scoop

Ah, the Harvey Singh approach.

Adjust goalie depreciation rates to match skaters.

1) Who is your favourite comedy actor/actress, and what it your favourite movie/show that they star in? I don't know that I'd say I have a strong favorite, but Paul Rudd is probably up there, especially if I'm looking strictly at people considered comedy actors. As for a favorite movie or show, it might be Ant-Man and the Wasp, or if you want a movie that is definitively a comedy, I'll got with Role Models. 2) Do you follow any non-hockey professional sports? If so, what is your favourite? Baseball is my favorite sport, and the MLB is the professional sports league that I follow most closely, by far. 3) Have you been disappointed with the relative lack of drama in the NHL playoffs this season? No, I honestly don't follow the NHL much outside of the Minnesota Wild. 1. Do you think any teams in the VHL should relocate or rebrand? If so, which team(s)? 2. What was the biggest surprise in any of the VHLM/VHLE/VHL playoffs? 3. Who do you think is going first overall in the VHL draft?

Transaction ID: 61E52985KB846963A 5 Uncapped Doubles Week 1M Player Store

Despite going 2-4 in day two of the lottery tournament, finishing in fourth and failing to increase their odds of getting the first overall pick, the Malmo Nighthawks were the big winners in the S89 Draft Lottery. They had finished with the third worst record in the regular season, giving them a 17.5% chance to win the pick. Luck was on their side tonight as their name was called, giving them their pick of the draftees. There isn't a consensus number one in the draft, but Malmo has options for a top player at every position except goalie. As of a few hours before the draft lottery, goalie is not currently a need for the Nighthawks. The Nighthawks made one of the first trades of the off-season, acquiring goaltender Ash Sparks from the Seattle Bears. Sparks, the 6th overall pick in the S86 draft, has been Seattle's backup for the past two seasons. To get Sparks, along with four future draft picks, the Nighthawks gave up Ilya Bryzgalov and Rex Wolffe Gregor. Bryzgalov has been a serviceable backup for the past two seasons, but given his age and stunted development, he was not a good replacement as starter for the retiring Boris Tsezar. Gregor led the team in points last season, but indications were that he was not going to re-sign with the Nighthawks. Both the draft lottery and the trade give the Nighthawks and their fans a lot to be excited about. In addition to first overall, they have the seventh overall pick which they had previously acquired from Riga. They almost certainly won't be contending next season, but they have the building blocks for a good future.

I will be rooting for Team Gustav because it is in bigger, bolder, and more slanty font, which must mean it is better.

ahh, yes, the real playoffs

Ha, I hadn't even seen that.

After losing Game 1 of the Continental Cup Finals to the United, the Seattle Bears answered back with three straight victories. A Bears win in Game 5 would have given the franchise their league-leading 14th championship. Seattle out-shot London 50-28, but a superb game by United netminder Jesse Teno, and a poor game from his Bears counterpart Xavier Booberry, extended the series for at least one more game. The final score wasn't even close, as the United won it 5-2. It was an uncharacteristically bad performance from Booberry, and it has some people questioning whether or not he lost the game on purpose. But what's the motivation? Having set the all-time TPE record, Booberry for a while has been working to set the bar until he is forced to retire at the end of this season. A win for the Bears would have ended the season, putting an end to Booberry's TPE earnings on a Sunday. With the Bears' loss, the season will extend into another week, giving Booberry the opportunity to earn another week's worth of TPE even if they go ahead and end the season tomorrow. The Bears are most likely just going to end the series in Game 6, so it is not too farfetched of a theory. Had Game 5 taken place on any other day of the week, it could have been the end to the series.

Before Season 88, Xavier Booberry had spent his last three seasons with the HC Davos Dynamo. The team had found more playoff success with each year, reaching the finals in S87 for the first time since S61. The team lost, and ultimately that would be the last time Booberry suited up for the Dynamo. During the off-season, he was caught off guard when he was traded to the Seattle Bears for the final year of his career. The Dynamo felt that youngster Lachlan Summers was ready to be a starter in the VHL, and opted to trade one of the most talented players in VHL history. Davos management must certainly be feeling content with the decision they made, as Summers led the league in save percentage (just slightly over Booberry), and they are currently up 2-0 in the European Conference Finals. Seattle is also still in the playoffs. The Bears are even with the reigning champion Calgary Wranglers through two games. Booberry is going to do everything in his power to continue playing until the very end and win his first Continental Cup. The Seattle Bears are a team that you can never count out, and that is going to be especially true when you have a goalie like Booberry on your team. Although he has never won a championship, Booberry is undoubtedly going to be in the Hall of Fame, but it would be nice to add a ring to the collection. I'm sure it would be especially sweet if it came against the team that traded him prior to the season.

