tcookie

With about 20% of the season left to play in S93, contenders in the VHL's European Conference are in the midst of a potentially unprecedented race for playoff positioning. Just a couple of days ago, teams one-through-five in the EU were *all* tied with 36 wins and separated by just two points in the standings overall. For five teams to be so tightly-packed is incredible, and certainly makes for an exciting ride for the fans! The teams aren't just close in terms of points in the standings either, as they have the second-through-sixth place goal differentials in the VHL as well, with a range of +43 to +60. All five teams seem poised to battle it out for positioning right to the bitter end.
 
Malmo Nighthawks
Leading the EU with a 38-15-4 record and 80 points are the Malmo Nighthawks. The Nighthawks have, to an extent, had some issues offensively this season, but they are riding strong team defense and goaltending to a contending spot. Their 190 goals for ranks 8th in the VHL, but their 144 goals against is fewest in the league. Netminder Ash Sparks @DarkSpyro is in the league's top-five in SV% (0.925) and is second among starters in GAA (2.43) and shutouts (4). Viktor Jensen @Advantage is the star of the show offensively, leading the team with 68 points, although Malmo's offense features a pretty balanced attack overall with six players right around or above the PPG mark. All-situations defender Jacob Stone @scoop is having his best year in the VHL, with 67 points, 178 hits, and 138 blocks as the #1 defenseman on the league's best defensive team.
 
London United
The London United are actually tied with Malmo at 80 points, but have one more game played and one fewer win (37-15-6). The United boast a formidable roster that's a little differently-constructed than Malmo. They're a lot more top heavy with less depth, but equally effective, with Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ leading the entire VHL with 102 points and linemate Leonard Triller @Triller with a remarkable 85 points in 58 games himself. London has the sixth-best offense but second-best defense in the VHL, with certified superstar Jesse Teno @aimkin between the pipes. Teno is in the final season of an eight-year VHL career spent entirely with London, and he is authoring yet another excellent campaign.
 
Prague Phantoms
The Prague Phantoms come next, currently one point back of Malmo/London (37-16-5, 79 points). Prague has a bit of a unique roster construction as they have played most of the season with two fewer players than most VHL contenders. The recent pickup of LeBen Aky now leaves them just one defenseman short of a "full" roster. They have not been punished for this, though, as they've been on a roll all year long. Prague has some true star power in the lineup with John Jameson @Frank, Nikolas Kauppi @Tetricide, and Skor McFleury @Alex, and all three players are living up to the hype. Jameson is second in the VHL with 101 points, Kauppi leads the league with 46 goals (93 points), and McFleury leads the league in assists (62) and defenseman scoring (82) points - while being top-5 in hits (231) and blocked shots (185), too.
 
Moscow Menace
The Moscow Menace are fourth in the conference but they, too, are sitting on 37 wins (37-18-3, 77 points) and boast the league's second-best offense with 214 goals for. Moscow are a young team with a roster built similarly to Malmo's in that they're very deep and balanced, and having nine players at the 50-point mark is a testament to that depth. Axle Gunner @Steve has been the team's best player since his rookie season in S91 and continues to improve, having gone from 73 points to 94 to now pacing for 103 this season (83 points in 58 games). On the back end, Leif Reingaard @Zetterberg is having a stellar year with 68 points in 58 games so far. The second-year pro is already one of the league's best offensive blueliners.
 
Warsaw Predators
Warsaw (36-20-3) sits in fifth place, with brick wall Lachlan Summers @kirbithan having a massive part to play in that. Summers was brilliant in S90 for Davos and captured some individual hardware then - he seems poised, now, to fill up that trophy case a little further in his first year outside of Davos. Summers has faced a tougher workload than most starters - the only goalies that have faced more shots are Matthew McCagg, Karl Pederson, and Red Panda who all play for rebuilding teams in LA, Davos, and Riga (for perspective - Summers has 32 wins himself; LA, Davos, and Riga combine for 34 wins all together). Despite facing 260 shots more than the nearest goaltender on a playoff team, he's atop the league with a .935 SV% and also has 4 shutouts. Their offense has been keyed by breakout seasons from their entire top line of King Kisslinger @Kisslinger (88 points in 59 games), Thor Reingaard @N0HBDY (86 points in 59 games), and Maxim Anisimov @McLovin(85 points in 59 games). Their biggest weakness is a lack of depth - they have six players over 56 points, but then nobody else with more than 17 - but they did make a recent move to pick up Sunglasses Joyo @JetsGoalie101 to help remedy that.
 
