fromtheinside

My power went out last night and it was too early for me to goto sleep so I threw this on my phone, really good content fellas!

First the Lakers Then the Dodgers Now the Stars.... LA can't stop getting Ws

damn I'm still relatively new around here... but you must have reallllllllllly been #$!#ing the dog to get your 1st rounder taken away right? That's pretty intense punishment, would people consider it's deserved? Either way, if the point of it is to get new players into the league and keep them around then I suppose it's worth being strict about.

I saw this in your sig on a post earlier today... I think this is one of the coolest and most unique graphics on the forums right now. Super cool and clean design, not to mention it's aesthetically pleasing. Super nice job. 10/10

Hey nice job on the graphic! I really like the image you chose for your piece. It nicely encapsulates a team celebrating a series win. Really like the faded edits on the picture and the font choice looks really nice too! Great job, 9/10

Scotty Kaberle Reflects on Rookie Season Vic Wolfe- Saskatoon Times This week featured some crazy finishes to the first round of the VHLM playoffs. 7 game marathons, upsets, high scoring thirllers... the first round had a bit of everything. Among them was the Saskatoon Wild coming up short against the fourth seed Mississauga Hounds, falling in 5 games. It was a tough ending to a promising season for the Wild who boasted the best 1-2 scoring punch in the league with Brian Strong Jr and Florent Vericel. Despite only going 5 games, the series was relatively close with 3 of the games being decided in overtime. Although the series was competitive, many would say the writing was on the wall for the Wild. Heading into the playoffs the Wild were a sub .500 team for the last half of the season. The team didn't go down without a fight however. During the latter half of the season, the Wild management team made some great waiver pickups by grabbing the defensive duo of Silas LaFriend and Scotty Kaberle, as well as the feisty Frenchman Dominic Gobeil. These three first-gen rookies have burst onto the scene and provided the Wild with alot of much needed stability for the home stretch of the regular season and playoffs. Of those three rookies, we were able to catch up with Scotty Kaberle as he was cleaning out his locker on Tuesday night. Here's a transcript of our interview: Vic: Hey Scotty, thanks for taking time to sit down and chat with us. This season has come and gone in a flash. And you've only just come into the fold towards the last third of the regular season. Describe what your experience in the past couple months has been like. Scotty: Always happy to make time for the media Vic! And I would agree with you, this whole experience feels like it's been moving at 150 miles an hour. While it has went by fast, I can honestly say I've enjoyed every second of it. Saskatoon really felt like home to me pretty quickly. From the moment I got here Assistant GM Ferk was essential in getting me settled. He really showed me the ropes early on and I can't thank him enough for that. Vic: Ah yes you mentioned AGM Ferk. It seems as though you gained management's trust super quickly during your stay in Saskatoon. Can you elaborate on how that happened? Scotty: Of course. So it really was just a great match from the get-go. When I came to Saskatoon they were really in need of some stability on the blue-line. They had their cornerstone D-man Gabriel Johnson, but outside of that there were definitely minutes to be had if I could prove myself. I saw this opportunity and did everything in my power to capitalize on it. I began training my ass off and luckily I was able to reap the benefits of hard work. By the end of the regular season and in our series versus the Hounds, I was consistently at the top of list for ice time night in and night out. I'll always be thankful to Wild management for giving me so much responsibility as a rookie. Vic: Great answer Mr. Kaberle. You brought up your series against the Mississauga Hounds. Obviously the result wasn't what you and your team were hoping for. How did it feel getting your first taste of playoff hockey, and how are you dealing with the disappointment of an early first round exit? Scotty: Oof, dang Vic! Getting to the hard hitting questions! Playing playoff hockey is what I dream of. It's like an addiction. Having it all fly by like it did kills me. But now I need more... and that addiction is what's going to drive me in the offseason to work hard to get back there and go further in the future. I loved being out there with the boys and we gave it our all. We had a great group in Saskatoon. Unfortunately, there is some major competition in the VHLM. The Hounds came ready and they got the job done. Tsujimoto, L and R and Askarov are a rock solid core for them and I could see them going the distance if they get some fortune on their side. Vic: I'll finish with one more Scotty. You mentioned your admiration for your teammates. Now that your season is over, you and many of your teammates will be entering the VHLM Dispersal Draft next month in the offseason. There's a good chance you won't be playing with many of these guys ever again. Thoughts? Scotty: Yeah that really is just starting to set in Vic. We really formed a brotherhood in the locker room. LaFriend, Eso, Gobeil, Brax.... all those guys are absolute gems. We held one last meeting in the locker room after we were eliminated and many of us stated our desire to come back if management wanted to have us. I'd love to get a chance to goto war with some of these guys again next season...obviously it's a business and it's out of our control but we'll see what happens. No matter what happens I will always cherish my time with the Wild. When I came here I only knew how to crawl. Now I can walk... and next season I am ready to start sprinting at full speed and show my true potential. Vic: Scotty, as always, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for your time! Scotty: No problem brother, cheers! That was our interview with Scotty Kaberle. Saskatoon fans quickly took a liking to him this season. Will he back for next season? It's impossible to know at this time. One thing for sure is that the draft this offseason is absolutely stacked with generational talent. There will be a ton of great options for Saskatoon on the board when they get on the clock. We will have more coverage on the draft in weeks following!

