Eynhallow

I like the list, considering I am on it !! That not withstanding, thanks @fishy for this and all the work you put in to make this so much fun.

GIDDY...............really. Ya gotta love it !!!

Of course, but not with the Reapers I wouldn't think. Caitlyn should be north of 250 TPE by that point.

Thank-you !!! I am glad that you are enjoying "Moose Tracks". Its a take that is quite a bit different from yours, but fun to write. Part 3 should be coming in a few weeks. My Media Spot which I can'r claim til next week was my rant on the Lady Byng.

I just wanted to take a moment and say how great it was to be able to play a season with Caitlyn Catowize @CrazyCaityCaton the Philadelphia Reapers. She is an important part of the success the Reapers experienced during the regular season. Despite her focus on defence, she was able to contribute 9 goals and 11 assists, while only recording a mere 14 minutes in penalties. She was able to do all this while only playing an average of 11:30 minutes per game. As well, these points frequently came when they were the most needed. Currently at number 11 in the draft, Caitlyn will be a welcome addition to any VHL team. And, at 212 TPE, she will, in all probability, be playing in the VHL next season. I also must commend Caitlyn on her series of articles outlining her early years and also her adventure through the VHLM. Sometimes dark, sometimes tragic, but always entertaining. Way to go Caitlyn !! Let’s make some noise in the playoffs and best wishes for the draft and next season.

Yup, I get it !! I really like the message, It is interesting that you chose a black-and-white theme for your graphic. I personally like colour, but your choice was quite effective. As Marshall McLuan said, " the medium is the message". You might consider a different fon for the text on the back of your player, it seems not to blend in, but that may only be me. Great stuff. 8.5/10

Very 1970ish colours. The player and the font both stand out from the background, and you gotta love the wild hair and the depicted intensity of the player. I also like this because it is different than the usual player graphic, it is more art than photo. As mentioned above, you could go a bit larger, but overall, great work 8.5/10

1. How proud are you of the VHL community that managed to raise 3800 CAD for charity? It certainly makes me proud to be associated with such a generous group. Realistically, this is a sim hockey league, who would think that we could raise that much money for charity ? WOW!! 2. Do you think I need to make some trades next offseason for competing? Given the number of high TPE draftees and the existing players who are returning, I don’t think we’ll have a problem being competitive. A trade might be in order if you find that we have a specific need to make us better as a whole. BTW, great signing of Calvin Harvey!! 3. Rate our team's performances this season. This is a tough question as Riga was in a rebuilding phase and, in S74, traded a number of assets for future players. So Riga knew that they would be less than competitive in S75. That being said, they won a number of games against contending teams and signed a # 1 goals. So, in perspective, I would say the season was a success. 4. Rate your player's performance this season. Isau DaMoose had a mediocre season. 50 points in 72 games is not HOF stats. However,, he played well on the other side of the puck (defensively) and the Reapers are in the playoffs, so, overall, the season was pretty good. 5. We are expected to welcome 9 S75 draftees next season to our team (+maybe Connor Sim). Are you excited about that or more worried that you won't get max playing time because of that? Maybe a little of both. Overall, I expect Riga to be more than competitive for the next few years given the amount of talent that will be coming to them next season. And that is a good thing. However, most of us are performance-driven and stats-oriented, so it could be a disappointment for some talented players to have to sacrifice ice time. 6. How tired are you of hearing the same ol' Xmas songs in stores etc? Due to the pandemic, I didn’t go into a lot of stores this Christmas, so I really can’t comment on this. But I did have Blackmore’s Night and Mannheim Steamroller on quite a bit at home. I will be glad to put them back in their box to await next year.

