ahockeyguy

1. We’re about a month into the VHLM season now. What has been your favourite game to play in so far? Man I have loved to play Ottawa. They're the defending champs, and we seem to play them well, if not winning. But that first game against Minny...man that was awesome! 2. The drama off the ice in Miami is likely more compelling than the action on the ice this season, with all the assault, tomfoolery, and general mischief involving some or all of our team’s players. Which storyline(s) are you enjoying or following most? I gotta love @Andre LeBastard and his tirades against the media. He's just stirring us up to motivate us, and to unite us as a team. It's good leadership. And entertaining, too! 3. Have you heard that the World Junior Championship (WJC) is coming up this summer? It’s a seasonal tournament that features the best VHL prospects up to 300 TPE. Which of the WJC five teams will you be cheering for: America, Asia, Canada, Europe, or World? I am from Iceland, so....whichever team that ends up being haha. 4. Who from our team should make the roster of their WJC team, and why? I honestly haven't looked at what the rosters might be, so I don't know. @Bacon is a great goalie. Kramerev is our best D-man! Andre and others are awesome at scoring. I would love to represent Iceland. 5. What’s your favourite TPE task to do? Why? I enjoy writing the 500-word or so articles. It's a chance to dive in to the character or the stats of the player or team. It's a lot of fun! 6. What makes you get hyped up about simulation hockey? Seeing the progress of our players and how that plays out in games is awesome! I love there's improvement every week.

My team's morale is 15. Is there a playoff team with lower? lol

@DMaximus, quick question: do we just check this at the end of the season, or are there weekly updates?

1. Miami finished the first week of games sitting at 3W-5L, good for 8th in our 12 team league. How do you feel about our team's start to the season? Pretty good overall. A lot of people would think we would be hard-pressed to win even one game, but we've shown we can play as a team, and outplay our attributes, so to speak. I have no illusions about how far we can go, but at the same time, playoffs are not out of the question. 2. What has been the stat that you are most impressed with through one week? We're not too far back as far as goal differential. Sometimes when you technically have a losing record, you expect to see that reflected in the goal differential. Here, while it is negative, it is not nearly as negative as it usually is in this type of situation. That's a good sign! 3. What feedback do you have for the coach to make the team better for week 2? We have to find a way to do better on the power-play. Sometimes we do OK, sometimes we blank. 4. Yukon has an open AGM position. What skills do you have that would make you a great team manager? I am consistent, active, and a good presence in the locker room. I encourage and educate, and these are much-needed qualities. That said, I would probably not want to be an AGM right now, as I am still learning much. 5. What's the one show or movie you've seen more than anything else? Probably The Office, followed by Star Trek: TNG and DS9. They're really good shows! 6. How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood? Well, modally speaking, if a woodchuck possessed the ability to chuck wood, then we know a woodchuck could chuck a non-zero amount of wood in at least one possible world. Using a kind of patchwork principle, we can then infer that if there is a possible world φ at which said woodchuck chucks wood, there are probably such φ-worlds that include his chucking two pieces of wood, and three, and so on. In fact, other than his lifespan being limited modally (as in, it's impossible for said woodchuck to exist for a certain amount of time, metaphysically speaking), there is nothing, off-hand, that delimits the mere possibility of the woodchuck's chucking so much wood so as to approach infinity in a particular φ-world.

