM's fault, could be just that no one else wants to join. VHL teams aren't free either I just think it's clear it's worse in the M. Talking about the E is harder because outside of the S79 event that had teams draft teams to determine their draft ranking (if my memory serves me correctly) which Ori was exactly at 400 TPE, the maximum one could be at, I haven't played in a proper VHLE season. I have to admit to that while I am more familiar with the M I know there have been changes that I have read but just don't remember. The purpose of the E (from my understanding) was to try and filter out the players who would drop off and to help players going into the VHL be more prepared, by this I mean you went in with a higher TPA number. This makes sense and it's something that would have benefited Ori himself since I wanted him in the VHL right away despite being in the high 200 or low 300 TPA range. (Of course it doesn't help that Helsinki was a team in a rebuild at the time) One other thing would be to help newer players in the M not getting stomped on by the higher TPA players, the more you raise that TPE in the M, the more stronger players dominate the newbies. It effects how much ice time a new player joins a team with recreates as the team of course wants to ice it's best players. I understand all of this and I can understand want the league was going for, but I have to say that in my personal opinion I do wish the E was cut. I think the E just makes the league feel a little bloated and probably makes it more complicated then it has to be? I admit that the idea of being in a extra draft is fun as I do think it's one of the most special things about a sim league, and there are positives I'm sure but I would like it if it was just the VHLM and VHL again. So the question is what about the VHLE teams, players, and TPE cutoff? As some remember I'm sure two teams were taken from the M and moved into the E, the Storm and the Rush. While I would love to have a team back in Minny thanks to all the great memories I have there, I have something else in mind, currently all the M teams are located in North America, I do think it'd be fun to do what the big league does and have an even split. The M currently has 10 teams, at it's peak it had 12, so do we go back to 12 or have more? I'd say more personally, could go to 14 or match the VHL with 16 teams. I know another problem would be "would there be enough players in the M to support 14 or 16 teams?" I don't have an answer for that, I don't have players counts and all that so this is something I leave up to other people to decide. For now let's say we go with 16 teams, there are 8 in the E so two of them have to be cut, let's say Watchmen and Express get the boot. Now we got the 16 teams but 10 of them are in North America so we need to relocate two teams, I admit it's harder to choose with the M teams because I'm more found of them, let's say the hounds and Bulls? (Sorry to all the fans of these teams) And now we have 8 NA teams and 8 EU teams. Now you have an M that can match the L in total games played and in the playoffs. So the teams are figured out what about the TPE cutoff? I believe it's 350 currently? Maybe 375? I've seen other people saying 275 or 300, I kinda fall right in the middle and say why not 325? I feel it's the best middle ground and I know it's still going to cause problems in the M and L but I don't believe there's a perfect solution to this. Finally for the players my answer is a pretty simple one, anyone above 300 TPE but lower than the 325 cutoff has the choice to move up but can also choose to stay in the M. Anyone under 300 stays in the M.... well is moved over to the M rather. Again not perfect and I don't envy the board for some of the choices they have to make, this is simply my two cents and what I would like to see, but I have no idea what the actual process is like or the logistics behind it. This turned out to be much longer then I thought it would be and I fully expect people to rip me apart and tell me my ideas are awful and how little I actually understand of the VHLM and VHLE, oh well, that's life. Thanks all for reading! (word count 1158)