Miami Downs Halifax in an Epic Game 7 Finale Associated Press- AP 70-1. Those were the Vegas odds posted at the start of the VHLM S74 Playoffs for Miami to come away victorious against the top-seeded powerhouse Halifax 21st. And despite those longshot odds, Tuesday evening the Marauders Cinderella season rolled on as Miami topped Halifax 6-5 in what may go down to be an all time VHLM classic. First-gen rookie phenoms @tcookie25 Addison McLaren and @RedSusCabe McJake combined for a whopping 7 points. Of those 7 points, none were as important as when McLaren made a beautiful one-touch cross-seam pass to a waiting McJake on the half-boards with just under 3 minutes to play in the game. This powerplay marker proved to be the difference in this high-offense affair. Like many other games in the series, Halifax outshot their opponents heavily but thankfully for Marauders fans, @Victor Rara Rasputin was up to the task again in this one, turning away 34 saves. On the flipside, normally rock solid tender @chatfan036 was not his usual self tonight letting in 6 goals on 26 shots, however, it should be noted that 4 of those goals did come on the powerplay where Miami had an astounding 11 man advantages! There were rumors going into this one that Malone would hang up his skates if Halifax lost this series, I guess only time will tell if he's serious or not but let's hope for London United's sake they don't lose their tender of the future! To fully understand the gravity of this upset victory, you really need to analyze the turnaround the Marauders had this season. With about half the season in the books, Miami was on the ropes and hope was dwindling. They had some great players with the like of Rasputin between the pipes, along with @chiknChicken Wing and @LatinVikingEoin Byrne on the blueline, but there were missing some major offensive punch up front. Then from seemingly out of nowhere, @Ricer13GM Ricer became a man on a mission. He went on a tear signing the aforementioned McJake and McClaren as well as another rookie standout, @coochimanVivek Weiner. All 3 of these players made immediate impacts to the team all the while developing at a rapid pace. Still not satisfied, Ricer also went on to add D-man@BeavissHulk Hogan Jr as well as winger @fyreflySheldon Juniper super late into the regular season and both played pivotal roles in taking down the goliath's known as Halifax. We met up with the Marauders GM post-game and asked him about his club's late season surge and success in the first round. Here is what he had to say: "Miami was extremely fortunate to have signed the players we did. There were some real stand outs who took a liking to the game right away. A few of those being Addison McLaren, Cabe McJake and Vivek Weiner. They came in eager to learn and did every possible thing they could to improve their game. I told them all that the goal was playoffs and they are the ones who put in the work to make that happen. I can’t go without mentioning a few more waiver signings who made a huge impact. Our tendy Rasputin signed with us early in the season and has become a big game tendy for us down the stretch. Hulk Hogan Junior and Sheldon Juniper were late season acquisitions and they’ve made huge impacts with the team in such a short amount of time. I have been so impressed by this group and they deserved every win from that series." - GM Ricer Following our discussion with GM Ricer we had a chance to catch up with a couple of Miami's players to get their thoughts on their impressive feat. First we approached Addison McClaren. We asked who he considered to be the leader in the dressing room for Miami and also how will the young team of rookies be able to re-focus on their next matchup versus Vegas. Here's what Addison had to say: "It's such a great