CowboyinAmerica

Titans Meute Bears Iron Eagles

It has been 3.2 long seasons in the making, but Karsten Olsen has finally done it - he has made the Seattle Bears top line. And for Seattle, the promotion was not a moment too soon. But first, let's back up a moment. Karsten wasn't on the top line? Isn't he top three in defenseman TPE or something? Indeed, he has never been, both for roster construction reasons as well as strategic reasons for the Seattle Bears. Before this season, James Lefevre and Zack Sound always played on the top line, the duo that hadn't been separated since Season 33 for the Bears. In each of his first three seasons, Olsen played with a rotating cast of characters on the second line, plying his trade with a large number of hits and shots blocked. This season, Olsen was expected to move up to the first line with Zack Sound moving to center, but the Bears decided to go with a different tactic. Seeing the lack of depth around the league, GM Greg Harbinson originally decided to leave Olsen on the second line, hoping that he would be able to take advantage of weaker players in 5-on-5 situations there while first overall draft pick Godavari Yumalatopinto played on the first line. Olsen still played on the top line in PP and SH situations. However, the experiment didn't quite work out the way Seattle wanted. 16 games into the season, they sat fourth in the North American Conference and needed to make a change. Enter the defensive shift. Since moving Olsen to the top line, the Bears have gone 3-2-1, including huge wins over recent powerhouses Quebec City and Helsinki. Two of their three losses during that time span have also been to Quebec City, including one in a shootout. Overall, the Bears believe the shift has been successful, and you should expect to see much more of Olsen on the top line as the season drags on.

Excellent article, extremely well done. I love the idea the Corsi Close, although I'm not sure whether our sim engine designates a difference in team strategy for down-heavy or up-heavy situation situations? That would be a question for those more familiar with the sim engine than I am, and if there's no difference then that's just sample size/randomness there (and I imagine would save you a shit ton of data mining time). And yeah, having those two excellent centers is a huge help for Toronto. Other than Toronto and Davos, don't believe you'll find a team with two centers with that skill set. Also doesn't hurt Lindberg's scoring that not many teams have two active defensive lines other than Seattle. Curious for my own stats-minded self (who doesn't know as much about hockey advanced stats as other sports): You have/know where to find NHL Z-scores for the CF%? Would be interesting to see where Toronto's 52.5% sits on the scale.

I was going to, but it got to be long, so decided to do 3-3-2(+expansions) instead to give myself stuff to write about. And editing now!

