Tagger

Just gonna post some art I do outside of VHL here for fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHpBhYQLR2c (Timelapse)
 

Haven't seen anyone claim this yet so I'll take this.

Hello All,
 
As you all know @Bushito has been gone for a little while now and that we promoted @Jubis to complete the duties as Interim General Manager. Jubis in doing so has done a fantastic job and even got the team to the finals! He has proven himself as a good fit for the squad. Because of this we have hired the following member to become the new General Manager of the Calgary Wranglers.
 
 
Congrats! I'm sure the Calgary Wranglers franchise is in good hands! You may now perform all duties of a full General Manager!
 
-Beaviss

1. The Toronto Legion forced the first series to 7 games. Going into game 7 how confident were you that the Wranglers would come out victorious ?
 
I knew we were going to win, we have the Bushito going away as GM legacy on our side!
 
2. Which Calgary Wrangler player has been your playoff MVP so far ? 
 
It's close between Gunnar and Dredge, but I'll give it to Dredge since he's had a GWG.
 
3. You just beat the Americans 3-1 on July 4th, in a game 5 showdown.  How important is winning game 5, in a 7 game series ? 
 
It's very important and I like it because I like winning games.
 
4. It is never good to look ahead but lets say you find a way to beat New York. You have Riga waiting for you in the finals. How well do think Calgary would match up vs Riga ?
 
It'll be interesting, Greg Eagles has had a very good playoffs but they've also had an easier run-in than say a team like New York, so hopefully if we were to get there we can provide him with a bit of a challenge.
 
5. Why has Home ice been so crucial for the S72 Calgary Wranglers ?   regular season ( 29-4-3) , current playoffs (4-1-0)
 
Because I've literally built my house in front of the goal and only I have the key to the doors
 
6. Do you do yoga as part of your daily training ?
 
I don't engage much in yoga but I do meditate. 
 

So expansion has been announced for Season 73 and with that comes an opportunity to write a somewhat unique article about an element of said extension and that’s the personal thoughts of a user who is based in the country which a VHL team has located to for the first time. So for anyone who knows me, has seen the sidebar under my username or has even listened to one of my podcasts for longer than five seconds, you’ll be aware that I am English. I am not from London though, I reside in Manchester which is the opposite side of the country (London is located in the south-east, Manchester in the north-west), but I do have relatives that live over there and likely would have been down there a couple of weeks ago had it not been for the current pandemic that affects us all. So what do I think of the VHL’s inclusion of the United Kingdom? Well, I’ll break it down into three parts:
 
What I think of the VHL creating a franchise in the United Kingdom What I think of the choice of team name What I think of the logo  
But before I go into those, I want to kick off with a couple of points regarding what I’ll be saying in this article.
 
Regardless of any positives or negative opinions regarding the following matters, a VHL franchise being based in the United Kingdom and choices made with its team name or logo will not affect any decision making when it would come to whether I want to play for them or not. When it comes to selecting a team, I’ve always favoured analysing team’s personnel (both players and staff) and how the current roster would help me achieve my goals over everything else. In the past, I had favoured a move to teams I hadn’t played for before just to “round out the set” (since at one point, I only had to play for Helsinki to have played for every VHL team), but consistent expansions have rendered this goal something that would take at least two, if not three, players to achieve and I don’t like the idea of switching teams frequently just to fulfil that goal. Whatever role that they may fill, I am appreciative to anyone who takes time out of their lives to assist the VHL. However, there will be times where I may disagree with an approach that has been taken or a decision that has been made. I don’t do this to belittle anyone or make them feel bad, I do this because I feel like the input that I can provide can potentially improve upon a current setup or potentially highlight an issue that may have been overlooked. I feel like the work that Da_Berr has put in to the logos for both the United and the Stars (a logo which I am a fan of) demonstrate that he is a very capable artist and while I disagree with some of the design choices (some of which relate to issues that would not be under his control anyway), I hope that I can convey my thoughts on those choices in this article in the way which I intend which is constructively.  
What I think of the VHL creating a franchise in the United Kingdom
 
If you were to come to me and ask “which European country would you like to see an expansion franchise located in?”, my answer would not actually have been one of the two that wound up being selected as I would have gone with Germany. Oddly enough, a team name that was used in this expansion would have been absolutely perfect for a German franchise in the Phoenix, as the new German team could rise from the ashes of the now defunct Cologne Express. That naming convention would also have matched what happened with what was then my local hockey team, the Manchester Phoenix, who were named as such after they joined the league following the folding of the Manchester Storm (although oddly enough, the Phoenix are now defunct and the Storm have returned to the league). However, it appears the league preferred locating franchises in countries that had yet to be represented, and if that was the case then the two countries that were selected are two of the better ones they could have picked (since I presume they didn’t want two in Western Europe).
 
 
What I think of the choice of team name
 
For those who are not familiar with the English soccer scene, the teams do not follow the same naming system as American/Canadian sports teams. Instead of a town or city name being followed with a unique team name (often represented with a mascot), the soccer teams in England follow more traditional roots and put a fairly standard name after their town/city name (common ones include Town, City and Rovers) or base their name on the areas they were formed from (E.g. Aston Villa was named as such because they played in Aston and their founders played for Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel cricket team, Crystal Palace was named after the building the founders owned, etc.). One of the more common names used is United, which is currently being used by 13 of the 72 teams in the English Football League system.
 
