CowboyinAmerica

Game 538: Warsaw 4, London 3 Apparently I missed another trivia question that I literally don't see how there was any other answer. But rather than argue, let's check in on how Davos's rivals for the third seed are doing. And the answer is: fairly well, considering how closely they played the top team in the conference. This game started off with no goals in the first period, but then had a fun occurrence: Warsaw scored 2 goals in 7 seconds, followed by London responding with 2 goals in 9 seconds later in the period. Warsaw had a 3-2 leading heading into the third, and although London would tie it up, Kisslinger II put away the game winner with less than three minutes left. Kisslinger would also gain the first star with two goals, and in fact, all three stars were on the Warsaw side.

Davos, Switzerland -- Though the VHL season is nearly complete, there remains a few spots left to shake out in the standings. And perhaps none is bigger than the third seed in the European Conference, where Davos leads London by just four points - but London has five games remaining, while Davos only has three. That would be interesting enough on its own, but adding to the intrigue is the schedule: The two teams will play each twice in the season's remaining games, both times in Switzerland. The third seed is an important one, as it means avoiding the wild card round and a likely matchup against an also strong Malmo side. To Davos goalie Xavier Booberry, it was also the one goal he focused on after being traded from Helsinki mid-season. "I wanted that third seed, because anything can happen in a wild card series," he explained. "But that two-three matchup, I'd feel a lot more comfortable." Outside of playing London twice at home, Davos also goes on the road to Chicago for their next game. On the London end, they also host Helsinki and D.C., while going on the road to Seattle. While Booberry wouldn't make any predictions about how the standings will end, he does enjoy having the four point lead. "Our play has been strong down the stretch, and we would have the tiebreaker due to wins. This makes the road clear: Win two games. And I'm excited to try and do it."

2: DO you believe that Davos will succeed in the Playoffs this season?I wouldn't be here if I didn't, right? Seriously though, I think the playoffs are a crapshoot a lot of the time, and Davos has just as good a chance as anyone. 3: Which is your favorite non-NHL team? I grew up going to some Philadelphia Phantoms games, so even though they're in Lehigh now, I still have a soft spot. 4: Are you surprised PK Subban didn’t get a contract? I think you overestimate how closely I pay attention to the NHL, if I'm being honest. But he's a big name, and I imagine someone would want the marketing there. 5: If you had to put all your TPE into a single stat, which one would you put it towards? Size. Just make me a giant goalie with no other discernable skills and I think it would still be fun. 6: I don’t know if I asked this yet. But what is your player's Jersey Number? 80. Add another zero on the end and it kind of looks like Boo, right? 8: Which video game do you think you dedicated the most time to?I've played so much Smash Bros in my life. Honestly you could just take the time period I was in college, and it still might be the pick.

Davos, Switzerland -- It can already be anticipated that future historians will be scratching their heads. Because through 45 games on the Helsinki Titans, goalie Xavier Booberry wasn't just leading the save percentage race, he was smoking the field at .938. And for his efforts, he was... barely in the top 10 in wins, and not even on the board in GAA. The reason is a whole lot of shots: Even a week leader, Booberry's 2019 shots against in Helsinki still sits higher than every other non-Riga goalie in the league. It seemed inevitable that the shoe had to drop. And finally it did: Booberry was shipped off to Davos in a major trade deadline package, and he'll now join the third-place European Conference team in their quest for the title. "I had a lot of fun in Helsinki, and a few good seasons. It's where I learned how to play goalie, adjusted to the VHL, and won some awards. Plus the playoff run last season, of course," Booberry said at his introductory Davos press conference. "I'm ready for the next challenge, but it will be because of my past growth in Helsinki that I am set up to thrive." Of course, Helsinki's major drop this season comes as a result of a mass player exodus and not much replacing them on the back end - at times, Booberry was playing with random defensemen off the street in front of him. Still, despite the quick turn in fortune, Booberry doesn't hold any ill will against the Titans or their management. "Look, sometimes careers don't develop the way that you anticipated. When I said that I thought my entire career would be with the Titans, I meant it," Booberry said. "Obviously, that didn't happen. And you could be bitter about that fact, or you could pick right up and dive into your new situation. I'm choosing the latter." Indeed, Davos looks to be a good fit for the fifth-year goalie, particularly as they shipped out fellow S80 draftee David Davis in the deal. The Dynamo not only provide a winning team in the heart of his career, but a young roster that will continue to grow and compete in the coming seasons. Of the team's 10 front line skaters, six are S82 or younger, meaning depreciation is a while away. Booberry, who is signed through next season, also refuted a VSN report which claimed that he "for good reason likely wouldn’t extend beyond that." "I like to think I'm a pretty loyal guy. I was loyal in Helsinki - I never did actually ask for a trade. I'd like to be loyal in Davos too," Booberry said. "If there's an effort to try and win here, and the team likes me here, then I don't see any reason why I'd go anywhere else. I'd like to be all in for the Dynamo." And so far, it seems like the two sides are a good match. Through his first six games in purple, Booberry remains undefeated: a perfect 6-0 record, including wins over top teams in Moscow and D.C. His save percentage is also hanging around his previous Helsinki total, leading some to start to speculate whether awards would be in his future. But Booberry says he's not thinking about that for now. To hear him tell it, his mind is fully oriented towards one goal: the playoffs and a first round bye. "I've only been in the playoffs once in my career, and never won a playoff series at that. That needs to change," Booberry said. "My goal is to get Davos as far as I can, including a title. And I think we've got the talent to get it done."