Author's Note: Kind of wanted to learn about the history of the league a little bit more, so decided to do a series of medias that required some digging. Sorry if some stuff is off, relied exclusively on old indexes here. --------------- At roughly the one-third mark of the season, the Seattle Bears currently sit third in the North American Conference, just one point ahead of the New York Americans for the final playoff spot in the conference. And why is making the playoffs so important to the Seattle franchise? Because it would end one of the worst periods in Seattle’s franchise history. By not making the playoffs between Season 32 and Season 35, the franchise has tied its longest streak of seasons without a playoff birth since the VHL’s inception. The only other time the Bears went four seasons without making the playoffs was Season 22 through 25, just ahead of the Seattle Six squad that broke the curse. And of course, that’s not entirely fair either: Teams only held a 50 percent chance of making the playoffs pre-Season 31, while the post-expansion VHL allows 60 percent of the teams in each conference to make the playoffs every season. Still, it’s worthwhile to look back at the bad instead of the good sometimes. In this three-part series, VHL News’s Zach Warren plans on taking a look at the low-point of each franchise’s history from the original eight teams. Caution: terrible times ahead. Calgary Wranglers Longest Playoff Drought: Four seasons, S14-S17 and S24-27 (S14-S17 highlighted here) The Season Before: Led by Jonas Markstrom’s second place .919 save percentage, the Wranglers clinched the second spot in the North American Conference by just four points over the Toronto Legion. Of course, that was with a 24-40-1 record, and while the New York Americans (at 42-22) were clearly the better team and proved it in the first round. What Happened: Markstrom continued his strong goaltending play – he led the VHL in save percentage the next season – but then the bottom fell out, mostly due to a complete lack of offense. Mikka Virkkunen finished in the top ten in goals in each of Seasons 15 through 17, but no other Wrangler reached the top ten in either goals or assists until J.D. Stormwall in S17. The Season After: The long rebuild complete, the Wranglers won the North American Conference regular season in S18 with 114 points, just four points behind the Madrid Thunder for best in the VHL and a whopping 78 points ahead of third-place-in-the-conference Seattle. It certainly didn’t hurt that the top three goal scorers in the league this season (Virkkunen, Stormwall, and Jardy Bunclewirth) were all from Calgary. They capped off the resurgence through the first of back-to-back championships. Seattle Bears Longest Playoff Drought: Four seasons, S22-S25 and S32-35 (S22-S25 highlighted here) The Season Before: It was a season-long fight between the Bears and Legion, with Seattle holding the offense behind goals leader Markus Strauss and Cam Fowler, while Toronto held the top goalie in Aidan Shaw. But it was Toronto who got the last laugh in the end, winning the franchise’s second championship. Seattle, meanwhile, continued a streak of not making the finals that would last ten seasons. What Happened: A firesale happened. Strauss remained around, but the trades of forward Cam Fowler and goaltender Joey Clarence decimated the Bears’ chances. The revolving door at goaltender clearly didn’t help, as neither young goaltenders Alejandro Messi nor Carlos Vasquez could stop the bleeding. The team bottomed out in Season 24, with a 9-58-5 record (23 points), not a single player in the top seven in scoring at his position, and the second-worst goalie in the league by save percentage. The Season After: Youth is a beautiful thing. After a few years of growing, by-now veterans Felix Peters and Mitch Higgins were able to lead the team to the promised land of the playoffs once more. Rookies Jarvis Baldwin and Radislav Mjers certainly helped matters as well. But the big key was finally having stable goaltending: The trade for Cal G would give Seattle the answer in net it would need to finish its rebuild and eventually win a Cup in Season 28, its only cup in the past 17 seasons. Toronto Legion Longest Playoff Drought: Three seasons, S4-S6, S11-S13, S26-28, S30-32 (The final two highlighted here) The Season Before: Toronto is an odd duck in that it only has the fourth-most playoff appearances for franchises with 19, yet it has the lowest amount of prolonged ineptitude with only three season intervals of making the playoffs. However, S25 will still be remembered as the year it began to all turn sour. The Legion were competitive with the Americans that year, finishing just eight points back in the North American Conference standings behind Aidan Shaw’s competitive .916 save percentage and David Walcott’s 71 assists. However, they did not have Benjamin Glover’s youthful exuberance, as New York would lose the first of four straight finals matches this season. What Happened: The loss of Aidan Shaw certainly hurt, as *deep breath* Adrian LaFontaine, Matthieu VanCoughnett, Alexander Labatte, and Remy LeBeau all played goalie for Toronto in the seven-season span between S26 and S32. Of those, Labatte had the most success during the time period, guiding the Legion to a VHL-best 107 points and a championship in Season 29 with help from points leader Jason White. But then they ran into an overly competitive North American Conference in Season 30 (all four teams finished between 100 and 91 points), they shipped off Labatte, and the rebuild was on. The Season After: Riding a youth movement led by LeBeau, Nikita Lebedev and Jakub Kjellburg, the Legion edged out the upstart Meute by eight points to grab a S33 playoff birth. They couldn’t do much while there – this was the end of the New York era of dominance with seven finals appearances in nine seasons, after all - but they at least had established a solid corps that would hold them over for the immediate future.

Combining our loves for Game of Thrones and the Winter Olympics. This made me happy: http://adage.com/article/creativity-pick-of-the-day/game-thrones-actor-voices-bbc-s-foreboding-olympics-ad/291063/

http://www.quizfarm.com/quizzes/westeros/LlamaMafia/which-song-of-ice-and-fire-house-do-you-belong-too/ Think it was something like that one, just remember doing it while at a friend's one night. There's a few that Google comes up with.

