Gaikoku-hito

When I first seen the theme for this season theme week I was like scooby doo; “Ruh-roh” As I had no clue what lore I would want to talk about when it came to the VHL. I have talked about different lore most season here like the Goaltending issue of lower TPE goaltenders being better at least in the regular season then higher TPE goaltenders, The Vancouver Captaincy Curse, Victory Cup Curse etc…. But there is one situation that I actually haven`t talked about since the event took place and rather fitting fits with lore around another team in the Vancouver city….. the Vancouver Canucks. Back in 94 play-offs, a play-off filled with Lore as Mark Messier famous guarantee that New York would win game 6 and force a game 7 is most likely the one that most remember but part of the lore around the 94 Canucks and more so the 2011 Vancouver Canucks the lore around the team was the fact that the team started celebrating and practice lifting the cup before both Finals were even half way done; thus the hockey gods said FU to the Canucks as Vancouver would lose both finals. While I don`t know if that is true I know the Wolves story is true…. S89 Vancouver Wolves made the Continental Cup finals for the second time in three season this time against HC Davos. Vancouver won the first two game in a rough tough hockey games lead by the two players Pierre Marc Bouchard and Wann Kerr; who both were having an outstanding play-off. If I remember correctly sitting 1-2 in play-off scoring. When the event in question took place: Player 1: Who do you think will win the Daisuke Kanou Trophy if we win the next two games? Player 2: I don`t know but it would be between Wann Kerr and PEB. Player 1: Wann Kerr never wins anything so I would give it to PEB. Player 3: What the hell are you two discussing? SHUT UP!! We haven`t won anything yet!! Player 2: Yeah, we should really focus on winning the next two game before we talk about the Kanou! But even if we lose I think the Kanou should got to Kerr!! Player 1: It always nice to dream and no harm no foul!! Player 3: I am not sure about that!! Well, The damage was done as STHS and Lachlan Summers must have both gotten wind of the conversation as Vancouver Wolves would much like the Vancouver Canucks get caught by the Hockey gods as the Wolves would lose the next four straight games 5-2, 2-1, 4-2 & 4-2 but it really was Summer story that became part of the known Lore of that Finals as Summers made 172 saves, an average of 43 saves in the next four games for a amazing 1.75 GA and 0.960% putting the final nail in the coffin of the Vancouver Wolves. While some might consider this part of the Spartan curse of not being able to win the Continental Cup; the three players know this is clearly about counting the eggs before they hatched situation similar to the Canucks in 1994 and 2011. So in the end HC Davos didn`t really win the Cup against Vancouver that season but rather Vancouver played with fire and got caught!! Adding more salt to the wounds Summers didn`t even win the Kanou even though he was the main reason for HC Davos turn around as it was hand to some guy named Thunder instead!! Being Confident is one thing but Shut the hell up about winning until you have actually won!! Nov 24th Claim?

Good Morning @Thunder

We all need to learn from our mistakes and this isn`t the biggest blunder I have seen with someone mention something about winning or Simon!! I am not sure I should write about that but it happened in the Finals for Vancouver back in S89; if I remember correctly off the top of my head. That player has never won any cups due to the curse and has had more then his fair chances!! Nice quick reminder don`t talk about winning until you actually have won!! Not sure that is a Simon or VHL thing but more general thing in sports!!

I actually like the conference as it give the league character but I would like to see an equal amount of games played against each other so I guess I am going with a schedule change to 75 games with 5 games against each team. Not sure we are there yet!! And I am also to lazy to run the numbers to see if this should even be tabled but I know it not as easy as some think removing teams and adding them as we feel fit so it would have to make sense for the long term health of the league. I was going to have Seattle as possible tank team in the future aka next season but we all know you pull rabbit out of your arse every season!! LOL!! It reminds me of Cartmen from South Park!! LOL!!