+10 Wolf Stansson

The following is an interview with Miami Marauders defenseman Wolf Stansson. We’ll be asking him about life in Miami, of all kinds! Read on to see how it went: US: So, Wolf, you’ve played eight games in a Marauders’ jersey. How does it feel? WS: Oh, amazing! [laughs] It really is a dream come true. US: So can you tell us some details about playing? How do you feel you have done so far? WS: Honestly, I could be doing better. I’m a -7 on the plus/minus rating, and I have yet to score on even strength. US: But you’re just a defenseman— WS: But I shoot! I shoot from the point, I look for good opportunities for puck movement, etc. US: Fair enough. WS: So I just need to make better decisions when I have the puck in the offensive zone. US: Tell us about those decisions. WS: I just need to pass more. Well, let me amend that. I need to read the offensive situation better, so I know when I need to pass. So far, that’s entailed me passing more. But it might entail me shooting when a pass wouldn’t be for the best. US: That’s what’s interesting about analytics. Speaking of that, how do you feel about analytics? Should players use it? WS: Of course! Players should always use information that is available to them to learn about the game in general, about their game, about their team, and about their opponents. But there’s such a thing as ‘too much noise,’ and I think the challenge is finding that point where the information load is about to become so much noise, and then relying on your training as a player. That comes with experience. US: Speaking of experience, you’re just getting your first tastes of VHLM hockey. What are some things you like or don’t like? WS: I both like and don’t like the speed of the game. It’s so much faster. I moved here to learn better hockey, though, but you just can’t replicate the speed of the game in practice. I like living in Miami. Being able to go to the beach on any off-days…it’s a wonderful place. US: We’ve heard—well, really, read—the account from @bigAL Groovy Dood. Do you really think of him as a nemesis or rival? WS, laughing loudly: Groovy Dood is just that—a groovy dude ha ha. He’s a friend. I mean, don’t get me wrong, when we’re on the ice together we’re going to go at each other pretty hard. In that respect, yeah, absolutely he’s a rival. But after the season, you never know. We might be on the same team! US: Give us some final thoughts about the Marauders and their season. WS: I think we have an uphill climb to make the playoffs. However, as our guys improve, and as we gain more experience playing together, I think our opponents are going to be surprised. We’re going to steal a game here and there. And because of this, we’re going to hopefully contend for a playoff spot! US: Thanks, Wolf. Good luck out there!

Thanks for this, man! I appreciated the story, because it gives us your unique perspective on the excitement of draft day. I also enjoyed the humor of the Miami-Minnesota mix-up, the first phone call, etc. As has been noted, I will also mention the grammatical issues--but only because they detract from the readability of what is going on. This is a story that is good enough to be immersed into--which means it's one of the best ones you could've written!--but instead of fully enjoying it, I found myself deciphering what was being said. In other words, if the reader is noting grammatical issues enough, it means they're paying less attention to your story. Overall, great work! Score: 7.5/10

Although it pains me to say, as a D-man for the Miami Marauders, congrats on a game and media spot well done. I found the summary to be very easy to follow, and it told me the story of the game. It added to the culture of your team and fellow linemates (and goalie!), and I really liked that. We got insight into your player's mentality, and that was good, too. That said, I would probably only tag someone once (in subsequent mentions, you could either type their username again without the @ symbol or else write their player's name--just my opinion, though). There were one or two grammar issues (e.g., leaving out "was" in the final sentence of the first paragraph). Great work! Score: 9/10

Wolf Stansson is being used on defense, on the power play, on the penalty kill—pretty much everywhere. That’s simply what being a top D-man on an expansion franchise such as the Miami Marauders is all about. Through eight games, the rookie has two goals and four assists for six points. He has played 73 minutes on special teams—39 of them on the power-play. This is remarkable because he has played 196 minutes on either even-strength or the penalty kill. Oh, what’s that, you say? I didn’t say anything remarkable? Well, Stansson has two goals and two assists—two-thirds of his points—from the power play. Why has he been playing so well a man up? For one, the style of the power play lends itself to Stansson’s offensive style. He shoots from the point, which will result in a goal, going wide, or a save. If it goes wide, it may go to a player down low for another chance. If it is a save, it may have a rebound that can result in another chance. In other words, it’s easier for Stansson to get on the board, since he puts shots on net. It sounds pretty simple. But it’s not merely this. At even-strength, Stansson has no goals on 11 shots. His two goals come on 20 shots, or a 10% shooting percentage. So Stansson not only shoots more often on the PP, but his shots appear to be better quality as well. This PP work helped to lead Stansson to be named #1 star of the Marauders most recent game, and hopefully will lead to better things this season.

Our power play is horrid. Our PK has more goals (shorthanded) than our PP lol!

We lost, but Bacon is killing it.

OK, Bacon! Let's get it Miami

Sure enough! Sorry about that G Michael Johnson (please tell me he's not taken or retired hah)

F - Boris the Forest F - Owen Nolan F – Benny Graves D - Condor Adrienne D - Micheal Gary Scott G – A Red Guy @Jubis one more time!