1: How do you feel about Davos recently acquiring Xavier Booberry? Er, positive I suppose? Seriously though, happy to be here and excited to try and bring the Cup to Davos! I think we've got the firepower to do it. 2: If you had to change Davos’ team name, what would you choose? I like the purple branding and the mountain logo/name, but I don't think the HC fits very well honestly. It's a little too Euro-centric in a league that doesn't have much of that. 3: At this rate with around 20 games left in the season, how many points do you think you'll finish this season with? A couple of seasons ago I led all goalies with like 8 assists or something. I only have 3 right now, but man if Davos can help me get to the 5 spot, that'd be sweet. 5: What is your player's locker room nickname? Boo is probably what I'd prefer. Boob is what started to stick when I was in Helsinki which is... a little bit harder to explain to the uninitiated. 6: What is your favorite Board Game? I've been on a real train game kick recently. Ticket to Ride is the easy and accessible one if you've never played them, but 18.xx games are the hard mode I've been teaching myself. 7: NHL23 is being released later in this month, do you think you’ll play it?I'd like to play it eventually, but I'm also cheap. I've still got 22 loaded in my Game Pass, and that's probably what I'm sticking with until 23 gets on there as well.

For the week ending 10/2/22: 1. We're at the halfway point of the season! What's been the biggest VHL surprise to you so far? 2. Have the Titans lived up to your preseason expectations so far? 3. In keeping with the Theme Week, what makes a good GM to you? 4. Who's your favorite VHLM/VHLE/VHL GM you've played for and why? 5. It's starting to get cold in Helsinki, what piece of winter gear do you still need? 6. Have any special plans for the first day of snow?

For the week ending 9/25/22: 1. The Titans are right at the edge of playoff contention right now. Do you think we will be able to stay there? 2. What's been the biggest surprise of the VHL season so far for you? 3. There's been a lot of roster change, but that also means some new teammates. How have you been getting to know them in the locker room? 4. Finnish can be tough to learn for some of our players. Do you speak another language outside of English, and if so, how did you learn it? 5. With fall here in the Northern Hemisphere, what are you most looking forward to over the next couple of months? 6. What's your favorite season in general?

Game Recap, GM 155: 4, 3 So I got a dumb trivia question wrong where there was no way to know what GM it was referring to - I guessed Hedgehog and guessed wrong. So as my own personal form of revenge, I’m recapping a game that Riga lost. However, despite the ultimate Vancouver win, this was still an exciting game. The two teams split goals in the first period, with each Vancouver goal being answered by a Riga goal. The first Reign goal was even by a bot, something I’m rather familiar with in Helsinki. The second period seemed to be the opposite though - nobody scored. That left a tense 2-2 game entering the third period, where the Reign scored in the second minute and were hoping to hold on for the victory. In the end, though, the overall talent of Vancouver showed through, with newcome Pearce and former Reign player Miklavz taking home goals for the ultimate victory. Pearce was named first star with a goal and two assists.

The best stat line tbh

For the week ending 9/18/22: 1. Well, that probably wasn't the offseason Helsinki fans were looking for. What do you think went wrong? 2. Anything you would have done differently in team construction, given the constraints? 3. Despite that though, Helsinki's gotten off to a quick start. How do you think that's happened? 4. What's your personal goal for your player this season? 5. What should be the goal for the Titans? Is playoffs realistic? 6. Who's your beginning-of-season championship prediction?

1. If you were a dog, what breed would you be an why? I'd say a shiba. A few too many smarts for my own good, not giant but a bit stout, and loyal but a cutie at the same time. 2. Have you ever won a championship in a league other than the VHL? Or the VHL? Six in the VHL and five in the EFL, not bad. None in the SBA but I still made HOF so I'm taking it. 3. Who has the best chance of winning the scoring title this coming season? Well, the current scoring leader is Helsinki's own Hayden Rain, so that's my pick and you can't convince me otherwise. Questions: 1. It's the start of the season! How do you feel about your own team's chances this year? 2. Any personal goals that you really want to hit? 3. What's your favorite way to chill on a day off work/school?

