scoop

Yeah, it would eliminate the requirement, but like you said it, it creates a point where if a goalie plays in too many games consecutively, then they will get to the point where the backup is just straight up a better option. That's what I'm imagining, anyway. Again, I don't know how it all actually functions in STHS, but this would give teams a reason to actually give a backup human goalie more than 8 starts.

Yeah, I don't like reading so I stopped after the first bit apparently.

To me, it really depends on how fatigue/endurance work in STHS and how much control we have over the balancing of it. Keep in mind, I don't have much an idea how it works, but here is the description of the Endurance attribute from the STHS manual "If a player's is send on ice when he's fatigue, this stat is used in the formula to decide if all stats for this shift will be lower than normal." If we can keep playing time the same, but make players with lower Endurance just overall worse players when they are fatigued, then I think it would be a fun change to the league, and I believe it would be a benefit to the max earners.

Davos making that trade is a punishable offense imo. It for sure had a more adverse effect on their roster than SEA G starting over Justin Lion in nine extra games. The league should have vetoed the trade if "Spirit of Competition" means anything other than "can't start bot more than eight games."

The Spirit of Competition rule doesn't actually state anything specifically about bot backups, that is just simply the only aspect of the rule which seems to be enforced. Why should "significant/reasonable efforts" not be required with regards to fifth/sixth forwards, or third/fourth defenders.

If you're bothering to read this, you are probably involved enough with the league to be aware that the Seattle Bears have been found to be in violation of the Spirit of Competition Rule due to excessive starts being given to their backup goalie. As punishment for starting their backup goalie nine times more than the required eight times, their lottery odds will drop from 25% to 10% to win the first overall pick. This is the same punishment that Warsaw received two seasons prior for starting their bot goalie an extra eight times (Calgary was also punished that season, losing 5% for three extra starts). Seattle's GM Blake Campbell claims it was by mistake that the bot goalie made those extra starts, and I find that easy enough to believe. However, I don't find negligence to be a good excuse. Honestly, though, Justin Lion is hardly even better than Seattle's bot goalie. As the Spirit of Competition rule is written, it would seem that New York was more in violation by continuing to start W. W. even after trading for Clueless Wallob. But then you could say that New York did not need to make that trade at all. Seattle also did not need to trade for four players from Davos to improve their roster at the deadline. But enough rambling about all that. I think the rule that requires teams to give their backup goalie starts should just be abolished entirely. What purposes does it serve? It forces teams to give another human goalie starts, for those times when we have an excess amount of VHL goalies. It also gives a slight advantage to those teams that have a second goalie, as they don't have to start a bot goalie for those eight games. In my opinion, that's not enough to justify the rule. I think teams would typically give an active human backup some starts even without the rule, though maybe they wouldn't if they felt they were being disadvantaged because other teams don't have to start a bot goalie. That's where my next thought comes into play, though. Depending on how fatigue works in STHS, I believe the league should try to utilize fatigue to give teams with larger rosters an advantage. Make the Endurance attribute something that players need to upgrade. Give teams a reason to want to have a backup goalie and to give them starts. Give teams a reason to possibly want more than the standard 6 forwards, 4 defenders; and more harshly punish them for having fewer than that number.

SEA G does have some attributes that are better than Justin Lion, so you can't even say that Lion is strictly better. To be completely honest, I think the league should look at abolishing the Keaton Louth rule and let teams start a goalie in all 72 games. I'd also like to see the league implement fatigue to give teams a reason to give starts to a backup goalie or have larger rosters. Make Endurance an attribute that starts at 40 that we can develop. I'm not an STHS expert, so I don't know how fatigue functions in the simulation so this might just not be possible at all.

Howdy, reader. The purpose of this article is to give a quite earlier preview to my next player. No, I will not be cutting Jacob Stone's career short of nine seasons, but I needed something to write about. I've known for a while what I am planning to do with my next player, so it'll be an easy subject to write a quickie article about. Evangeline Glover made her first start for [undecided Minnesota high school] in tonight's game against [a different high school], and she put on a show. The freshman goaltender made 29 in her debut, including 16 in the third period to preserve a 2-1 lead as the [high school mascots] spent a good portion of the final frame on the penalty kill. She was named the first star of the game, and more importantly, may have earned herself more starts in the future. All the playing time she can get will be very important for her development into a professional hockey player. She comes from a successful hockey family, with both her great-grandpa Benjamin Glover and her great-aunt Diana Maxwell being first-ballot Hall of Famers in the Victory Hockey League. Her cousin, Jacob Stone, currently plays in the VHL for the Malmo Nighthawks. Sure enough, Evangeline also has her heart set on playing in the VHL one day. With the way her timeline looks, she could potentially be a part of the S99 or S100 draft.

Tell that to the 0-2 hole that Malmo is in against London.

I'm curious by what metric we have the "9th best roster." Also, comparing Moscow's slight edge to us on offense (if it even exists) to the vast superiority that our defense has over theirs is laughable.

Ah, I completely missed that list.

Am I blind, or where are the Staffords? Surely RJ wasn't the only one that made it to the VHL?

Tiebreakers, in order of priority: W (Total Wins), ROW (Regulation Wins + OT Wins), GDiff (Goals For - Goals Against) That's from the Portal Standings page. Calgary has 37 Regulation+OT wins; LA has 36.

