Scurvy

Wait …what!!?

1. I like the picks. Overall decent chance and room to add a few more pieces 2. D-Mac was a solid pick. A good goalie is a must and you have it now 3. Trades seems like the most likely. To go for it I think some future picks will have to go 4. yes the SBA but this will be my last player. VHL is my fav and SBA is a chore 5. I’m currently on vacation in California so enjoying it before fall 6. Toronto, Chicago, NY, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Seattle (I live close)

Claiming week 2 08/11

Correction! We have never fought. I’d quit VHL immediately if he beat me in shame . Thunder however did beat me the one time we fought.

Big mistake saying yes to Scotty P he would be living with you and not paying rent in a week

So, I am home from Victoria Island and off to California tomorrow to hang with some of my wife’s family, one of which is terribly ill. I need to knock out my 150 worder for VHL.com for next week so here we go. Not a lot to chat about since I have been whale watching and catching up on Olympics. The main thing I saw this week was the very deserving Hall of Fame induction of Prague great, John Jameson @Frank. Over 300 goals and 761 points in 576 games JJ could do it all. Underrated passer and solid in all 200 feet of ice he played a heavy game with 1821 hits and 1097 PIMS. Frank makes great players and JJ is the player I modeled Ninefingers after so let’s hope Logan can get half the numbers Jameson did. All in all, Frank deserves this honor for Jameson but also being a great ambassador for the VHL and all around great dude! Congrats!

Congrats all. Well deserved

1. No I don't think so. Makes it easier for GMs and I think its exciting for new players 2. Yep, Is hard in the M to be competitive every season with turnover but Ricer is smart and wants to win and has a great LR. 3. Getting inside to get air conditioning. 4. I would say a Marlin or StingRay 5. Summer been great. Actually leaving for vacation this morning to Victoria. 6. Flint, knife, and a container for water

