JCarson

In case you missed it, Season 96 regular season has ended. It was a fantastic season with many players having exceptional seasons. But now with the brackets set, playoffs will be starting shortly. With that said, as we wait for the playoffs it becomes the perfect time to take a look back at how Felicia Hardy performed and what can be expected as we proceed into season 97. To evaluate the play of Felicia Hardy I am going to first compare this season to last season to see if there was improvement or to see if the sophomore slump hit. Once that is completed, we will look at how Felicia Hardy did against other players in the league both positionally and against Felicia’s production. Season 95 had Felicia Hardy putting up the following statistics: Goals 11, Assists 54, total points 65. Plus/minus of –15, Penalty minutes 96, Hits 138 and Shots Blocked 139 For a rookie season that was good showing featuring strong production and overall stable physical play. The only drawback being the plus/minus statistic which was noted by analyst as one of the only reasons Felicia wasn’t considered more strongly as rookie of the year. Season 96 as a comparison is as follows: Goals 9, Assists 73, total points 82. Plus/minus of 37, Penalty minutes 147, Hits 182 and Shots Blocked 119 Many people regress in their second season, that isn’t the case here. In fact, there is considerable improvement over the rookie season. A 26% improvement in production and a whopping positive 52-point improvement in plus/minus. Season 96 is a great season for Felicia Hardy. Now to put thing in perspective we will look to see how that establishes Felicia Hardy when it comes to the league as a whole Looking at the position of Defender, Felicia Hardy placed 8th overall, 3 points ahead of Lucy Leitner and 1 point behind Callum Gary Yannick Janser. To be comparing to those 2 well respected players is impressive especially given the fact that Felicia Hardy played most of their time on the second line of Davos. From an assist perspective Felicia Hardy placed 5th in the league, 2 assist higher than Leif Reingaard and 1 assist behind Spanish Moon Moth. Again, to be placed in that company of players is a respectable position. So, we will look ahead to season 97. Felicia Hardy expects remarkable things next season especially if they can crack the top defensive line and get to play a larger number of minutes with Davos’ productive powerhouses. Rumor has it that Grimgor Ironhide has set their sights on a 100-point for next season, and Felicia Hardy plans to come alongside their teammate as much as possible to make that happen. Well, that is a look at Felicia Hardy and their performance for season 96. Season fast approaches but before that comes, we get to watch the VHL’s top performers battle in the playoffs. Playoff hockey is always a step better than the regular season, so I expect that the fans are in for a treat.

As the regular season comes to an end we look forward to the playoffs, let's answer some playoff questions. 1) League wide, how important do you think goalies will be in winning the championship? 2) Goals league wide were down for the regular season, do you expect that trend to continue in the playoffs? 3) Do you expect that Mexico will win the first round against San Diego? 4) Who will be our most valuable player and why? 5) Will we see an upset in the first round, which team do you expect to be upset? 6) Who are you predicting will win the championship and why?

Would love to see how your analysis of player build efficiency lines up with player productivity

Time marches on and brings Season 96 of the VHLM along with it. With only 14 games left in the regular season it is a great time to stop and look at what has occurred so far, how the VHLM is shaping up for the playoff and finally how that will play out for the Mexico City Kings. With the collapse of the VHLE which resulted in many players stepping back into the VHLM everyone expected this season to be different. And without any level of surprise the expected has become reality. Yet I am not sure anyone could have predicted how odd of a season it would be. First thing to note is that the VHLM is experiencing a massive division in game results. The Eastern conference is excelling, with even the last place team having a positive goal differential. Oddly enough the last place team in the East is tied for points with first place team in the West. Only time will tell if this is a one season glitch due to the makeup of teams or if this will be a longer standing pattern where one conference is notably stronger than the other. My prediction is that it will take a season or two to redistribute players throughout the league and that over time a shift will occur in managing players who earn at lower than max levels. This will allow those players to play 2-4 seasons with a team making for a longer impact on a franchises’ performance over time. Second item to note is the impact of goaltending on the VHLM. In my opinion the fact that we have goalies with above 200tpe builds now competing with Players with below 200TPE builds is creating a significant impact on the scoring in the league. I haven’t done any statistical analysis on the topic, but my gut feeling by looking a the number of shutouts this season so far and comparing it against the entire season 95 shows an increase impact by goalies on the league. Again, it is another topic that needs to have further analysis over time, but I expect that the VHLM GM will be positioning for the stronger goalies each. Season. Third, and I can’t prove this, but it feels like the interactions between GM this season are significantly lower than in prior seasons. In some ways I think that is good as we have had no arguments over minor rule interpretations, but also in some ways worse as there has potentially been a lower sense of engagement than in prior seasons. I may be reading too much into this and it may be that GM’s are spending more time with their players, or there are less questions as GM experience increases but to me it feels like potentially lower engagement. So, with all that said how do I think it will impact the Mexico City Kings. I expect this season we will fall into a playoff spot and hopefully do well in our first round showing. I expect that the success of our goaltending will be key. If we can get a few good defensive games, we should come out on top. Looking farther out I am already working on a plan for offseason, potential trades, draft priorities and seriously considering picking up an AGM to assist in the locker room. So those are my thoughts, we will see how everything works out or doesn’t work out and go from there. One thing is for sure, this is a new VHLM.

