VattghernCZ

Thank you for the opportunity, I hope I'll do half as good of a job as JCarson did!

True that, he never shows up to play when it matters

Claim 3/4 for W.E 12/15

WH: That's right, these were the amazing Anaal Nathrakh from Birmingham and their banger of a song, So Be It. We're back in the TalkSport 2 studio, Willow Hopkins here, live with Alex Greenfold of London United. Thank you for joining us here, Alex! AG: No problem at all; happy to be here! WH: So, the fourth overall draft pick has arrived. How did it feel to be drafted by the United? What were your thoughts? AG: Yeah, first of all, I wasn't expecting to be picked nowhere near this high; you know, I don't think I really stood out during my draft year. But the United apparently saw something here, so now, my part of the deal is to make them not regret it. Yeah, I was really happy to be drafted by the team my dad played for. Obviously, he is ecstatic about it. WH: Oh, your dad played here? AG: Yeah, Wann Kerr. My adoptive dad. I was surprised by the warm welcome upon arriving here. He's still popular among some fans, it seems like. WH: The different name confused me, I see. After the draft, you stayed in Mexico City. Did you maybe think about jumping straight to the big league? AG: Yeah, the United are currently in the early stage of a rebuild. We, I mean GM Bob and myself, decided it would be best for my long-term development to stay in the M - or what should have been in the E - to work out some kinks in my game. WH: And how do you feel about your last year before coming here? Do you think you made strides towards being a successful VHL player? AG: It was a pretty rough season for my team, the Mexico City Kings. We had lots of troubles scoring goals, and when we cheated on defence, we got burned. As for my game, I've been focusing on defending, physical play, and mobility. If I'm going to succeed at the top level, these are my calling cards. WH: So as of now, what do you as a player bring to the table? What are your expectations for your first season in London? AG: It's hard to tell. The team is coming together; it's all a part of a greater plan. Even if we're not as successful as the fans would like to see in the next season. I'm going to accept any challenge my coaches throw my way. I think I can thrive in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill, so I guess this is what I bring. Some steady play on the blueline. I know fans want to see goals and points; we'll see how well this goes. Dad challenged me to record 30 points; he said he's going to stay away from beer for 30 days if I do, so of course that's what I'm aiming for. WH: Nothing quite like the father-son love. You've touched on this, but what are your expectations for the team? Have you already met your new teammates? AG: Yeah, Chazz is my Mexico teammate, and we've been in touch with Drosmis. But I haven't had the chance to meet the rest of the team yet. And there will surely be some moves made in the offseason. You can't really evaluate a team at this point. But I think there's an unwritten plan that this year will be focused heavily on development and building team chemistry. I think that's how the team's success will be measured, rather than in standing points. WH: You've heard it, fans: get ready for another lean year for London hockey! Last question before a little break: How do you like the city, Alex? AG: It's nice. Full of history, obviously. I've lived and studied here for a few years, when my dad played here, so I'm not in such awe from visiting a place for the first time. Maybe a bit too many tourists for my liking. WH: Old, boring, and crowded city, according to Alex Greenfold, folks! Thank you, Alex, for joining us, and thank you, listeners, for tuning in for today's interview. We will continue with some questions coming from the fans in a moment, but now, another Birmingham band - Napalm Death - and their song Fallacy Dominion.

Crashing your press conf, I don't feel like coming up with questions for answer 3 ask 3. 1. Already switched from beer to mulled wine and hot cider, so it's been nice. There was some snow for a couple of days, but it's gone now, there hasn't been white Christmas for at least a decade here. And yeah, I'm definitely stressing out, it's the most stressing time of the year work-wise! Let it be over! 2. Grønvold has already moved to London to check out the team facilities, and to work with the conditioning staff in person. While enjoying copious amount of fish, without chips. 3. I'm still employed by the same company I started working for 10 years ago, albeot at different position. I've never worked a different job, so my current job is both my least favorite and the most favorite. 4. I'm Czech, so I'm supposed to like football (soccer) but I don't, it's so boring. I'd take you all to watch some HEMA fights with longsword. 5. Obviously health, but let's be realistic. Something I'd like to have, but can't bring myself to buy it on my own. Like, I want a 10+ feet long stuffed snake, but any time I tell someone, they think I'm joking. 6. I love DnD. And as is obvious for any fellow fan from just looking at my username, I love The Witcher games and books (fuck the Netflix show), The Witcher 3 is my favorite videogame, and I doubt it will ever be topped.

@Smarch

I'm applying for Mexico

When you go to the link, open the picture in a new tab and copy the new tab's URL, you can add it directly (other media -> insert image from URL)

Got Europe to the finals last offseason, but didn't clutch it. I'd like to get a 2nd chance! Applying for Europe, or I can AGM Europe

Next offseason, I'll do a similar thing on all things defense, stuff like pass interceptions, puck retrievals etc. So I'm sure CGY will be a highlight once again!