It’s time for the dreaded off-season and it gets harder and harder to find 500 meaningful words for a post. The World Cup, WJC, and Pro-Am are in full effect and the draft is on the horizon so at least there is something to divert my attention while we wait for another year of battling for a Cup. I am also going on vacation tomorrow with wifey and daughter to Victoria Island, so my head isn’t in the game. So, for this weeks Around the League I will probably jump around and chat a mish mash of random shit. DRAFT The draft is always and exciting time for players in the VHL, especially first gens. The Calgary Wranglers have the first two picks and have already made a few moves this off-season to improve their club such as the addition of cup winner, Leif Reingaard @Zetterbergand 49 goal scorer, Adi Dassler @BOOM. When I first joined the VHL in S82 it seemed Calgary was always a formidable foe with amazing talent so I predict they will be back to their deadly ways soon. Davos is another team with an already great group of earners and now two picks in the top 10 which could make them daunting for years to come. The only other team with two picks is LA who is in the midst of a re-build with some very good young talent in the Phantom of the VHL @Hogan, Erik Thorvaldsson @Tetricide, Pombo @samx, and Wally Lose @youloser1337. The top 10 picks in the draft are as follows: 1. Calgary 2. Calgary 3. LA 4. DC 5. Helsinki 6. Davos 7. LA 8. Davos 9. DC 10. Chicago A quick look at the top 10 draft prospects shows a pretty good list of talent with histories of good players. 1. Roger Eagles @Greg_Di- 421 TPE. This is about as certain of a perfect pick as you can get. Huge earner and proven lineage. Highest TPE in the draft and guaranteed top 3 pick. 2. Konstyantyn Shevchenko @der meister. 367 TPE. Huge Right Winger who put up 50 goals in VHLM this season. 3. Ahsoka Tano @Aimee . 355 TPE. First defensive player on the board and an easy top 5 pick. Tano will fill out a roster nicely as a long term anchor on the defensive side. 4. Phil Sakic @PhilPhil. 352 TPE. Another proven VHL member who makes exciting players that are usually punching my player in the face in box scores. 48 goals for Miami last season and a guaranteed all-star for years to come. 5. Spider Panda @Ricer13 332 TPE. The second goalie on the board and easily a future brick wall for whomever drafts him. Has history in Calgary so be interesting to see if they go with him with the top two picks. Either way I don’t see Panda making it past #3 in draft. 6. Samsayz-I-Smell @CaptainSB. 323 TPE. Second defensive player and a First-Generation player which is awesome. Can hit and block shots and over a point a game for Mexico he should find a home in the top ten picks. 7. David Pastanap @Jubis 319 TPE. Ranked as one of the top names in the VHLM by me earlier this season Pastanap had 39 goals for Houston and 398 shots. Gifted scorer who can throw his weight around he will be a solid pickup. 8. Tim Robinson @Tim RobinsonTim. 308 TPE. Huge scoring potential and overall great locker room guy, TR had 97 points for Miami and was a +44, showing he doesn’t hurt his team on the defensive side either. A team would be lucky to get TR in their LR. 9. Einar Mathiesen @xsjackXS. 273 TPE. Another imposing dman who had over a point a game in VHLM and triple digits in hits and shots blocked. One thing is certain, a VHL team can never have enough quality defensive players so EM should have a good draft night. 10. Alphonse Desjardins @Anthique 270 TPE. The final player on the top ten in TPE is a Dman who had 209 bone crushing hits last season on his way to a Cup. Can block shots, hit, fight, and plays a very tough game in front of the net. Can’t wait to see AD get to the VHL and lock horns with Guntis Gavilrovs @Girts. On the Vancouver front we are gearing up for the season. We have three of our top prospects in Bollos de Trueno @Thunder, Pierre Mac Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito, and Soju @Frankall up in the big league now and hungry to win. Award winning defender, Liv Slater @Subject056 has made the move to forward so the league should look out. Liv was deadly offensively in the back end so it will be exciting to see now up front. Everyone has grown in experience and the team has remained intact. Riley Martin @Smarch, Logan Ninefingers, Owen Lazaro @traphag, and Rip “the Dip” Wheeler @ScottyPScott are all eager to come back and crush the NA conference. Depreciation hurt a few players, but the Wolves are a team that earns hard and has a pretty fun vibe so other players will step up to fill the void that depreciation hurts. A quick look at the potential strengths and weaknesses of the Wolves this season: Strengths: Grit-This team has high checking and loves to impose their will on opposing teams. Goalies- With Dalkr @KaleebtheMightythe might and the addition of Soju the Wolves have a tough tandem that can gift some wins to the club throughout the season. Scoring- Lazaro, Ninefingers, Martin, Wheeler, PMB, and Slater can all put the puck in the net so I look for both lines to be deadly. Weaknesses: Defensive depth- With Slater moving to forward, the Wolves are sporting 3 dmen with rookie Bollos de Trueno being asked to play big minutes early in his career. Veteran Mark Calaway @Beketov and enforcer Guntis Gavilrovs @Girts are great mentors though. Simon- Simon seemed to hate the Wolves last season so were hoping all the bourbon and gifts we bought this season change this for us!! Well done rambling for my 1000 words. Off to vacation Going to claim for 08-04 08-11

It’s the off-season and a lot going on but a quick look at the upcoming draft player list I see we the potential for two goalies to go in the top 5 of draft, maybe even both gone in top 3. Roger Eagles @Greg_Diis currently first in TPE with 421 and Spider Panda @Ricer13 is 5th with 332. Both are guaranteed picks for future all-stars and teams would benefit greatly from having either of these two. Calgary holds the first two picks and need a goalie so it’s a safe bet that either one of these goalies could end up there. LA is third and is desperately in need of a long-term net-minder. DC and Helsinki round out the rest of the top 5 picks and both have goalies that earn so while lower in TPE I am not sure they are in need to a future goalie. My prediction is these two net minders are too valuable to pass up as both are franchise goalies. Not sure where these two will end up but I predict both are gone in top 5.

1. Both of your teams were great. Could have went either way. 2. I spent most of last season improving face-offs which was rough. Planning on upping my DC and PC on Ninefingers and maybe a little OV. Want him to be defensively sound ....and HIT 3. I'd say Robin Sierra. Ton of points and a +67 is insane 4. I am participating in Pro Am and World Cup (I think). I find them to be ok but if it goes too long it gets boring to me. I get the managers need a break but sometime off-season is cringe. 5. I like what the Oilers have done but they need to address the defense a bit I think. And my other team the Kraken added a few things but nothing that gets them competitive 6. Well... I wasn't in LR but I believe it's probably LR activity and being helpful to First Gens which is key for keeping players long term. Congrats to Ace

