CowboyinAmerica

Jasper Canmore. DOESN'T FEEL SO GOOD DOES IT? @Symmetrik

I'll do it

Seattle -- The VHL Awards Ceremony was this morning, and despite the lagging TV ratings for holding it on a Sunday morning, there were still a few surprises in store. One of them occurred with the Playoff MVP voting, where two Bears were announced to share the award: forward Gabriel McAllister and goalie Vernon von Axelberry. They each received four votes, while forward Shawn Gretzky received one. For McAllister, the voting couldn't have turned out more perfect. "I mean, of course I wanted to win the award, everybody wants recognition," McAllister told reporters in a press conference after the ceremony. "But I also wanted V2A to get recognition for his ludicrous performances in Games 6 and 7 against Helsinki. If we're sharing the award, I get the best of both worlds, and I'm all for that." McAllister, of course, led the league in points during the playoffs, with 28 in 15 games. His 11 goals tied for the league lead, while his 17 assists were only behind teammate Mats Johnsson. Now halfway through his career, McAllister has had both personal and team success, but he wants more. "We're running it back with mostly the same roster this year, and I feel good about it," McAllister said. "Anything can happen with the craziness that is the VHL, but I feel good about where we're at."

Best case scenario for Playoff MVP in my eyes, love it. Thanks everyone who voted!

Won't have as much time (take a class on Monday nights, and already told the fiancee Tuesday is date night), but I can try.

Tomorrow will also be the day for updates for Calgary, Davos, Helsinki and New York, FYI

I think there's a tiny bit of a stalemate until the cap's finalized with depreciation and brackets. Figure there will be some movement once people get a better handle on where they stand.

I was just about to post how I came back an hour and a half later and wasn't really surprised, but you beat me to it Also, the warnings look sweet @Will

I wasn't serious, by the way. His skin's just so thin I can't help myself.

Any way I can switch my Cornerstone vote to DeGrath? The fact Boubabi can't even win a damn award without complaining astounds me.

My day will come one day

Sorry to see you go Robbie, was fun having you on board. Glad we did the thing. Welcome Kendrick and Lunaro!

Who did the seeding for this? Air Bud as an 8, Doug as a 10? Come on now. I also had Hercules, because Sandlot is the shit.

Congrats @Polygeekism! First time in 5 seasons I haven't won a pool. So close too.

Congrats! That's awesome

About That Title... I wrote that in the middle of Season 55, before the lottery had even occurred. At the time, I figured I would be going with the first pick, but I had no idea who would have it - the team with the worst record in the league (Cologne) doesn't even exist anymore. But I felt like Seattle would be a good spot for me. I had done the bouncing around, chasing championships thing with Wingate, and I was rewarded with four during his career. For McAllister, I wanted something I wasn't able to do with my first player: to grow in one spot with a young team, and eventually be able to summit the mountain. And now it's here. With the caveat that STHS almost gave me a damn heart attack once again, it's a cool feeling to accomplish something - not only for myself, but for the guys on this team. This gives me my first Triple Gold player, but it also does the same thing for Robbie, who stuck to his guns to be a starting goalie and it was rewarded. TLO took a chance agreeing to come to a young team in the dispersal draft and was rewarded. Quik's been working his ass off since coming back to full-time activity, and he was one of the major pushes to get us over the hump. Green's not as active as he once was, but I still couldn't ask for someone better to be around the locker room. And even Dangles, though he wasn't up in the VHL, was a boost in the locker room and made things fun. Then of course, there's Bana. I frankly didn't know the guy that well, and before being drafted, most of my interactions with him were in the context of Wingate and Campbell going heads up for goalie awards. But I saw the fire. For the past decade-plus of seasons, I would argue there haven't been any more consistently engaged, scrappy, energetic GMs in the entire league. He may rub some people the wrong way with his enthusiasm and candor, but to me, those are positive qualities, and ones I wanted to be on the same side of. If the Bears were going to win their first title since S43, and second since the league expanded in S31, I knew I wanted to be the one helping drive the bus. I'm glad I've had the opportunity. I thought last year might be it, given that there were only three teams really fighting for it. And then halfway through this season, I had already mentally checked out to Season 60, given the way the regular season was going. Having to fight through Riga, then Toronto, then one of New York or Helsinki seemed too monumental a task, and it seemed like STHS wasn't in our corner anyway. But anybody who's been around the VHL for a while knows how that goes. I'd still argue that we were the second-most talented team even after the regular season (would give Toronto #1), and it's nice to see that hard work that all of our guys had throughout the season pay off in the end. So that's one way to end the first half of McAllister's VHL career. I've got my first Triple Gold player (VHL, VHLM, World Cup titles), where my previous two guys I only got two-thirds of the way there. I've already got a Rookie of the Year and a Top Leader to my name, and I may well add a Playoff MVP too (though if someone wants to vote Federov or Gretzky or Johnsson or V2A, I won't argue). It gives me my fifth title as a member in 16 seasons, which isn't bad especially considering I didn't have a VHL player for five of those. I've already topped 1,000 TPE and am headed towards the record. And, most importantly to me, I got to help build a team and take it to the top. I don't know where McAllister's career goes from here, though I do know the Bears will be running it back and try to get another. Because what's one championship if you can have two?

User Name: CowboyinAmerica Cup Winner: Capitals EASTERN CONFERENCE Lightning (A1) vs. Devils (WC2) Winner: Lightning # of Games: 6 Bruins (A2) vs. Maple Leafs (A3) Winner: Bruins # of Games: 6 Capitals (M1) vs. Blue Jackets (WC1) Winner: Capitals # of Games: 6 Penguins (M2) vs. Flyers (M3) Winner: Penguins # of Games: 6 WESTERN CONFERENCE Predators (C1) vs. Avalanche (WC2) Winner: Predators # of Games: 6 Jets (C2) vs. Wild (C3) Winner: Wild # of Games: 6 Golden Knights (P1) vs. Kings (WC1) Winner: Golden Knights # of Games: 7 (because I'm gonna be in Vegas for Game 7 and really want to see what happens) Ducks (P2) vs. Sharks (P3) Winner: Ducks # of Games: 6

Hell of a final two games from V2A too. Came up big when it was needed.

Told you we'd get you one @Banackock. (Longer post tomorrow. Go Bears!)

I'll take it. One left.

I'll trade these first stars for a win

Game 3 - Seattle Bears Game 4 - Seattle Bears Game 5 - N/A Seattle Bears 3-2 Series leader in points: Gabriel McAllister Series leader in goals: Peter Quill Series leader in assists: Mats Johnsson

Weeeeeeeeee

Interesting stuff. Calgary's time is going to be sooner rather than later.

JourneyMan with the Game 7 first star. Naturally. Let's do this Helsinki