It wouldn't be surprising if I goofed it up, the dumbass is strong in this one.

We have a projector and we screen the games on the outer wall of our house, no one should have to give the VHL money. It's all used to fuel the commishes' Clue Glue sniffing addiction anyway.

Simple solution mate...just watch the game like we do in the Wanker household - with a bottle of rum and a yo-ho-ho

Claim 2/4 for W.E. 12/8

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZglX4P-tpcA&pp=ygUQYWxlc3Rvcm0gbm8gZmFucw%3D%3D

1. I've already posted it this offseason, but I guess it's my new thing to post a massive media spot with uselessly in-depth analytics of something. I already have a plan for next offseason article. 2. Nothing, really. I just hope it won't be too long. 3. It's my player's rookie season in the top league, of course I'm excited about that. Even though London is in a rebuild, so I don't expect much team success. 4. It might sound weird, but I hope Simon doesn't find the good stuff and doesn't make London elite. We need another top 5 pick or two before turning it around. 5. To put up a 2k+ media spot with uselessly in-depth analytics. Done. 6. Definitely! I need to outearn my first gen's 1700-something and I want to cap Grønvold at around 1200tpa. I'm all about that max earning life!

Claim 1/4 for W.E. 12/1

Let’s be honest. While we all love to see elite puckhandlers methodically slicing through the opposing defense in full flight, tape-to-tape passes with millimeter (that’s 127/5000“, you’re welcome, my overseas fellas!) precision, or blue line missiles sending the goaltender’s water bottle flying, what makes our hearts pump faster and lifts our asses from the seats are hits and fights. Or is it just me and fellow cavemen? A hard hit, leading to a turnover and a counterattack the other way, can change the momentum of a whole game. But an ill-timed hit can be one of the most frustrating things to see—you go out of your way to chase a hit, but it opens a lane for another opponent to pick the loose puck at speed and leave you behind. Here in the VHL, we consider hits an important part of voting for our defensive awards—the Boulet for forwards and the Wylde for defenders. But we can only see the raw hits total. And as I’ve said, I don’t think every hit is a good play. Only those that lead to a turnover are. Last season—or was it two seasons ago?—I wrote a 2-piece media spot about the season’s goaltending. This offseason, I’m going to look into hits a bit deeper. For this purpose, with my basic knowledge and a huge help from my friend Copilot, I’ve put together a simple Python script. The script goes through all 576 game logs and searches for the phrase „is hit by (player name) and loses puck. Free puck retrieved by “and determine whether it was an effective hit or an ineffective hit, depending on what player got to the puck first. I’ll explain more in each of the following chapters, and I’ll provide the code as a file, and maybe I’ll copy it in this article as well in case I need to inflate the word count to 2k. This took hours of my life; no way I’m not milking it for as long as I can. In case you run the script and look for a Dragons player, only input „d“ as the team name. For the other teams, it’s enough to only put in the last word. I will be looking at top 6 hitting defensemen and top 10 hitting forwards. I wanted to only do 9 forwards, but there’s a 2-way tie for the 9th spot. No, the 6D and 9F wasn’t because it looks like a nice amount, but because it’s 3 defensive pairings and 3 forward lines. Total hits Just as a reminder, this is how the top 6 defensemen and top 10 forwards rank by total hits listed in the stats. Defensemen 1. Tommy Sleeves 411 hits 2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 256 hits 3. Billy Joel 245 hits 4. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 236 hits 5. Darko Alexander Malkovich 231 hits 6. YaBoi Oven 222 hits Forwards 1. Savaisk Tzesar 340 hits 2. Toby Kadachi 322 hits 3. Severus Targaryen 290 hits 4. Axle Gunner 275 hits 5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 262 hits 6. Legacy Gaming 260 hits 7. Grimgor Ironhide 259 hits 8. Nico Belique 255 hits T-9. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 235 hits T-9. Maple Dogwood 235 hits Successful hits (SH) For a hit to even have a chance to lead to a turnover, it has to separate the puck carrier from the puck. Our players fight this by sufficiently increasing Strength and Puck Handling. I’ve already said my Python script looks for the phrase „is hit by (player name) and loses puck. Free puck retrieved by“, so, by default, it looks for successful hits. This is how the selected players rank in successful hits. I’m interested to see if the ranking remains the same. Defensemen 1. Tommy Sleeves 274 SH (66.67% of hits) T-2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 180 SH (70.31% of hits) T-2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 180 SH (76.27% of hits) 4. Billy Joel 178 SH (72.65% of hits) 