CowboyinAmerica

Man, going into the season I would not have expected one, let alone two awards. Thanks to everyone who voted for me! (I think I just pulled into a tie with Knight for 10th most individual awards all-time by a member, but not sure how updated this thing is)

We're still out here

To be fair, it'd be hella impressive if I had McAllister had the third most TPE of all time with just welfare and no job.

Damn you @.sniffuM! Also was Flowers the single highest scoring player in fantasy this year? Because that's hilarious.

Lance Flowers Left Off WC Rosters The World Cup rosters are officially out, and as some expected, New York defenseman Lance Flowers was not on the list. He was considered a borderline case by many - a younger player that performed well during the regular season, he would have needed to unseat older incumbent players like Codrick Past and Konstantin Mulligan for a shot. Alas, the team selection went by straight TPA, and Flowers was about 20 points behind. All told, he's not too upset though. "Frankly, it's okay that I missed out this year. I'll have my turn," Flowers told reporters via phone from Cabo. "For Past and Mulligan, it's their final shot to bring it home. I hope somebody has the same opportunity for me when it's my final shot on the roster as well." By not making a roster, Flowers won't have a chance this year to extend my favorite dumb personal streak. I've medaled in 11 straight World Cups with my players, dating back to Season 34 - when my first player Karsten Olsen was only in his second VHL season. That streak has consisted of four gold, five silver, and two bronze medals. "But you better believe that I'll be on that roster next time around," Flowers added. "In fact, with so many of the older players a bit up there in age, I may very well be first line. Who knows? I'm just ready for my shot."

1. The Americans scraped the bottom of the lottery, walking away with the 4th and 12th overall picks of the S69 draft. Who would you be most excited to see join the squad? Yeah, wish that could have gone better. I do still think the Americans need more offensive talent, and I find guys like Hiroshi Okada, RJ Jubis and Kris Rice interesting. For someone like Okada, would hope he'd turn out to be what Eller wasn't. 2. The S69 FA pool is incredibly deep this year, with a lot of big names becoming available at the end of the season. Who’s the best on the market? I haven't done much research, but I've always been a fan of Wilinsky. That combination of scoring ability, defensive forward play and experience would be a perfect fit for a New York team that wants to compete sooner than later. 3. Last season we just barely lost the battle against Toronto for the playoffs. With new assets on the horizon, where do you expect us to place this coming season? Playoffs is absolutely a goal, and I wouldn't be surprised to see New York battling for second in the conference. It's a lofty goal, but one I think we can achieve. 4. With such an expansive FA market, a lot of teams are going to have to take a hit to their rosters. Who do you think fares the worst? There's a whole lot of Davos in that free agent pool, and it would be tough to keep everybody. Not sure there's much of a path for them right now. 5. Prospects Ryo Yamazuki II, Aamon Grim and Jaxon Walker have all jumped up to the VHL level during the off-season with our team. How do you expect them to do in their inaugural seasons? Any time you're jumping up for the first time, there's going to be a transition period. But I think there's room for all three to contribute right away with this young team, and I'd expect especially someone like Yamazuki to hit 25-30 goals with regular forward playing time. 6. Who do you consider to be your biggest rival in the VHL, whether it be a team or individual player? Has to be Seattle, right? They're the current champs and who we're chasing in the conference. They're also the other non-expansion U.S. team. I want to be the ones to take them down.

+5 Flowers

Congrats to my longtime franchise in Seattle! Was hoping you'd get the win, fun to see another. Definitely wasn't expecting the sweep though.

Part I - Pick em' (Pick the correct winners of all three games for 2 TPE) Game 3 - Malmo Nighthawks @ Seattle Bears Game 4 -Malmo Nighthawks @ Seattle Bears Game 5 - Seattle Bears @ Malmo Nighthawks Part II - Predict the Score (Predict the correct score and winner of this game for 3 TPE) Game 5 - Seattle Bears @ Malmo Nighthawks 3-2 Bears Part III - Player Predictions (Predict the correct player for each category, 1 TPE for each correct answer) Series leader in points: Hulk Hogan Series leader in goals: Kevin Low Series leader in assists: Hulk Hogan Who has the series PIM lead: Rusty Shackleford Who scores the series winning goal: Kevin Low

