VattghernCZ

Dumb sleep depraved me didn't notice two Rs in Bouchard

For the second straight season, London United are facing Helsinki Titans in the European Conference finals in the VHL playoffs. Last season, Helsinki took the series home in 5 games, after they won games 1, 2, 4 and 5. So far this season, 4 games in am the pattern is has been the same, as the Titans are up 3-1. Will the pattern continue? One of the players hoping it won't is Wann Kerr, a London center for whom deep playoff runs but not winning the funal price has been a theme reocurring since his VHLM days, even dubbed a Wann Kerse by some. Is this the year he finally breaks it?

If Kerr's former teammate and captain Pierre Emile Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito can do something about it, the answer is “doubtful”. Once again, he's a force on the Titans’ blue line, frustrating Kerr to no end. “He's like 50 or something, why the f*ck is he even on the ice? He's acting like a f*cking child! Jeez! A f*cking clown!” was what the microphone on Kerr’s teammate picked up Kerr shouting on the bench during game 3 - the sole United win so far - after Bouchard scored a powerplay goal late in the 3rd period, and blew a kiss Kerr’s way while skating to the bench.

“You have to be mentally tough to win in this league. If you're not, well, you never get there. I know how hard it is. Unlike some players, I have been there,” said Bouchard, a Founder’s Cup champion and a Continental Cup champion in the post-game press conference. “Hahaha, you know what they say about barking dogs. They took one game, but if I rember correctly, it's us in the lead,” commmented Bouchard Kerr's freaktout.

“Oh, you picked that up? You guys are everywhere, unbelievable. Okay, I might have gone over the line a bit, but come on, a guy with his experience should show some sportsmanship and some class,” commmented Kerr when he was asked about the outburst, in much calmer state of mind after the win.

It will definitely be interesting to watch how the “Kerrsy” and “Bouchy” clash continues throughout the series. Last season, Bouchard had the upper hand both individually and of course with his team. So far this series, Bouchard has the upper hand in both offense (Bouchard 1+6, Kerr 2+3) and defense (Bouchard 7 SB, +1; Kerr 2 SB, -3), but Kerr is being more physical (Kerr 8 hits, 2 PIM; Bouchard 2 hits, 2 PIM). Neither of these two has been taking over games, as in 4 games Kerr has been named a 2nd star once and Bouchard a 3rd star twice. I believe we can expect these to to make a few more physical contacts on the ice now after this incident. So far, there has only been one bodycheck between these two - Kerr hittin Bouchard in the first period of game 1.

Wouldn't these two squaring up be one of the highest moment od the series, regardless of the winner? Kerr would get his chance to prove he's not just barking. But knowing him, he'd probably get his a*s kicked.

43 minutes ago, Scurvy said:

I read to book 4.    Loved the first one and thought they get progressively worse.   Book 4 was a slog to get through for me.  Some good portions but overall was tough.  Don’t think we will ever see book 6-7 so might never finish book 5 

Well, it's gonna be an interesting experience reading more

When I ranted about the lack of personality in GRRM characters to my friend, I found myself comparing GRRM to Abercrombie as a polar opposite in this regard. The way most of The First Law is written in POV of different characters really makes you care for them, I absolutely love most of them. GRRM just can't do that.

I'm super happy I got to read more of Abercrombie's stuff, and thank you for that! I'm gonna read the second SOIAF book, then I guess back to more Abercrombie 

Not applying now, but being Czech myself, I definitely will once I have some VHLM and VHLE GMing experience and there's an opening again. Good luck applicants!

Game 76:

A very close battle between the Dragons and the Legion and a win stolen by a goaltender. Both teams came out flying, D.C. revording 20 shots in the 1st period to go against Toronto's 15. The Fr*nchman opened the scoring in the first minute of the game to put D.C. up 1-0, and Toronto answered a minute later as Steve Lattimer tied the game. Dragon's winger Lucas Grey put his team up by 1 once again in the 8th minute of the game, and his goal ended up being the game winner. Followed a very evenly matched second period, and a huge offensive pressure by Toronto in the last period when they attempted to tie the game and outshot D.C. 14-7, but Henry Tucker Jr in the Dragons net shut the door and ended the game with ridiculous .976 SV% (41 saves on 42 shots). Joel Castle had a fantastic night in the Legion net as well, with 37 saves on 39 shots for .949 SV%, but there's no doubt Henry Tucker Jr deserves being named 1st star of the game. 2-1 win for the Dragons to claim a commanding 3-1 series lead.

1. I'm really, really, really not a movie guy. I watch The Lord of the Rings extended trilogy every December 25th, and that's the only movies I watch just because I want to. But probably Silent Hill, because I'm not a fan of happy endings.

