ctots

1. This is my first time in the playoffs and it’s been a very exciting run of a season, I’m really hyped about what’s to come! 2. I’ve earned well so far, I’m pleased with that. I would like to be a bit more active on the forums and in the locker room. 3. Going all the way! Stranger things have happened. 4. I get the impression that Philadelphia is a team I don’t want to see too much of. I wouldn’t say there is a team that I think would be an easy win, either. 5. Twizzlers, beef jerky, and trail mix. Not necessarily in that order. 6. I’m into Nordic countries lately, so I guess maybe Oslo for VHLE or Helsinki for VHL? Stockholm or Malmo, too. Probably others that I’m not thinking of.

Hooray! This is going to be such a fun time!

They've all got all of my personal information already, I'm too old to have a pristine identity. Usually companies at least play coy about how willing they are to distribute it though, haha! Changes have been made, I appreciate you very much.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I've included the direct link now! Kinda not stoked that Anchor put my complete first and last name in the URL, but what's done is done, I guess.

Hello everyone, it’s the second week of March, and that means a new opportunity to stack up some TPE for my dork of a player, Baxter Arcanum. He’s late to the party as a new create rookie this season, but I am comforted by the fact that he keeps climbing up in the pre draft live rankings thread. As of today, he’s up three positions over last week at 21st. I don’t think there’s enough time left in the season for me to really push any higher than that on the leaderboard, but it has been a lot of fun for me to look at. From the way things look, this draft class is weak in terms of wingers but there are a lot of strong prospects in all other positions among the top 15. In terms of how he’s actually playing this season, I couldn’t be happier. As a defenseman, he’s got 37 points over 38 games, that’s nuts. I would imagine that with the changes that are going to happen this off season, I will end up geared more defensively and less inclined to actually score. That’s pretty much in line with what my vision was for this player before I knew anything about how stats worked in the league: a two-way defenseman with a knack for making plays. Predicting new meta (?) Speaking of the meta shift, I took another look at the new attributes and how they relate to STHS attributes. Scoring and defense are spread across 7 total attributes, which will lead to much more statistically balanced builds, and potentially cause players to tailor their builds to a particular style of play instead of just feeding the sim the numbers that it wants to eat. It seems like the general consensus is that this is a good change, so I’m just jumping on the bandwagon or beating a dead horse or whatever, but it’s the thing to talk about this week so that’s what we’re doing. One of the things I’ve noticed right away is that there is more incentive for wingers to stat into faceoffs. It’s not just covering for the edge cases where you’re forced to take one, it’ll also give you some strength now to sweeten the deal a bit. I’m very interested to see how things shake out with Grit tying checking and fighting together. It seemed as though high checking would lead to more fighting anyway, so maybe this is a bit of a consolidation? As a knock-on effect, we may find a greater need for discipline as a stat to prevent the penalty minutes from spiraling out of control. If you want to be a reliable penalty shooter, you’ll want to make sure you’re investing heavily in the Wrist Shot hybrid attribute, since that’s the only hybrid that offers a benefit to that stat. This also means that skaters with a decent wrist shot will perform admirably in penalty shot situations. This means across all leagues we will likely see significantly improved performance in shootouts and on penalty shots. It’s way too early to make any firm calls, but I’m excited by the level of intricacy that this change adds to the process of allocating TPE. The next three seasons are going to be absolute madness in terms of build design, I’m sure, and I couldn’t be happier that I joined at a time where I get to be front-and-center to all of it.

Hi all. I recorded this after reading the announcement about hybrid attributes. Oh yeah, and in the beginning I say “for money” instead of “for TPE” but try not to roast me too hard for it because I redeem myself toward the end. https://anchor.fm/s/5af6953c/podcast/rss IMPORTANT EDIT: Jardy told me about this absolute dingdong rookie move I made, where I put the RSS link instead of the link to the episode. I'm leaving it there so that the quote still makes sense, obviously. https://anchor.fm/ctots/episodes/VHL-1---Hybrid-Attributes--Other-Curiosities-e1fb7u7

Hi. Great podcast, I enjoyed your take on the attribute changes.

Hey, I'm interested in this! Been considering applying to AGM spots but this would be a cool way to get involved too!