This will mark the 21st season since the league's expansion to 16 teams, and only twice in that time have teams 1-through-5 in either conference been separated by even less than 10 points: S87 when first-place Davos was separated from fifth-place London by 9 points, and S77 when first-place Chicago was 9 points ahead of fifth-place Vancouver, making this season's race potentially historically-close. For the vast majority of S93 so far, these five teams have not been separated by more than 5 points. Remarkably, the first-through-seventh place teams were only separated by 11 points in S87, so there were higher stakes in that case, as two teams didn't even make the playoffs. Still, if the level of play shown by all five of these teams so far continues through the final 13-15 games, we could be witnessing the hardest-fought battle for positioning within a conference in recent VHL history.
 
---
1032 words, for this week and next

1) Honestly about the same. After my hot start I had hoped to sustain it a little better, but I figured somewhere around PPG or slightly above was a good target for this year and that's where I am.
2) Detroit
3) I've never gotten to play a season as a player with @Ricer13 and still would like to get to do that at some point, just because of the fond memories of the season I joined the league in Miami with him as GM. One of these days!
---
1) Who do you think is the VHL MVP so far this season? 
2) It's a playoff game 7 and your starting goalie goes down, but fortunately you can pick any other VHL starting goalie to fill in that night... who are you picking?
3) What's your favourite pre-game meal?

Player Information
Username: aimkin
Player Name: Ahsoka Tano
Recruited From: Returning
Age: 31
Position: D
Height: 75 in.
Weight: 165 lbs.
Birthplace: Greenland

Player Page
@VHLM GM

Top 3 Star Wars character imo 

1) Honestly looks like the top-5 EU teams could end up in almost any order at this point, but I think we'll pull it out and end up 1st or 2nd!
2) I thought Calgary would be a lot better than they are.
3) Winning the Continental Cup this year 
4) Sparks has stood on his head a few times. I think there was a game we beat Calgary(?) despite being outshot like 60-30, so I'll go with that one.
6) PC
7) Honestly probably Halifax, even though "21st" sounds a bit awkward. It has a strong meaning & connection to the area, and being for a VHLM team (ie. the entry point to the VHL) it has another layer of meaning to it there. Malmo, Prague, and Riga are my favourites in the VHL.

It's theme week in the VHL, and this season's theme is "rebrand". In recent years, rebranding has been rare for VHL teams, but rebranding can be an exciting time for a team, especially if they really nail the new look. There seems to be a lot of picking on the low-hanging fruit in the London United and to a lesser extent, the New York Americans, so I decided to look at some other teams.
 
Overall, I think the VHL branding as a whole is actually quite strong, so don't take this too seriously!
 
Seattle Bears
I don't have anything in particular against the branding of the Bears, I don't think they are in dire need of a rebrand or anything like that. There's nothing I find inherently bad about the Bears' branding, rather, I just find it a little bit plain. Varying shades of red/blue, like their primary colour maroon, are way overdone in professional sports as a whole and the name "Bears" is pretty generic.
 
Seattle is sometimes known as the "Emerald City" for its year-round greenery, and I love seeing a pop of green in a teams' colours. Calling the team the Seattle Emeralds and featuring a prominent green/white colour scheme, maybe with black, silver, or teal as an accent colour as well, would provide a unique, sharp colour scheme and also give the team a name with strong ties to the area. However, there is a lot of history associated with the Seattle Bears name in the VHL. They are a team that as been around since S1 and have won more Continental Cups than any other franchise in VHL history. Although none of that is erased with a name change, it still creates a situation where rebranding is unlikely.
 

 
 
Los Angeles Stars
This is another team where the branding just feels a little bit generic, probably because of the name "Stars", which admittedly is a little unfair because the connection with the name "stars" and LA actually makes a lot of sense. The colour scheme lacks any real, well, colour. There's a big city a little further south in California that recently lost its football team and is pretty empty in the way of major professional sports right now, so they could be very open to supporting a VHL team in the area...
 
I'm talking about San Diego, of course. I think we can move the Stars to San Diego and call them the San Diego Pandas! After all, (almost) everyone loves pandas. Think of all the merchandising opportunities! The San Diego zoo was one of the more famous places to see pandas in North America until they returned them to China in 2019, but recent developments indicate that San Diego is likely on the way to getting their pandas back. Of course, we can't do much about the "boring" black/white colour scheme with this team name, but a little pop of colour - replacing the silver accent colour with a bamboo-green accent - could go a long way in making the uniforms a little more interesting.
 

