jacobcarson877

Welcome back everyone to a new Episode of the Ducky Interviews, featuring the one and only Landon Wolanin! Here on the podcast, we aim to connect you, listener, to your favorite players. They may not always seem like it, but they’ve always got something interesting to say! Landon, you’ve been doing rather well it seems since we last talked to you. What is the key to your prolific scoring streak? By our count, you’ve scored at least a point in your past 27 games. Has it really been that long? Wow. Honestly, I just go out every game and try to capitalize on whatever chances I can get. I’ve been trying to play with as many of my teammates in as many circumstances as I can. This has really helped me feel comfortable and rely on my play processing, and let my body do its work. Sometimes that means just generating shots and test our opponent’s goaltender, and sometimes that means making smart passes to open space. San Diego hasn’t been scoring points in the standings anywhere near the same rate as you are. What’s been going wrong? I wouldn’t say anything is wrong in all honesty. Our goal this season is to be competitive in each game, not the standings. Our team isn’t built to win a championship yet. It’s all part of the process. Really its rare a game goes poorly for us because we either win and feel good, or we lose and shoot for a better draft in the off-season. As long as we’re all growing and developing, and generating offense, we’re happy. Some are saying the captaincy in San Diego is cursed, considering both of the players named Captain this season have been moved elsewhere. Are you vying for the captaincy, or are you wary of the curse? That’s actually really funny. I don’t think any of us on the team have seen it that way. Both of our Captains this season have been important players who will be working towards the VHLE next season. I think it’s a real honor to say that someone is viewed as Captain material, and teams across the league have recognized their value as well by acquiring them. I haven’t even thought about another Captain this season, let alone myself. I think all any of us are worried about is playing good hockey and growing together. We don’t need the role of Captain filled to have that success. If management wants to give someone that honor, I don’t think there’s a bad choice in the room. I wouldn’t be surprised if they approach that again next season, but for now there’s no rush. I don’t think it’s a curse though. Well thank you as always Landon for giving us some insight into your life as a player in the VHLM, and a member of San Diego. Best of luck in the upcoming week and we hope to have another exciting interview for everyone next week! Stay safe and watch lots of hockey! 500 and some odd words Claiming week of Feb 27th

Unicorn

I hope you’re enjoying your time in Vegas, and it is always nice to watch your scoring increase as the season goes on. I think your article about just how close all 3 leagues are is a great idea. I would have liked to have seen some more exciting organization in your Media Spot. Some paragraph separation, maybe some subtitles, and maybe even a couple of pictures. You had a lot of things to say and it all read well, so I am excited to read what you have to say in the future. 7/10

Game 146 Recap The Saskatoon Wild took down the Las Vegas Aces in this 5-3 thriller. Saskatoon got scoring throughout their lineup, which helped them outscore Al Land’s 2-goal effort. Both teams had strong penalty kills this game. The goaltenders in this game will likely want to forget this game however, although Augustus Kennedy had the much stronger performance. It is quite impressive that Al Land put up 2 goals this game. He was only on the ice for 10:45, and scored his goals in only 3 shots.

Game 142 Recap This high scoring affair between the Las Vegas Aces and Houston Bulls was certainly one to watch. Houston continues their strong campaign with their strong stars and deep supporting cast. Las Vegas put up a good fight however scoring 4 on only 25 shots. Keep an eye out for recent Houston acquisitions Ivan Retoslav. Despite his slower start, he should be a major factor in Houston’s hunt for a championship. He pitched in a goal this game, and despite being a rookie, should continue scoring at a high rate.

So I am someone who experiences a lot of writer’s block and general blocks to productivity. After doing something I’m not immediately seeing success in I get this overwhelming feeling to stop and do something else. In fact 5 minutes ago I got that feeling and that’s why I’m writing this now. By holding myself to earning, and specifically writing these articles, Media Spots, Game Recaps and Reviewing, I have given myself a lot of things that I have to do in a week. Put this on top of going to university full time, and working part time remotely, many of you could be confused as to why this all works for me. By always having something to do that I have deemed “productive”, as long as I have started doing one of the many things I could be doing at any moment, I can do that thing and not lose momentum. By giving myself this minor success of writing something to earn TPE, I can sustain more time working on my assignments and my work. This is something that I’ve found particularly helpful in my struggle to be productive. By framing the things I enjoy doing as “productive” I am able to both enjoy my spare time and hobbies, as well as maintain all of the traditional obligations I have. So I guess I should say thank VHL keeping me on task. Time to do a lab I guess?