Halloween Press Conference Halloween was always one of the nights I loved the most as child even if my hockey usually meant I was on bus being drove somewhere while everyone else dressed up and took part in the trick or treats. If I did make it out trick or treating it was usually in full hockey gear!! LOL!! 1. Finish the sentence: It`s close to midnight and something evil is lurking……… 2. Name the one player that you want by your side if you are walking down a dirty dark alley and you are scared? Why? 3. Name the first Halloween song that comes to your brain? 4. What are you dressing up as this Halloween? 5. If you could pull a prank on a team mate during Halloween; what would it be and who would you pick? 6. Morale question: If I left a bowl of full-size chocolate bars outside on the front door with a sign “Please Take one” would you only take one? Explain…. 7. Bonus: Team bonding active I have decided to take the team drunk trick or treating; Have you ever been drunk trick or treating before and who would be the first to pass out? Explain…. @Frank@Girts@Scurvy@Thunder@Subject056@mmrs617@Gaikoku-hito@Smarch@Sawyer13@ScottyP@Kisslinger@ethan tustain@jblock3@Tetricide

To Many Tanking teams? Here I am at start of a new week and needing to write a new media report; I thought I was going to write something about Halloween but I really have nothing creative to say about a holiday that isn`t celebrated in the country that I currently reside so what am I going to talk about this week? Someone posted a smart comment in the Status updates on the forums about scoring being up so it is now time to buff goaltending. On face value he is correct as scoring is up but so are the goaltenders stats so I thought about writing about the Jackal & hide aspect of goaltending in the league at the moment. While I think it is an issue still; I think I have said my piece last season or whenever it was!! Nope, What I think I am going to talking about is the tanking issue that we have in the VHL currently and also might sound off why I don`t think any player from European conference should realistically be consider for any awards this season so lets get started shall we ….. Defining tanking – a sports reference to the practice of intentionally fielding a non-competitive team to take advantage of league rules that benefit losing teams. Why is the definition important? Due to the fact that we currently have teams that might be viewed as tanking team but due to circumstances just aren`t able to field a competitive team at the moment so maybe shouldn`t be consider as tanking teams. Currently we have two teams in the North American Conference that can be viewed as tanking; D.C. Dragons and the LA Stars!! In the case of the LA Stars this is due to those circumstances that they are fielding a team that isn`t competitive rather than actually out and out tanking as they had enough young talent to be viewed as rebuilding team until a bunch of the prospects or young players decided to go awol.. Not really a fault of the team …. European Conference is really bad with four of the eight teams in the conference in a complete tank mode lead by London United, Prague Phantoms, Helsinki Titans, and Warsaw Predators for 50% of the Conference openly tanking. League as whole has six of the sixteen team in a tanking situation with Toronto Legion likely to be added to the list next season so I think it is safe to say that “Houston we have a problem!” or do we? That fact remains that it is common to see teams in both conferences in some cycle of tank, rebuilding and contenders but this is the first time that I have seen this so lopsided to a single division and it is causing an issue in the way of stats for the players with a clear advantage for the players playing these tanking or non-competitive teams. How lopsided will it be? I don`t know but I guess I will try to give more information as to why this is a bit of a problem. Teams currently play everyone other team in the league at least 4 times so usually out of conference teams face each other 4 times where in conference each team faces each other 6 times with two in conference teams only playing five times. This also causes an issue within the conference when I look at this since it is possible that a top team in the conference plays other top teams less and stack their stats by two extra games against weaker (tanking) teams within the conference. As for NA teams; it means that all teams lose two games against London, Prague, Warsaw & Helsinki so cannot pad their stats by eight games in comparisons to the European players. But this is off set by the tanking teams in NA; I can hear someone saying right now? Yeah, by half of the games if you consider that fact that Los Angeles isn`t really a tanking team and would actually be a playoff team at this point in the season in the European conference. We saw this last season to a smaller extent with the majority of the Award winners coming from the European Conference; while I don`t want to take away anything from those that won awards it hard not to see that there might be a case to be made for the current lopsidedness of the conference’s leading to stats padding. How do we fix the issue? Salary Cap Changes Well, I hate to even suggest this since I don`t have the numbers and I have no intent on trying to get the numbers but I would suggest a forced competitive re-balancing via salary restructure. Yup, I think it might be time we see a salary cap reduced to force top teams to share the wealth of players across more teams to limit the tanking that we currently see as I still think six; soon to be seven teams tanking is a bit too many. Schedule Changes Add more games to the schedule, well, if you are anything like me you didn`t know that we actually have Divisions within each conference. How the heck am I only learning about this now many seasons and years into the VHL experience is a guess to me! Or maybe it was something I truly didn`t care for so stumbling upon today makes more sense. Division are as follows: Bunclewirth Division Vancouver Wolves Seattle Bears Calgary Wranglers Los Angeles Stars Low Division Toronto Legion Chicago Phoenix New York Americans D.C. Dragons Shaw Division Malmo Nighthawks HC Davos Dynamo Helsinki Titans London United Gow Division Moscow Menace Riga Reign Warsaw Predators Prague Phantoms Currently if I have it correct, all teams within the division play each other 6 times for 18 games. Which now makes sense why we have the unbalanced 5 & 6 games against the other division. This also makes it easier to see which teams have clear advantages this season but I am starting to get distracted by nothing at all; maybe!! So, more games or at least a schedule change as I am fine with the 6 games inter-divisional games but that means we either need to balance out the rest of the league to 4 games each for 48 games or a total of 66 games meaning a reduced schedule. I think I am not in favour of that myself …. So why not have every team within conference play 6 games each for 42 games within conference and 32 games or 4 games against each inter-conference team for 32 games or 74 games schedule? But that doesn`t really help the unbalanced league schedule as it stands at the moment, does it? Nope!! Okay, so play equal times against each team…. 4 games mean 60 game schedule that is too short and 5 game schedules increase the current schedule to 75 games but I guess the question remains can this be done in STHS or is this a limitation of the current sim engine that we are using. Trust the Award members Yup, I can hear the laughter already as I know I have questioned how awards have been award in the past so do I think that the Award committee can really understand the lopsided aspect of the stats coming from the European division due to the imbalance? Yes and maybe no!! I have seen at least one other member already comment about the imbalanced aspect of the conference leading to lopsided stats so I have some confidence that we as group could try to determine if it was a great season by player or simple aided by lopsided schedule against tanking teams. Conclusion I guess either way we are in for an interesting debate around Awards this season due to the unbalanced conference and schedule favoring European teams, players in one conference this season more than the other …… Also interesting to see how many European players win awards this season….. But I guess the final thoughts on the topic; the current cycle of teams tanking is normal but never seen so many in one conference that I can remember or trying not to remember!! LOL!! Changes to the salary cap I think should be discussed sooner than later; even though this really hurts my current teams and we need to trust the processes when it comes to awards as the committee is made up of a bunch of smart individuals from around the league all debating, discusses before actually coming to a final vote to determine the winners; and it also means we all vote individually so even some of the award winners surprise even us at times so do we really need changes; I am not 100% sure that we really do as a man much wiser then myself once stated if not broken then why try to fix it. As for the goaltenders; well, I think I need to collect data so that I sound like I know what I am talking about but it does still seem like we might have a issue with goaltending still but that is for a later date!! 1526 words Nov 3rd, 10th & 17th claims