I was cruising the pressers today, looking for TPE opportunities, TPE hound that I am, and found this question: “The NHL has the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for the player who exhibited outstanding sportsmanship. What should the name of that trophy be in the VHL?” That surprised me a bit as there are a number of trophies awarded for a variety of things. In my fog of excessive eggnog, turkey sandwiches and Mini-Hedgehogs I thought I should make a case for a VHL(M) trophy of a similar nature. So, off to the Hall of Fame portal to discover that we did have the Mikka Virkkunen Trophy that was “awarded to the player deemed to be the most sportsmanlike”. This trophy was retired, for some reason, in Season 58. I get this. I mean there isn’t a real objective way to determine a clear winner for an award like this. Some of our trophies are clearly defined e.g. The Kevin Brooks - Goals Leader and the Alexander Beketov - Assists Leader. However, there are others that look at more than one set of statistics e.g. The Scott Boulet - The Top Two-way Forward. In any event, in a lot of cases, subjectivity can lead to controversy and I, for one, try like Hell to stay away from that stuff. So, how could STHS stats be reasonably applied to determine a clear winner ? Clearly, there would have to be a minimum number of games played. I arbitrarily chose 60. I also wanted to look at some stats that reflected the players prowess as a player (Points), but in a multidimensional way (+/-), and sportsmanship (Penalties in Minutes). I went looking through the current VHLM index for a player that would win the “Lady Byng” if such a trophy existed and Robert Bouchard’s @Gaikoku-hito numbers kind of jumped off the page. In 72 games he scored 109 points, was a +46, and only racked up 18 penalty minutes. Those are Lady Byng stats in my book. I am sure that with a little investigation a VHL player could be found. Guy Lesieur @KC15, for example, played 72 games, scored 90 points, was a +28, and only had 10 penalty minutes. Of course, we can’t use the term”Lady Byng”, as it is already being employed by the NHL, so we would have to come up with a new name. I am not well enough versed in the history of the VHL(M) to suggest naming it after a former illustrious player, so I was tossing around ideas like “The Madonna”, or better, yet, “The J.K. Rowling Trophy''. Rowling said, in her Harvard commencement speech, "I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I succeeded at anything else, I might not have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged." And maybe that’s what this award should be about. Of course, these meanderings are purely speculative, and open to discussion or positive criticism. In fact, I encourage the latter as that would get the conversation rolling about a return to a Lady Byng or something like it. 507 Words Claiming for Week of Jan. 10

whooHooo !!!

So much emphasis is placed on point totals (excluding goalies). Perhaps a look at the best +/- might be in the cards or blocked shots. A lot of the time, it seems, that your defensive specialists are overlooked because there is no real easy way to judge them. I mean goals/assists, easy, right. What about the player that has played big PK minutes and has a really low +/- ?? Just my 2 cents or less............... And what about goalies? Best GAA or number of wins is easy, but does that really tell the tale. There are goalies that are spectacular who are playing on underperforming teams. How can we look at those players and include them in the conversation ?

Could it be ??? Isaa DaMoose has come alive 4 points/2 games.....

It has all been said in the preceding posts, but I would like to add my kudos to the organizers and participating members in this charity drive. Very worthwhile !

1. This week is Christmas Week. What is one tradition you will be doing OR what is one you usually do during the holidays? We like going to a cottage at Christmas. It looks like we may be able to do that this year !!! 2: I love my gingerbread cookies; what is your favorite holiday treat? A tough question, because there are a lot of festive Christmasy stuff I like. So, not prioritized, I have to say: Alcoholized eggnog, Plum Pudding and deep fried turkey. 3: "I'm dreaming of a white christmas!" - Frank Sinatra. Are you expecting a white christmas this year? That's pretty funny. I live in Northern Ontario and it has been white and cold here for a while. It is quite unusual for us to see a green Christmas, although it has happened. 4: What is your favorite christmas movie OR your favorite christmas carol? For me, Die Hard 1 and 2 are some of my favorites. Another tough question. I have no real "fave" as far as movies go. Pretty much it is whatever the kids put on OR whatever hockey or football is being televised. As far as christmas carols are concerned, I pretty much like anything from Blackmore's Night album Winter Carols, as well as few Christmas tunes from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller. 5: Do you celebrate Christmas, or do you celebrate Hannukah, or any other religous holiday around this time? If you don't feel comfortable answering, then, What's your favorite part of the holidays? Ya, we are traditionalists and celebrate Christmas. All about cultural background..........and belief. 6: Do you like to decorate for christmas? If so, what is your favorite decorations to put up? We don't do a lot of decorating for the Christmas season, but, as mentioned above, we are traditionalists and so like to decorate a Christmas tree.