group we have in there... obviously, a lot of new faces on this team and we've all been pushing each other and supporting each other but if I have to pick someone, Cabe's the guy with the biggest personality, always vocal and always believing in this group. He's got that attitude that get everyone ready to go, like the series was 2-2 and he was making sure to remind us hey, this isn't about taking 2 games from the best team in the regular season - we can do better, we can win this thing. We just have to get back to work and do the same thing we did preparing for Halifax. We had a big run at the end of the season to get us into the playoffs and we're the type of team that wasn't just happy to make it, we're here to win, and we're a really hard-working team. So we just have to carry that attitude over into our future series'. We enjoy this win tonight, but then it's back to work and doing what we have to do to win that next one." -Addison McClaren Finally, we were able to track down Cabe McJake, the man who scored the game-winning goal in tonight's contest. We asked him what he considers to be the key to the Marauders success and what he was planning to do to prepare for the Aces in the semi-finals. McJake was quoted in saying: "I think what's propelled us so much in the past weeks is the tight knit locker room that we have. We are a very humble group being that we are all waiver claims which help each other out as much as we can. I like to think me and McLaren led by example by showing how quickly you can improve in this league, I believe a lot of the waiver claims that came after us saw what we did and knew they could do the same. And of course a lot of the credit has to go to our GM Ricer who pushed all of us to be as good as we can. As for Vegas, we are determined to play with no fear. We have nothing to lose at this point as we already accomplished more than we could imagine." Cabe McJake On the flipside of things, the disappointment must be immeasurable for the 21st players, staff and fans. After seasons of rebuilding, this year's roster was fine-tuned to win a championship. On paper they were an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. But as an old saying goes, "that's why you play the games". Unfortunately it may be awhile until Halifax fans see a team of this caliber again. Many of the teams top players will be moving up to the big league next season. An estimated 9 players off Halifax's roster could potentially be getting their big league promotions and what's worse is Halifax cashed in many of their picks in this years draft to go all in for a championship. It's easy to criticize management decisions in hindsight, but fans should be happy to have an organization that will do anything it takes to win a championship. We reached out to Halifax management for this article but unfortunately they were not available for comment. For the Cinderella-story Marauders, it's off to Sin City for a match-up with the Aces in the semi-finals. This matchup will prove to be just as difficult as Las Vegas boasts one of the most lethal scorers in the league in @G_RushGary Rush as well as another top end tender in @DreMin15 Drew Minott. Minott declared earlier this week he was planning to make the jump to his big league team in LA next season, so you know he will be extra hungry for that last chance to win the Founder's Cup. The Marauders will need to go all in on Vegas to punch their ticket to the finals. It should shape up to be a great series. Note: I did reach out to Halifax's GM and AGM but I posted this pretty quickly after (probably an hour or 90 mins after asking them) so if they were asleep they didn't get much chance to provide comments. That's on me, I just wanted to get it finished and posted. All the best to both clubs!