2. Refer to answer 1, I don't even wait for them to be honest.

3. Definitely, I like the community here, and the game Is fun. Hopefully I'll be able to find more time to even participate in GMing on top of having my player, the limited experience I've had was fun.

4. I've only ever saw them in expensive-ish hotels and never used it, so my idea about them is that it's a fancy thing rich people install in their bathrooms.

5. Not very pro athlete like, but he cracks open a cold one after game to enjoy while the rest of the team is showering, and he takes a shower after them.

6. He's putting some money in youth hockey development in Czechia, He flies there to meet some young hockey fellas and attends a few practices with them, before flying home to Vancouver.

On 2/14/2024 at 3:35 AM, UghSike said:

Currently rereading "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy.

If you don't know about this book, check it out. Even by today's standards, It's still pretty rough/raw.

 

Last book I read was "Lullaby" by Chuck Palahniuk.

I watched a youtuber going through the Blood Meridian story in a 4+ hours long video,and yea, sounds really interesting

So...I had seen Game of Thrones, so I thought it would be a good idea to read the books. I'm just finishing the first book, and fu*k me, the characters are bland. I feel like GRRM does absolutely terrible job getting you invested in any of them. 

Like Bronn, he was by far my favorite GoT character. The smirk, the snarky remarks, a bit of a dick, just perfect. In the first book...he's good with a sword and hangs out with Tyrion, and that's all of his personality.

1. Yes, we have elite offense and goaltending, and the proven core who has already done it before.

2. I was rooting for the Americans bcause of S. Analfist, and I'm not a fan of Toronto, I have some history with them from my Vancouver days.

3. I hope Kerr, my player. He was pretty underwhelming in the regular season, I hope he will step his game up.

4. Well I certainly hope no one, we need to step up and stay consistent, I believe in this squad.

5. Hopefully Moscow. A) because of Spartan and B) I don't want to play against Bouchy again!

6. As long as Art Vandelay is in the game, you can never count LA out, I think they're gonna get far, even meet us in the finals.

Another season of exciting hockey is behind us, as the players and fans are getting ready for the postseason action. For 6^th season in row (in the VHL, 9^th season overall including VHLE and VHLM), Wann Kerr is one of these players, along with his London United teammates. After some hardships troughout the season, the United were able to claim a wild card spot, arguably underperforming and failing to meet many fans' expectations.

„I'm not happy with my performance this season,“ said Kerr in the regular season's last press availability. „We had troubles moving the puck from our zone to start offense pretty much all season long. This, and some undisciplined play f**ked us this season. And we were not able to really find our rhythm on penalty kill. You can't expect to always win when you pretty much start games one goal down. And I was certainly guilty myself of some hotheaded stupid plays that ended up costing us. I need to be better in the postseason.“

The self-targeted criticism from Kerr is certainly on point, as statsheet-wise S92 was his worst season since his sophomore year in S88. On the positive side, Kerr met gis standard with 10 powerplay goals, it's the third year in row of 10+ goals on man advantage, and almost recorded 200 hits, showcasing his gritty style of play.

(Wann Kerr and Molly the Cat)

On the negative side...well, everything else. After scoring 38 goals in S89, 41 in S90 and 44 in S91, Kerr only managed to succesfully finish 37 times on 418 shots, with underwhelming 8.85% success rate, second lowest in his career. Even his assists total was the lowest since S88, showcasing the offensive struggles of the team. With shooting percentage around his career average, he's still a 40-goal scorer, but the most concerning trend is the drop in Kerr's defensive game. For a player who prides himself in his defensive game, only recording 18 blocked shots is just not enough, especially after 3 seasons of 32+ recorded blocks. His rookie season has been the only season when he showed less tenacity in defending. Talking about tenacity, another area of the game where he could have used more of it is his clutch performance, as his goals were the game's deciding shot only 3 times.

„Yea, I know I need to battle in front of the net more. I think I perform better with the pressure of the playoff games, I'm excited. I feel 100% ready. Having to go through the wild card round is tough, that's 3-5 high intensity games more than everyone else. But at least there is no time to collect rust, the momentum will be on our side, after – not if – we win it. We still have the core of S90 Cup winners in Molly, Triller and Jesse. Yea, we got this“, said Kerr about his playoff expectations.

Now that the wild card is behind us and the United advanced past Prague Phantoms and are set to clash with Malmö Nighthawks sporting Kerr's former teammate Henry Eagles, we know Kerr's line has picked up their game, and Kerr himself managed to get his name on the scoresheet 5 times for 3 goals and 2 assists in 5 games and they certainly look ready to take on the next opponent.

@Mutti @FiZi

1. Oh, that's before my first gen player's draft class. I've never been into history, so I can't really say, I don't know all the players. Was Daniel Janser in one of the classes? If he was, definitely his class!