It is from this that I’m pretty sure the London United name came from. Funnily enough though, as you may have picked up from the previous section, our hockey teams follow the same naming system as NHL teams would, so it is a little weird to see our UK team go away from that given that we already follow that system in the real world. The good thing about the United name is that it does have some versatility to it in that the meaning of the word can allow it to be used as a Team Name, but at the same time it is difficult to represent the term United graphically. I don’t know which idea came first (out of the name United or the football badge design), but once one was decided, the other had to be done with it. Typically, I prefer it when teams have a matter of consistency to them, so I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest fan of going with a naming style which is predominantly used in the UK (even with the attachment I have to the United name considering my favourite soccer team is Manchester United) while other countries forgo their usual naming system to match with the VHL norm (E.g. Prague Phantoms and Riga Reign).
 
What I think of the logo
 
So I made an article about this a while ago, but I’m not the biggest fan of the VHL adopting soccer-style logos. As much as I like them ordinarily in their own environment, I prefer logos to be somewhat consistent in style, so I did not like seeing New York go in that direction with their logo. However, the fact that there are logos of that same ilk currently in the league means I am not as against the addition of the London United’s soccer-style logo in comparison to had it been the first of it’s kind in the VHL.
 
As for the logo itself, I’ll go over the features I’m a fan of first. I like the choice of the city-appropriate text, as it is the same style as the London Underground. I am also a big fan of the colour choice, blue has been quite a common choice for VHL teams (Helsinki and Toronto feature it mainly, but there also elements in Prague, Riga and New York) but I’m a big fan of Royal Blue and obviously fits with the choice of team location. Finally, with their decision to go with the soccer crest aesthetic, I like the decision to go with the blades and the castled outline around the badge.
 
Now to move on to the elements I am not so much a fan of. Firstly, I do not think that the Tower Bridge is the best choice of features to put in the middle of the flag. I can understand it’s inclusion given it’s importance and relevance to the city that the badge represents, but I feel like, given the outline of the badge, there were other options that would have been more fitting, like a mythical being or a lion (England’s national soccer team logo is a Lion). I think having two different types of architecture from two different eras (castles from the medieval times and Tower Bridge from the very late 1800’s) within the same graphic confuses things a little. I think my biggest criticism would be the decision to redesign the Union Jack. I don’t know if there’s a hidden design feature that I’m missing, but the Union Jack, one of, if not the most recognisable flags in the world, is missing two of it’s stripes (diagonally heading from the centre to each top corner). This is odd considering that there seems to be enough room to move the horizontal line down and include the missing stripes accordingly. In addition, the fact that it is included in itself acknowledges how well-known the UK flag is by itself, so to include it for those reasons and then change it upon including it is a design decision I don’t really understand.    
 
In conclusion, it isn’t my favourite logo, but definitely not my least favourite. There are elements and design choices that I like but also some core elements I would have definitely changed.
 
1,500+ words, 3 Weeks of use.

I figured one of the first things to look at which we hadn't been able to previous was going to Season 5 and comparing the attributes of Scotty Campbell during his best ever season to the other players in the VHL. The Team Roster page doesn't work on the regular season but luckily works on the Playoff Archive. Here's what stood out:
 
- Campbell had very high attributes in passing (97) and scoring (99). While a few other players had focused on getting their scoring to 99, only Joey Kendrick (98 Passing and Scoring) was equal to Campbell when it came to combined talent in both distributing and finishing. 
 
- Campbell had the best Face-Off rating (85) by some distance. 13 ahead of his nearest rival Robbie Zimmers, although given strength has some effect in face-offs, Campbell's closest rival was probably Scott Boulet (70 STR, 70 FO)
 
- Given his dominance, I was surprised to see Campbell as low as he was when it came to his skating attributes. His 84 skating was 12th in the league while his Puck Handling was 24th in the league.
 
- It was also interesting to get a proper glimpse into the level of goalies he was up against. The league's best goalie Maxim Desny had just three attributes in the 80's, while the league worst Toronto (who didn't win a single game in regulation) were playing a rookie goalie who had 81 TPA (both in this current era and the old one given that none of his attributes were at a point where he had to worry about the update cap) and had a GAA of 6.31. If that's the scale of goalies we were dealing with then, it's not really any wonder no-one has yet to break Campbell's numbers. 
 

Ayyyy I got picked for something thanks Tagger

Mikko Lahtinen  ?? - Jet Jaguar  ?? - Acyd Burn  ??
Chad Magnum  ?? - Scott Greene  ?? - Mat Tocco  ??
 
Condor Adrienne   - Lincoln Tate  ??
Luciano Valentino  ?? - Vladimir Pavlov  
Cinnamon Block  ??
 
Michael Johnson  ?? 
 

So during the early days of the UK lockdown when all sports were postponed, Sky Sports (A UK sports media company that has about 5 channels) had to find a way to fill their programming schedule and one of the things they had was "Carra's Challenge", which was named after the creator of said challenge former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher. The idea behind Carra's Challenge is that he'd have people pick their best XI (eleven players in a soccer side) with different parameters on who they could select in said XI. For example, one required you to name a best XI of players who were relegated, but no players could share the same nationality or team. 
 