The London United are currently on the best playoff run in franchise history, reaching the European Conference Finals for the first time in their existence, dating back to Season 73. They came into the playoffs as Europe's four seed, but they did not face much resistance in the first two rounds of the post-season. London has lost the first two games in the Conference Finals against the HC Davos Dynamo, who are looking to make it back to the finals for a second consecutive season, but the United are not looking to simply roll over and die. In their prior 15 seasons, London has made the playoffs seven times. In those seven appearances, they had not won a single series. With a 9-25 overall record, they had rarely ever come within a game of winning a series. In recent years, the team has at least been consistently making the playoffs. Including Season 88, they have been in five of the last seven post-seasons. The experience that their players have gotten has undoubtedly helped out this year. Some of their best performers are players who have been with the team during those prior appearances. Even with the relative success the team has recently been having, London were far from favorites. In the regular season, they were 1-3-1 against both Riga and Prague, their first and second round opponents in the playoffs. The playoffs were a different story, as the United took down Riga 3-1 and Prague, the Victory Cup winners, 4-1. Things were looking up for the team. Of all the European teams in the playoffs, the only one that London had a winning record against during the regular season was the Dynamo. Things thus far have not been going the same way. They lost the first two games of the series, putting them behind in a series for the first time in these playoffs. An 0-2 deficit came certainly be overcome, and we have already seen it multiple times this season. The Dynamo were down 0-3 against Moscow before winning four straight. That streak has been extended to six games, and London is now tasked with halting that momentum if they want to advance. Who doesn't like an underdog? London is experiencing success like never before, and a lot of people would like to see that continue. Unfortunately for their fans, I do think their run is going to be coming to an end at the hands of Davos. I personally am rooting for the United, but a Davos win would not be the worst. The Dynamo currently have the third longest Cup drought in VHL history, having last won in Season 61. This is a battle between a once revered franchise trying to find their way back to the top and a fledgling newcomer that has never even tasted an ounce of success. A championship would mean a lot for either team. Of course, the winner of this series will still have to take on either the Seattle Bears or Calgary Wranglers.

For those who aren't aware, the Geneva Rush of the VHLE were originally a VHLM expansion team, joining as the Yukon Rush back in Season 31. They won four Founder's Cups in their first eight seasons. They would only win twice more in the next 42 seasons before they moved to Geneva and joined the VHLE. This move was particularly disappointing to me, the founder and original GM of the Yukon Rush. Needing something to write about for the week, I decided to tell the tale of how the team got their name. This is Yukon Cornelius. He was a prospector in the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special. No, I didn't put a team in Yukon because of this character from a television special that I used to watch with my family every year as a child. That would be silly. I doubt I even had him in mind at all, but I felt like including a picture of him anyway. I'm sort of telling you the origin a bit backwards, because the team was placed in Yukon because I needed a suitable place for a team called the Rush. That is how a Canadian territory with a population under 50,000 ended up with a VHLM team. The Rush were in fact named after a robot dog from the Mega Man franchise, which happens to be a favorite of mine. This was the inspiration for the name, and I placed them in Yukon, because it worked. I like a good team name that suits the location. Back in the late 1800's, there was a gold rush in the Klondike region in Yukon. People seemed to like the name, though I don't know if I had ever actually mentioned the true inspiration behind the name. This wasn't the only potential name I had come up with. Another favorite of mine was the Anchorage Owls. I didn't have as much of a connection to that name, however, and when I put up a poll for the league to give their input, the Yukon Rush beat out the Anchorage Owls and whatever other options had been on the poll, which I don't recall.

1. Carolina Hurricanes 2. Sebastian Aho 3. Pepperoni and onions Questions: 1. Prague is heading into the playoffs seeking the first Continental Cup in franchise history. What team do you think will be their biggest hurdle, and what chances do you give them of winning it all? 2. What is your favorite logo in any of the VHL/VHLE/VHLM? 3. Recommend me an album to listen to.

The consistency of the New York Americans over the past 10 seasons is astounding. Going back to Season 79, they have seven 6th place finishes and two 7th place finishes, and are almost assuredly headed toward another 6th place finish this season. When it comes to overall standings, they have finished as high as 11th once, and four times each at 12th and 13th. For sake of comparison, Calgary has been the second most consistent team. The Wranglers are the only team that has made the playoffs every season from 79 to 87, while the Americans are the only team to miss the playoffs every season. Even still, the Wranglers have finished anywhere from 1st to 5th in the North American Conference. Their overall finishes range from 1st to 9th. I don't think consistently finishing just outside of the playoffs is ideal, but it sort of lends to itself. While they can still move up in the draft lottery, they are consistently finishing in the 4th or 5th position. The team isn't really set up well for the future. They do have some solid pieces for their future, but is it enough to make the playoffs? I'm not sure. I think it will be good enough to consistently finish just outside of the playoffs, which appears to be what the team has been going for over the past several seasons, so good on them for that.