5. YaBoi Oven 162 SH (72.97% of hits) 6. Darko Alexander Malkovich 159 SH (68.83% of hits) I don’t think it’s surprising that Tommy Sleeves is in the lead with 274 successful hits. With 155 total hits more that the second place, he has to be in the lead, even though the efficiency of his hits is the lowest of the group. A player who really impressed me here was Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage, who was able to tie Callum Gary Yannick Janser in successful hits, despite recording 20 fewer total hits. Forwards 1. Savaisk Tzesar 168 SH (49.41% of hits) 2. Toby Kadachi 159 SH (49.38% of hits) 3. Severus Targaryen 153 SH (52.76% of hits) 4. Legacy Gaming 146 SH (56.15% of hits) 5. Grimgor Ironhide 142 SH (54.83% of hits) 6. Axle Gunner 139 SH (50.55% of hits) 7. Nico Belique 136 SH (53.33% of hits) 8. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 127 SH (54.04% of hits) T-9. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 125 SH (47.71% of hits) T-9. Maple Dogwood 125 SH (53.19% of hits) Compared to their blue line counterparts, these forwards were not as efficient at making their hits count. I wonder if there’s a big difference in CK between the selected defensemen and the selected forwards? Maple and Jebediah are in the similar position Callum and Obuz are among defenders – the same amount of successful hits, despite the difference between their total hit amount vas almost 30. One of these puts their whole body in the hits, while the other one only does love taps, I guess. I think that’s a thing needed to take into consideration when deciding a trophy heavily influenced by physicality. Also thumbs up to Legacy Gaming for being the most efficient hitter of the group. Effective hits (EH) Now for the more interesting part. In real life hockey, the result of a hit depends on the hitter’s decision an awareness much more than in the VHL, where the puck retrieval is more of a result of the players’ stats – both of your teammates, and your opponent. For a successful hit to be considered an effective hit for this experiment, it has to be either the hitter, or their teammate to pick up the loose puck. After entering the player’s name my Python script is looking for, I enter their team as well. The script reads the rest of the sentence following the phrase it looks for, until the following full stop, and it compares the end of the sentence with the team name I’ve entered. If it matches, it’s a „good“ hit. Example: I enter player name Tommy Sleeves and team name Helsinki Titans. The script finds the phrase „is hit by Tommy Sleeves and loses puck. Free Puck retrieved by“, followed by „Maple Dogwood for Helsinki Titans“. The end of the sentence matches the team name, so the script counts it as a good hit. Defensemen 1. Tommy Sleeves 77 EH (28.10% of SH) 2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 67 EH (37.22% of SH) 3. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 56 EH (31.11% of SH) 4. YaBoi Oven 50 EH (30.86% of SH) T-5. Billy Joel 45 EH (25.28% of SH) T-5. Darko Alexander Malkovich 45 EH (28.30% of SH) Once again, no surprise Tommy Sleeves is in the lead. And once again, I’m impressed by Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. Only 10 fewer good hits than Tommy Sleeves, with 175 fewer total hits is just insane. Obuz looks like the most efficient hitter of the bunch. Forwards 1. Savaisk Tzesar 101 EH (60.12% of SH) 2. Toby Kadachi 99 EH (62.26% of SH) 3. Axle Gunner 89 EH (64.03% of SH) 4. Grimgor Ironhide 85 EH (59.86% of SH) 5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 83 EH (66.40% of SH) 6. Severus Targaryen 82 EH (53.59% of SH) 7. Legacy Gaming 81 EH (55.48% of SH) 8. Nico Belique 73 EH (53.68% of SH) 9. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 72 EH (56.69% of SH) 10. Maple Dogwood 71 EH (56.80% of SH) An interesting comparison between the defenders and the forwards – in case of a forward separating an opposing puck carrier from the puck, the rate at which the hitter’s team gains puck possession is much higher than in defensemen’ case. I wonder if that’s because Simon thinks forwards’ hits happen in the offensive zone, where there are 3 forwards vs 2 opposing defenders, and defensemen’ hits happen in the defensive zone, where there are 2 defenders vs 3 opposing forwards? Anyway, while I took a jab at Jebediah in the previous part, it came back to bite me in the ass with Jebediah timing their hits extremely well, so kudos. Ineffective hits (IH) Going for a hit is not always the best idea. Sometimes it can put your team in a worse position than just pressuring the puck carrier and limiting their passing options. In real life hockey, that is. If the end of the sentence my script doesn’t match the player’s name, it’s a „bad hit“. Of course this is not only in the hands of the hitter, having a good team around is paramount. But that’s just the nature of team sports. It’s always hard to isolate individual impact. In this experiment, a successful hit is always either an effective hit, or an ineffective hit. So, logically, the sum of percentages of good hits and bad hits equals 100%. Example: I enter player name Billy Joel and team name London United. The script finds the phrase „is hit by Billy Joel and loses puck. Free Puck retrieved by“, followed by „Nico Belique for Los Angeles Stars“. The end of the sentence doesn’t match the team name, so the script counts it as a „bad hit“. I’m ranking the players from the fewest bad hits to the most ineffective hits. Defensemen 1. YaBoi Oven 112 IH (69.14% of SH) 2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 113 IH (62.78% of SH) 3. Darko Alexander Malkovich 114 IH (71.70% of SH) 4. