scoop

During Season 95, Jacob Stone set a new franchise career record in shots blocked (1270) and power play goals (77) for the Malmo Nighthawks. In addition to these overall records, Stone does top the team charts in a few positional stats. His 163 goals and 2182 shots are both franchise highs as a defender. When he plays his first game in Season 96, he will set a new franchise record in regular season games played, because he has something that many of the franchise greats before him did not. Stone has the opportunity to play a nine-season career, and when it comes to an end, he will have spent it all with the Nighthawks. That ninth season will allow Stone to set some more team records. He will begin the season second in points, third in assists, and fourth in game-winning goals. These are the three stats that, in addition to games played, he could find himself on top. None of them are guaranteed, even with the extra season. For assists and points, he is chasing Condor Adrienne. Stone is 63 assists behind Adrienne. In three of his last four seasons, Stone has had at least 60 assists, but 63 would be a new career high. He is only 56 points behind Adrienne. Having averaged 85.5 points over his last four seasons, it would seem that Stone should be able to top Adrienne. In terms of game winners, Stone is five behind Brendan Telker's 37. He had nine and seven in the past two seasons, but the retirement of Randy Bobandy could mean the Nighthawks take a step back in the wins column. The most interesting record of the three will be the points. While Stone seems like a lock to pass Adrienne (and Telker, before him) in points, he still may not set the record. Stone has 542 career points, and teammate Viktor Jensen is right behind at 533. Last season was the first time Season 89, Jensen's rookie season, that Stone had more points between the two of them. Stone had a career-high of 95 points while Jensen's 86 ended a streak of three seasons at 90+ points. It is very possible that Jensen will pass Adrienne before Stone ever does. With that in mind, it's also possible that Stone and Jensen end up going back-and-forth and that Stone does reach first at some point, but takes it from Jensen instead. Jensen is also going to be in contention for the most game winners, as he actually has one more than Stone right now. Unlike Stone, Jensen is not playing in his final season. He will have one more season after this one, meaning that whoever ends up on top at the end of Season 96, Jensen will certainly have the record when his career is over, assuming he plays his final season with Malmo. Jensen also has a good shot at the assist record (currently third; 36 behind Stone). He could also have a chance at the goals record. He has been consistent, with somewhere from 32 to 35 goals in each of the past four seasons. At the moment, he is 67 goals behind Brendan Telker.

Season 86: Vancouver Season 87: Calgary Season 88: London Season 89: Davos Season 90: Prague Season 91: Toronto Season 92: D.C. Season 93: Seattle Season 94: Moscow Season 95: Riga Ten seasons, ten unique champions. This is a level that has not been seen before, and I hope we can seen this stretch extend even further. Of course, the longer the streak goes on, the smaller our list of heroes becomes, making it so much more difficult for it to continue. Let's rank the remaining six teams in terms of who is most likely to keep this going. 1. Chicago - The Phoenix made it to the Conference Finals last season, and all of their key pieces will be returning next season. Most of their roster is in their prime, so I expect them to be among the best once again. 2. Malmo - While they have been notoriously bad in the playoffs recently, the current generation of Nighthawks have been one of the best regular season teams in a long time. The loss of Randy Bobandy will hurt, but they should still make the playoffs. 3. Warsaw - The Predators may only have one defender on their roster at the moment, but they have three very good forwards and an excellent goaltender. If they can fill out their defense, they could have a shot. Their relatively average performance last season does not instill a ton of confidence, however. 4. New York - Even when the Americans look good on paper, they struggle. They massively underperformed last season to the point where they were sellers at the deadline. It will be interesting to see what direction they go in the off-season, as they could try to make moves to get back into the playoff picture. 5. Helsinki - The Titans slot in ahead of the Stars because I think they have a slightly better chance of making the playoffs, where anything could happen. They just need one of this past season's playoff teams to falter, because London and Prague are still worse than them. 6. Los Angeles - I do think the Stars have a bright future, but I don't believe this will be their year. If a couple of the other teams can keep the streak of unique winners alive for a couple more seasons, the Stars could be our best hope a few seasons from now.

1. The loss of Bobandy is pretty significant, so my expectations are that we will be worse. I could see us having our worst season since before S91, but only because we've had at least 95 points every season since then. I could see us finishing around 90 points. 3. Very much. The only series I correctly predicted were the 4v5 matchups. 4. I want to start reading more. I have a few books on my list to read. 5. I'd say Moscow. I may be influenced by my previous player's time with Malmo when Moscow was more definitively our rival. I feel like it's kind of hard to build a rivalry with a lack of playoff success, especially when in five playoff series, we've lost to four different teams. 6. One more season at least, maybe two if the team tries to hang on. 7. Anchorage, Alaska.