The dreaded off-season is upon us which means we have the Pro-Am, World Cup, and WJC to look forward too. I am sure it’s a nice break for the management for the league but I hope it isn’t too long of a wait until we get back to smashing our competition in our quest for a Cup. That being said there is a lot of things my player needs to work on for next season. I spent most of this season dumping precious TPE points into Faceoffs and am finally at a spot I can up my defense and Offensive vision a bit. The birthday TPE, donation doubles, and uncapped Fantasy TPE surely do help right now so I am looking to start the season well over 1000 TPE. Ninefingers had an up and down season last year and struggled at faceoffs and for the longest time he couldn’t find the back of the net or assists. Ninefingers and linemate Riley Martin did turn it up at the end of the season thought and Logan managed to finish strong with 32 goals 44 assists 76 points. Shots, hits, and power play goals were down from his rookie season. So, with the off-season officially here what does Logan Ninefingers need to work on to take that next step toward a Cup? Defensive Coverage/Poke Check In the minors Ninefingers was a player who could score in bunches and still play sound defense. With the quality of competition that much better in the VHL, Logan needs to play a 200 foot game to help Vancouver compete night after night. Ninefingers is currently at 80 PC and 85 DC which is not bad but needs to be upped for next season. Offensive Vision Now, Logan currently sits at 92 OV and its costly to try to up it each week while neglecting cheaper attributes that also still need improvement. Logan’s linemate Riley Martin currently has 97 OV so maybe its not so important Ninefingers to get that attribute up immediately and can maybe focus on defense and other stuff to complement Martin. Deking/Stick handling These attributes confuse me sometimes. I like them because they improve secondary stuff like skating and defense but not sure which one to increase first. They currently sit at 80/78 So I will probably try to get them to low 80s and see if it improves Logan’s play. Checking Vancouver is a team of hitters for sure. Logan saw over 50 less hits than his rookie season and I take that to mean more hitters sometimes equals less hits per player. Maybe not, but whatever happened Logan hit less but also had less PIMS which is nice. I prob wont mess with this much and see where he shakes out next season. Overall, there is always something to improve with a player. Logan plans to grind this off-season and try to get better to get us closer to our goal of winning the Continental Cup. There is a special group of players on the Wolves that care little of stats or awards but all want to taste victory in Vancouver.

Transaction ID: 03K21200XM3583128 $1 million cash player store 5 uncapped TPE Double week

The season is over and the Moscow Menace defeated a powerhouse Toronto Legion team 4 games to 2. What a great job by a Moscow club that had to start in the wildcard round and battle from the bottom, roll through the difficult and stacked European league to face off against the most formidable offensive club in the VHL who also had the playoff’s hottest goalie in Joel Castle. Moscow relied on their core stars in Axle Gunner @Steve who tied for the lead in scoring with 31 points with fellow teammate, Steve Lattimer @pugsood. Defenseman, Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage @Grape was spectacular in the back end and contributed 30 points in the playoffs. Up and down the lineup it seemed everyone in Moscow brought their A game all playoffs. Jarmo Ruutu @jRuutu 28 points, David Rashford @Knight 26 points , George Richmond @badcolethetitan25 points, Leif Rengaard @Zetterberg25 points, and Jeff Lewis @nerji 20 points. Their offense was unstoppable and truly took a team approach to defeating the mighty Legion. But let’s not forget Moscow’s goalie Olober Syko @Spartan . He had to battle 21 games, the most in the playoffs and still managed to have a save percentage of .0920 despite facing over 200 more shots than any other goalie in the playoffs. The most important stat than all was the wins because in the end that’s all the matters. Syko won that coveted 15th win to capture the cup to a very deserving team. Congratulations to the Moscow Menace!

Happy birthday!!

1. Looking at last few games I'd say Riga is gonna win but both are good teams. I think y'all are gonna need to do the same as you did against Van and Sea. Great defense and hot goalie. I still think neither of those teams compare to Toronto though. 2. Yes I did and loved it. I will watch the new one too 3. Nope. He has been amazing 4. Counting the damn days until season starts again I guess. working on getting may FO TPE up which sucks 5. Riga 6. Young Frankenstein or Spaceballs

bad ass!