When I took that quiz a while ago, I got Targaryen. I'm... scared guys.

Bee-you-tee-ful.

There are always some differences (i.e. Dany's Season 2 storyline is pretty different from Book 2). I think it's really just a matter of preference. I read the whole series after Season 1, and hasn't diminished my show enjoyment at all. And for some stuff like it was fun to watch with people who hadn't read the books when you knew what was going to happen and they didn't.

And proud of it.

Won't matter when Martin has a heart attack before anything is finished. (Honestly wouldn't surprise me if the final book and final season are concurrent. I also wouldn't be surprised if you had a season that was entirely the backstory of Westeros - see the Dunk + Egg novellas.)

I'll blame Seth McFarlane. Lucky son of a bitch. Although if I had to pick myself, I'd probably go Ygritte. But then again, I like a little bit of crazy. Such is life.

This is pretty much true. Book 3 was my favorite of all 5. Not a spoiler, but if they're going to break the episodes down the way I think they will, it's going to start action-packed (well, maybe after a catching up episode 1) and continue that way. So hyped. And Toast, if you're reading, I would suggest reading a bit into Book 4 as well. Wouldn't surprise me if they included some of those storylines as well, since Books 4 and 5 are rumored to be combined into one season next year.

I'm a mean MF'er.

The Seamen will come stronger than ever before. I guarantee it.

I have full faith that one day Karsten Olsen(A) D 100.00 99 40 40 99 80 99 99 77 40 99 90 99 67 55 40 50 35 82 will play well. One day.

I think that an 82-76 score would be the single best college football game of all-time. And Zach = me (put it earlier in the thread) so gonna go ahead and claim that one.

You. I'm going to like you a lot.

Last place who actually did their picks! Wooooo!

Before watching: If the Iron Bowl isn't the closer I'll be positively shocked. And also getting ready to cry for the inevitable Nebraska/Northwestern highlight. EDIT: Close enough, and check.

As a Redditor, welcome to half of Reddit.

Everybody thought the Calgary Wranglers would be in for a down year following their run of six straight playoff appearances dating back to S30. But this? This may be a new low in the history of the franchise. Through the first eight games, the Wranglers are 0-8, having not gained any points behind a core of Henrik Larsson, Rock Star, and… well, that’s really it in terms of players that have put in a single practice hour. Every single other VHL team holds at least 6 points at this stage? Could they be on their way to being the worst team ever? That’s hard to say right now. But since the VHL’s parity has remained unchanged for the most part since the addition of Quebec City and Cologne in Season 31, it makes sense to compare them to some of the past worst teams of the Expansion Era and see if Calgary really can make history. The Six Worst Records since S30 S35 Riga Reign: 5-65-2 (12 points) S32 Seattle Bears: 9-61-2 (20 points) S35 New York Americans: 9-61-2 (20 points) S33 Vasteras Iron Eagles: 7-58-7 (21 points) S34 HC Davos Dynamo: 9-60-3 (21 points) S31 Toronto Legion: 10-57-5 (25 points) What It Means For Calgary, looking at these worst records means that brighter skies are likely ahead. For one, you’ll notice that there are no repeat offenders here. Once a team was in the gutter, they only stayed there for likely one season before at least being semi-decent. That certainly looks to be the case with Calgary as they hold multiple first round picks and Martin Brookside coming up soon. But for this season, it could get ugly. I wouldn’t be surprised if they at least held second place under Riga, especially with the number of teams trying to win this year. And they very well could hold first place as well if GM Jason Glaser has anything to say about it. He has already made his intentions to tank known and could even sit Rock Star for all 8 of Calgary’s games against fellow basement-dweller New York this season.

Dude. I kind of want to buy this IRL.