So I figured I'd do something similar with the VHL. My challenge is as follows:
 
- Pick a two line team (6 forwards, 4 defenseman, 1 goalie) from players who have played in this VHL season. Forwards can play anywhere along the forward line but cannot be picked as defenseman and, in turn, defensemen cannot be selected as forwards.
- No player can share a nationality or a VHL team with any other player selected for the team. For this challenge, I will say that the team they represent currently is the only one you have to worry about (E.g. Jet Jaguar played for Moscow and Davos, but you only have to count him as a Davos player) although maybe I'll do another one later which makes a traded player counts for both teams he played for to give an extra challenge. 
- Once you've picked your two line team, you can add a player from the team you haven't picked as a spare. They can be either a forward, defenseman or a goalie, but like the other players, they cannot share a nationality with one of the other players. 
 
So this was my attempt at the challenge:
 
Forwards (LW - C - RW)
 
Julius Freeman  ?? - Jet Jaguar  ?? - RJ Jubis  ??
Mat Tocco  ?? - Hiroshi Okada  ?? - Mikko Aaltonen  ??
 
Spare: Chad Magnum  ??
 
Defensemen
D - Condor Adrienne  ?? - D - Berocka Sundqvist  ??
D - Vladimir Pavlov  ?? - D - Cinnamon Block  ??
 
Goalie
G - Greg Eagles  ??
 
My biggest deliberation was whether to put Michael Johnson in instead of Greg Eagles and put either Phil Marleau or Kyl Oferson as the second line center instead of Okada, but I went with the current best performing goalie in the playoffs. 

So during the early days of the UK lockdown when all sports were postponed, Sky Sports (A UK sports media company that has about 5 channels) had to find a way to fill their programming schedule and one of the things they had was "Carra's Challenge", which was named after the creator of said challenge former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher. The idea behind Carra's Challenge is that he'd have people pick their best XI (eleven players in a soccer side) with different parameters on who they could select in said XI. For example, one required you to name a best XI of players who were relegated, but no players could share the same nationality or team. 
 
So I figured I'd do something similar with the VHL. My challenge is as follows:
 
- Pick a two line team (6 forwards, 4 defenseman, 1 goalie) from players who have played in this VHL season. Forwards can play anywhere along the forward line but cannot be picked as defenseman and, in turn, defensemen cannot be selected as forwards.
- No player can share a nationality or a VHL team with any other player selected for the team. For this challenge, I will say that the team they represent currently is the only one you have to worry about (E.g. Jet Jaguar played for Moscow and Davos, but you only have to count him as a Davos player) although maybe I'll do another one later which makes a traded player counts for both teams he played for to give an extra challenge. 
- Once you've picked your two line team, you can add a player from the team you haven't picked as a spare. They can be either a forward, defenseman or a goalie, but like the other players, they cannot share a nationality with one of the other players. 
 
So this was my attempt at the challenge:
 
Forwards (LW - C - RW)
 
Julius Freeman  ?? - Jet Jaguar  ?? - RJ Jubis  ??
Mat Tocco  ?? - Hiroshi Okada  ?? - Mikko Aaltonen  ??
 
Spare: Chad Magnum  ??
 
Defensemen
D - Condor Adrienne  ?? - D - Berocka Sundqvist  ??
D - Vladimir Pavlov  ?? - D - Cinnamon Block  ??
 
Goalie
G - Greg Eagles  ??
 
My biggest deliberation was whether to put Michael Johnson in instead of Greg Eagles and put either Phil Marleau or Kyl Oferson as the second line center instead of Okada, but I went with the current best performing goalie in the playoffs. 

So during the early days of the UK lockdown when all sports were postponed, Sky Sports (A UK sports media company that has about 5 channels) had to find a way to fill their programming schedule and one of the things they had was "Carra's Challenge", which was named after the creator of said challenge former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher. The idea behind Carra's Challenge is that he'd have people pick their best XI (eleven players in a soccer side) with different parameters on who they could select in said XI. For example, one required you to name a best XI of players who were relegated, but no players could share the same nationality or team. 
 
So I figured I'd do something similar with the VHL. My challenge is as follows:
 
- Pick a two line team (6 forwards, 4 defenseman, 1 goalie) from players who have played in this VHL season. Forwards can play anywhere along the forward line but cannot be picked as defenseman and, in turn, defensemen cannot be selected as forwards.
- No player can share a nationality or a VHL team with any other player selected for the team. For this challenge, I will say that the team they represent currently is the only one you have to worry about (E.g. Jet Jaguar played for Moscow and Davos, but you only have to count him as a Davos player) although maybe I'll do another one later which makes a traded player counts for both teams he played for to give an extra challenge. 
- Once you've picked your two line team, you can add a player from the team you haven't picked as a spare. They can be either a forward, defenseman or a goalie, but like the other players, they cannot share a nationality with one of the other players. 
 
So this was my attempt at the challenge:
 
Forwards (LW - C - RW)
 
Julius Freeman  ?? - Jet Jaguar  ?? - RJ Jubis  ??
Mat Tocco  ?? - Hiroshi Okada  ?? - Mikko Aaltonen  ??
 
Spare: Chad Magnum  ??
 
Defensemen
D - Condor Adrienne  ?? - D - Berocka Sundqvist  ??
D - Vladimir Pavlov  ?? - D - Cinnamon Block  ??
 