I've made the playoffs five seasons in a row with the Nighthawks now, and we have won a grand total of zero playoff series. Not only have we lost every season, but every time it has been against a lower seeded team. It's one thing to make it into the playoffs as a weak regular season team and then lose in the playoffs. That is a bit more expected. That's not to say the higher seeded team always wins. But for us to not win a single playoff series (after we had the best five-season regular season record since the Titans from S53 to S57) is demoralizing. The familiar feeling I'm referring to, however, is not a callback to any of these previous seasons with Malmo. This devastation that comes from playoff failure year after year is reminiscent of my time with Jacob Stone's grandfather, Benjamin Glover. Glover played with the New York Americans from Season 24 to Season 31. We made the playoffs every season, and we actually did win several playoff series, unlike the Nighthawks. We were the first team to reach the finals in four straight seasons. From Season 25 to Season 28, we lost in the finals. Season after season of disappointment. It was not a good feeling. We had one last finals appears in Glover's final season, but we lost once again, giving Glover an 0-5 record in the finals. One big difference between then and now is how I let the results of the VHL affect me. Back then, I cared too much about the VHL. I didn't really feel like I had much going on in my life, and I allowed my successes and failures in the VHL and other sim leagues to affect my self worth. So when the team failed season after season, it contributed to genuine despair in my life. I've grown since then (not that I was a child; I was in college at the time). It is not a great feeling to lose in the playoffs season after season, but it doesn't really get to me anymore. Sure, there's still some disappointment, but my emotional investment is much more healthy than before. The New York Americans would go on to win the Continental Cup in Season 32, the year after Glover's retirement. If history repeats for me, then I guess I'll give an early congratulations to the S97 Nighthawks on winning a playoff series.

1. Some time alone for meditation. I think Dillon Brooks' pre-game staredown of the opposing team is pretty hilarious. 2. I follow baseball more than any other sport. The Minnesota Twins are my team, and they are blowing it this season. About a month ago they were looking like a sure thing for the playoffs, but now it's going to be rough. They're not far from a playoff spot, but they way they've been playing, they aren't going to make it. 3. I'll say Mandarin. It's the most widely spoken in the world, so it could be the most useful. Not that I would make the most use out of it. I don't travel much, so maybe just being fluent in Spanish, which is the second-most spoken in the US would be more useful for me, but I already know a good bit of Spanish. 1. What would be more devastating: losing in the finals four straight seasons, or losing in the first round of the playoffs five straight seasons? 2. If the VHL had an event where teams formed and competed in various games,, would you participate and what are some events you'd want to see included? 3. What is your most re-watched TV series (from start to finish), and how frequently do you watch it?

Canet du Bocage and Leitner is a better D pair for the same cost.

Jacob Stone - Offensive Vision

I gathered the data for the current predictions from the playoff bracket challenge. There were 53 submissions at the time. The preseason counts are based on the 71 submissions at the beginning of the season, excluding any submissions that did not select any team to win. There were 65 total picks for the NA champion and Continental Cup; there were 64 total picks for EU champion. Given that we have the ability to see who other people have picked for the playoff bracket challenge, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the preseason predictions and compare them to the current predictions. As you can see, in the pre-season, people were a bit down on Toronto and Moscow to return to the finals. New York had actually been favored to win the Devon Marlow-Marta Trophy, and they failed to make the playoffs at all. Toronto only garnered 18.5% of the predictions, compared to over 50% of users picking them now. Riga had been favored in the preseason, just barely over Moscow, but the Menace are now heavy favorites. What I find particularly interesting with Moscow is that in the preseason, more people picked them to to win the Continental Cup than the Terence Fong Trophy. While I often will pick different teams just to hedge my bets, I didn't realize that many others do it as well. I agree with Moscow being the favorites, and Malmo and Riga being split. I am, however, surprised at Toronto being the favorites in North America. Obviously they are the number one seed, but I thought people would be more concerned about Toddly Bobbly now that we are in the playoffs. I actually have Seattle winning over Toronto in my predictions, but Vancouver is my pick to ultimately make it to the finals from North America.