Game 455 The Riga Reign played host to the D.C. Dragons in this slow-burn game. The teams each struggled to find momentum, going scoreless through a first period which saw a total of 17 shots on goal. Dragons drew first blood on a power play goal in the second period, but Riga answered back swiftly. Things ramped up heavily for Riga in the third - they scored on 4 of their 19 shots in the period. The Reign showed off their dynamite offense to put this game in the W column, 5-2. Game 456 Despite Helsinki leading the shot count at the end of the first period, it was Prague who found themselves ahead early. Back-to-back goals by the Phantoms put the pressure on early. The Titans answered back in the 15th minute of the first period to bring the score within one. The second period was all Prague, with the Phantoms adding one goal to their lead and maintaining good puck possession throughout. Helsinki showed their grit and determination in the third period, unrelenting despite playing from behind. Despite a beauty of a power play goal by Verlander in the final seconds of the game, Helsinki fell to Prague with a final score of 4-3.

Game 289 The Las Vegas Aces got off to a hot start against the Ottawa Lynx, scoring inside the first three minutes of the first period. The Lynx would find a way to put more shots on goal than the Aces through the first period, and Adison Bond put Ottawa on the scoreboard with a power play goal. The teams fought to keep things tied up through the second period. The Aces looked to have things sewn up with a 3-2 lead, but the Lynx pulled magic out of their hat to find two goals in the final three minutes of the game. Game 294 The Lynx hosted the San Diego Marlins and the energy was electric. Ottawa maintained strong puck possession through the first period, but Clueless Wallob was strong in the net for San Diego, allowing only one of 20 shot attempts to sneak past him and into the back of the net. The first intermission gave the Marlins the momentum shift they needed to surge: they scored three times within the first five minutes of the second period. Outside that stretch of difficulty, Art Vandelay would allow no further scoring, and the Marlins would finish the night with only those three goals to show. In the final frame of grueling battle, Svatopluk Puk hammered in the game winning goal on the power play, carrying Ottawa to victory with a score of 4-3 at the end of regulation time.

Each team in the VHLM has played 55/56 games as of today - is now a good time to take a look at the standings? My concerns are obviously heavily weighted toward Ottawa's future since I'm a self-centered person by nature. The most contentious opponents that the Lynx will have to deal with in order to climb the standings are the Miami Marauders, who are sticking to Ottawa like glue, tied in points at 66 so far in the season. Doing their level best to put some distance between themselves and Ottawa are the Mexico City Kings, who lead the Lynx in points by three with a total of 69 (nice) with a game in hand. The two teams have had a very contentious back and forth this season both in the battle for the standings and on the ice head to head. Neither team has managed to create a winning streak over the other yet this season, but Ottawa will be trying their best to create some momentum this week as they head into their final meeting of the season. Are the final 16 games going to be enough time to allow Ottawa to catapult past Mexico City? Will Miami go on a run instead, leaving the Lynx in the dust? This week will give us answers to those questions and more!

Game 327 Recap The Riga Reign traveled to Warsaw to face the Predators. At the end of an action packed first period, five goals were on the board with Riga taking the lead by one. The middle frame was a much slower pace - a single goal by Isau DaMoose extended Riga's lead to two. Warsaw rallied in the third period to gain control of the offense and hammer in 21 shots compared to Riga's 10, but neither team would score in the final twenty minutes, and the Reign left town with a victory in regulation time. Final score: 4-2. Game 334 Recap In this matchup between the Helsinki Titans and the Malmo Nighthawks, the Titans started the night strong with an early goal and followed it up by two power play goals in the first period. The Nighthawks, despite loading up 19 shots, were unable to find the back of the net until the second period. The Nighthawks offense would gain momentum through the night, and Artem Tretiak would prove to be dynamite in the crease after his first period stumble. Two third period goals by Malmo took this game to overtime, which went scoreless. In the shootout, Nathaniel Minion scored the game winner for Malmo, with a final score of 4-3.

Baxter Arcanum is quickly making a name for himself among fans in Ottawa after signing with the Lynx last week. Thanks to a lot of luck and some gracious coaching decisions, Arcanum has been performing at a point-per-game pace since his debut. This scoring pace might not be sustainable for the rookie defenseman, but it’s certainly getting him some recognition. When asked for comment on his new city, Arcanum said the following: “The crowds have been really welcoming, I love the energy. I have only been in Ottawa for a short time, but it’s already starting to feel like home. Everyone on the team has been great on the ice and off, too. A few of the guys have been showing me the good restaurants in town and giving me the inside scoop on how to get around rush hour traffic and stuff. Obviously the coaching staff has been very helpful, I can already see a drastic improvement in my on-ice performance, and it’s thanks to them. I’m excited to work hard for this team and light the lamp as much as we can.” It seems as though the rookie is settling in well, and that comfort and confidence is translating to success on the ice. The question on everyone's mind now: how long can he keep this up?