Goalie
G - Greg Eagles  ??
 
My biggest deliberation was whether to put Michael Johnson in instead of Greg Eagles and put either Phil Marleau or Kyl Oferson as the second line center instead of Okada, but I went with the current best performing goalie in the playoffs. 

So during the early days of the UK lockdown when all sports were postponed, Sky Sports (A UK sports media company that has about 5 channels) had to find a way to fill their programming schedule and one of the things they had was "Carra's Challenge", which was named after the creator of said challenge former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher. The idea behind Carra's Challenge is that he'd have people pick their best XI (eleven players in a soccer side) with different parameters on who they could select in said XI. For example, one required you to name a best XI of players who were relegated, but no players could share the same nationality or team. 
 
So I figured I'd do something similar with the VHL. My challenge is as follows:
 
- Pick a two line team (6 forwards, 4 defenseman, 1 goalie) from players who have played in this VHL season. Forwards can play anywhere along the forward line but cannot be picked as defenseman and, in turn, defensemen cannot be selected as forwards.
- No player can share a nationality or a VHL team with any other player selected for the team. For this challenge, I will say that the team they represent currently is the only one you have to worry about (E.g. Jet Jaguar played for Moscow and Davos, but you only have to count him as a Davos player) although maybe I'll do another one later which makes a traded player counts for both teams he played for to give an extra challenge. 
- Once you've picked your two line team, you can add a player from the team you haven't picked as a spare. They can be either a forward, defenseman or a goalie, but like the other players, they cannot share a nationality with one of the other players. 
 
So this was my attempt at the challenge:
 
Forwards (LW - C - RW)
 
Julius Freeman  ?? - Jet Jaguar  ?? - RJ Jubis  ??
Mat Tocco  ?? - Hiroshi Okada  ?? - Mikko Aaltonen  ??
 
Spare: Chad Magnum  ??
 
Defensemen
D - Condor Adrienne  ?? - D - Berocka Sundqvist  ??
D - Vladimir Pavlov  ?? - D - Cinnamon Block  ??
 
Goalie
G - Greg Eagles  ??
 
My biggest deliberation was whether to put Michael Johnson in instead of Greg Eagles and put either Phil Marleau or Kyl Oferson as the second line center instead of Okada, but I went with the current best performing goalie in the playoffs. 

So during the early days of the UK lockdown when all sports were postponed, Sky Sports (A UK sports media company that has about 5 channels) had to find a way to fill their programming schedule and one of the things they had was "Carra's Challenge", which was named after the creator of said challenge former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher. The idea behind Carra's Challenge is that he'd have people pick their best XI (eleven players in a soccer side) with different parameters on who they could select in said XI. For example, one required you to name a best XI of players who were relegated, but no players could share the same nationality or team. 
 
So I figured I'd do something similar with the VHL. My challenge is as follows:
 
- Pick a two line team (6 forwards, 4 defenseman, 1 goalie) from players who have played in this VHL season. Forwards can play anywhere along the forward line but cannot be picked as defenseman and, in turn, defensemen cannot be selected as forwards.
- No player can share a nationality or a VHL team with any other player selected for the team. For this challenge, I will say that the team they represent currently is the only one you have to worry about (E.g. Jet Jaguar played for Moscow and Davos, but you only have to count him as a Davos player) although maybe I'll do another one later which makes a traded player counts for both teams he played for to give an extra challenge. 
- Once you've picked your two line team, you can add a player from the team you haven't picked as a spare. They can be either a forward, defenseman or a goalie, but like the other players, they cannot share a nationality with one of the other players. 
 
So this was my attempt at the challenge:
 
Forwards (LW - C - RW)
 
Julius Freeman  ?? - Jet Jaguar  ?? - RJ Jubis  ??
Mat Tocco  ?? - Hiroshi Okada  ?? - Mikko Aaltonen  ??
 
Spare: Chad Magnum  ??
 
Defensemen
D - Condor Adrienne  ?? - D - Berocka Sundqvist  ??
D - Vladimir Pavlov  ?? - D - Cinnamon Block  ??
 
Goalie
G - Greg Eagles  ??
 
My biggest deliberation was whether to put Michael Johnson in instead of Greg Eagles and put either Phil Marleau or Kyl Oferson as the second line center instead of Okada, but I went with the current best performing goalie in the playoffs. 

Another exciting regular season has come to a close. That means we can dole out some regular season awards! Welcome everyone to the 7th Annual Unofficial VHL Regular Season Awards honoring S72! Thank you to everyone that reads this. I’m always looking for new award ideas. Please keep the award suggestions coming!
 
These awards have been created by me. There is no voting process and they are not officially recognized by the VHL Board of Governors. I wrote descriptions for most of these award names in the original award post. Let’s get things underway!
 
 
The Pylon Award (worst +/- rating) – Jack Feriancek @Jackie4967 
 
Malmo claimed the bottom 6 spots for this award, with Jack leading the way with a -59.
 