1. I'll say Phillip Rave. We had a lot of pretty good goal scorers, but Rave led the team by quite a bit and hasn't really gotten much attention for it at all. 2. New York Americans should become the Yukon Rush. That's my dream. London would be my other top choice. I'm not a fan of red/white/blue as a color scheme. If not both of them changing, at least one of them should. They are kind of redundant. 3. I'll go with a homer pick and say the Vikings, justifying it only with the fact that RJMW said them before I did, and therefore it is a legit pick. 4. Not really. I can grow a goatee I guess, but my facial hair growth on my cheeks is patchy. 5. Honest prediction? We get past Riga and lose to Moscow. We did win 2/3 of those recent games, but they outshot us by quite a bit and I don't think we can afford to need Lovstrom to have a 0.950+ save percentage against them. Then again, if our failed playoff runs have taught me anything it's that we can't trust anything about how the regular season went. 6. I can think of a lot of things. Start working out. Get back into running or at least going for more walks. Particularly, get into a routine with these things. My work even has a fitness center so I have no excuses. I guess I'd say the thing I need to improve on us limiting my screen time at night. I need to treat myself like I'm my own child or something. No screens after 9:30, asleep by 10:30, alarm set for 6. That'll improve my sleep from where it is now, and gives me some extra time in the morning to maybe go for a morning run. Honestly, I should probably aim for more sleep than that, but I think that's probably where I start. I think a better night time routine would do a lot of good for me.

With just a handful of games remaining, three teams still have a shot at the Victory Cup, with the final outcome heavily relying on one game between the Malmo Nighthawks and the Moscow Menace. The two teams have been familiar with each other as of late, as they recently had a back-to-back set. Malmo won both contests, despite being heavily outshot in both games, to keep their Victory Cup hopes alive. The combined shot totals in the two games was 106 for Moscow to 64 for Malmo. Nighthawk netminder Jorgen Lovstrom let in just two goals as the Malmo penalty kill unit thwarted all 17 Moscow power plays. With victories by scores of 2-0 and 5-2, the Nighthawks paved the way for another meaningful game as both teams took care of business in their next game. The Menace are currently in first place with 104 points. Malmo is just behind them at 103, while Riga, at 102, is still not out of the race. The game between Moscow and Malmo does not 100% determine the Victory Cup winner, because both teams will still have one game left to play after, but they both play last place Prague. Obviously the Phantoms could play spoiler, but the odds are highly in favor of both Moscow and Malmo winning their final game. If Malmo wins in regulation, the Nighthawks will finish in first place (assuming they beat Prague) If Malmo wins in overtime/shootout, the Menace will finish in first place (assuming they beat Prague) If Moscow wins, the Menace will finish in first place regardless of the outcome of any other game. As noted, the Moscow/Malmo will not immediately determine who wins the Victory Cup. While a Moscow win would clinch it for the Menace, scenarios one and two as listed above still rely on a team beating Prague. In a situation where Malmo beats Moscow, if one of them beats Prague while the other doesn't, then the team that beat the Phantoms would finish in first. Both of them losing to Prague is the only way in which Riga will come out on top. For Riga to win the Victory Cup, all of the following would have to happen: Riga wins their final two games (Calgary and Toronto) Malmo wins against Moscow Malmo and Moscow both lose to Prague If you were wondering about the Legion, they are out of the Victory Cup race. They can get to 105 points if they win their final three, which would at best put them in a tie for first place (because one of Moscow or Malmo will have to win their matchup). Toronto would lose the tiebreaker to the other contending teams. For Malmo, winning the Victory Cup would give them three in the last four seasons. They have proven, however, that regular season success does not always carry over to the post-season. Moscow from a season ago really accentuate that point, as they had the worst record among playoff teams but went on to win the Continental Cup.

The regular season is approaching its end, so Malmo's recent slump may seemingly have knocked them out of contention for the Victory Cup and the first seed in Europe. With eight games to play, they now trail Moscow by seven points and Riga by five points. Despite how hard it has been to gain any ground on them even when Malmo had been playing well, there is still a chance that they can make up this ground. The remaining schedules of the top teams in the league could allow for some big swings in the standings. Malmo and Moscow have three matchups remaining. If the Nighthawks want to have a shot at leading the standings, they will likely need to win all of those. That would close the gap between the two teams, and then it would depend on how they play in the rest of their games. If Moscow takes even one of those games, it will be tough for the Nighthawks to finish ahead of them. As for Riga, they have some tough games remaining in a Moscow matchup and two games against Toronto. It will take some stars aligning for Malmo to climb back to the top, but the opportunity is there. They need to beat Moscow, and get some help from North American teams against Riga and Toronto.