Flowers Looking at Western Europe Call Up? New York -- With the VHL season over and the New York Americans missing the playoffs, defenseman Lance Flowers has been hanging out at home, beginning his preparations for Season 69. However, there may be more hockey in his future - and much more immediate than the start of next season. Flowers has been contacted by the exploratory committee for the World Cup, telling him that he's on a short list of players eligible to play for Western Europe. And per an excellent analysis undertaken by @studentized, there's a chance that he very well could make the roster after his very first season. If given the chance, Flowers would absolutely accept a call up to the Western Europe team, no matter what type of role he would play. "I think I could contribute; I've proven that this season," Flowers told VHL.com. "It's not just the U.S. and Canada that have hockey talent in droves, and I want to show that to the world." Winning the World Cup for Western Europe wouldn't be anything new to the CIA agency - goalie Hans Wingate won his first two World Cups with Western Europe in S43 and S46. But to the agency, this call-up would be more reminiscent of S32. There, a young defenseman Karsten Olsen, without ever playing a VHL game, would be called up to a Scandinavian squad that not many were expecting to medal. But instead, that team had a miracle run to win the gold, with Olsen playing a major role. The agency hopes that history is ready to repeat itself once again.

I fully agree as well. It wasn't my favorite having just gone through it, and I think it'd encourage more player movement as well with more defined buyers and sellers (which I personally think is a good thing).

Flowers +5

1. Halloween’s coming up. What is your biggest fear? I'm generally not a fan of heights. Just keep me with two skates (or feet) on the ground, and I'm totally good. It's a good thing New York isn't known for any tall buildings or anything... 3. Best advice for the incoming rookie class? Your first year won't be like it was in the VHLM. You won't get the same numbers. Just expect that, and know that the times of dominating will come if you stick with it. 4. Name one thing you’ve learned the hard way? Sometimes, people are just jerks. It's good to be nice to everyone as much as you can, but sometimes that won't be reciprocated, and that's OK. It's nothing to do with you. 5. What are your personal hopes for the NY Americans next season? I think a playoff berth is a completely reasonable goal to have. We should be able to make a leap to above .500 next season, which should be enough in our conference. 7. What's one goal you're determined to achieve in your lifetime? It's to be standing on the pedestal with a championship trophy in my hand. It seems so cliche, but that's what I'm continued to work towards. I'm sure I'll have more long-lasting goals after retirement. 10. How did you discover the VHL? It's been a while at this point, but I've always known people in the league pretty much since its inception. It just took a little prodding - and the chance to be part of some cool history here.

Lance Flowers is in Pain New York -- Americans defenseman Lance Flowers has been taking it easy during the current VHL playoffs. Part of that is simply not playing competitive hockey, seeing as how the Americans missed out on the playoffs in the final week. But the bigger issue is - ow, his body hurts from a whole lot of contact. Flowers finished with 294 hits, easily leading the league with 15 more than DC's Sven Hitz and 47 more than third place Leph Twinger. He also finished top five in the league in both shots blocked (159, fifth) and penalty minutes (182, fifth), meaning there's a whole lot more contact he made while on the ice. All told, it means a well deserved ice bath for the defenseman. And could it mean an award or two as well? Without doing much research, Flowers certainly believes he has a case for both Rookie of the Year and Top Defensive Defenseman. "It is what it is, if I get some awards I'll be ecstatic. But especially in my first season, I know better than to expect too terribly much," Flowers told VHL.com from his home in suburban New York during the offseason. "I'm proud of how I've played and how the Americans did better than expected. The main thing now is to prepare for next year, I don't need more inspiration to do so."

(I'm doing last week's first because I never did, then I'll do the next week's soon) 1. What are your plans for the offseason? Just time to relax. Sure, the VHLM season is technically the same length as the VHL, but it doesn't take as much of a physical toll. I think it's time to let my body rest. 2. Did you think you met your goals this season as a player? I do, very much so. All I wanted to do was make an impact, and with all of my hits, shots blocked and assists, certainly think I did so. 3 What areas are you going to improve on before the start of next season? I do need to be a bit more of an offensive playmaker. I've been working on my puck handling, and skating will be coming up next. 4. What position are we the weakest? We do need a bit more offensive firepower. Nothing against our current players at all - the more the merrier, we've got the defense and goaltending on lock. 5. Do you have a good feeling going into next season that we will do better? We were better this season than I thought we were expected to be, in my eyes. So yes, it portends good things for next season, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a playoff push. 7. We have a lot of good young talent on the team, will they be enough to push us into contenders? Contenders for the VHL title may be a bit of a stretch right away. I'll say S70 will be our year for that, but I'll be happy with being a solid playoff team next season.