Previous Pylon Award Winners:
Season
Player
+ / -
S71
John Madden
-43
S70
Bert Meyers
-45
S69
Basaraba Moose
-57
S68
Sven Hitz
-58
S67
Piotr Jerwa and Nethila Dissanayake
-34
S66
Bryce Zhields
-49
 
 
The Gandhi Award (least penalty minutes, min 1,000 minutes played) – Jared Spaz @Spaz 
 
Spaz just met the 1,000 MP requirement for this award. But he did and claims it with 2 PIM in 1,106 minutes played. Special recognition to Patrik Tallinder @Patrik Tallinder  (4 PIM, 2,150 MP) and Dean Clarke @Kyle  (4 PIM, 2,166 MP)
 
Previous Gandhi Award Winners:
Season
Player
PIM
Minutes Played
S71
Soren Jensen
4
2016
S70
Denver Wolfe
2
1988
S69
Hugh Chan
4
2050
S68
Jack Lynch
0
1473
S67
Diljodh Starload
0
2091
S66
Beau Buefordsson
0
1939
 
 
Oh what’s this?! A new award, snuck right into the middle of the presentation?! It can’t be… Yes it is! A new award!
 
A lot of people can accumulate penalty minutes, but it takes a special person to get major penalties. The Major2 Award aims to award this special player we can now call the major of majors. The award is given to the player who has the most major penalties.
 
The Major2 Award (most major penalties) - Mikko Lahtinen @Beketov 
 
Mikko topped the league with 9 major penalties this season. Congratulations on winning the 1st ever Major­2 award!
 
 
 
The Timex Award (received most hits) – Anthony Matthews @Anthony Matthews 
 
Matthews led the league by getting hit 274 times. The same number of times last season’s winner, HHH, was hit.
 
Previous Timex Award Winners:
Season
Player
Hits Taken
S71
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
274
S70
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
282
S69
John Madden
357
S68
Mikko Aaltonen
297
S67
Rauno Palo
302
S66
Beau Louth
300
 
 
The John Wayne Award (most shots on goal) - Jet Jaguar @gorlab 
 
Jet launched an impressive 425 shots on goal this season.
 
Previous John Wayne Award Winners:
Season
Player
Shots Taken
S71
Scott Greene
402
S70
Juilius Freeman
453
S69
Juilius Freeman
452
S68
Rylan Peace
466
S67
Matt Thompson
495
S66
Shane Mars
533
 
 
The “Hit the Broadside of the Barn” Award (most own shots blocked) - Henrik Zoiderberg @HenrikZoiderberg 
 
Zoiderberg gets the award with 122 of his shots being blocked. This won over 2nd place finisher and last season’s winner, Guy LeGrande (120 OSB).
 
Previous HtBotB Award Winners:
Season
Player
Own Shots Blocked
S71
Guy LeGrande
122
S70
Shawnomir Jagr
129
S69
Julian Borwinn
136
S68
Rylan Peace
144
S67
Beau Louth
153
S66
Oyorra Arroyo
142
 
 
The “Can’t Hit the Broadside of the Barn” Award (most own shots missed) – RJ Jubis @Jubis 
 
Jubis matched the winning total from last season, 299 missed shots. Really?! You couldn’t have missed just one more to make it an even 300?
 
Previous CHtBotB Award Winners:
Player
Season
Shots Missed
S71
Guy LeGrande
299
S70
Juilius Freeman
343
S69
Elias Dahlberg
320
S68
Rylan Peace
351
S67
Beau Louth
364
S66
Roctrion King
372
 
 
The New Shin Pads Award (most blocked shots) – Condor Adrienne @OrbitingDeath 
 
Condor had this award on lockdown since the very start of the season. He blocked 188 shots, 33 more than the next best player. Simply amazing!
 
Previous New Shin Pads Award Winners:
Season
Player
Shots Blocked
S71
Aron Nielsen
153
S70
Guillaume Fontenette
145
S69
Guillaume Fontenette
166
S68
Seabass Perrin
207
S67
Piotr Jerwa
170
S66
Lando Baxter
189
 
The Tired Legs Award (most minutes played) - Condor Adrienne @OrbitingDeath  and Zyrok12 @Zyrok 
 
These two teammates tied for this award, both playing exactly 2,227 minutes. Oddly enough STHS figured this to mean that Condor played 30.93 minutes per game while Zyrock12 played 30.94 minutes per game. Not sure how that works out, but nice job guys!
 
Previous Tired Legs Award Winners:
Season
Player
Minutes Played
S71
Juilius Freeman
2189
S70
Juilius Freeman
2164
S69
John Madden
2259
S68
Mikko Aaltonen
2290
S67
Shawn Glade
2226
S66
Robert Malenko
2324
 
 
The Snap! Award (most power play minutes) - Micheal Gary Scott @Motzaburger 
 
In a fitting celebration, Micheal Gary Scott organized the entire office to film a music video to “The Power.” He nabbed this award with 340 minutes on the power play.
 
Previous Snap! Award Winners:
Season
Player
PP Minutes
S71
Juilius Freeman
364
S70
Juilius Freeman
372
S69
Elias Dahlberg
368
S68
Joseph McWolf
351
S67
Beau Louth
437
S66
Jake Davis
412
 
 
The 1 vs. 100 Award (most time on penalty kill) - Cody Smith @cody73 
 
Prague must take a lot of pride in winning this award. They dominated this category, taking the top 7 spots. Cody took home the award with 356 minutes killing penalties.
               