Press Conference Week of Nov 17 2024 1) What do you think are our chances of making the playoffs this season? 2) What do you think about the standings structure currently in the VHLM with the East seaming significantly stronger than the west? 3) How do you assess our chances of winning the championship this season? 4) Which team do you think will make the toughest opponent? 5) Who on our team do you expect to have the highest playoff points? 6) Will our goaltending be a major factor in our playoff games?

Press conference for trade deadline and theme week 1) What are your thoughts on the theme week topic? 2) Provide a suggestion for next seasons theme week? 3) What do you think our biggest trade goal is this season? 4) What is one asset we shouldn't part with in a trade? 5) Do we trade to improve this season or the future? Why? 6) How valuable do you expect draft pick to be in the next couple seasons?

Theme week is upon us and the league waited with anticipation for the topic to be announced. I know that at least one locker room had quite extensive discussions about potential options and were looking forward to the challenge of expounding on the chosen theme. It was with immense joy that they accepted this season’s topic: VHL Lore. Okay I will admit that not much of that may be true, but it could be, like anything else in this league there is probably some semblance of reality but mostly some fictional story. Like the introduction to this Media spot the Lore of the VHL has some semblance of reality but is mainly a sequence of fictional narrative pulled together over time. Some of it resembling more fiction than truth. This media spot is going to address some of the myriad items of Lore that I have experienced in the VHL, some of which I will provide commentary on, other may just be noted and have a few questions looking for the actual history, an expounding of the Lore that exists. First is the constant discussion of STHS (Simon) having a God like plan, a mind and consciousness of its’ own. Simon is the great equalizer in the league, especially in the playoffs. Simon resembling a godlike being grants favor to some and curses others and no-one can figure out why. The reality is that probability may for the most part bring most outcomes close to the mean, it will always have its’ outliers. The improbable will occur, and when it does, we as players in the league tend to notice. I myself on more than one occasion have made note of these outliers in an article series I called Simon WTF. Another piece of Lore that has shown itself over the time I have been in the league is the constant chant of #BlameCole. Now as much as I have seen this many times I myself know nothing of the original of this. Is Cole really to blame, for everything. Is Cole bigger and more important to the outcome of the VHL than Simon himself. Is Cole really to Blame. I don’t know, maybe someone can enlighten me on the origins of #BlameCole. Another mysterious piece of lore, very similar to the #BlameCole phenomenon is the #SpartanSucks chant. More than once I have seen posted within the general, VHL and or VHLM discord threads the singular expression of #SpartanSucks. Now I don’t feel like I can discuss with any sort of clarity on Spartan’s sucking, his ability to suck, his status as one who sucks. The chant seems to be unclear of what sucking is in relation to Spartan. All I know is that many. many times, I have been informed by those on discord that #SpartanSucks. Lastly, I am going to bring up the last of the constant discord Lore items, the devourer of the VHL departed, Fong. I would love someone to enlighten me on the reason we have this entity called Fong that feels it necessary to comment every time they remove someone from the VHL discord. Why cannot people fade away into nothingness quietly, why do we need to announce their demise, their final existence as if they are being eaten by some great beast.