Did I not submit? Could've sworn I did.

That's the killer for NY too, our only shot was winning out with some help. Congrats to those that made it

Heyyyy. Appreciate the look back, had a lot of fun on those Bears teams

It's like baseball and pitching records - nobody's going to touch Cy Young's 511 wins because people don't pitch every day anymore, Warren Spahn's 363 makes more sense and is actually attainable (Maddux, Clemens were close)

I'm coming for that double digit goal tally, not dead yet!

Here's a trivia question for you: Who's the VHL goalie with best playoff save percentage who has played in at least 15 playoff games? It's not Kanou, who the Playoff MVP was named after. It's not Wingate, who performed just as well in the postseason and won 4 titles. It's not Hall of Famers Gegeny, Stropko or Wahl, who rank 2-3-4 on the list. The answer is Marek Van Urho, who had a .934 save percentage in 43 VHL playoff games (25 of them wins). And perhaps surprisingly, he is not in the Hall of Fame. Drafted with the fourth pick in the S8 draft by Riga, Van Urho would only actually win one VHL title in his career - Season 10, with those very same Reign. He would win Playoff MVP that season with an insane line (8-2-1 1.47GAA .954SV%), but alas, that would be the high point of his career. Van Urho won just one Top Goalie award (Season 12, 50-10-4 2.20GAA .913SV% 7SO) and was consistently outshined by peers Alex Gegeny and Benoit Devereux. In the regular season, Van Urho finished with a 264-151-29 record and .918 over seven seasons - solid numbers, but more wins than only four HOF goalies (who all had a higher SV% and more titles). Van Urho is a prototypical case of the Hall of Very Good - maybe another title run or a Top Goalie, and he'd be in the Hall of Fame. But for now, he's an interesting footnote from the VHL's early years.

That's super interesting - I remember the period between S49 and S52 or so being seen at the time as super defense and goalie-oriented. With so many players on the list though, seems like it might have been the start of a trend that saw GAA dip even lower.

1000+ words, for the weeks ending 10/20 and 10/27.

