CowboyinAmerica

Questions for the week ending 5/22/22: 1. The Titans have gone on a bit of a run! What's been the main reasoning behind the run to you? 2. Will this team be able to sneak into the playoffs by the end of the season? 3. The Titans are 6th in the European Conference but would be 3rd in North America. Do you think the VHL should set playoff teams by conference? 4. As we enter the final stretch of the season, what are you doing to keep yourself engaged and hyped? 5. Taking a look at lesser hockey leagues, who are you rooting for that's left in the NHL playoffs? 6. What do you think the perfect sandwich should have on it?

Meanwhile I'm over in the corner with some popcorn asking, "Wait VHL Riots our Theme Week?"

Seattle, Wash. -- It hasn't been the most memorable of seasons for Helsinki goaltender Xavier Booberry, but during Sunday night's All-Star festivities, the third-year player had one of his brightest moments as a professional. Starting in goal for two of Team Europe's three games in the best of three series, Xavier Booberry racked up two shootout wins and go himself All-Star MVP honors in the process. With a .921 save percentage and 1.39 goals against, Booberry showed that he could go up against the VHL's top scorers and still hold his own. It served as validation for Booberry, who came into the season with high expectations. "It may just be an exhibition, but I can tell you that both sides wanted to win. Those North American players threw everything at me," Booberry said in media availability following the game. "But we were able to get it done. I couldn't be happier with how this turned out." The Titans may be hoping the game spurs Booberry to MVP-like numbers in the remainder of the season as well. Originally expecting this year to be a turning point, Helsinki currently sits in sixth in a tough European Conference. Booberry wouldn't say whether he expects the turning point to occur, only that the team knows what it needs to do. "The standings spell it out, don't they? If we want to get back into this, then it's going to take a team effort from that very next game."

For the Week Ending 5/15/22 1. How are you feeling about your play so far this season? 2. It's the All-Star break! What did you do with your weekend if you weren't playing? 3. What would be your favorite All-Star Game location to travel to worldwide? 4. Team Europe won the All-Star contest. Do you feel any loyalty to Team Europe, or view the other teams/players more as competitors? 5. Mid-season check-in: Who's the VHL championship favorite right now? 6. With temperatures starting to heat up (in the Northern hemisphere at least), any summer plans you're particularly excited for?

MVP! MVP!

1) What is your favorite life hack? It's not really a life hack, but I'm a big fan of just making a large meal in the crock pot at the beginning of the week then spreading it out. Some BBQ chicken can turn into sandwiches, pizza, tacos, whatever you need. 2) Do you have any major VHL regrets? Nah. I've done a lot over the course of multiple players' careers, and I'm really at the point now that whatever will be, will be. 3) What one user in the VHL have you never been on a team with but would love to be? Good question. I don't think I've ever been on Victor's team for one reason or another, and we're often in direct opposition. But with his current break, don't know if it'll ever happen. 4) Are there more wheels or doors on Earth? I thought about this one when it was a social media thing a few weeks back. I'm going with doors, with the caveat that if you're making machinery cogs a wheel then that'll change. 5) What is your favorite geometric shape, and why? Maybe not the most useful, but there's something beautiful about a perfect circle. Also, it's the best shape for pizza, and I like pizza. 6) Is the VHL your primary sim league? If not, what league is? If it is, what other leagues are you active in or have been wanting to try? Yeah, it is currently and has been for a bit. I've been active in a bunch, and currently am in the EFL, but I'm not in the adventurous frame of mind currently.

Where's the "I would dedicate the rest of my VHL days to making sure that new team is hated" option?

Game Recap: Game 69, Riga Reign vs. Malmo Nighthawks I'm writing this Game Recap because I got a trivia question wrong where Riga was the actual correct answer, so I'm recapping a game where Riga lost out of anger. But luckily for me, this is a fun game to look over as well. A true back-and-forth affair, Riga went up early 3-0 in the first period, with three different goal scorers getting on the board (including Jaromir Lemiuex's first of the season). The Riga faithful probably thought they had it in the bag then against the rebuilding Malmo, but the Nighthawks came back with three of their own, including Nathaniel Minion to start the third period. The game ended up in OT after the two traded another goal a piece, then a shootout after seven total shots in OT. There, after a lot of shots missed the net, Mason Jones put home the only goal of the shootout for the win. Final: 5, 4 (SO)

1. What is your goal for the week? I think about 10 shutouts would suffice. I've got one already this season, what's another 10 more? 2. Do you think its more important to receive individual or team awards? It's weird for goalies because I think they're linked - you're not winning a goalie award without a strong team in front of you. But either way, would rather have a title. 3. What is your player's number (or the number you usually wear) and how did you choose it? The number 80 looks like the start of the word Boo if you squint. I mean, squint hard. 4. Would you rather wear only white or only black for the rest of your life? Too much stuff spills on white, and I'm a rather messy eater. Sure, I'll be goth for a long while and be the envy of scene kids everywhere. 5. What is your favorite meal you ate over the last week? Went out with some friends who were in town and had a good breakfast burrito. Really, it's hard to go wrong with burritos at all. 6. What is your greatest critique about the appearance of your country's currency? I could answer this question, but man, you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel, huh? I'm genuinely curious what went through the ole noggin to come up with this as a press conference question.