Previous 1 vs. 100 Award Winners:
Season
Player
PK Minutes
S71
Jacob Perry
344
S70
Jacob Perry
380
S69
Wolf Stansson Jr
328
S68
Jack Lynch
353
S67
Aron Nielsen
374
S66
Lew Bronstein
352
 
 
The Sean Archer Award (highest face-off win %) - Hunter Hearst Helmsley @Beaviss 
 
After being unseated by Jet Jaguar last season, HHH worked hard on his face-off game and reclaimed the title by winning 62.35% of his 3,086 faceoffs.
               
Previous Sean Archer Award Winners:
Season
Player
Face Off Pct
S71
Jet Jaguar
61.84%
S70
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
60.78%
S69
Rauno Palo
59.45%
S68
Podrick Cast
62.56%
S67
Beau Louth
63.09%
S66
Rauno Palo
63.10%
 
 
The Castor Troy Award (lowest face-off win %, min 1,000 faceoffs) - Richard Penisson @bluesfan55 
 
With Zeno retiring, this award was open for anyone to nab. Richard Penisson rose to the occasion. He only won 38.13% of his face-offs. Maybe blood was flowing to the wrong head during face-offs?
               
Previous Castor Troy Award Winners:
Season
Player
Face Off Pct
S71
Zeno Miniti
42.07%
S70
Zeno Miniti
42.07%
S69
Zeno Miniti
32.27%
S68
Gritty
36.31%
S67
Gucci Garrop
35.07%
S66
Bryce Zhields
30%
 
 
The Triple Deke Award (most penalty shot goals) - Sigard Gunnar @Big Mac 
 
6 must be a magic number for this category and for Gunnar. He wins this award in consecutive seasons with 6 penalty shot goals. Micheal Gary Scott @Motzaburger  also scored 6 penalty shot goals, but needed 14 attempts, giving Gunnar the award.
 
               
Previous Triple Deke Award Winners:
Season
Player
Penalty Shot Goals
S71
Sigard Gunnar
6
S70
Owen Nolan
6
S69
Owen Nolan
6
S68
Jorgon Weyed
6
S67
Veran Dragomir
8
S66
Leph Twinger
5
 
 
The Rocky Award (most fights won) – Kristopher McDagg @Viperxhawks19 
 
What a mess this category is. 10 players tied for the league lead with 2 fights won. Ok, so let’s eliminate anyone who lost a fight. Down to 5 players. Now what’s more important? Winning a higher percentage of fights, or having more fights without losing?
3 players went 2-0-0. (Sigard Gunnar @Big Mac, Boris the Forest @chillzone, and Charles Drumm @frescoelmo). Is that better or worse than McDagg’s record of 2-0-4. I’m saying McDagg is more impressive, so he gets the award on the tiebreaker over everyone else, including Jack Feriancek @Jackie4967 (2-0-3).
               
Previous Rocky Award Winners:
Season
Player
Fights Won
S71
Owen Nolan
3
S70
RJ Jubis and Ambrose Stark
2
S69
Edward Vigneault
4
S68
Tyler Barabash Jr
2
S67
ACL TEAR
6
S66
Ryuu Crimson
4
 
 
The Glass Joe Award (most fights lost) – Roll Fizzlebeef @TacticalHammer 
Roll claims the award with a dismal 0-3-1 fight record, losing the tiebreaker to Pengu @Pengu  who had more draws going 0-3-4.
               
Previous Glass Joe Award Winners:
Season
Player
Fights Lost
S71
Benny Graves and John Madden
3
S70
Walter Clements
3
S69
Rusty Shackleford
5
S68
Podrick Cast and Jordan Tonn
2
S67
Kronos Bailey and Hunter Hearst Helmsley
4
S66
Rauno Palo
3
 
 
The Stars Award (most stars won) – Julius Freeman @rjfryman 
 
Julius received 25 total stars this season. Sigard Gunnar @Big Mac tied with Julius with 10 1st stars.
               
Previous Stars Award Winners:
Season
Player
Total Stars
S71
Hunter Hearst Helmsley
28
S70
Randoms
25
S69
Julian Borwinn
27
S68
Matt Thompson
32
S67
Rauno Palo
25
S66
Matt Thompson
28
 
 
The “Always a Bridesmaid” Award (most stars without winning 1st star) – Lewis Dawson @Kendrick 
 
Leiws won 13 stars this season without ever winning the 1st star. Impressively, 10 of those were 2nd starts. So close Lewis!
               
Previous Bridesmaid Award Winners:
Season
Player
Stars
S71
Condor Adrienne
12
S70
Luciano Valentino
6
S69
Tzuyu
12
S68
Zeno Miniti
9
S67
Dan Baillie
13
S66
Mikka Pajari
7
 
The Biggest Backpack Award (player with the largest difference in points from the rest of their team) - Benny Graves @STZ 
 
Benny scored 13 more points than anyone else on D.C. The smallest difference in the history of this award.
           
Previous Backpack Award Winners:
Season
Player
Point Difference from nearest teammate
S71
Roque Davis
20
S70
Julian Borwinn
22
S69
John Madden
28
S68
Mikko Aaltonen
28
S67
Podrick Cast
23
 
 
 
 
The Anniversary Award
 
This award goes to the player whose total points rank matches the season number. This season was season 72. That means this award goes to the player who finished 72nd in total points. The winner of this year’s Anniversary Award is…
 
Ondrej Ohradka @animal74 
Somehow, as we keep moving down the rankings, the points keep going up. Great depth we got going on here! Ondrej scored 51 points this season, landing him in the 72nd spot in the rankings.
 