Welcome back everyone! This is the 4th episode of the Ducky Interviews, featuring my good friend Landon Wolanin. We’ve had to reformat the name just a little bit since the last episode considering I am in fact the host, and Landon is my guest. We have no other guests in the books yet, but maybe someday we might have someone new. I’ve got a brand-new set of questions to ask Landon, and let’s hope this set of answers is just as exciting as usual! First off, a simple one, how are you doing these days Landon? I must say life is going rather well in San Diego. I’ve rejoined the scoring leaders after a few rough games, which is very exciting for me. As a team we’ve had some recent success as well, entering tonight on a 3-game winning streak. Not too shabby for a rebuilding team. I’m happy to say that Justin Adolfsen and I have a pretty good thing going and we’re both really benefitting from each other on the ice. We’ve just been getting the puck and ripping it at the net whenever we can, and we’re both in the top 5 in shots because of it. Really happy with everything right now, and really excited to see what we can put together next season! I’m glad to hear that you’re feeling good about your situation, and from what you just said you’re planning on sticking in San Diego next season? You certainly heard right Ducky. Obviously, there is a lot of time between now and the start of next season, but the way things are looking I’m hoping to be a cornerstone piece of a contending San Diego team next season. I’m sure the San Diego fans will be thrilled to hear that. It seems like many fans favourites up and down the lineup have been departing San Diego in recent weeks to join various other teams. How have you felt about all of these moves? Of course, it is never fun to watch your teammates get traded to other teams and even rivals. We’ve had a relatively small roster this whole season so to lose those more active players makes the locker room much smaller. Doesn’t stop me from rambling after every game though! I think we got great returns for the players we’ve moved on from and hopefully those just lead to more positive people in the locker room next season! Before we move on, I just want to say thanks and best of luck to everyone that has been moved this season, they’ve all been a part of my development and I’m glad they’ve all found new places to play and thrive. Hopefully at least one of them can win before moving onto the VHLE. Well thank you Landon as always for joining me today and answering some questions that I know all of us San Diego fans and Landon Wolanin fans have been dying to know. Best of luck to you this week and maybe we’ll hear from you next week. That’s it for this week’s episode of the The Ducky Interviews, with this week’s guest Landon Wolanin. Thank you for tuning in and you’ll hear from us again next week! 539 words claiming week of February 20th

Okay that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I'm glad I could read the rules properly the first time, got very confused somewhere afterwards. Thanks for the clear explanation!

The one thing I'd like to add however is that by sending up a player who won't be competitive in the VHLE, to replace them with a new player you've now created 2 players simming poorly in their respective league instead of 1 simming well and 1 simming poorly. Unless roster spots in the VHLM is a bigger issue than I think it is, in which case ignore this, having those extra players around to be leaders and make teams competitive is more beneficial to new players than simply more playing time. That's why you can't send North American players to the AHL until they're 20, they're simply not competitive enough to play there. You send them to the CHL or whatever or you keep them in the NHL because they're good enough. They don't want kids getting massacred by men until they're developed enough to handle it. I get that it's not a perfect comparison but I think the idea is there.

