Spartan

I don't like this one at all

I'd like to apply! I got my GM'ing start in the WJC of S71 and have AGM'd for new folks multiple times after that. Would be nice to take a larger role in the tournament!

1. Usually just getting in practice, it's the best way to try and work yourself out of bad habits. Otherwise just try and find something to help you relax. I get superstitious sometimes, if I have a stretch of poor play at a certain attribute level combination. I'm just overthinking it most of the time. 2. Well, a lot of my predictions are going to be wrong. I think I'll get the Wylde right since I predicted Letang there, but picked Hylands for all the other defense awards. Also picked Dear and Xin for most of the forward awards, those are likely lost as well. 3. We have a great offense, superb goaltending and a defense that has been playing very well. If we keep playing the way we've been, I think we'll fare well. 4. Sliding on the ice like a penguin. It was my favorite thing to do in youth hockey camp. 5. Wake up as late as I can without being late to the rink, snack on some trail mix, throw back a Captain Morgan and Coke for the nerves and just make sure all the equipment is good to go. 6. Ice up whatever needs to be iced, then sleep.

This is a fair point, that everyone is experiencing the same "issue." However, I found this case more interesting because it overall devalues defensemen when it comes to making fantasy selections. You'd be fine with D20, since the gap from D1 to D20 isn't that large. Both players will still be in the top 30 of overall skaters. However, the difference between F1 and F20 is significantly large, from top 30 to maybe top 50. Defensemen simply are too easy to coast on, there isn't really much of a skill component to selecting them. You pick defensemen on bad teams who will get shot blocks, and defensemen on high scoring teams who will get fantasy points from scoring. But picking the top 2 defensemen on the bottom 12 teams in the league is much more prevalent in VHFL strategy, in my opinion. So this is straying away from what I've written so far, but I do plan on looking at goalies as well to create a bit more of a disparity as you had mentioned, to try and make the gap from G1 to G12 a bit wider. This is the current state of goalies, a 12 point gap from G1 to G10. If you pick literally any of these, your goalie position won't be the reason you lose. Unless you're one of the rare unlucky folks who lose out on a position by <5 points. RIP to those fine folks. But yeah, making this gap wider is something I'd like to think about. This is probably going to be the major argument against making any changes to VHFL - it's just something for fun, doesn't need to be a super overthought process. It's mainly out of my own impulse that I decided to look into why VHFL felt too cookie-cutter, and I found what I presented in the article. However, STHS still favors the best players on bad teams just from a points standpoint. They'll still be very viable, I also don't want to eliminate those players from viability. I just don't want those players on average/bad teams to be dominating VHFL, and some more variability would be really nice. I think my issue with this is also that your 2nd and 3rd forward combined may not score as much as one of your defensemen. If you have 2 top 10/15 forwards, an average goalie and any defensemen who doesn't fall out of the top 30 for overall skaters, you will land at least 3rd, likely 1st or 2nd with those forwards. The strategy is mostly clear, as a few others have pointed out -> you prioritize selecting the best possible forwards and leave defense for later since you're more likely to get a defensemen in the top 30 of skaters in the 4th or 5th round than you are to get a forward in that same top 30. In my perfect world, picking defensemen and goalies in the 1st round would be viable and encouraged. Users must try to figure out who would truly be the best player for their team, and no position is easier to pick between. As you mentioned, emphasizing and maximizing the disparity within position groups is key, and to do that, I think not only do we need to reduce the impact of Shots Blocked to reduce defensemen point inflation, but also increase the value of multiple other scoring stats to widen the gap between players of the same position. Making goals and assists more valuable, from 2 and 1 to 3 and 1.5. Rewarding hits more. Making shutouts significantly more valuable. Punishing for goals against.

oops I put this in articles, if someone wants to move it, that'd be lovely

See you soon

Easy there snips, you're only 3 points ahead of Vancouver and 4 points ahead of Toronto who are literally all bots. Those OT/SO losses are keeping you afloat, better focus on winning some games with that "best d-pairing in the league"

kinky

Hey you have to live in close proximity to Big Stinky Al, surprised you can smell anything other than him . Don't make me toss you in the trash can outside the rink, Juice Box.

Seems to be a common issue once one turns blue, they miraculously lose the capability to hear the voices of anyone apart from their own . Also, jokes on you - Letang doesn't score goals, he's just assisted on basically all of them!

For the first time in my career, I've been freed offensively. DC stifled me for 2 seasons, I get my revenge this week

Hey BIG Al, some of us take a break from hitting people and shooting at the net to play defense and generate offense for the entire team. What would you know about it, you just hit and score .