The S26 Iron Eagles: The Championship Story In recent years, a number of teams have gotten the label “cursed.” Whether it’s HC Davos Dynamo that has won one title since S39, or a Seattle team with one since S42, or Calgary with one since S43, there are plenty of ongoing VHL draughts that franchises would like to break. However, looking at the annals of VHL history for the most “cursed” franchise, it’s tough to beat (both by length and by reputation) the Vasteras Iron Eagles. Call it the “Curse of Scotty” if you’d like. If you’ve looked at the VHL record books, you’ve noticed the name Scotty Campbell, and his absurd point tallies in the first eight seasons of the VHL. What you may not recognize is that he helped with the first ever Continental Cup as well, taking the Vasteras Iron Eagles all the way. Vasteras, named for a similar Swedish-league team, was a polarizing team from the beginning, but with Campbell leading the way, they seemingly could do no wrong. Until they did. Year two, Campbell put up similar numbers—but Vasteras fell in the finals to the Calgary Wranglers. Year three, same deal for Campbell, but this time Vasteras couldn’t even make it out of the conference finals. Then, Campbell would leave for the first of three other teams throughout his career (Seattle), where he would two straight titles. Vasteras, meanwhile, didn’t replace him. You can guess how this turned out. Vasteras made the playoffs in Season 4, but not the finals. Then, they only reached the playoffs in 2 of the next 7 seasons, exiting in the first round each time. They wouldn’t make the finals again until Season 18, but there ran into an upstart Calgary Wranglers team once again. Year after year, the Iron Eagles would run into some sort of trouble—the Sabres of the VHL, if you will, never even really in contention in most years, despite some top-flight players. That Season 18 loss would be their only finals appearance in 24 seasons. Season 26 wasn’t supposed to be the year that it all broke through, frankly. The finals streak was weighing on them, and despite having the second-best record in Season 25, they ran into a goaltender (Daisuke Kanou) on Davos that the Playoff MVP would literally be named for years later. How are you supposed to beat that? The next season, they had a plan of attack. It started with defense. Longtime Iron Eagle (and captain) RJ Stafford paired with (Hall of Famer) James Bencharski, acquired from Toronto in Season 25, to give Vasteras potentially the best first line defensive pairing in the league. The offense couldn’t match the firepower of Helsinki that had three of the top five goal scorers, but newly acquired center Phil Gerrard finished top ten in goals, with Kevyn Hesje and second-year (HOFer) Tukka Reikkinen each contributing 70+ points. And, most crucially, goalie Andreas Bjorkman led the league in GAA and finished third in save percentage, despite not finishing in the top three in either category. The combination led to a surprising best record in the league, with 120 points. Still, it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t do it in the playoffs, and in the first round, Vasteras ran into that same high-powered Helsinki offense. But this is where Bjorkman truly shined. First game, a 6-2 drubbing. Then after a Game 2 loss, three straight stellar performances allowing four goals combined, including a 2-0 shutout in Game 4 that seemed inconceivable at the time. For only the second time since Season 2, the Iron Eagles were returning to the finals. There, they faced a team that had some droughts of its own: the New York Americans. New York also only had one championship to date (Season 14), and behind future Hall of Famers defensemen Adam Schultz and Daniel Braxton and goalie Benjamin Glover, were poised to pick up their second. But again, it was Bjorkman that took control: the first game ended 1-0 Vasteras, and the second a 2-0 victory. Following a 5-2 Game 3 Vasteras victory, the series was in the cards—the Americans valiantly fought for a Game 4 victory, but the Iron Eagles put it away with a 3-2 victory. Gerrard and Bencharski were the first two stars, and Gerrard won Playoff MVP with a hard earned 15 points. After so long, and for a short while, the curse was lifted. The “Fuck Vasteras” meme due to the franchise’s futility and its relation to the Swedish League squad later led to the franchise being moved to Stockholm around Season 40, then contracted all together at the end of Season 57. The Iron Eagles/Vikings would not win another title before that occurred, despite the best efforts of numerous GMs. With that in mind, it’s truly remarkable to look back at the one year where it all came together, and the franchise was much more than a meme. I’m on the record as wishing Vasteras would come back, partially because I think the older history of the VHL is something that sets it apart from all other leagues, but also partially because of the franchise’s futility. There’s something to be said for pushing through adversity, for being able to not only overcome the other teams, but years of fate to accomplish something great. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the sports championships that have captured the public’s eye in modern times have been the Cubs, the Red Sox, the Cavaliers – teams that have waited so long and fans that have seen tortured seasons before breaking through. The Maple Leafs will be up there one day as well, despite being (similar to Vasteras) widely polarizing. Plus, the VHL doesn’t have any team today that would truly be considered a villain, and frankly, I would argue that there are few franchises today that have a distinct personality the way that Vasteras once commanded. There may be droughts today, but I don’t think there a breakthroughs in the way that the Season 26 Vasteras Iron Eagles once enjoyed. And for that reason, among many others, they will be remembered as one of the most unique champions in VHL history.

1. With lines in a current state of malleability, what's one thing in particular you'd like to see tried? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I'm serious, why not stick with what has helped us overachieve? 2. We currently sit 9 points behind Toronto with 9 games left to be played, 3 of ours being played against the expansion teams. Are we still in the running? This has gotten even closer since the time you wrote this. I would have originally said no, but after beating Seattle and Toronto losing four straight, I'm willing to say we still have a shot at this. 3. Our defensively minded players have made an impact on the league leaderboards for the defensive side of the game, who do you see stepping up for our offensive core? I may pick Boris the Forest as breakout player of the year next year. I think his goal scoring's ready to go to a whole new level next season, and I'm excited to see it happen. 4. If we can't overtake Toronto in the standings, which prospects do you want to see added to our program? I wouldn't mind more offensive talent. Both Soren Jensen and Benny Graves are very intriguing if it were to break down that way. 5. Nearing the end of the season, are there any standouts around the league that come as a surprise? Sure, I'll say that I'm a surprise. I mean, as a rookie, topping 50 points, leading the league in hits and being top five in shots blocked is pretty cool// 6. What's your goal for next season? I think I'm ready to fight for a Defenseman of the Year trophy. My offense will hopefully catch my defense by that point.