Before we get started, I just want to put out a warning here: I’m brand new to the VHL, so I don’t know anything at all. I’m going to make some choices based on what I can find on the individual leaders section of the index. Please don’t be offended that your top-tier player got FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY for a meme pick, I promise it’s not intentional. To build a VHL dream team, you need a quality goalie. I think the right call for my dream team is none other than Los Angeles Stars net minder, Trent Gibson. Always reliable in the crease, Gibson’s save percentage hasn’t fallen below .900 during his entire career in the VHL. Even when coming up in the VHLM, Gibson was flirting with the .900 mark, though never quite reached it until making the majors. One of two defensemen standing in front of the goal and protecting the blue line will be Juice Box. Juice Box leads the league in +/- and is a point per game player who has a knack for creating scoring plays. While we only have one season of VHL stats on Juice Box, when we look back to their VHLM performance, we can see that clearly this is a top talent who deserves a top pair position on the VHL dream team. To pair with Juice Box, we have to call on the man who is a brick wall on skates: creed. An absolute legend of the blue line, creed has blocked a jaw-dropping 262 shots this season. The self-sacrifice and willingness to get into harm’s way is exactly the mentality that the dream team needs. Welcome aboard, creed. The first line right winger on the dream team roster is, obviously, Dan Dan. You want assists? Dan Dan does that. Oh, the dream team needs someone who can score goals? Dan Dan does that, too. If you want to win games, you need a solid offense. He’s always been a solid scorer, but this season especially is a hot one for Dan Dan, with 87 points over 40 games at the time of writing this article. That’s comfortably over the 2 PPG threshold. It’s baffling. On the left wing we’ll sport Jerome Reinhart, tied for the lead in goals scored this season and is approaching 2 PPG average. That level of performance is something that simply can’t be passed up on for the dream team. Reinhart has performed incredibly well through his entire VHL career, and he will enjoy even greater success when surrounded by a team of absolute champions. Starting in the center position for my VHL dream team will be Darth Kaprizov, the player who is tied with Reinhart in goals scored this season. With incredible offensive threats at the wing, the icing on the cake is Kaprizov playing the middle to score off the rebound or get the tip-in goal. Though young, Kaprizov has the talent and competitor mentality that the team needs. “Oh, poor ctots, you forgot to include yourself in the VHL dream team” you might be saying to yourself. Well, yeah, the dream team is here to win championships, not give ice time to VHLers!

+10 for Baxter Arcanum

As a player new to the league, it’s really nice to catch this recap and get up to speed a bit. Thanks for putting in the effort, Bana!

Baxter Arcanum, Prep-School Phenom Baxter Arcanum has as long a career as any rookie in the league. As a student at St. Anthony Academy, he enjoyed the state of the art training facilities and top tier coaching staff of a competitive private school athletics department. The program has consistently churned out pro level talent, so it’s no surprise that Arcanum, who has spent 12 years on the ice for the school, is starting to turn heads among scouts in the VHLM. He’s been a defenseman full time for the past two seasons, but he didn’t always play on the blue line. Earlier in his career he played as a forward, both the center and left wing positions. He saw decent success in those positions thanks to his uncanny puck possession abilities and a knack for putting shots past unsuspecting goalies. Arcanum’s game has always leaned toward defense though; he was the team’s leader in blocked shots four years running. Even as a forward, Baxter consistently put himself between the puck and the net, providing that first line of defense to deflect, redirect, or stop shots. He tends to favor a more fundamental style of play, opting out of the technical stickhandling and dekes that you might see from the league’s top scoring forwards and shootout specialists. The coaching staff at St. Anthony saw Arcanum’s style of play as a natural fit for the position of defenseman, and the results speak for themselves. In the two seasons that Baxter played as a first pair d-man, the team reached their conference finals both years, winning the second year. Around the league, he’s known for his work ethic and stamina. The reason Arcanum was at the top of the team in terms of average time on ice, coaches say, is his full-throttle mentality for every shift. Whether it’s the first period or the third, and regardless of the length of the shift, Baxter Arcanum seems to skate on with the same grit and determination as ever. Scouts believe that his mentality will be the key to his success in the major leagues. As if his time with the team wasn’t enough, Baxter also worked at the local rink as a skills coach for little league players. He insists that the job made him better: as a skater, at reading plays, and in terms of physical fitness. It’s hard to argue with success here - Arcanum is the most promising prospect that St. Anthony Academy has produced in almost a decade. It might be a little too early to make any calls about where this career might be headed, but fans will be paying close attention.