Why Bratislava Won't Win the Founder's Cup You would think that players would learn, but somehow, they never do. Four seasons ago, this particular author made a bold prediction, one that has unfortunately been lost to the annals of history in the publication known as the “Old Board”: The heavily-favored Ottawa Ice Dogs would not win the Founder’s Cup in Season 32. It was a fool’s prediction, to be fair. The Ice Dogs held the first three picks of the draft, as well as seven of the first 11. They featured players who would go on to become VHL stars: Wesley Kellinger, Odin Tordahl, two Valiq brothers and others. They traded for goalie Mack Hudson before the season, who held more TPE than any other goalie. Oh, and they ended up losing to the Evgeni Chekhov-led Brampton Blades in the North American Conference finals. That happened too. This year, the Bratislava Watchmen are expected to run away with the VHLM, with everyone essentially appointing the crew as Founder’s Cup champions before the season ever starts. With Brookside, Slaughter, Fjorsstrom and others leading the way, how could they not? Very easily, this author says. I believe the Watchmen will not be your S36 VHLM Champions, and one only needs to look to VHL examples in the past to figure out why. A Good Goalie Goes a Long Way Look at the recent VHLM champions, and you’ll find an obvious thread – solid, and active, goaltending. For S35 Ottawa, it was Mike Szatkowski Jr. In Yukon’s S34 run, it was Lennox Moher. S33: Eggly Bagelface. S32: A then-active David Poulin. S31: Skylar Rift. And you can just keep going down the list. In recent years, this means that only a few teams have had a chance, because solid goaltending has been few and far between. In fact, Season 32 was the last time that we saw a preponderance of solid goalies throughout the VHLM, with Poulin, Hudson, Chekhov and Zach Fucale all active at the time. It was having to face those solid goalies that brought the Ice Dogs down. This year, Bratislava will have to face the same type of opposing goalie pressure. Within the European Conference itself, Oslo’s Kimmo Salo and Bern’s Blaine Olynick look to have a substantial amount of TPE under their belts by the time the playoffs roll around. And over in Yukon, Santeri Heikelä will be holding down the North American Conference with his own budding talent. This year, it isn’t only future Wrangler Martin Brookside who will be holding down the goaltending fort. Activity, Activity, Activity In Season 32, the Ottawa Ice Dogs got a steal in Odin Tordahl at 11th overall, who declared for the draft just minutes before it began (and consequently, after Oslo GM Mike Boss had already sent in his list for picks). However, they were undone when some of their other first round selections such as GIYGAS, Mattis Trumbauer and Jamie Shetler, did not show the post-draft potential that they once did. They simply couldn’t catch up to the high-TPE players already in the VHLM, which allowed Lucas Smith to shine in the playoffs. Unless GM Vincent Wong is extraordinarily proactive with his own high-TPE picks, the Bratislava Watchmen may fall to the same fate. Fourth overall pick Phil Villeneuve claims to be around for the long-haul, but some insiders believe he may be burned out after previous player Phil Rafter. The same principle applies to his brother in crime David Januzaj. And while Kai Randal looks to be solid moving forward, the Watchmen hold little else in the way of up-and-coming talent that prevents against burn-out. Randomness Given an 82-game sample size, you know who the best players are going to be in the regular season. For example, take the S26 Vasteras Junior Eagles. The team went an absolutely insane 64-6-2 during the regular season, capitalizing on a slew of future Hall of Famers (Chershenko, Rafter, Smalling) and other players that would hit high TPE totals (Qin, Riopel, Byer, Incognito, Muller, Satan, Henchoz) to utterly destroy the rest of the league. The next-closest team, Brampton, finished 29 points behind. The third place team, Bern, finished 53 points behind. However, anything can happen in a seven-game series. After storming through the first series against Bern 4-1, Vasteras seemed poised to win it all in an easy finals series against Brampton. After going up 2-1 in the series, they had to feel even better. But then things didn’t turn their way, and they lost two straight, and even after forcing Game 7, three Blades goals in the first 17 minutes helped put the presumed champs away. The point is this: Anything can happen. While a preponderance of inactive teams may lead to some easy victories and a preponderance of strange multi-page complaining threads about various VHLM GMs, there’s a reason why they have to play the game in the end. And for S36 Bratislava, the walk to the championship may not be as easy as it seems. In fact, I’d bet on it.