You all should be so ashamed of yourselves.

F - Henri le Massif G - Papa Emeritus @Bedirhan

(I admittedly have no idea what I'm doing and am just trying to get players on Helsinki, so if this counts as a pending claim by Prague that's already gone through, no worries)

D - Erlantz Jokinen F - Brendan Marner @Bedirhan

Transaction ID: 7HG35726V98497547 S85 Donation 5 TPE Doubles Week 1M

After the regular season didn't end the way that goalie Xavier Booberry wanted, he was hoping that the World Cup might be a way to turn around his fortunes. However, through the round robin portion of the competition, it seems that he's been running into a lot of the same issues. Booberry's USA team finished fifth out of six teams in this year's round robin, coming in with a 3-6-1 record. For Booberry specifically, his .912 save percentage finished tied for fourth among all goalies, and far below Bubbles Utonium and David Davis in their standout campaigns. It was a difficult result for Booberry, he told the media after the team's most recent game. "I want to be a gamechanger, but clearly in this tournament, I wasn't," he explained. "I look forward to repping the stars and stripes in this tourney, and I feel like I've let down my hometown fans a bit." Still, there is time to turn things around for Booberry with the medal round ahead. First Team USA will need to get through a Team World that had similar struggles in the round robin, but afterwards would need to beat an Eastern Europe team that at times looked unstoppable. But Booberry stresses that "anything can happen in these one game playoffs." He adds, "Have you seen the Miracle on Ice? The USA can do some crazy things with our backs against the wall. So let's do it again."

Once again, we couldn't quite go a full year between biography submissions. One day...

F - Vinny Detroit D - Brian Payne @Bedirhan (Since it's a snake draft, Bojovnik will be up after you)

It's not in the worst place for a rebuild. I'd argue it's actually not in the worst place to compete either if a new GM wanted to go all in the other direction, given some young talent on the roster and picks to trade. But either one requires somebody to make decisions sooner rather than later.

And this is 1000+ words, because I can write long-winded when I want to. For claim the week ending 9/11/22 too.

A Career, Interrupted Normally I have some sort of overarching theme to my media spots to make them more coherent. But today, I’m just going to ramble a bit. I think it’s warranted given how this offseason’s gone, and the rather sudden dissolution of the team with the third-best record in the league last season. I’ve experienced a lot in my VHL career. I’ve created Hall of Famers, won titles, been a part of dominant teams. I’ve also experienced the lowest of lows, going careers without ever making the Finals, finishing as a bit of an afterthought. After being here off and on for about 50 seasons, I didn’t think there was much left to experience in my VHL life. But now, I guess I can say I’ve experienced something new. I’ve never been on a team where a GM has ghosted before. To be sure, a GM no longer showing up isn’t exactly a novel phenomenon in the VHL. Famously, the S43 Bears had Bushito up and leave midseason, while the team went on to win the title anyway. The practice was unfortunately common in the league’s 50s and 60s, although much less so today with so many active members chomping at the bit to take the reigns. Still, I suppose I’ve been fortunate with the GMs I’ve had in my VHL career, because there really hasn’t been much turnover when I’ve been on a team, and even when that’s occurred, there was a succession plan in place. A succession plan is something that Helsinki could have used desperately. Rayz has/had been slowly fading away for a while, but for some reason, never really hired an AGM to pick up the slack in his stead since Hatter left a couple of months ago. I tried to help where I could - I’ve pretty much been posting Helsinki press conferences the past few seasons myself, and I also did all the team’s S84 Draft scouting, since I assumed it wouldn’t get done otherwise. But there’s a reason I actively avoid taking a league job: my schedule goes off and on. The last two weeks (of vacation and work) I was largely offline. For the first week, Rayz was supposed to be too - but now, as that has stretched into two weeks and now a third, there hasn’t been someone there to take up the slack. Apparently the Titans drafted people, but without looking at the portal, I’d have no idea who because there’s been radio silence on Discord. Rayz may very well come back, but there’s been no talk of how or why, and it’s clear that a clean break was not going to be in the cards here. The results have been both obvious and devastating. There’s a chance that Helsinki stalwarts like Pearce, Nezuko and Nano would have stayed if they had actually been courted. Obviously, one can see from the boards that they never received an offer. I don’t blame them for jumping ship at all; I would have done the exact same thing in their situation. And what’s left are the few players that had a longer contract - myself, Boom, AW, Ledge, Zeph. Ironically, I think the bones are there for a team that can still compete, but now without even anyone to bid on inactives, the chances of full lines aren’t very good. I genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen next. I'm not confident it will be good. I talked with Josh on Sunday about the situation, and my hope is that the blue team is considering its options here. I haven’t heard anything back from them, to be fair, but I can’t say I’d be shocked by some sort of takeover. I do believe time is a bit of the essence there, given that the cap is still tight across the league, and it would be tough to find worthwhile homes for the team’s remaining actives. Plus, I figure any new GM would want as many suitors as possible to try and maximize picks for any sort of rebuild. Even then, though, I fear I’m going to be the one screwed by this situation the most, especially because of one big factor: the recent glut of goalies. In recent drafts, just about every team has solidified their goalie position, or at least have a plan for the next couple of years. That leaves my potential options for landing spots - not only via a trade this season, but even in free agency next offseason - very slim. It’s a bit odd that I’m going to be sitting at 1200+ TPA for the next four seasons, yet I could be left out of the general league shuffle for reasons beyond my control. It’s the way the cookie crumbles, but it doesn’t make it any more palatable. I suppose my best case scenario is somebody takes over the Titans now, sees the potential and tries to cobble together a winner for the next couple of seasons. I’m curious if that ship has sailed, though. And if it has - well, I guess I’m going to keep banking a ton of TPE, and I’m open for business next offseason if somebody wants a potentially game-breaking goalie on their side. I genuinely don’t know where that might be, because I’ve done zero research on other destinations - I never thought I would have to. That’s something I’m learning comes up quickly in this situation that I’d never experienced before. I really did want to see this through on the Titans, but I guess the Titans didn’t really want to see it through on their side. As a result, the ultimate trajectory of where I see my career going is changing. Especially after a Season 83 Slobo and Shaw, and a Season 84 playoff run that saw a Game 7 loss to the eventual champs, I’ll admit that I had Hall of Fame in my eyes. Maybe I still could. But that has been rapidly replaced by scramble mode, and the increasing possibility of my final season before depreciation being a complete wash. I imagine it will change how the history books remember Booberry. I know it’ll change how I remember him. Because now, it will be partially the story of the promising goalie who ran into the brick wall that he never saw coming.