Previous Anniversary Award Winners:
Season
Player
Points
S71
Elasmobranch Fish
46
S70
Orion Slade
44
 
 
 
 
The Egghshell Award (goalie with most overtime losses) - Michael Johnson @fonziGG 
 
In his final season, Michael Johnson set a career worst 9 overtime losses. That’s enough to win the Eggshell award.
 
Previous Eggshell Award Winners:
Season
Player
Overtime Games Lost
S71
Jaxx Hextall
11
 
 
 
The <Insert best slasher movie of all time title> Award (most PIM by a Goalie) - A Red Guy @.sniffuM 
 
I’m still looking for suggestions for this award’s title. Share your favorite slasher film title with me. A Red Guy sliced and diced his way through the competition to win with 12 PIM.
 
Previous <slasher> Award Winners:
Season
Player
PIM
S71
Greg Eagles
10
 
 
 
The Poke Check Award (highest % of penalty shots stopped, min 10 penalty shots against) - Virgil Ligriv @MMFLEX 
 
Vitrgil stopped 83.3% of the 24 penalty shots taken against him.
 
Previous Poke Check Award Winners:
Season
Player
Penalty Shots Stopped
S71
Greg Eagles
79.30%
 
 
 
Phew that is a lot of hardware! That concludes our ceremony. Thank you for reading. Congratulations and/or condolences to all the winners! Have a good night!
 
 
 

1. Are you happy about winning the Victory cup ?
Delighted, I was able to pawn off the trophy for a snickers bar and a monthly subscription to Patriotic Quilts magazine
 
2. Are you surprised Toronto has tied up the series at 2 games to 2 ?
I am, but that's only cause I deliberately look to surprise myself at any opportunity to improve my alertness. When I order my food on apps, I set a random time closing my eyes and throw my phone away afterwards. Never a better reason to be woken up at 3 AM then by a delicious slice of PAPA JOHNS™
 
3. What is your score prediction for game 5 ? 
19-0 with Edwin scoring points on 34 of them
 
4. What do the Wranglers need to do to beat Toronto and move on to the 2nd round ? 
Don't let them score a single goal and then get at least one goal a game ourselves
 
5. Are you currently growing a playoff beard ? 
I already had a beard so I've just stopped showering instead
 
6. What is your gameday routine during the playoffs ? 
I put my dirty laundry on the ice as an intimidation technique

Heading into the Season 72 Playoffs, we get another chance to see if one of the VHL's most unusual trends will repeat itself. While Bushito has been gone from the league the last month due to personal issues, an interim GM for the Calgary Wranglers has been assigned in the form of R_Jubis. This marks the third time in the VHL's history that a GM or interim GM has been officially assigned to cover for Bushito in the middle of a season, with the most intriguing element of this being that both of those previous teams (HC Davos in S31, Seattle in S43) would go on to win the Continental Cup in the same season that the new/interim GM was installed. Given that neither of these teams were going in as Victory Cup winners going into their respective playoffs (in fact Seattle had the lowest points total out of all the teams who made the playoffs in S43), it will be interesting to see if the Victory Cup winning Calgary Wranglers will continue the trend.

Heading into the Season 72 Playoffs, we get another chance to see if one of the VHL's most unusual trends will repeat itself. While Bushito has been gone from the league the last month due to personal issues, an interim GM for the Calgary Wranglers has been assigned in the form of R_Jubis. This marks the third time in the VHL's history that a GM or interim GM has been officially assigned to cover for Bushito in the middle of a season, with the most intriguing element of this being that both of those previous teams (HC Davos in S31, Seattle in S43) would go on to win the Continental Cup in the same season that the new/interim GM was installed. Given that neither of these teams were going in as Victory Cup winners going into their respective playoffs (in fact Seattle had the lowest points total out of all the teams who made the playoffs in S43), it will be interesting to see if the Victory Cup winning Calgary Wranglers will continue the trend.

As some of you will be aware, when the Riga Reign begin their playoff campaign in S72 later today they will be making their 11th straight playoff appearance. With that, they match the all-time VHL record set by New York from S24 to S34. Is the Reign's streak better or worse? Well to be sure there will be a Media Spot comparing the two coming out once Riga actually misses the playoffs. My initial instinct is no. Both NY and Riga won just 1 cup in those 11 seasons (or 1 and counting for the Reign), but the Americans made the finals 7 times. Riga has only been to 2 finals in that time span so far - the cup win in S63 and then again in S69.
 
It's been a good run though. You can split it into roughly 3 eras. First, the Cast-Preencarnacion years, from the high-scoring days of S62 through to Cast's trade to Moscow after S66, with Edwin retiring soon after. Cast and Preencarnacion were the stars of the S63 win, but also featuring were rookies Ryan Kastelic and Kallis Kriketers who would go onto form the core of the 2nd era - the more defence-heavy period. Even as Kastelic moved up front to help the scoring, Riga has boasted Hackett, Tate, Sasakamoose for years, with the S69 performance by Kriketers combined with a forward core of Kastelic, Palo, and Dahlberg making that possibly Riga's best roster of the 11 seasons.
 