I will also say that sometime you do need a take a break to get the passion back regardless of what it might be... VHL I think is no different as I know I had to take a step back to reconnect with the league. Glad you are sticking with it for now but understand if you need to step back at some point!!

I like how you mixed up PEB & PMB a few times as well since I still do this!! Next player naming should be a bit further apart!! LOL!!

reminded me of a very sexy Nike commercial!! LOL!! And @stevo beat me to the song that I was going to suggest for you!! LOL!! Great minds ......

Time to Panic? Here we are a week away from one of the amazing nights of the year where you can harass children and have them pissing in their pants with a well-timed jump scare. But if you are like me I haven`t figured out my costume or even found a pumpkin yet so is it now time to panic? 1. Are you currently happy with the way that Vancouver Wolves have started the season? 2. Are you happy with the way that your player has started the season? 3. Can you name a song that start with “Are you happy”? Name the song and would you sing around the Lock room? 4. What did you think of the Gunslinger show and the announcement of a new Assistant Captain? Was it the right choice? 5. If you had to create a nickname for a player on the current roster; Who would you make a nick for and what would the nick be? Why? 6. Listening to a Pod cast when writing this so; When should you put up the Christmas Tree? @Frank@Girts@Scurvy@Thunder@Subject056@mmrs617@Gaikoku-hito@Smarch@Sawyer13@ScottyP@Kisslinger@ethan tustain@jblock3@Tetricide