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 124 IH (68.89% of SH) 5. Billy Joel 133 IH (74.72% of SH) 6. Tommy Sleeves 197 IH (71.90% of SH) Again, no surprise that Tommy Sleeves recorded the most bad hits. The fewest bad hits go to YaBoi Oven, who recorded the fewest total hits, it makes sense as well. But once again, I’m impressed by Obuz. Forwards 1. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 42 IH (33.60% of SH) 2. Axle Gunner 50 IH (35.97% of SH) 3. Maple Dogwood 54 IH (43.20% of SH) 4. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 55 IH (43.31% of SH) 5. Grimgor Ironhide 57 IH (40.14% of SH) 6. Toby Kadachi 60 IH (37.74% of SH) 7. Nico Belique 63 IH (46.32% of SH) 8. Legacy Gaming 65 IH (44.52% of SH) 9. Savaisk Tzesar 67 IH (39.88% of SH) 10. Severus Targaryen 71 IH (46.41% of SH) The difference between the defender and the forwards – see the previous part, just reversed. And okay, I’m officially apologizing to Jebediah for the jab earlier, they apparently rather not go for a hit, than going for a needless one, good job. Effective hits to ineffective hits ratio So how good were the selected players with their hit selection? In the end, I think the amount of successful hits and the ratio between „good“ hits and „bad“ hits are what looking for the best hitter boils down to. This one is pretty straightforward, no explanation needed here. Defensemen 1. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 0.59 EH/IH T-2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 0.45 EH/IH T-2. YaBoi Oven 0.45 EH/IH T-4. Darko Alexander Malkovich 0.39 EH/IH T-4. Tommy Sleeves 0.39 EH/IH 6. Billy Joel 0.34 EH/IH Looking back at the previous chapters, there is absolutely no surprise Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage leads the way. Forwards 1. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 1.98 EH/IH 2. Axle Gunner 1.78 EH/IH 3. Toby Kadachi 1.65 EH/IH 4. Savaisk Tzesar 1.51 EH/IH 5. Grimgor Ironhide 1.49 EH/IH T-6. Konstyantyn Shevchenko :dcd: 1.31 EH/IH T-6. Maple Dogwood :hel: 1.31 EH/IH 8. Legacy Gaming :chi: 1.25 EH/IH 9. Nico Belique :la: 1.16 EH/IH 10. Severus Targaryen :rig: 1.15 EH/IH I’m too tired already to type anything here. Conclusion Hits will always be a part of decision to award the defensive awards. But as I’ve said before, not all hits are equal, and it is always a good idea to look into the context. I think I’ve given you my insight into it. So what’s left for me to do is to name the in my opinion best hitters, all things considered. Defensemen: While Tommy Sleeves was undoubtedly a menace, the fact the team around him was...not the greatest really drove the results of his physicality down. When it comes to the results player’s hitting game brought, my top player would be Callum Gary Yannick Janser, close to a tie with Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. Forwards: In this case, I think the pure hits total leader Savaisk Tzesar takes my vote. While I have to give huge shoutouts to Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish and to Axle Gunner, I don’t think I can argue for any of them over Savaisk. Word count: 2k+ Mentions: @Grape @Daniel Janser @Doomsday @AColdCanadian @dasboot @The goat of hockey @hylands @Steve @ROOKIE745 @comrade cat @FrostBeard @der meister @dogwoodmaple @Gaming Ringleader @Syzygy @Banackock newfile.py

Is that a challenge?

With hope I'd do better than that NHL team from Toronto, I apply!

1. I'd say more important than ever, with some lethal scorers coming back from the E. 2. I don't see why not, it's probably going to take a few seasons for the league to stabilize after the minor leagues merging. 3. We're down 1-3 now, I try to remain hopeful, but considering the fashion we've been losing games, I'm skeptical. 4. Goaltending is absolutely crucial, I'd say Michaels. 5. I have to admit I have no idea about other matchups than ours, I don't follow them. 6. Philly is just scary. They have the top end, they have the depth, they're just stacked.

But Kuba has a better name! (I'm Jakub btw lol) Honza used to be absolutely lethal with Mozyakin. A better player than Kuba for sure, but I prefer Kuba nonetheless. Might be because I've met him, unlike his brother lol

Oh yeag, I understand the love for the Alps, I can get in my car and be at the foothills in less than 3 hours haha