chiming in here as one of the players in question. At my current earning rate, I am set to hit 200TPE in 4.7 or 5 weeks. Based on my estimation, the cutoff date will be 6 or 7 weeks out. This means that I am basically going to hit my 200, and move up to the VHLE barely scratching 200. My VHLM team loses me as an asset for the championship run they are hoping to do next season, and I am also going to be at the bottom of the barrel next season. I want to know whether I can slow down my earning just slightly from ~14/week to ~11/week for the next few weeks and actually get the chance to be on a competitive VHLM team next season, that my GM has worked so hard to put together. Personally I don't care at this point, I will have fun in the E or the M. But my poor GM is now looking at losing his top 3 players form a bottom of the barrel team for nothing, all because I earned too fast. There were higher TPE players on the board when I got picked, but I was targeted to be a cornerstone piece for a S83 run. Based on my math here, and forgive me if I'm wrong slightly I'm estimating weeks here. If a brand new player joins the league at 66 TPE and earns as I have getting all 12 Capped TPE and clicking the practice button to get 14 TPE/week (which should be cause for celebration in my books, that's an active member there) by the time they go from cutoff date to cutoff date (what I'm considering 1 full season) they would go through 10-12 weeks (i counted 11 but I might be wrong) they would earn 154TPE putting them at 220TPE overall. Their team would get them for 1 season, and would lose them immediately going into next season. If that player only earned 12TPE/week however, they would reach 198TPE in that first season, and be eligible for a whole second season, at nearly max value. This means that when evaluating players, VHLM GMs now have a genuine incentive to pick lower earning players, regardless of their current TPE in order to build stronger teams. In fact, getting players who just earn welfare and practice (no shame in that I did it most of my last player) is now more valuable by games played at a high level, than a player entering the VHLM draft where I did. That player (like me) who will end S82 just crossing the threshold, are now an entire season of development behind the player who picked the optimal recreate date. I will now go into every league at the bottom of the barrel, not because I earned any less when I was active, but because I wasn't able to bank for the season as they had. All of these players are notable names in the community and have planned their players well and I don't want to take any of that from them. I just want to make sure I can join a league when I am competitive, not as quickly as possible. I get that the VHL is the main attraction, and the VHLE needs more players to support the VHL and I agree with that. But players won't stick around if they are forced to be non-competitive for several seasons of their early career until they get to the big leagues. All of this is not to say that I'm going to quit or earn less or contribute less, because as I said, I don't care that much. But I could understand why people would be demoralized the way things are now, and I'd hate to see the VHLM, which in my experience has been my favourite part of my careers, turn into a battle of who sold their players at the deadline for the most picks for next season. They get all of the top players for the season and win, then the next team that had all of the top picks wins the next season. If there's no way to retain talent and actually build teams, there is no reason to have the VHLM at all. If player retention is truly as important as its sounded so far, the most important thing has to be creating competitive leagues at the bottom that drive players to earn and grow every week. There should never be any reason to discourage earning. Obviously at every cutoff TPE should be evaluated and if you are over 200TPE you move up. I think it should be as simple as that. No arbitrary values, no sticking around in the M for 8 seasons. When the cutoff hits, anyone over 200 moves up. But after the cutoff I should be able to earn as I please, and when the next cutoff hits I'm up. I'm confused as to the difference in the VHL and VHLM rulebooks and I hope that it can be rectified quickly, so I know what to do with my player and earnings, and let my GM know whats happening with me. Thanks everyone for tuning in!

It should come as no surprise that you put together a great Media Spot. You talked about a series of VHL related, and fun personal questions. All of your answers were written in a natural and conversational manner. I appreciated the use of colour to distinguish the Interviewer and the Interviewee. Starting it off with a short and sweet preamble helped to contextualize the piece. On a personal note it has been great playing with you so far, and it’s been awesome watching you thrive in San Diego. Lets go Marlins! 9/10

I must say I’m really enjoying the new supplemental point task, Game Recaps, and the new take on Trivia. As someone who’s been around for a while now, having finished an entire career and begun a new one, I think these point tasks are really encouraging me, and hopefully others, to dig deeper and learn more about the league. I love Game Recaps. I honestly wish I could get all of my TPE from these alone. I have been so eager to look at sims and see what has been going on in the games. I’m checking the Stat Leaders every day, checking team stats and even starting to know rosters off the top of my head. I love reading other peoples recaps and seeing what they think about the games. And I love to get the opportunity to write a little bit about individual games and give some insight into what I see and look for in a team, and a game. Trivia has also caught my attention. For the first time ever, I actually looked up the Trivia answers myself instead of waiting for someone to post them in a Discord server. I even got one wrong! And I had fun doing it, and I learned something new. Sure, it takes time and effort, but no more than writing a couple of Reviews or a Game Recap. And I can do it while sitting in a lecture and mess around with the site. These Supplemental Point Tasks are so fun, and I really feel they are helping keep my attention and help me get more immersed in the league.