NEED I SAY MORE?

With the VHL season just across its halfway point, there is no shortage of jockeying for position in a jam-packed European Conference.
 
The Moscow Menace lead the EU with a 26-9-3 record for 55 points, but it's about as tenuous a grip on first as you can find, with second-through-fourth each having 52 points themselves. Malmo has a game in hand with a 24-9-4 record while the Prague Phantoms and London United are each 24-10-4.
 
While all teams are very tightly-grouped in the standings, there are big playoff implications at play for this group depending on the order of finish, since whoever finishes 4th will have to play an extra playoff series against the 5th-place team in the conference. Home ice matters too, but getting to avoid the wildcard round is an extra benefit. None of these teams want to get that extra wear on them at the toughest time of the year.
 
We are set up for a very interesting second half of the season in the EU as all four teams have strong teams and legitimate Cup aspirations. It's rare to see a conference with four powerhouse teams so closely grouped for an entire season. Will anyone be able to separate themselves from the group to claim top spot, or will this be a heated battle that keeps fans on the edge of their seats right down to the season's final game?

With the VHL season just across its halfway point, there is no shortage of jockeying for position in a jam-packed European Conference.
 
The Moscow Menace lead the EU with a 26-9-3 record for 55 points, but it's about as tenuous a grip on first as you can find, with second-through-fourth each having 52 points themselves. Malmo has a game in hand with a 24-9-4 record while the Prague Phantoms and London United are each 24-10-4.
 
While all teams are very tightly-grouped in the standings, there are big playoff implications at play for this group depending on the order of finish, since whoever finishes 4th will have to play an extra playoff series against the 5th-place team in the conference. Home ice matters too, but getting to avoid the wildcard round is an extra benefit. None of these teams want to get that extra wear on them at the toughest time of the year.
 
We are set up for a very interesting second half of the season in the EU as all four teams have strong teams and legitimate Cup aspirations. It's rare to see a conference with four powerhouse teams so closely grouped for an entire season. Will anyone be able to separate themselves from the group to claim top spot, or will this be a heated battle that keeps fans on the edge of their seats right down to the season's final game?

me and the owner of the Las Vegas Aces got into a gambling match legally I can't divulge much but lets just say i didn't lose

Gonna keep it short here. You may seen or not my April 1st post in here where I was messing around on stepping down and thing. 
 
Except this was a hint, not joke. Following this season I'm no longer a Riga Reign GM. The reason is pretty basic, nothing left in the tank. My involvement in sim leagues is on the way to non existent at this point. And as Riga is close to competing again, there is a need of a way more energetic GM who can make this happen. I'm fairly sure that this time my interest won't come back the same way it did couple of times before. But it was fun times regardless, especially when I was on my prime. Just wish I had more cups lol (here is the part where I'll blame Simon for one last time). So yeah, nothing much else to say. Thanks everyone for the fish and good luck! 
 
P.S. don't show this thread to Bana, cause he bout to have a heart attack from happiness  

Thank you kindly for the 3 TPE. Should have been 12, but I know @Josh has been skimming off the top of anything considered income ever since April 1st.

Since the start of the season, Maple Dogwood @dogwoodmaple has led the Halifax 21st offensively and has racked up 19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points in 35 games. He leads the team in the goal scoring category and ranks second on the team in assists.  With a +/- rating of 24, he also leads the team in this respect, asserting himself as a two-way force for the 21st who currently sit 2nd overall in the VHLE with 49 points and a 24-10-1 record.  Dogwood's 44 points ranks him 4th in the VHLE and he is firmly in the fight to be the league's top goal and point scorer as we enter into the second half of Season 93. 
 
All this success on the ice comes amid his off-ice cryptocurrency scandal involving JellyCoin.  In a recent article Dogwood admitted that so much of his energy and focus was put into his on-ice play that he had a lapse in concentration that led to the mistaken purchase of $10,000 worth of JellyCoin instead of $100 worth of fruit jam.  Despite the support of the Halifax organization and his teammates, there is still an ongoing investigation and federal prosecutors continue to breathe down his neck, making his MVP level of play all the more impressive.  In light of his dedication to the organization both on and off the ice, the Halifax 21st are recognizing Maple Dogwood with this week's SuperSailor award as the team's most outstanding player.  
 