holy shit lol im not here to BM Halifax, that looked like an amazing series. Congrats to Miami

Man if Miami pulls it off, that'd be fucking huuuuuge. I'm excited to see the outcome tomorrow. Good luck to both teams

@PatrikLaine Hey I'd love to take part if VHLM'ers are welcome! Scotty Kaberle D Saskatoon Wild

dang another game goes to OT. This series is 3-1, but it's been pretty close the whole way so far. Hoping the Wild can pull out two wins tonight and live to see Monday!

nice writeup @mattyice! That graphic at the top is super slick too.

Poor Brian Strong Jr buried 4 goals and we still couldn’t get the W. Brutal. Gotta turn it around tomorrow

Thought Id try out doing a graphic to show the matches for the VHLM Playoffs

Love this graphic! The player with the messed up eye looks really badass and is fits great for a graphic highlighting a fighter. Also love the background... really good background that helps make the font and player picture stand out more. And the font having that wavy effect kind of gives it an old school look too. It all just comes together really nice, great job. 8/10

Overall I love the design. The black on the shoulders and bottom with the gold trim is real nice. Only alterations I'd probably consider making is to make the logo on the front a touch bigger and also I think the number on the back of the jersey should also get the gold outline to make it pop a bit more. But besides those small details I love it, great job. 7/10

no disputin Rasputin

damnnnn that's clean!

As a newcomer to this league I find the auto-posting of the scores in our team Discord extremely practical and accessible. Personally for me, most of the time the sims happen while I am work... so I will quickly check my phone every couple hours at work... and it's nice because I just need to check and see if there's anything new posted under the scores section of our Discord. And once the sims are posted I will throw a message in our locker room regarding the results. Now it's going to take a little more navigation for me to see the information I'm looking for and I'm not even really supposed to be on my phone while working to begin with, so to me that is a little inconvenient. That being said, I get my case is situational, but the point that it's making things a little less accessible is still valid. But I do realize this is going to be a trial for the playoffs and there's nothing wrong with testing the waters on some things and seeing how they play out. I get that the endgame is to get more activity on the forums and that's a solid goal that I think most members would be all for. Also I know being new I probably shouldn't get too opinionated, but this is just my two cents on the matter, just trying to be active and contribute.

Now I'm second guessing myself haha. My plan is to make my defensemen an elite playmaker while also being a shut down Dman in his own end.

1. It's a cold night in Saskatoon. How have you been adjusting to the weather? Scotty Kaberle has had to start wearing the mittens his grandmother knitted for him while coming on and off the team bus. 2. Now that we are clinched for playoffs, what do you think we'll have to do to compete? I think it starts with taking care of the puck in our own end and giving Conway a little support. We gotta play better team defense and I think that will go a long way. 3. Who do you think has stepped up to lead the team in this final stretch of the regular season? Vericel has been racking up the points but in the last week or so Secel Keller has been our most consistent player for sure. We will need our other big guns and some depth players to step up too though. 4. What are your thoughts on Las Vegas AGM JigglyGumballs lurking in our Locker Room? LOL So I don't know what the norm is for VHL/VHLM discords but I thought it was kinda weird. He's super chill though so I dont mind him at all. But he's literally the AGM of one of our rivals and potentially our opponent in the playoffs at some point. 5. What are you going to do to pass the time during the NHL offseason? Gaming and now doing this really helps pass the time. 6. Our of all Saskatoon skaters, who is the best fighter? Gabe Johnson is a complete badass, I wouldn't mess with the guy

Thanks for the shoutout Ferk! Honestly man, I owe alot of my strong start to you dude. You were really helpful and welcoming to me when I was trying to figure everything out at the start. Thanks so much. Also I gotta say, Miami really did well scooping up some top tier waiver guys. McJake, McLaren and more recently Vivek Weiner have all looked to be absolute studs.

This jersey design is absolutely sick. The marlin itself looks rad and overall I think you guys have the best logo in the VHLM. Also I am digging the team colours. Not sure if the logo being off centre is by design or a small error, but regardless I don't really hate it. It's different from what you'd normally see and I think that's kind of cool. Great job! 9/10

Hey nice graphic! I think the DAYNE font and colour selection were really nice for your piece and who doesn't love Sid the Kid!? Only change I might make would be putting the team logo more to the forefront but besides that it's great! 7/10

Yup that's how I discovered VHL. Also I'm stoked to be on this list. I didn't really realize until I read this write-up that only 20% of us new players will have the chance to get drafted. I'm excited to see if I land somewhere. I'm gonna work hard to move my way up that board a bit before the draft too. Speaking of which, is there a date set yet or any speculation as to what day it might be on?