Hey Ducky! How was work today? Not too bad, but nobody ever gives as good of answers as you do Landon. Speaking of which, we should do another interview shouldn’t we? We have to get your name out there somehow. Great idea, you know how much I love a good interview. Great, so lets start off with a hard one to get it over with. What’s your favourite city? Very good question, and you’re right this is quite hard. I didn’t get the chance to travel much in my childhood, but now that I’m on mainland North America, I’ve taken every opportunity to travel as much as I can. I love New York and the vibe it has, and of course I love San Diego where I spend most of my time. My favourite city though has to be Mexico City. Interesting choice considering they are divisional rivals. Next up is a good question, mountains or ocean? Ocean for sure. I love the salty smell in the air and the cool water on my toes. I’ve actually only been in the Atlantic though, despite being in San Diego. I should really take a trip down to the beach sometime. Oh we should definitely go together sometime! I’ve never swam in salt water, could be nice. Pizza or Tacos? Tacos any day of the week. I mean that. I want tacos any, and every day of the week please. I don’t care if they’re terrible ripoff tacos or authentic tacos. I mean of course I like the real deal a lot more, but I’ll take anything. Pizza is alright I guess, and has a time and a place but tacos are just the perfect experience. I would agree I love tacos too. If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? That’s a hard one because I love my name. It rolls off of the tongue so well and the whole LW joke is still pretty funny to me. Brandon Wolanin sounds nice but then the joke isn’t there. Lance Wolanin or maybe Lucas Wolanin keeps the joke intact but doesn’t come out as nice. I think you’re right. I can’t imagine you as anyone but Landon Wolanin. What’s something you learned this past week? Well I’ve been learning quite a bit about the Winter Olympics this past week. I’ve been doing pretty much nothing but watching anything I can stay awake for. I’ve learned how awesome slopestyle and big air events are for sure. They’re definitely up there with hockey for my favourite events to watch. Truly fascinating what they can do in those sports. When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with? Surprisingly? Schoolwork. Math, English anything you can think of. Even if I haven’t taken the class. For some reason I give off the air that I just know things? And I definitely do just know things, but I’m certainly not an expert in most things, and there are definitely better people to ask on most topics. Well I always find asking you things gets me the best and most honest answers Landon. Lets do this again next week! 532 words claiming week of Febraury 13th, 2022

Game 65 Review This game was a goalie duel all the way through to the shootout. Two total goals on 52 total shots is very impressive. Despite Miami being known for their offensive star power, this game was truly controlled by meticulous defence and incredible goaltending. This was a rather well disciplined game and both teams walked away with a perfect Penalty Killing performance. It was Hasbulla Magomedov who managed to bring Mexico City the win on the scoresheet, but it was absolutely Brandt Fuhr and Jay Saucey’s game to watch, with Fuhr just getting the edge.

Game 63 Review This 7-5 Thriller certainly provided something for everyone involved. Philadelphia continues to dominate, getting another tally in the wins column. Miami continues to get high octane offence from their stars. Molotov was the one to watch this game as he scores another hat trick to take the league lead and continues to stretch his lead in the points department. His supporting cast all pitched in enough to support this endeavour. Dokis, hot in pursuit of the scoring title put up a cool 3 points in a rather balanced Reapers offensive effort. The Reapers should be happy to see all of their lines rolling as well as they did in this game.

ah yes i'm second in points scoring. only... 7... behind the leader after 4 games.

Game 6 Review What an absolutely chaotic game. 12 goals in total over 64 shots is certainly a rare occasion. This was definitely not a game either goalie will want to remember. Ottawa may want to take another look at their Penalty Kill who went 0 for 3 tonight despite both teams netting three with the extra man. Daniel Clarke was busy this game netting a goal on 8 shots, as well as securing an assist. They spent plenty of time on the powerplay and stayed above 50% at the faceoff dot. I’m not sure this game tells either team a whole lot at the beginning of the season here, and Ottawa will simply be happy to have secured 2 points. Mississauga goes on knowing they had a great game up front, but poor discipline kept them from overwhelming the Lynx.