And now here we are in the 3rd era. Kriketers and Kastelic's retirement could have meant the end but Riga has bridged the gap with Greg Eagles, Phil Marleau, and some smart drafting in S69 and S71. After a few seasons in Moscow's shadow, the Reign are back as the Euro favourites. It's been a fun run to watch - I particularly like the revolving door of award-winning defencemen (Bassolino, McWolf, Tate) and seeing Helsinki and Vancouver try to make the same run but miss the playoffs somewhere along the line just shows what an achievement it has been by @hedgehog337 for these 11 seasons, even in today's VHL. Unless the Menace go on some mad underdog run, Riga definitely has my support in the S72 playoffs.

Player Information
Username: Smarch
Player Name: Lester Green
Recruited From: Other (Eaglesfan)
Age: 18
Position: D
Height: 65 in.
Weight: 140 lbs.
Birthplace: United States of America

Player Page
@VHLM GM

Basically I searched for instances where the word "regret" was used by a player in regards to saying someone else messed up by not acquiring them (e.g. "You'll regret this") and see whether the parties that they said would regret their choice do or do not actually regret it in retrospect.
 
Christophe Klose
 
While Klose was one of the more successful players to come out of the for-it's-time immensely talented Season 40 Draft, I'd say there's only probably two GMs who picked before Klose's eventual selection that truly would regret missing out on him. The main one is Seattle, who wound up drafting Lloyd Light who, despite having a good career himself, didn't want to play for Seattle and was traded along with a second for Rift Pajodcast, a forward who never added any TPE to passing or scoring. The other would be Davos, who used their picks on two defenseman who, to their credit, were solid, but given neither exceeded 500 TPE while Klose recorded over 800, it's difficult to believe they wouldn't pick Klose over Joshua Rubin in a re-draft situation. 
 
Damon Tyrael
 
This was a post from Bushito in response to a Corco article detailing his Vasteras Iron Eagles trading down from their fourth pick, to acquire the 7th, 11th and 13th picks in that draft along with an inactive Damien Sandow, with Corco citing a drop-off in talent after the first two picks and believing drafting two slightly worse players would be better than getting one slightly better player. While there's some reasonable logic to that last point, it becomes somewhat moot when only one of the three picks they acquired was over 200 TPE, and even he (Sami Kravinen) only finished his career on 353 TPE. On the other hand, the players taken with the 4th pick and the following pick both doubled Kravinen's TPE output. So in hindsight, they probably do regret that trade. 
 
Although the most interesting point of that would be what if that trade never happened and Vasteras did take Bushito fourth overall? Given he eventually became a GM (he was traded to the SEA for the specific reason that he wanted to GM) around the same time Boubabi took over from Corco, do we maybe not even get the Stockholm Vikings relocation? 
 
Final point just cause I've noticed that there's two reports here and both feature slight negatives against Corco, Chad Magnum is a physical specimen who could have a very good shout at the Two Way forward award next season.

Basically I searched for instances where the word "regret" was used by a player in regards to saying someone else messed up by not acquiring them (e.g. "You'll regret this") and see whether the parties that they said would regret their choice do or do not actually regret it in retrospect.
 
Christophe Klose
 
While Klose was one of the more successful players to come out of the for-it's-time immensely talented Season 40 Draft, I'd say there's only probably two GMs who picked before Klose's eventual selection that truly would regret missing out on him. The main one is Seattle, who wound up drafting Lloyd Light who, despite having a good career himself, didn't want to play for Seattle and was traded along with a second for Rift Pajodcast, a forward who never added any TPE to passing or scoring. The other would be Davos, who used their picks on two defenseman who, to their credit, were solid, but given neither exceeded 500 TPE while Klose recorded over 800, it's difficult to believe they wouldn't pick Klose over Joshua Rubin in a re-draft situation. 
 
Damon Tyrael
 
This was a post from Bushito in response to a Corco article detailing his Vasteras Iron Eagles trading down from their fourth pick, to acquire the 7th, 11th and 13th picks in that draft along with an inactive Damien Sandow, with Corco citing a drop-off in talent after the first two picks and believing drafting two slightly worse players would be better than getting one slightly better player. While there's some reasonable logic to that last point, it becomes somewhat moot when only one of the three picks they acquired was over 200 TPE, and even he (Sami Kravinen) only finished his career on 353 TPE. On the other hand, the players taken with the 4th pick and the following pick both doubled Kravinen's TPE output. So in hindsight, they probably do regret that trade. 
 
Although the most interesting point of that would be what if that trade never happened and Vasteras did take Bushito fourth overall? Given he eventually became a GM (he was traded to the SEA for the specific reason that he wanted to GM) around the same time Boubabi took over from Corco, do we maybe not even get the Stockholm Vikings relocation? 
 
Final point just cause I've noticed that there's two reports here and both feature slight negatives against Corco, Chad Magnum is a physical specimen who could have a very good shout at the Two Way forward award next season.

Talking about the positives I took from the recent suggestions/complaints topics. I don't really talk about my views on the suggestions in particular, but I was definitely a fan of the ongoing GM list idea when I saw it.
 

Talking about the positives I took from the recent suggestions/complaints topics. I don't really talk about my views on the suggestions in particular, but I was definitely a fan of the ongoing GM list idea when I saw it.
 

I think London should look more like that. With the Union Jack being featured