Kronchy has been stuck at six goals since their 24th game. In their first 27 games, they had 6 goals, 20 assists. In the last 27, just 8 assists. After the start they had, I'm surprised I'm in the race for top rookie scorer.

damn no one wants Sakamoto

Shame we couldn't make it seven in a row after starting that game against Riga up 4-0. Yeesh, what a blow up.

It took Jacob Stone until his sixth game to score his first career goal in the VHL. It wouldn't be until his 33rd game that he scored another. With 48 games under his belt, he is now up to nine for the season, including both of Malmo's goals in their recent 2-1 victory over the Toronto Legion. During those first 32 games, he had been taking plenty of shots. He had 77 shots on goal after his first attempt of his 33rd game was saved, bringing his shooting percentage down to an abysmal 1.30%. In the time since then, including the remainder of his 33rd game through his 48th, he has 46 shots on goal and eight goals scored for a shooting percentage of 17.39% during that span, and bringing his season shooting percentage up to 7.32%. After the long drought between his first and second goals, he quickly scored his third. And his fourth. And his fifth and sixth. He had went on a four-game goal streak which included a two-goal game. While he hasn't scored goals at nearly that clip since that time, he hasn't had a streak of futility like earlier in the season. All season, though, he has been relatively consistent in getting on the score sheet. He has 31 points in the 48 games he has played, which is one behind both Kronchy Kardashian and Leonard Triller for the lead among rookies.

The Parity Era In terms of parity in Continental Cup winners, the VHL has never seen a time quite like that of the latter half of the 20's into the early half of the 30's. At the beginning of this stretch, there were eight teams in the league, and from Season 26 to Season 33, every single team won exactly one championship. Other than shifting that period over from Season 28 to Season 35, we have never seen a stretch of more than six unique winners at any point in time. I will primarily be breaking down that first instance, but I will also take a look slightly beyond that, because the parity wasn't entirely confined to that stretch of time. Breaking the Curse It seems fitting that the era would begin with the Vasteras Iron Eagles ending a then-record 24-season cup drought. Throughout that streak of futility, Vasteras had only made it to the finals twice, and apparently the third time was the charm. They really needed it to be, because the franchise would not be seen in the finals again until Season 47, though they never did win another cup before being subject to league contraction. It is somewhat comical that after Vasteras ended their drought, within seven more seasons, the once again had the longest active cup drought, a distinction which they would carry until becoming defunct. One Shot, One Opportunity From Season 26 to Season 33, there were four teams who made just one finals appearance, and none of them let that opportunity slip away from them. In addition to the Vasteras squad that got things started, we had Helsinki in Season 27, Toronto in Season 29, and Calgary in Season 30. Interestingly, those three teams had recently won championships in succession from Season 21 to Season 23, albeit with entirely different rosters. The Season 29 Toronto in particular was quite the flash in the pan, as this was their only playoff appearance during the S26-S33 stretch. Punching Bag While parity was at an all-time high in terms of winning the Cup, one team in particular dominated this era in getting to the finals. The New York Americans made it to the finals in six of the eight seasons. Another way to put that would be to say that over the course of eight seasons, the New York Americans lost in the finals to five different teams. They did manage to win once, though. Much like Vasteras, they ended a noteworthy Cup drought; unlike Vasteras, they followed it up by being arguably the most accomplished franchise over the next 20 seasons. We don't need to discuss what followed that. The Other Top Dogs The Americans undoubtedly defined this era, but there were a few other teams that did show a semblance of consistency during the time. Their top rival was without a doubt the Seattle Bears, who appeared in six straight playoffs from S26 to S31. The two teams faced off five times, with New York winning three times, but it was Seattle who came out victorious when they played for the Continental Cup in Season 28 (during the playoff crossover era). Calgary and Davos were also frequent playoff participants, with Davos making it to the finals two times, winning in their second attempt in Season 31. Improbable End The conclusion to it all is remarkable. The Season 32 finals saw New York beat Riga after trailing 1-3 in the series. Heading into Season 33, the Reign were the final team we needed to see win to make it eight champions in eight seasons (well, technically the Meute and Express were now in the league, but they weren't there at the start of all of this, so let's just ignore that bit for now). In the playoffs, Riga amazingly overcame not one, but two 1-3 series deficits just to reach the finals against the Americans. This would be the only time during this stretch that there was a repeat match-up in the finals. Riga found themselves down 1-2 in the series before winning three straight to become the champions. Expanding the Parity Era As previously noted, the parity did not stop at just those eight seasons, and by the time it was at its end, there were now ten teams, so it was not the case that every team in the league took a turn at winning the championship in succession. Still, it was quite astounding all things considered. From seasons 28 through 35, we had our only other stretch of eight unique champions. It was Helsinki who ended the run in S34, but since their win was near the start, most of the aforementioned victories were still unique. Following that, we saw the first championship from an expansion team as the Quebec City Meute came out on top. Stretching things a bit wider, if we look at the 13 seasons from S25 to S37, no franchise won multiple cups within a five-season window.

It's a shame I can only like this once.

@Arce