Thanls @a_Ferk Moose Tracks 3.0 is currently in the crackpot. BTW, all the place mentioned do, in fact, exist. Some are little more than a broken sign or a rail\way siding, but they were all communities of a sort at one time.

“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.”― Frank Herbert, Dune

I hear ya @InstantRockstar Rockstar. And I was truly sincere in my comments. What I neglected to mention is that my player , Isau DaMoose, is a player on the Reapers......and they are coming for you guys !!!

@InstantRockstar You have done a great job with the Marlins franchise. And you have a great opportunity this season of hoisting the cup. Ostensibly 2nd or 3rd overall, a capped goalie in Olson and Red Lite and Yakolevsky. The tools are all there. Good Luck!!

Isau DaMoose Moose Tracks (2) As alluded to in my previous article, the DaMoose family relocated to the area of Bummer’s Roost. Originally this small clearing in the bush was called “Mecunoma”. Ojibwe for “We have found a road.” The location was a popular resting place for trappers and indigenous people. In 1863 Alfred Russell and Dick Mannering came North to do some trapping. Dick was less than fond of hard work and became known as “Dick the Bummer”. Legend has it that it was Dick himself who scrawled “Bummer’s Roost” with charcoal on a shingle and tacked it to a tree. In 1865 Russell had built and licenced a hotel called The Russell House, but the colorful name of Bummer’s Roost lived on. Young Isau began playing semi-organized hockey with the Bummer’s Roost Junior Smugglers which played against teams made up of children from the neighboring communities. Hockey at this stage of life was much as one would expect. Toss a puck on the ice and 10 little bodies swarm to it and chase it about. Isau had a lot of fun at this stage of his hockey development. In fact, when asked later in his life “When did you have the most fun playing hockey?”, he commented that this was likely the most enjoyable. Due to economic considerations, life for the DaMoose family was quite transient and in a few short years young Isau found himself in another smaller than hamlet-sized community, Fire River. There is little history of Fire River, other than it was a siding on the Canadian National Railway between Dishnish and Argolis. You have indubitably heard the old hack about having to walk to school...in a snowstorm….in your pyjamas...uphill both ways. Well, it was sort of like that for Isau to play hockey as his team, the Fire River Dragons, had to take a covered jitney to get from place to place in order to play against other teams, the Oba Warriors, the Jogues Jokes and the Peterbell Tinkerbells (a girls team that trounced the Dragons on a regular basis). It was at this point that Isau encountered his first “real” coach, Gunnar Gunnarson, or Coach GG. Rumour had it that Coach GG had immigrated to Northern Ontario from the small country of Andorra. Apparently GG had played with, and subsequently coached a hockey team from Grau Roig. There was some conjecture as to whether or not the team actually played any games as Grau Roig was an unpopulated place in the Pyrenees. Nevertheless, Coach GG willingly gave of his time to coach the children of Fire River the subtler nuances of hockey. Being European Coach GG favored a skill game as opposed to the traditional Northern Ontario physical variety. And, so, Isua began to develop his skill of shooting, skating and passing. The concept of a 200 foot game became part of Isau’s repertoire. Once again the job market forced the DaMoose family to have to relocate. They came back south to the ghost town of Swords, a story which will be continued in a future issue. 517 Words

I just had to chip in with my weekly whine. The season for Isau DaMoose is winding down. After 68 games Isau has 18 goals and 28 assists for a point total of 46. Overall, it has been a pretty average season. BUT, to put this into some perspective, I looked at the last 10 games Isau played. He played 162:34 minutes of 600 available in that time frame. He amassed a total of 1 assist. Not quite what one would expect of a TPE capped guy !!! However, on the defensive side of things the numbers are a bit more encouraging. Of the 162:34 minutes played 56:59 were on the penalty kill. So close to ⅓ of Isau’s shifts were not conducive to adding to his point total. In addition, over those 10 games Isau had a =/- of -1. Not so bad for a PK guy. Over the 10 games in question, Isau won 62% of his faceoffs (119/192) which isn’t such a bad stat to have. I am looking forward to the playoffs, no matter what the matchup. Perhaps Isau can contribute with a few points to help the cause. Go Reapers !