Lines sent!

How do I set it to where my backup literally never plays another minute. 34 minutes, 18 goals allowed lol. Although I am happier with my record overall though.

Welcome to the team! It's gonna be a learning process this season, but we're gearing up for the long-haul and a good run!

F - Boris the Forest F - Owen Nolan F - D – Condor Adrienne D – Micheal Gary Scott G - @Jubis

Dude great stuff! Proud to be your VHLM "rival" haha. Stansson for life!

I am a new guy, but from what I read, SHL moved to FHM6 because one team had a ~67% winning percentage one season, ostensibly because they figured out a perfect build for all their players to win all the time. The claim from this is basically that STHS is broken and FHM6 would be the way to go, engine-wise. This also has apparently been highly controversial, even on the SHL side, before they implemented it.

My team is 3-8, so you might think I'd want a do-over. And it would be fun to try it again. But I can always try again next season! So I'm cool with finishing it out, unless it's going to be a bad experience for everyone.

As far as changing things go, we can just change our line arrangements and the whole 1-2-2 tactics thing, right? I can't just give my guys a bunch of extra points?

F - Boris the Forest F - Owen Nolan F - D - D - G - @Jubis back to you my friend!

Well I wanted to learn about STHS. I learned...I didn't set up something right haha. 3-8 isn't the worst, but it's not good. Also possibly the most fun thing I've read all day, from my first game: "Bob Ross ejected from game at 19:06 of 2nd period"

“With the 29th overall pick in the Season 72 VHLM Draft, the expansion Miami Marauders select…Wolf Stansson, defenseman, Iceland!” At that moment, it didn’t matter to Wolf Stansson if anyone heard or even reacted. “It was such a great feeling. It was like I couldn’t hear or notice anything else,” he said, gazing off into the distance as he answered. Waiting at home and watching the first two rounds of the draft go by, Stansson was confident his time would come. However, each new pick brought a nagging sense of worry—maybe he wouldn’t be picked until much later, or not at all, he wondered. “There’s always that feeling—you know what the prospect board says, and all the projections, and all of that. But there’s always this feeling that maybe they got it wrong. Maybe I wouldn’t make it in the VHLM after all. I didn’t really start thinking to that particular conclusion until the second round ended,” he recalls. But at the end of that second round, Stansson found he didn’t have to wait any longer. The Miami Marauders were up and, as everyone knew, they needed people at all positions. When they drafted him, the Marauders were just thinking, probably, that he would be a good second-pairing D-man, able to play two ways and a lot of upside. What Stansson was thinking was that he was relieved, and ecstatic, to be picked. “There’s something truly exciting about playing for an expansion franchise. You get to set the tone. You get to be first!” Stansson explained. And there’s more. While he might still be second pairing, there’s a chance Stansson will end up first pairing before it’s all over. The Marauders don’t have a lot of defensemen, and Wolf ranks second on the team in several categories. How the Marauders want to run their tactics may end up dictating where Stansson ends up. Either way, he is sure to get minutes this season. When asked what his expectations for the season were, Stansson replied, “I expect to learn a lot, and grow a lot. Maybe to be humbled as a player. I am used to playing well, and that may not happen to me right away.” When probed about who he most looks forward to playing with in Miami, Stansson is deferential to his teammates. “Look, we’ve already hung out in the locker room a little bit after the draft,” he says, kicking his leg out gently as he speaks. “These are good guys, good hockey players. Everyone’s really excited to get going and to see what we can accomplish, and what we can set up for the future. Obviously, I’m looking forward to playing with my fellow blue-liners: Kramerev, Johansen, Auzins, it’s gonna be fun.” This inaugural season is going to be very difficult for the Marauders rookies, as it contains many more games than they are used to. It’s going to try them mentally, emotionally, and physically. Some of them may not make it through unscathed. This group of draftees, headlined by first-round pick Andre Lebastard, should be a very interesting one to watch. How they interact with Wolf Stansson, whom I have covered since he arrived in North America approximately a year ago, and what degree of success they have—well that remains to be seen.