2. Oh, that's tough. The Frenchman and Daryl Dixon are the clear-cut forwards no. 1 and no. 2. The last spot would come to Bogatyrev or Kerr. Kerr has been ever so slightly more productive than Bogatyrev, but Bog has played one more season in the VHL. I'd say it's a coin toss.

3. Jean-Pierre Devote, he's been so good as a two-way player. I believe he will be a top 3 scorer in the league in the end.

4. You have to go with a forward first in my opinion, a fantastic two-way scorer to be your MVP.

5. Yes, I think it could be fun! Let the members elect 4 captains, then let the captains draft their 3F 2D 1G teams, with some restriction, like 3 players from one team at most.

6. Why not, but personally the only thing I'd be interested in would be to see how hybrid era players would do against pre-hybrid era players.

London United are in a weird spot. Considered one of the league's elite teams at the start of the season despite some question marks about their blue line, they find themselves fifth in the European Conference with 60 points, tied with Helsinki Titans who have the edge with 1 more win but also have played one more game. While their offense looks strong with 155 goals for good 3^rd highest in the conference, it's the goals against that's holding them down, despite very strong goaltending by Jesse Teno. Their 135 goals against are tied for 4^th worst with Moscow, who have played two more games than London.

While all players but one are plus in the +/- category, the team sports one of the worst penalty killing units in the league. At 80% on dot, they rank 4^th worst in hockey. On top of that, they are the 6^th most penalized team in the league, already having to kill 220 penalties in 49 games. If you combine their lack of discipline with their lackluster penalty kill, it costs them on average 0.90 goals allowed per game, which is the second highest in the league only behind the tanking rebuilding Seattle Bears (1.24 per game, 220 penalties with 71.82% penalty kill success rate, 50 games played). For comparison, league average is 0.74 shorthanded goals allowed per game, median is 0.697, meaning there are more teams allowing less than average, and fewer teams allowing a lot more than average. Who are the teams allowing more than average? Seattle (1.24, 16^th overall), London (0.90, 7^th overall), Chicago (0.84, 11^th overall), Vancouver (0.82, 15^th overall), Warsaw (0.75, 10^th overall) and Toronto (0.74, 9^th overall). See a thing all these teams but London have in common? They're in the bottom half of the standings.

London has been an elite team at even strength. However, if they don't resolve their penalty kill issues, it might cost them dearly.

Let's go!

Wow, this is awesome, great job!

7 hours ago, Daniel Janser said:

Nice research Vattghern. A little note to avoid confusion the pre-90's Greenland wave S75-79 were called 'Reinhart' not to be confused with the 'Reingaard' dynasty of the S90's.

 

Doesn't help that my autocorrect kept changing Reingaard to Reinhart, which made the whole thing extra confusing, I'm sure these two are mixed up somewhere

2/4 claim

Greenland is the world's largest island (863,330 square miles), and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark located in North America. Despite its population being just very modest 56,600 inhabitants, ice hockey – particularly within the VHL and its affiliated leagues – is becoming more and more popular there. The Arctic climate is surely a big influence, but the biggest reason for the recent boom is definitely the Reingaard family and their Greenland Youth Academy turning raw hockey talent into polished gems.

The first Greenlandic influence in the modern era of the VHL came in S70 VHL entry draft, which saw two forward – Lewis Dawson and Aleelee Kiak joining the VHL organisations, being drafted 7^th and 15^th overall respectively. Both enjoyed respectable VHL careers, Kiak with 287 games between Moscow, Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago (287GP 102G 136A 238P), winning the Victory Cup and the Continental Cup with Seattle in S73; Dawson with 432 games between Malmö, Calgary, D.C. And Davos (432GP 142G 254A 296P), picking up the S75 Victory Cup with Calgary along the way.

S73 saw the first Greenlandic goaltender paving the way, as Malmö drafted 6'8“ Grekkark Gyrfalcon 6^th overall. In 8 VHL season with Malmö and Prague he logged 518 games with 272-203-36 record, 0.915 SV%, 3.19 GAA and 8 shutouts, winning the S75 Continental Cup with Malmö as well as claimin the S77 Aidan Shaw Trophy awarded to the league's best goaltender.