The drawbacks by design When I first decided to build Felicia Hardy the plan was to build a defensively minded defender who focuses on puck handling, skating, physical play, and strong play in the defensive zone. I feel that I have stuck with that plan so far. I am currently in my second season in the VHL, taking up a constant position on the second defensive line for HC Davos Dynamo. Currently my player statistics are as follows: Checking 67, Skating 89, Strength 57, Puck Handling 88, Passing 88, Scoring 62, and Defense 93. At this point, the build is getting more difficult to advance. Instead of taking 1 or 2 TPE to move forward it is taking 3, 5, 8 and even 10 TPE just to advance one position, and multiple advancements to move up one full point in any category. AS I know I will have some additional growth, but it will be limited. I want to suggest that I am reasonably happy with how my player is integrating with the team. To be honest I am finding it hard to evaluate pure defensive play within the Sim reporting structure. Stats like +/-, hits and blocked shots can provide some basis for evaluation, but it doesn’t provide any relevance for things like puck retrieval, steals, pass interception and defensive zone clearing. Potentially we have an issue in that the system is focused on offensive output and so is not designed to provide an adequate measure of defensive effectiveness. Potentially one day we will get some additional statistics but until then I may need to just accept what is available. Now I also find that I am surprised by the outcome that I have had. In my first season I was tied for second among rookies in offensive performance with 65 points. This season I am running slightly ahead of a point per game pace with 33 points in 31 games. I will admit that level of production is beyond anything that I was expecting given the focus away from the scoring statistic. The fact that I am being involved in the offensive side of the game is a huge plus to the team. Now all this said I must wonder how Felicia Hardy would be doing if they got the opportunity to play on the top line with the higher offense players on the team. Would Felicia’s offensive output be even higher is they got more time with the likes of Antonia Bucatini and Grimgor Ironhide. At this point I don’t expect that we will find out, but it is something to ponder. For now, I keep earning TPE, keep training, and keep preparing for the day that Felicia takes the reigns of the top defensive pairing. I expect that it will happen in the next couple seasons as it gets exceedingly difficult for a GM to not have an above 1000TPE player not playing top minutes, but I plan on making it difficult for it not to happen sooner. In the meantime, I continue putting everything into the decisions I have made, even if they have drawback in the present.

Okay time for the Halloween Week Press Conference 1) What costume is your player wearing to parties this year? 2) What is your favorite thing about Halloween? 3) What is your least favorite thing about Halloween? 4) What is your favorite Halloween treat? 5) What Halloween treat do you despise most? 6) What are you giving out for Halloween this year? Remember to answer in full sentences.

At this very moment, as I write this article, most teams in the VHL have completed 16 games. Some of the teams have had a strong start while other, well, haven’t even shown up yet and their records reflect that. It is odd to say but some teams are pretty much out of a playoff position already, it would take a miracle to change that. With that said I think the fact that some teams are just so underwhelming that I theorize it will impact the points earned but some players in the league. Specifically, I am looking at the European Conference that right now appears to have 3 teams that are highly competitive and 1 team that is running above average. The remaining 4 teams are competing among themselves to not be last, with one of them defaulting into the play in spot in the playoffs. Under a format where there are only 4 teams in a conference that look to have any ability to win on any given night, the players on those teams get the ability to shine when playing the bottom teams. If I look for example at the 3 games that Davos (A team in the top of the conference) has had against London (a Team in the bottom of the conference, you get the following: Game 22 of the season saw a scoring focused game where Davos won 7-4. Game 30 of the season saw the first encounter between the 2 teams. Davos won a 6-2 game, dominating the score sheet Game 125, the third matchup between the teams saw a 7-1 one sided affair. In three games Davos was able to put up 20 goals which is well above the average expected by any team. In fact, London in their games this season have given up 5 or more goals 8 times. Now I don’t want to pick on London as this article isn’t about just one team being uncompetitive. If I look at London, Warsaw, Prague and Helsinki you can see the following. Between these teams they have had 20 games that have been lost against a team that scored 5 goals or more. What that means is that the top players on the other teams are getting the chance to put extra tallies in the net, padding their stats for the season. How this will impact things like season awards, predictions, VHFL, fantasy zone, Supercoach, we will see as the season goes on. Until then all I know is that I am going to continue watching, to try and take advantage of the disparity and maybe gain an extra TPE or two. Every year there are always team that are expected to do better but I think this year it is a more drastic disparity that in prior years. A difference that is focused in one conference. Sixteen games shouldn’t be far enough into a season to call the playoff race, and positions are still unknown, but I can confidently say that I think 4 teams have already locked themselves into the playoffs, now we will see where exactly they end up. Taking advantage of the other 4 teams will determine where they end up.