1 - project your player's stats next season I'll say the wins are low, but the save percentage (and heart) is high. Somewhere around a .928 SV%, but 22 wins. 2 - which current teammate is the best in the locker room? You wouldn't think it'd be Florida Man, but everybody needs that wild man that is willing to do anything to pump people up. 3 - which teammate is the most likely to clear the room with a big ol nasty pre-game toot? Let's just put it this way: We have a guy on our team whose nickname is Boom. The name fits quite well. Questions: 1. What advice do you have for the new VHL GMs? 2. What VHL/VHLE/VHLM offseason move has surprised you the most? 3. We're at the end of summer! What's your favorite vacation you've taken recently?

1. Well, we lost to Warsaw in 7. What's your emotions like after the final game? Didn't feel great, Bob. Seriously though, I think we were all confident coming into that game, but it was admittedly a let down to not get it done. Time will heal all wounds, but in the moment, it hurt. 2. Anything you would have done differently in the final games to win the series? I do feel like I let my team down a bit with my own personal play. I'm supposed to be one of the leaders of this team, but especially in the final two games, I was pretty average. 3. How do you feel about your own personal playoff performance this season? For my first playoff appearance, I guess I shouldn't have expected too much. But frankly, I wanted to be Playoff MVP. It just wasn't meant to be. 4. Warsaw went on to beat Moscow to head to the finals. Does that make losing easier, knowing how tough a team they are, or more difficult knowing Helsinki could have had a shot? More difficult, for sure. A title is always the goal, and knowing that we were close certainly hurts more. 5. Taking the season as a whole, should this be considered a success for Helsinki? Taking a step back, it probably should. From missing the playoffs to tied for the third-best record in the league, and taking the eventual champs to the brink of elimination, shows that we're a team that's right there. 6. Any parting thoughts to our teammates who are retiring and leaving us this off-season? It was great to have Reinhart and Vat here, and I appreciate all that they did to get us closer. Now in their absence, we just need to take the next steps.

I'm claiming for today but figure it's for people to answer over the next week: 1. Well, we lost to Warsaw in 7. What's your emotions like after the final game? 2. Anything you would have done differently in the final games to win the series? 3. How do you feel about your own personal playoff performance this season? 4. Warsaw went on to beat Moscow to head to the finals. Does that make losing easier, knowing how tough a team they are, or more difficult knowing Helsinki could have had a shot? 5. Taking the season as a whole, should this be considered a success for Helsinki? 6. Any parting thoughts to our teammates who are retiring and leaving us this off-season?