Game 158 In this contest between the Houston Bulls and the Ottawa Lynx, the Bulls took an early lead from an Ayodele goal less than two minutes into the first period. From there, things only got more contentious, with a total of twelve penalties throughout the game. At the end of the first period, the Bulls held a 2-1 lead. The second period was aggressive and balanced, with Ottawa leading in number of shots 16-13. Marino of the Lynx scored in the 11th minute to tie the score. In the final minute of the period, Houston’s Scotty Sundin found the back of the net to take the lead once again. Ottawa came out strong in the third period, scoring twice to take the lead. A fast response by Houston would cause a momentum shift, however, and the Bulls would cash in twice more in the third, giving them the win over the Lynx with a final score of 6-4. Game 159 The Mexico City Kings squared off against the Mississauga Hounds, and the big story from this matchup was the offensive pressure by the Kings. In the first period the Hounds scored twice on only seven shots, which was an incredible start for them. By contrast, Mexico City got off 11 shots, only one of which found the back of the net. Puck possession in the second period was similar to the first, with the Kings taking 10 shots compared to the Hounds’ 7. The Kings scored twice while holding the Hounds scoreless in the middle frame, and they held a single point lead going into the final period. The Kings outshot the Hounds 2 to 1 in the third period, yet the each scored a single goal (both in the 6th minute of the period.) With a final score of 4-3, the Mexico City Kings picked up two points in regulation over the Mississauga Hounds.

After a whirlwind of scouting and contract offers, Baxter Arcanum has officially accepted a position on the blue line with the Ottawa Lynx. Arcanum has prepared the following press release: I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity that I have been given here by Ottawa management. They’ve got a place for me on the blue line getting solid minutes right away, and I think the coaching staff there will help me develop the offensive side of my game so that I can become the two-way defenseman who is a constant lurking threat to the opposition. I am very excited to get settled into the locker room and meet my new teammates. I don’t know much about the culture in Ottawa, but I do know it’s a hockey city through and through, so I can’t wait to feel the energy in that arena on game night. Additionally, thank you to each team who reached out to me. Each offer was tempting, but I felt that Ottawa would be the best place for me this season. Teams who didn’t have a chance to reach out: I’m sorry! I hope to connect with all of you in the future. Warmest regards, Baxter Arcanum

#GOLYNXGO Looking forward to joining the LR!

Ever since announcing his entry into the VHLM, media outlets around the league have been scrambling to pull data on this fresh face. We were lucky enough to sit down with the young man himself for a short interview earlier today. I caught up with Arcanum at his home rink and spoke with him before his morning skate. He was already laced up when I arrived, and it was obvious that his focus was on sharpening his skills. “So, Baxter, your stat sheet says you were born in Norway, but you’ve got stats in local leagues all the way back to the time you could walk. What’s the deal?” “I get this a lot. My parents were very fortunate with some investments at a young age and came into a substantial amount of money. They own a home in Norway, and that’s where I was born. We visit there often and I’ve got dual citizenship, but most of my time is spent here in the US.” “You’ve bounced between forward and defenseman positions from time to time, what would you say in specific is your “brand” of hockey?” “I’d call myself a defense-oriented two-way defender, basically. I try to play a very physical game - blocking shots, making hits, and doing the dirty work to retrieve pucks in corners. It’s not exactly prime material for the highlight reel, but a competent defenseman makes a huge difference on the ice.” "That's a great point, and the league overall is in need of more top tier players on the blue line. Now is a great time to enter the VHLM. Do you have any thoughts about where you might like to go?" "I want to play for whoever needs me most, basically. I don't necessarily need to win a championship, but I want to know that when I put on my skates and get on the ice, I'm going to be making an impact every shift. I want to get excited over wins in the locker room and encourage the team when we take a loss. If you're not getting along off the ice, you won't get along on the ice either." "I'm sure GMs will be every interested to hear that. Do you have any specific plans for your career in the VHLM? Are you looking ahead to a major league career?" "I want to be a professional hockey player because I want to see what I'm really capable of. I'm doing everything I can to get into top physical shape, and I know that VHLM coaching staff will be able to help me shore up the weaknesses in my game and improve on my strengths. Again, I can't control how the team overall performs, but I can make sure that I'm bringing my absolute best every time I lace up my skates." “I won’t take up any more of your time today, I appreciate you stepping away from your practice to chat with me.” “Thanks for coming down to the barn, you’re welcome back any time.” There you have it, directly from the man himself. Baxter Arcanum is talking the talk, we’ll see if he can walk the walk.