Claim 4

D- Rolf Fizzlebeef Jr @rory

F - Anze Miklavz @wcats

Don't mind me, just quoting for future reference

F - Zeedayno Chara @rory

D - Tui Sova @wcats

G - Xavier Booberry @rory

Helsinki, Finland -- The first two seasons of Xavier Booberry's professional career were relatively pressure-free. Playing for a team that was finishing off its rebuild and had potential, but not overly pushing, for the playoffs, Booberry could grow and take his lumps. While he played solidly and showed flashes of what he could become, Booberry also had enough poor games in there to say that he was still growing. But now, it seems the time to be a star may be here. Not only is Helsinki as a team expected to take a leap this season, but Booberry himself has been garnering additional buzz as a breakout player. In fact, not only has he been garnering Top Goalie consideration with a number of S75 goalies retiring, but he's received a few MVP prediction votes as well. For the third-year player who does have a previous VHLM MVP to his name, it would be a bit easy to be overwhelmed. But Booberry is dealing with the hype in a simple way: not listening to it. "All I can control is my training and my play, and whatever will be will be after that," Booberry said. "I'll let the marketing folks deal with all of that hype stuff." In the preseason, Booberry finished with a 2-1 record, playing strong in two games against Riga but getting chased from the game against Moscow. If Booberry is going to be an awards contender this season, he'll need more of the former and less of the latter as the regular season begins in earnest this week.

Huh, interesting that I got a few. I could see being an underdog pick if goalies come up huge this season but I think Papa Emeritus would be just as likely as me in that case. (I voted Idaho fwiw, but think everything's up in the air.)

1. Pre-season, are you playing as well as you expected? Could've been better. Two good games against Riga gives me confidence, but that Moscow game was not pretty. 2. Any thoughts on how Helsinki as a team has been playing in the pre-season games? Not bad, but I think we have some stuff to figure out with lines. I think we have the talent to be scoring more. 3. Where are you planning on adding TPE during the first few weeks of the season? It's Swole Season - time to beef up my size even more to make sure that nothing gets by me. 4. Ori is the only forward with points in faceoffs, is that going to cause trouble later on? You know, I noticed that but didn't really say anything. It's entirely possible, but everybody kind of wants to do their own thing with builds, so be it. 5. How happy/confident are you about your award predictions? I honestly didn't put a super ton of thought into them, but I think this season's going to be pretty random with all the new builds anyway so not too concerned. 6. We did not have practice on Easter Sunday, how did you spend the day? Stuffing my face, the best way to do any holiday. A local restaurant did take and bake chicken, which is a nice way for a meal without too much prep.

Claim 3

F - Saku Kotkakoivu @wcats

Reposting the rosters for reference. @MubbleFubbleson the clock! 1. @MubbleFubbles F - Duncan Idaho F - Alex Johnston F - That Dude D - Battre Sandstrom D - Bo Johansson G - Oskar Lindbergh 2. @rory F - Vinny Detroit F - Taylor Mourning F - Paul Atreides D - Hari Singh Nalwa D - Poopy Peepants G - Bubbles Utonium 3. @CowboyinAmerica F - Saku Kotkakoivu F - Zeedayno Chara F - Anze Miklavz D - Tui Sova D - Rolf Fizzlebeef Jr G - Xavier Booberry 4. @wcats F - AJ Williams F - Vasile Lamb F - Baby Bob D - Hard Markinson D - Asher Reinhart G - Em Em Flex 5. @Minion F - Druss Deathwalker F - Nathaniel Minion F - Mason Jones D - Sven Eightnine D - Dabnad Shaw G - Papa Emeritus 6. @dogwoodmaple F - Jonathan Ori F - Reylynn Reinhart F - Phil "The Rock" Johnson D - Aurelien Moreau D - Jerome Reinhart G - Cole Pearce

Actually this is the first season I've really done well in yearly predictions, and it was mostly just relying on the meta and Thad. Fantasy Zone I'm usually pretty decent, and that does add up.

Lol I love it. I've purposefully been pretty low key about my earning rate, but I'm having fun with it. Honestly just getting absurd TPE and seeing what happens in a nine season career is something that pushed me to recreate in the first place, so I'm glad all of those uncapped opportunities are falling my way. But that also means without the extra year of regression, I'm probably looking at a 1200 TPA build for the final 4.5 seasons of my career. Which is wild. I was looking to stress test the sim a bit anyway, and the new skater attributes may be pushing that even further. All-time goalie record is 1623, think I should smash that. I don't think anybody's hitting 2k, but #3 and possibly #2 all-time is very much in play with the extended careers for everybody.

The Goalieacolypse is Here A few months ago I wrote about the upcoming goalie dilemma facing many VHL teams. Thanks to a banner S75 goalie draft class, there was a dearth of newly created goalies over the following couple of seasons, resulting in very few active goalies between the S76 and S78 draft classes. As a result, it meant that when those S75 draftees retired, there wouldn't be too many high TPE goalies left over. My friends, we are here. Welcome to the Show. That's your top 10 goalies in TPA entering the regular season - just eight goalies above 500 TPA in the entire league (once Utonium applies TPE) and just four above the 650 TPA mark. Three of the top four, including myself, are just entering their third VHL season by virtue of playing in the VHLE. A player in his second season will likely be fifth in goalie TPA by the time we hit the playoffs. Recent draft pick Brandt Fuhr is 13th and could be top ten by the end of the season. There's almost total turnover at the top of the goalie rankings from just last year. And there's an added level of intrigue that I couldn't have seen coming when I originally wrote about the goalie dilemma: This may be one of the most important seasons for goalies in VHL history. Thanks to the new updating attributes, it's assumed that scoring will be down across the board, with the advantage swinging back towards defense and goalies. How big of a difference can a top goalie make in the new paradigm? I'm very excited to find out. This is going to level off in a few seasons when the crop of S82, 83 and 84 goalies come into their primes. But for now, it's going to make for an interesting season or two; you can guarantee that at least two teams with sub-500 TPE goalies to start the season will make the VHL playoffs. And it'll be fun to track what this means for stats and awards as the season progresses.