Game 7 Review What a start for the Reapers, who are an obvious contender this year. Pumping out 12 goals in their first 2 games (and notably 7 in their second) and only 2 goals against between those 2 games is an incredible sim for them. The Reapers handily outshot the 21st 42-22 and had strong performances from their capped core. Massive game for Dylan Powers, getting the Second Star of the Game with 3 assists. Also less obviously, they dominated the faceoff dot, winning a whopping 74% of their draws. Add in 5:45 on the Power Play and 3:22 on the Penalty Kill, Dylan was an important member of a strong special teams group.

Today really is a day of new beginnings. I saw a twitter post earlier today that said something along the lines of “Hot Girl New Years is actually February 1st” and today, I couldn’t agree more. I have finally returned to in person learning at university, and of course, the new Season starts! With a brand-new player entering their first season, and myself entering a new season, I feel like I’m truly channeling my hot girl energy today. Big starting games against Houston and Miami, who both have quite a few rookies from this latest VHLM Dispersal Draft, are a great chance for us to try out some lines and see how our squad compares to our closest competitors, skill-wise at least. Despite our efforts to tank for next season, we’ve had a very active group and could surprise the league this season. I’m personally hoping to get some points up on the board and establish myself as a threat to other teams.

I love the writing in this report. The nod to a real life event makes it even more entertaining. I enjoy the conversational style and the separation of the Player quotation not only by the obvious quotation marks but the italics as well. The GIF added to the humour of the media spot as well. Enjoy your stay in Mississauga and good luck, despite you not picking to be one of my San Diego teammates. 8/10

This might be the best media spot I've ever read. It is a shame I never got to play with The Board Game Clue On Skates, and I hope to at some point in my career. Excellent writing overall, well paced and spaced, and the pictures help solidify the piece. I would pay good real life money to see this as a movie or a mini-series. There’s certainly a lot in this text to reference. 10/10 literal perfection.

Oh hey Ducky how’s it going? Long time no see! Want to do another interview? I’ve been waiting for this moment all week. The bathtub is dreadfully boring and you never play with me anymore Landon, I’ve been so lonely. Uhh, yeah about that, got any questions for me? The team wants me doing interviews so everyone can get to know me better and I don’t know sell a few jerseys or something. Fine, I’ll take what I can get. What is your earliest memory? Earliest memory huh? I think I gained consciousness at Mariah’s 4th birthday party actually. A bunch of our classmates we were hanging out in the backyard in one of those bug tents and we were painting like wooden animals with glitter paint and there was like pipe cleaners and cotton balls and all that jazz. I think I painted a red elephant? I don’t know what I expected but that certainly wasn’t it. Do you have any nicknames? Well most of my teammates over the years have called me Left Wing. It works because my initials are LW, and yeah. Most people call me Landon Wolanin though, it just kind of rolls off the tongue nicely. I must say my parents really set me up to be a star with a name like that. Makes sense, Ducky is a better name though. If only I got the kind of exposure that you do as a hockey player. I could really make a name for myself. But back to the questions, what have you created that you are most proud of? Oh man, that’s a hard one. As you all know by now from the last interview, I’m a master at pottery. There’s a big serving tray I made a couple years back that is just stunning. I painted a scene of me getting ready to one time a pass. It’s definitely my best work. Cute. What makes you cry? That was a very sudden transition wow. There are two movies that make me cry every time I see them. The first one is Good Will Hunting, which anyone who’s seen the movie should understand. The second one is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Cedric dies. Pretty much the rest of the movie is me crying. I never really figured out why that happens but it always has. Mine is onions. Or when you’ve left me alone for a while. Who is one of your best friends, and what do you love about them? Well I’ve had a very solid group of friends for a few years now that I love very much and they know all of the reasons why. So, I’m going to take the opportunity to say why I love you Ducky, I feel like you need it right now. You’re my oldest friend, and you helped me learn to not be afraid of water. I once thought I lost you on a camping trip and spent 4 hours digging through the sand to find you, because I couldn’t bear not having you around. Wow. I love you too Landon. I’m going to go cry now so I guess that’s the interview. Promise you’ll play with me more? Of course, Ducky. I’m sorry you’ve been feeling neglected. I’ll do better. 550 words claiming week of February 6th, 2022

and with the last pick.... F- Tyler Reinhart @Spartan

G - Thadius Sales D - Lenny Sanderson @der meister

F - Jerome Reinhart D - Robin Galante Nilsson @der meister