Another week has passed, and I find myself sitting firmly in the dreaded off-season with a huge case of the off-season blues. However, there is still a lot of happenings in the VHL/E/M to chat about. The playoffs are in full swing and some surprising advances in the VHL happened. So for this weeks Around the League Iguess I’ll chat about playoffs and any other random stuff that catches my eye. MOSCOW SURGING Now, If I had to pick a city that I would least like to visit, Moscow would probably make the list. However, in the VHL, they are a damn great hockey team. I picked Moscow early to be a favorite in the EU and was sorely disappointed in the regular season performance. I felt all season long they were playing way below their level. They could score with the best of teams but seemed to struggle shutting other teams down. They ended up in the #5 spot to play in the last spot for Wildcard against a defensively sound Warsaw team. Despite losing their first game to Warsaw they came back and dominated, scoring in bunches to defeat the Preds 3 games to 1. After this, they were set to play the formidable and the best team in the EU, London United. I would have never guessed this outcome, but Moscow DOMINATED and swept them in 4 straight. Even better, Moscow’s defense looked amazing shutting down London’s fierce scoring attack. Now Moscow is facing off against Riga, another team that is dangerous. They find themselves down 3-2 in the series so plan for a massive battle tonight in Riga that could decide the EU. Anyway, super impressive to see Moscow play to their level and wish them the best of luck tonight. CAN TORONTO BE STOPPED? The Toronto Legion have begun the playoffs with a resounding message. After sweeping the Vancouver Wolves, (three shutouts) they entered the next round against Seattle and seemed to disassemble a very tough club easily, winning 4 games to 1. Led by a star studded front line on offense with Harry Callahan @dstevensonjr (9g 6a-15pts), Mac Atlas @v.2 (6g 9a 15pts), and Diego Machado @Dadam30(3g 9a 12pts) its seems that no team has an answer to stop these beasts. Even more troubling for opposing foes is their defense can kill you offensively as well with Bobby Bob @Baby Boomer (0g-11a) and Walter Fitzroy Jr @Moon (4g 8a 12pts). But the true MVP of this team has to their goalie Joel Castle @animal74. Castle is 8-1 this playoff with an outstanding 1.78 GAA, .943 Save %, and 4, YES 4 shutouts! This dude is in a zone and is leading his team to a final’s appearance. Now they sit and wait for the winner of Moscow and Riga which could be settled today if Riga wins. Either way, if Riga or Moscow wins the EU series they will have a huge mountain to climb in beating Toronto and their red hot goalie Joel Castle.

The VHLE playoffs are wrapping up and a trio of Vancouver Wolves prospects are battling out for that elusive Renaissance Cup. With regular season leading scorer, Pierre Marc Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito and playmaking defenseman, Bollos de Trueno @Thunder suiting up for the Watchmen they face off against Cologne’s 41 win earning goalie in Soju @Frank. Cologne finds themselves up 2 games to 1 so far after an outstanding performance last night by Soju, stopping 27 of 28 shots. The biggest shocker is how Soju and Cologne’s defense has kept such a formidable scorer in PMB off the score sheet. However, with a playoff league leading 57 shots in 8 games I don’t think PMB will stay off the box score for too long. Could be a chemistry issue in Bratislava so will be interesting to see if some changes are made to try and get Soju and his surging Express off their game. Either way, the Vancouver locker room will have to stay divided until this series final is played out.

Crashing your PC for LUCK! 1. Owen Lazaro. He's been our leader and best player on the ice. Don't pay attention to Logan Ninefingers at all please. Let him score 2. Played a tough series with NY 3. I liked the fact he came on strong at the end. Was moved from wing to center so had to pump points in FO and it caused me to slump offensively for a bit. Ended strong so can focus on playoffs 4. Ryan Reynolds 5. I think it speaks well to your locker room and team leadership. If the LR is fun and the team has a commitment to winning and less about personal stats it makes for a fun atmoshphere. Vancouver has the same, very fun group of people 6. Pepperoni and Sausage

In the VHLM the playoffs have begun and the Halifax 21st have run through their first round opponent, the Philadelphia Reapers, 4 games to 0. In that series the 21st have scored a playoff league leading 19 goals and only allowed 7 goals against. Pretty good for 4 games. Led by centerman, Ty Duke @TheDuke with 8 points (1g -7a) up front and Dustin Moore @Maxx(2g-4a) and Mathias Gunnarsson @ThatCanadian on the back end (0g-6a) the 21st have come out hot. So far, the 21sthave had a very balanced approach and all four lines can score, hit, and play defense. Also, In net, Jon Webber III @Webberj has been lights out for Halifax. 4-0 with a 1.49 GAA on 74 shots. Now that the first round is over, they wait to see who they play next. From here the competition gets tougher with clubs like Miami, Saskatoon, and Mexico City. Overall, great job by GM @LucyXpherfor putting such a formidable club together. Best of luck