Yeah haha, I figured, just had to call out @Juice and @JigglyGumballs when they tried to talk shit the other day, saying they were the best D-pairing in the league. Clearly @rory and I are better!

98 combined points vs 79 combined points, and LA is 4 points higher in the standings

Most importantly: Pines + Letang > Welch + Gumballs

Was this ever filled?

It's been quite the pleasantly surprising season from an individual and team perspective. Excited to see it continue!

Proutcast woo!

Huh. Well I didn't even realize they were all that long, maybe the variability within them makes them easier to listen to. I usually don't listen to podcasts because my attention span is too short, just can't stay interested in them. Yours was maybe the only one I actually stuck around for longer than 20 minutes on.

I do listen to @JardyB10's solo podcasts sometimes, mainly because they're short and sweet and he's also name dropped me in one. It's also been the inspiration for my "carcast" thing which I might turn into a series, where I record a podcast on the way back from work. Drive's about 30 minutes, I get 2 weeks from it. Some folks in Moscow listen to it, and I've generally gotten the feedback that people in the community like to have podcasts to listen to when commuting/at work/chilling. Go for it!

Yeah, this is something that will definitely suck a little bit. But NHL Fantasy ends up comparing a teams stats to each other and then seeing which team wins out per statistic. Like a point to the fantasy team with more goals. We just have a different way of running fantasy, which is also why defensive defensemen have never really been viable in VHFL. They may make "defensive" builds, but they will inevitably score points when they're on the average/below average teams in the league. I'd just like to stop seeing this every season: And honestly, 2 forwards in the top 15 has only happened one other time in the last 4 seasons, back in S76. There were no forwards in the top 15 in S78 or S77.

For point 1, I think that trying to predict shots blocked leaders are part of the strategy, at least for defensemen. Shots blocked leaders are generally always defensemen, and you know that if you select a top shot blocker, he will be a top 30 VHFL player. Take Cowboy Prout for example, he was someone I selected nearly every season before Calgary became better, and he'd consistently be a pretty decent defenseman and land up top 30 simply because he was a high TPA D-man on a non-playoff team. Out of amusement though, here's Cowboy Prout's ranking and SB Point Share over the past 4 seasons: S79 - 45th skater, 43% SB Point Share S78 - 5th skater, 55% SB Point Share S77 - 21st skater, 59% SB Point Share S76 - 38th skater, 57% SB Point Share He's had a lot of variability, as is to be expected from any player who isn't offensively driven, but when 55% of his points are consistently coming from Shots Blocked, that's when I have an issue with it. It's some kind of happy medium that we need between scoring and the physical stats to provide more balance and variety. As per your second point, I don't think that this will differ from the mean in general, although I do see a lot of people who pick defense early and often lose their groups consistently. The only exception is when you manage to target a top 5 defenseman appropriately. Sorry to all the folks who picked Roque Davis in the 1st round after his trade to LA . But also you prove my point that everyone targets forwards early, as that's a strategy that really shouldn't be a thing. Following a blueprint is boring, and it just results in everyone doing the same thing every season. No one ever picks a goalie first either, because goalie scoring ends up having most of the starting goalies in a 20 point range from each other. Good forwards shouldn't be that scarce to find, which is also why I've been debating of some way to reduce the point disparity between forwards and defensemen to make selecting defensemen in the first round viable as well.

monke

Most of what you've said is about checking, which I've never stated was an issue. If anything, one of my solutions that I was working on would actually reduce the value of shots blocked and slightly increase the value of hits since it's a bit more controllable. In the sense that you choose how much you want to hit, but shots blocked is mainly just a result of team state. Tristan and Nilsson are two sides of the same coin. Nilsson's number is widely overinflated because of shots blocked. Checking is fine, Nilsson didn't check much but 75% of his points coming from SB is an issue. Tristan also was the best defenseman on his team, which isn't an issue in a vacuum, but considering that he was like 450 TPE last season and 53% of his points came from blocked shots and 20% from hits, I'd say that's a bit more of an issue. And I don't have any issue with the Taro, Adrienne, Walker, Dood picks either, they're ideally the ones who would have strong fantasy seasons because of being the best players on bad teams. I was also thinking of slightly punishing players on bad teams since they get a free chance to stat pad, perhaps by using +/- as a factor in some linear boost/nerf. Like +/- multiplied by 0.2 or something of that sorts. Good players on good teams usually see less fantasy points just because STHS spreads out the love. They can only be top fantasy options if they play like Lahtinen/Letang/Rice/Davis on S76 Moscow and all record a shit ton of points, therefore a lot of fantasy love. Overall though, yes, reducing shots blocked is the priority. I would also like to reward scoring a bit more, since the actual points scored should be a true measure of a player first and foremost. Physicality statistics should be secondary.