Last claim & 27th

Vancouver Wolves Captains As a new season approached and the western sun setting on the horizon of the off season. All eye were focused squarely on the horizon waiting for the inevitable return of the Gunslinger…. As the sunset reached the half horizon, came the sight that most of the town folk feared but knew was coming. The Gunslinger rode into sight with his sidekick by his side, one riding a black mare with jet black mane and the other on a small grey mule with bags swing from the side of the animal. Everyone now knew that there would be action in town tonight …. Out rode one brave sole to meet the Gunslinger and his sidekick … Bang Bang … it was over in a flash as the poor soul dropped in a bloody heap. That was quickly followed by another gun shot that rang out ... bang .... as a Lazaro @traphag ran to the stricken cowboy in the middle of the road. but remarkable one would raise again; as the first cowboy shot; Guntis Gavilrovs @Girts would stand back up holding his ground to the Gunslinger & his sidekick. With a snarl the gunslinger without looking pointed the gun under his arm and .... bang bang ... shot down one of the deputies; Mark Calaway @Beketov, with under his breath stating, "You are one tough cowboy Mr. Gavilrovs!! You shall see the end of the day where others will not!!" And once again the gunslinger pulled the trigger .... bang bang .... without looking towards the saloon doors as Vidarsson seemed to getting ready to charge through the door; ready to stand his ground. Three in total would fall that day as the gunslinger guns rung through the twilight air. But in the end the damage was already done as gone were Owen Lazaro @traphag, Former Captain Mark Calaway @Beketov (yup), Dalkr Vidarsson @KaleebtheMighty & Joe Block @jblock3. Joe Block was an interesting case as he wasn`t part of the original shoot out in the town that day but was found a few days later with a single shot in the chest as sources claim that the gunslinger was still furious that a cowboy stood his ground and took revenge on a new cowboy in town. So what does that mean? Yup, If you guessed it we are here to appoint another brave souls to become the Vancouver Wolves Captain as once again the Gunslinger has struck!! Vancouver Wolves Captains: Captain : Assistant: Assistant: Lets see who can withstand the Gunslinger next off season!! @Frank@Girts@Scurvy@Thunder@Subject056@mmrs617@Gaikoku-hito@Smarch@ScottyP@Kisslinger@ethan tustain@Tetricide So far only Guntis Gavilrovs has gotten up after taking a shot from the gunslinger!! For that I alone I almost made him a Captain this season but I didn`t think putting him back into the line of fire so soon after would be a wise choice!!

G - Red Panda @Beketov

F - Maverick Goncalves @Girts

F - Joshua Schwarzer @Beketov

D - Mark Calaway @Girts

D - Callum Gary Yannick Janser @Beketov

@Scurvy No pressure but 50 goals, 57 assist and 107pts!! Not to mention a Cup required or I see the swift axe of @Frank falling!! LOL!!

Another Vancouver Wolve getting trivia wrong this week!! LOL!! Also explains why Soju couldn`t and most likely won`t stop a puck this season unless he becomes Hask like flopping and having the puck hit him somehow!! LOL!! Drunk goaltending never ends well ( i think as I wouldn`t know!!)

Yeah, we made most of our moves as usually early in the off season so it feels like we wait for ever but really it not that long. I guess we just need to learn to pace ourselves better!! Instead of running at 200mph all the time we need to slow down and enjoy the view once in a while but then again what good is high end sports car if you are going to drive it slowly? Guess it as my grandma used to say to me when I was younger: Is it better to be moving slowly rather then wreck on the side of the road? Bah!! I never really understood that comment!! LOL!!

Vancouver Wolves: A New Hope Here I am trying to think of a catch phrase for this week’s press conference with cars and now Star Wars on the brain; yes, I entertain myself very well as I never have a dull moment as long as my brain is around and no I don`t need substance aid to be as crazy as I am at times!! Either way, as I came up with the title I actually don`t remember what happened in A New Hope so it might be a fitting or not so fitting title to explain the thoughts of the Wolves entering a new season …… 1. Try to explain to me what happened in the movie: A New Hope if you can? 2. If your player was a character in Star Wars series; who are they and why? 3. If you had to compare the Vancouver Wolves to a car; which car would the Vancouver Wolves be & why? 4. Now comparing your player to a car which car and why? 5. As I write this someone has left a dog in the car beside me for the past hour Barking so is it okay to give anything to the animal to shut them up and what would you give them? 6. Riddle: I am a feeling that keeps us afloat, in times of darkness, I help you cope. I am not tangible, yet always there, even in despair, I'll never disappear. What am I? @Frank@Girts@Scurvy@Thunder@Subject056@mmrs617@Gaikoku-hito@Smarch@Sawyer13@ScottyP@Kisslinger@ethan tustain@jblock3