Out of 13 VHFL groups this season, four are currently being led by a member of the Malmo Nighthawks. Three other team members are also participating in the VHFL, with all of them in the top three of their respective group. Looking at the historical performances in the fantasy games, it's not really a surprise to see these Nighthawks faring so well this season. Most of them regularly place in the top half, but for them to hold the lead in four groups is quite impressive. So while the Nighthawks have been struggling a bit as of late, I'm going to take a moment to celebrate the success that we are having in the VHFL. @KaleebtheMighty currently has the second highest scoring team across all groups. While I don't necessarily think comparing teams from group to group is all that meaningful, because a bad drafter or two can drastically inflate someone else's score, Kaleeb still made several really good picks in what is the fifth highest scoring group. Somehow, his group allowed him to get Axle Gunner, Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage, and Jacob Stone. Those are the three best fantasy players, and he got them all. @Pifferfish is someone who was very confident in his VHFL scouting in our locker room, and with the results they have had, the confidence is warranted. Pifferfish's previous fantasy success has come more from Super Coach than the VHFL, but this season will bring up the average placement. They were wrong about Owen Lazaro, who they expected would have a better season, but the rest of their picks were hits. @scoop (that's me!) is unsurprisingly leading his group. I made the right call taking Canet du Bocage first overall rather than Stone, as much as I always want to take my own player. The mistake was in thinking that my group might somehow let Stone fall to me at the 12th pick. I definitely made some poor picks, particularly with my forwards, but luckily my competition also missed out on some big scorers and made some even worse selections. @RJMW hadn't placed above fourth in a VHFL group since Season 89 when he won his group. He is on track to return to the winner's circle, though unlike those mentioned above, his group is close and he could still potentially fall a place or two. While he does have the lowest score among current group leaders, he is in the fourth highest scoring group. There are no weak teams in his group, which makes his potential first place arguably more impressive than mine or Pifferfish's in two of the lower scoring groups. @Advantage is in second place in what is the second highest scoring group. He definitely left some points on the board with some of his picks, but he seems to understand the optimal strategy of picking the players who are less likely to flop and are all but guaranteed to at least be good fantasy options. Like many of us, he made the wise decision to trust in the Nighthawks in taking Savaisk Tzesar, whose average draft position was probably lower than it should have been. @leafsman sits at third in Group 7, which is one of the higher scoring groups. The lack of Malmo representation on the roster is a bit disappointing, and his forwards could be improved by having taken some Nighthawks instead of his other picks, he obviously knows what he is doing. His pick of Guntis Gavilrovs, who was undrafted in six groups, was probably the highlight pick of his draft. @tcookie is in the same group as Kaleeb, the only two Nighthawks that are competing with each other in the VHFL. That means that tcookie was one of the users who allowed Kaleeb to get the trio of top players. He even picked two other defenders before Kaleeb took either Canet du Bocage or Stone, so it's a wonder how he is in third place in this group. He did do better with his forward selections, however, and the defenders that he did take have been solid fantasy players.

1. We've been slumping and he's probably fallen too far behind to win it. The fact that he's leading Malmo in points by a wide margin is a point in his favor, as our offense would be much worse without him, but I think voters may not like that he's not primarily a goal scorer. I think right now David Rashford may be the favorite. 2. If anything, I would say that maybe outstanding international accomplishments should be considered to maybe give someone that extra push that they need, but I don't think poor international play should be held against anyone. 3. No, I don't think that should change, but I also don't think standings placement in the regular season should really matter as much as others seem to believe it does either. I know there is the aspect of managing the players that you do have, setting lines and strategies, so if someone does well with a team that on paper looks bad, credit to them. I think even a rebuilding GM should have a shot at the award if they drafted well and made astute trades. 4. Paying off my student loans and mortgage. Depending on how many multiple millions we are talking about, maybe buying a house (currently have a condo). Definitely going to invest a lot of it. I'll definitely be taking a real vacation, because I've never treated myself to anything like that. 5. When I joined this team in Season 88, I told him that I wanted to play with the team for nine seasons. My honest expectation was that we'd be serious contenders beginning around Season 91 through maybe Season 94, peaking in S92/S93. And I would have been fine with that. I would have been okay finishing out the last couple seasons of my career on a non-playoff team, but he has done a great job keeping us competitive longer than I anticipated. 6. Chipotle. It helps that there is one near the stores where I do most of my shopping. Before I moved last year, there was a Chipotle a little over a mile away that I would run to, get a burrito, and eat it while walking home. There was also a burger place about 1.5 miles away that I liked, and would do the same. There's not much that close to me now, but I guess that should mean that I get more running done.

Skaters already have to deal with this, because of hybrid attributes. Roughly speaking, 1 TPE = 0.3 to 0.6 attribute points. But also, my overall proposal would not be limited to goalies. The numbers could certainly be tweaked on either scale, but the general idea is that more of the total TPE that it takes to go from 0 to 99 should be shifted to earlier in the build. I don't think it should be linear, but I think the curve is too much where we have it.