Press Conference Week of Oct 27. We are 12 games into the season, I would like to know your opinion: 1) How do you feel your player has performed so far? 2) How do you feel our forwards have performed so far? 3) How do you feel our defense has performed so far? 4) How do you feel our goalies have performed so far? 5) Evaluate your GM so far this season? 6) Pick one of our conference competitors and evaluate how the have done so far?

Felicia Hardy, Rookie All Star team nominee, US born 6’8” 250lbs beast of a stay-at-home defender had a breakout rookie season in VHL’s Season 95. Their production in the offensive zone was better than they expected as they put up 65 points (second amongst rookies) in 72 regular season games and 13 points in 14 playoff games. Defensively, they held their ground with 138 hits and 139 shots blocked during the regular season and 42 hits and 31 shots blocked during the playoffs. The only place they may have lacked is on plus/minus but that could also be attributed to anchoring the second line with a rookie goalie starting for the HC Davos Dynamo. Season 95 was a learning experience for sure, one that Felicia took seriously, and one that they plan on building upon for Season 96. Now with a full year of experience under their belt Felicia Hardy feels that the bulk of the preparation for the VHL has been completed. The focus from now on is to fine tune their play in both ends of the ice, and to maintain their fitness for the rest of their career. During one interview with Felicia Hardy, they noted that “training has changed for me, it is no longer about building core skills and abilities. It is now about fine tuning, learning to adapt to individual players, individual situations. It is now about being consistent with and without the puck and taking advantage of every minute of ice time I get.” With Season 96 fast approaching Felicia Hardy can be found at the arena most days, working out with weights and on a variety of cardio machines or on the ice. They spend significant amount of time alone on the ice each day working on a variety of skills. Hardy is known for being intense during the team skates and practices and on more than one occasion has used her size a little more aggressively than they should. However, talking with the coaching staff they don’t seem to mind Hardy’s intensity. The defensive coach made comment during one skate, “we don’t want the players to pull back on hits during practices, the other teams aren’t going to do it during a game, and we don’t want our players doing it either. This is the game; you need to be always prepared for what is coming at you, if you are not, you will be injured and potentially severely. The best way to be prepared is to practice what you are expecting during a game.” The consensus was that players needed to learn to play physical but disciplined games. The other teams need to fear going into the corners to get the puck. New acquisition to HC Davos, Mina was quoted as saying “I don’t envy the task of the other team's forwards, Hardy has a powerful stride and a large muscular frame, give them even half a step to get moving and they can plaster most players into the boards with enough force to knock any puck loose. I’m glad to be on their side so I don’t have to deal with the constant punishment.” From what we can tell Hardy seems prepared for the upcoming season.

Welcome

Here is the Press Conference for the week ending Oct 20 2024 1) What is your players greatest strength? 2) What is one thing your player is working on? 3) What is your players greatest weakness? 4) If your player wasn't playing hockey what would they do for a job, why? 5) When your player retires from the VHL, what are they thinking of doing? 6) Tell me what the worst thing about offseason is?

@v.2 F - Diego Machado F - Catia Goncalves F - David Rushford D - Obuz Scheider Canet du Bocage D - Leif Reingaard G - WWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWW @Cole F - George Richmond F - Joshua Schwarzer F - Phillip Rave D - YaBoi Oven D - Bobby Bob G - Dalkr Vidarsson @JCarson (GM) F - Harry Callahan F - Jarno Ruutu F - Antonia Bucatini D - Mark Calaway D - Mina G - Merome Dilson @Steve F - Axle Gunner F - Severus Targaryen F - Spanish Moon Moth D - Lucy Leitner D - Fradin McGryer G - Red Panda @Frank F - Logan Ninefingers F - Riley Martin F - Toby Kadachi D - Guntis Gavilrovs D - Jacob Stone G - Ryan Artyomov @cLoWn F - Grimgor Ironhide F - Raimo Tuominen F - Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish D - Callum Gary Yannick Janser D - FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Analfist G - Soju