In a statement to the press today, Halifax GM Lexie Leitner said, "We stand with Dogwood.  After conducting our internal investigation, we've concluded that there was no malintent on his part and we are proud of his dedication to our team's success.  He's continued to be an incredible contributor for us on the ice and an outstanding teammate throughout this whole process and we will continue to stand with him until the issue finds a resolution."  
 
༻❁༺
 

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind
-from the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower"
 
 
As of next season, I will have spent 30 seasons in the VHL. I've always been a big fan of the VHL's 30 in 30 series for telling me lots of stories about the league from before my time. These brought up things that I wouldn't necessarily have gotten from reading through old indexes and checking out records, and that's lived experience--people giving perspectives on the things that happened, instead of just lists of those things that happened. Thanks to those articles, I learned why lots of the things I'd heard about were significant, and the views offered in them also served as a valuable time capsule for me as I learned how important some things are to the league despite never being talked about anymore.
 
So, because I hate myself, I'm doing one of my own. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive picture of league history over the past 30 seasons, nor is it a VHL 30 in 30 in its own right. I'm writing a Gustav 30 in 30, recounting not the league's history but my own and going through what's been most important to me across hopefully the next season and a half and probably a bit longer than that. And what's a better place to start than at the very beginning? It's a very good place to start, after all. Installment number one of 30, here we go
 
It was 2019, and then-18-year-old me was on the floor of my bedroom lost on Reddit. I remember fairly clearly having been "in the middle of some homework," which to me meant that the second I came across anything I couldn't do off the top of my head, I'd pick up my phone and scroll through it for an hour like the degenerate I am. Seriously, my degree probably would have come pretty easily if I could make myself stop doing that.
 
I also remember getting the sort of foggy head feeling that one gets after staring at a screen for hours on end. I'm not sure if this was from whatever I was doing, or my phone, or both, but you'd think that one little promotional post on r/sabres wouldn't tip the scales in favor of (let's be honest) a whole lot more staring at screens in that moment. I'm sure you know where this is going, because you're seeing the product of where it's gone. I joined the forum, made a few "please help me" posts, did my first press conference, and actually closed the VHL window and figured I'd seen about enough. The reason why I came back was that I was dumb enough to still sign up for things with an email address that I actually check, and later that day I got a scouting message from @Thranduil (then a long-time AGM in Halifax) in my inbox. So...yeah, whatever, maybe I'll see what happens after this "draft" people are talking about. After all, I read through the very short-lived and now entirely-nonexistent-on-the-forum VHLM newsletter (recruitment, take note!) and enjoyed it.
 
VHLM Gustav lasted until the 5th round and was taken 36th overall. I'd been scouted two or three times at the time, having joined two or three days before the draft and not earned much yet. But it's pretty safe to say that first-ever Bulls GM @Rin hit on a pick, kicking off what would be a formative first season for me (and one that you'll see talked about across the first few installments of this series). I'd been invited to join the team server and was initially really hesitant--I'd never talked to random people online before and wasn't sure I wanted to--but jumped in late at night (in the middle of some other assignment that I wasn't really doing) and had a good conversation right away about player builds and stuff. I think that sort of thing was a bit intoxicating for an 18-year-old kid whose friends were suddenly all busy moving away and having responsibilities. I suddenly had a group to hang out with whenever I wanted it again, and that really built a sort of bond with this place that I don't think I'd have if I joined today.
 
I'm not sure what I thought the VHL was when I joined. I don't remember being particularly surprised (I was never someone who thought we were a gaming community) but I also remember being mildly taken aback when I heard that our sim output was entirely text-based. I spent a few sims reading through the full play-by-play (because new people stuff; why not?) and thought it was cool anyway. In a way, I miss skimming through that and being excited to see that my player intercepted a pass or whatnot.
 
As far as earning and being part of the community went, it took me a minute. I wasn't always the word-dumper I am today. Instead, my first mark on the league was made in team-specific shitpost articles with very long titles. This extended anywhere from my teammates being detained at airports for "looking too Nordic" to Halifax secretly being a satanic cult to me running player quotes through a colloquial Scottish English translator for some aggressively Groundskeeper Willie-type energy. I was well-entrenched in writing media spots by this point, but my first serious article didn't even come out until halfway through that first season.
 