While S75 entry draft included two Greenlandic players, neither of them has played a VHL games. The true breakout for Greenland came in the S77 entry draft with FIVE Greenlanders being selected. Let's start from the back end with the 25^th overall selection Innunguaq Kiak, a 6'8“ defender who hasn't really made a name for himself in the top league, playing just 144 games for Seattle, scoring 9 assists. Defenseman Joe Madison, drafted 14^th overall, played 360 games for Calgary, Los Angeles and Vancouver, scoring 64 goals and 166 asists for 230 points and had his name engraved in both the Victory Cup and the Continental Cup in S82 along with his Vancouver teammates. The remaining 3 players – Asher Reinhart (6^th overall), Zeedayno Chara (4^th overall) and Reylynn Reinhart (2^nd overall) – all enjoyed 576 games long careers. A. Reingaard started the career in Toronto, moved to Prague (where he switched position from forward to defenseman) and spent the last season in Calgary, scoring 237 goals and 344 assists for 581 points, including two 50-goal 100-point seasons, but wasn't lucky in the awards department. With 194 goals and 425 assists for 619 points accumulated in New York, Seattle and Davos, Chara is one of the more successful set-up men in the VHL history, and a one-time Continental Cup champion with the S83 Bears squad. Individually, R. Reingaard was individually the most succesfull of the bunch, scoring 253 goals and 412 assists for 665 points, of which 106 goals and and 263 assists (369 points) were scored in 360 games as a Davos defenseman, earning the Sterling Labatte and Jake Wylde trophies in S80, the rest as a forward in Calgary, Prague and Helsinki – including one 50-goal 100-point season.

S78 draft class sported Jlloyoid Blloyoiderson (40^th overall), who didn't make it in the VHL, as well as another Reingaard – this time Tobias, a goaltender drafted 32^nd overall. Reingaard spent his whole career in Riga, serving 5 seasons as their starter, logging 332 games with 179-117-24 record, .918 SV% and 2.84 GAA, without any success in the awards department.

The S79 class brought yet another two Reingaards – Jerome (3^rd overall) and Tyler (2^nd overall), both drafted by Vancouver Wolves and both being a part of the objectively not biased at all absolutely factually the best dynasty the VHL has ever seen. With Vancouver, they both won three Victory Cups and three Continental Cups (S80, S81, S82). In the S83-S84 offseason, they were both traded to New York, Jerome was then traded to Riga in S84, then spent last two season of his career (S85-86) in London, Tyler joined Riga for S85 and retired after the season. Jerome ended up with career totals of 578GP 292G 492A 784P, starting the season as a forward, winning the Christian Stolzschweiger trophy in S79, later after switching position to defenseman, he won the Alexander Valiw trophy in S85 with London, also picking the Daisuke Kanou trophy in S81 and Scotty Campbell trophy in S85. Tyler's career was shorter 504 games played, but equally as impressive with 242 goals and 272 assists for 514 points, picking up the Kevin Brooks trophy and the Dustin Funk trophy in S80.

For a long time, we haven't seen any Greenlander joining the VHL. The only one drafted between S79 and S90 was Kiak Jr in S88, who – while technically an active player – doesn't currently play for any team.

So how does the current Greenlandic situation look? Better than ever! There are currently FIFTEEN active players hailing from Greenland, not counting Kiak Jr. S90 brought two high-end centers Severus Targaryen (Seattle Bears) and the S91 Christian Stolzschweiger trophy winner Axle Gunner (Moscow Menace). S91 has been the biggest draft class in Greenlandic history, with TEN Greenlanders (including four Reingaards), with four players already in the VHL (Lionel Collberg, defenseman, Chicago; Dalkr Vidarsson, goaltender, Vancouver; Thor Reingaard, right wing, Warsaw; Leif Reingaard, defenseman, Moscow), three in the VHLE (Hezeus Ohmontegue-Steinhardt X, defenseman, Västerås; Behrens Minion, left wing, Rome; Theo Allard, center, Cologne) and three steadily growing in the VHLM (free agent defenseman Thickums Mcgillacutty; Aanarsi Reingaard, left wing, Halifax; Dietrich Reingaard, right wing, San Diego).

The only Greenlander selected in the S92 entry draft was Vanellope von Schweetz, an undersized defender who's now developing in Cologne.

Alagsantere Grønvold, S96 draft class, Greenland Youth Academy Team Red

And how about the future? It's as bright as ever. Jorgen Lovstrom is shutting it down in the Reapers' net, and Trimiskez Artav is one of the most dominant forwards in the VHLM, killing it for Houston. Both are poised to be first round selections in the upcoming S93 VHL entry draft. Also worth mentioning are two standouts currently in the Greenland Youth Academy – S95 eligible prospect Eric the Red, and S96 eligible shutdown defenseman Alagsantere Grønvold. Greenland is already on the track to become the most dominant country in hockey in the upcoming 10 seasons.

(1000+ words, claiming 2x6 TPE)

The hero Shawn Glade Jr opening the scoring

Wow, the only point scored by a bot in this game was an assist by CGY D1 in the 1st period, that's an interesting fact everyone should know!