I won't give away the rest, but S65 was a great time. I learned a lot, got to know lots of people, and grew to appreciate the culture of the VHL. And if you're interested in hearing more of a deep dive into my history--stick around. It's coming just as soon as I can make it.

So hello everyone, I like to keep my topics here usually VHL related but I need to break character for a moment to announce something that’s happened very recently to me.
 
All small handful of members knew what I’ve been going through the past 2 weeks. That is, I’ve been running for my American university’s student government vice president position (as a freshman). The pain staking 2 weeks of campaigning, repeating each presentation time after time to different groups, $600 in expenses, and countless nights of rough sleep…paid off. 
 
I’m beyond thrilled to announce that I will be my university’s next student government vice president. There were about 900 votes cast, and my ticket won by 8 votes. Now these results are unofficial but I as of now do not suspect that the outcome will change .
 
i don’t know how it will impact my involvement here, I still hold the VHL very close a dear to my heart as it’s been a crutch the past 3.5 years for me. Thank you everyone for just reading this little rant but I’m beyond ecstatic right now.

Malmo forward Phillip Rave is off to a hot start in S93, with 18 goals and 35 points in the first 28 games of the season. He surpassed his rookie season's total of 16 goals in Malmo's 26th game, and he's not far from eclipsing the rookie year's point total, too.
 
Rave is on pace for 46 goals, 90 points, and 444 shots on goal - numbers that would be a huge improvement on the 16 goals, 41 points, and 252 shots he compiled in his rookie campaign and would surely leave him a candidate for the Dustin Funk award at season's end.
 
Meanwhile, the Nighthawks are 19-6-3, sitting within a clump of teams in the top-5 in the VHL standings. They are tied with the London United and one point behind Moscow for tops in the EU, but have a game in hand on both teams.
 
On a 6-game winning streak, both the Nighthawks and Rave will look to continue their strong play against Prague later today.

because literally just corporate greed. FTFY.
 
Protesting the Carbon Tax is just in vogue for the under-educated and over-Facebooked. 

I’m so glad that specific extra bit of trickery added to the effect, was worth the extra 2 minutes to change his group haha

He also embezzled some of the Ws in my name can I have them back 

Honestly thought I was getting banned for members still trying to claim that

So wait, the $150 I was spending per month to pay Josh to make Aloe Dear a Hall of Famer just went straight to his pocket???

That $0.03/L really is a killer…

@Members
 
Normally this would just go to the ban thread but given the circumstances I think it's best that everyone know what's going on.
 
It has unfortunately come to the attention of myself and @Acydburn that @Josh has been embezzling league funds for his own purposes. Via his access to the league PayPal he was stripping donation funds as payments for portal, forum, and domain hosting with amounts far higher than were actually needed. Because the line items were things he was paying for we had no reason, for a number of years, to think anything of it and were unaware that the costs were actually far less than what he was reimbursing himself which amounts to potentially thousands of dollars; we're still working out the total figures.
 
Obviously we are completely shocked at this behaviour and have immediately stripped Josh of his role as commissioner pending potential future legal action. We have always held firm that the league funds are used exclusively on league related activities so I am quite frankly pissed that a member of the blue team would take donation money for their own uses; whatever his excuses may be. Please be aware that we will be launching a further investigation and audit of all our costs and funds to be sure that no one else has done anything of the sort in the past.
 
Sincerely,
@Commissioner
 
Edit: In case any future people see the is and don’t see the date; it was purely an April Fool’s joke, Josh was in on it (in fact it was his idea) and the donation money is not only safe but audited.

Early Season struggles
We're now 20 games into the VHLE season and are starting to get an idea of how the season will play out. Vasteras and Cologne battling it out for first place, and Stockholm and Oslo fighting it out behind them with Rome and Bratislava a little further behind them. One thing we took notice of was a young players early struggles on Cologne: Annie Oaks who was picked 6th overall in the VHLE draft has not been able to get on the scoresheet with much regularity this year with only 8 points in 20 games played ( 3g 5a ) which is far less than what she or many of those around the league expected. She has been focusing her training on rounding out her game so far this year, and despite the fact scoring has been such a struggle for her she has said that she will not alter her training regimen.
 
"it's a process, and being the best VHLE player was never the goal. I'm going to continue to work on what I believe will make me the best VHL player that I can be even if I'm not seeing results now. It's about the future."
 
Despite her lack of scoring Cologne continues to sit near the top of the league in the standings, so if she can start contributing with more regularity it would be amazing to see how much Cologne's win and point totals would rise.