1. Boston, because they have the best record. 2. The New York Americans. 3. We've had nine seasons in a row of the Victory Cup winner not winning the Continental Cup. The four seasons prior, the Victory Cup winner did win the Continental Cup. I definitely wouldn't say there's really a curse. If I counted correctly, 37 of the previous Victory Cup winners did go on to win the championship. With more teams in the league nowadays, the path for the top seed to win the playoffs is longer, so we're obviously going to see it happen a bit less often. 1. Do you think the VHL playoffs could use a change in format? 2. What is your favorite VHL team, based solely on team name/logo/colors? 3. What movie show I watch? If it's on Netflix or streaming free somewhere, I'll watch it.

With six games left to go, the Malmo Nighthawks have clinched the the Victory Cup. It is the third for the franchise, the first since Season 79, which was the season that they most recently won the Continental Cup. This year's team also has a chance to finish the season with the best record in franchise history. Three more points would tie the 106 that they put up in both S79 and S81. Given how they have been playing as of late, it seems like a foregone conclusion that they can reach that mark. While Malmo of course stands alone at the top by a good margin, the second through fifth place teams are very close. There is no award for second place, but it will still be interesting to watch how the rest of the season unfolds for these teams. They will be fighting for playoff seeding, and particularly for Los Angeles and Calgary, this will be important. D.C., the most likely third seed, has been a tougher opponent than Toronto and New York. Helsinki and Moscow are almost certainly going to be playing each other in the second round of the playoffs, so the rest of the season will just determine which of them has home advantage. What sets Malmo apart from the other top teams this season has been their ability to consistently beat the weaker teams. The Nighthawks have a 9-7-2 record against the rest of the top five teams. This is worse than both Calgary (9-5-2) and Moscow (10-7-0). Against the rest of the league, however, Malmo is 40-5-3. The next best record against those teams is Los Angeles, at 35-10-4.

Just under a third of the way through the season, the Malmo Nighthawks took possession of first place in the European Conference, and they have not ceded the position since. With just ten games to go, they currently have a 13 point lead over the Menace. While it seems almost a certainty that the Nighthawks will end up the number one seed in Europe, things recently were looking like they were going to get interesting, but Malmo got back on track and the Moscow came back down to Earth. At the 47-game mark, the Nighthawks were at 74 points. They had been on a 15-0-1 tear in their last 16 games. At the same time, the Menace had 65 points and were winners of their last 13. The pressure was being put on Malmo was evident. They had to keep winning, or Moscow was going to catch up quickly. Well, the Nighthawks did not keep winning. They had a 2-3-1 record over their next six games, while Moscow, although their win streak did end at 16, went 5-0-1 in that same time. The lead in the conference was down to 3 points, and it was looking like we may be in for a tight race after all. The two teams would face each other in the next game, giving Moscow a prime opportunity to bring things within a point. The Nighthawks shut out the Menace 5-0 in the game, and they haven't lost since. After the brief six-game stretch of a mediocre play, they are right back on track performing like the number one team that they are. Their current nine-game winning streak matches their season high. During this time, they have outscored their opponents 45-17. Granted, five of these game have been against sub-.500 teams (four against Chicago, who are fighting for a playoff spot in North America). In addition to the 5-0 win over Moscow, though, they do also have an 8-2 victory over London. It has been a total team effort for the Nighthawks, who now have the most goals scored (217) and the fewest goals allowed (146). Five players have at least six goals during the win streak, with Yaroslav Bogatyrev and Savaisk Tzesar leading the way with eight each. Eight players are averaging at least a point-per-game. Defenseman Jacob Stone has been the biggest contributor, with 21 points, 27 hits, and 27 shots blocked. The goaltending has been stellar as well, as Ash Sparks has allowed under two goals-per-game with a 0.942 save percentage. At this stage, the first seed in the conference seems all but wrapped up, and the Victory Cup is very much theirs to lose as well. The Stars are 12 points back with 11 games (one more than Malmo) left to play, and Calgary is tied with Moscow at 13 back with ten to play. If the Nighthawks can hang on to finish first in the overall standings, if would be the third time in franchise history (S79, S68). In recent seasons, though, the the top regular season team has not fared all too well in the playoffs. The last team to even make it to the finals after winning the Victory Cup was Moscow back in Season 83.

PMB was my favorite player growing up

First of all, I do not believe the VHL needs an All Star Game. I know we used to have one, and I did not care about it then. Maybe others did, but it was scrapped, so read into that what you will. That being said, there could potentially be some fun to be had. I do not exactly have an idea of what I would like to see. As I said, I do not much care about these festivities. I just care about getting a little bit more TPE, and this is the theme that was chosen for theme week, so I'll just write about some of my ideas that I'm honestly making up as I go. Let's talk about the timing of the game. I do not think having the festivities at the end of the season makes much sense. If it takes place during the playoffs, then it will always be overshadowed. Honestly, even if it happens after the Finals are over, it will still seem very much like an afterthought. Maybe this is part of why I did not bother with the previous iteration of the VHL All Star Game. I think having the All Star Game take place in the middle of the regular season would be the way to go. Having it in the midst of theme week seems like a poor decision, so I think we would want to put it a couple weeks prior. Now that I've gone over the when, let's take a look at the what. A traditional game between the two conferences is rather boring, but whatever. That could just be part of the festivities. I'm imagining a full week of games, one each day. Of course, this would go on concurrently with the VHL regular season, because we do not need to extend the regular season. In addition to a North America versus Europe game, we would need six more games to come up with. Two of those days could be for a traditional All Star Game for the two minor leagues. That leaves us needing four games, and these could be anything, really. Honestly, I think these games would be where the real fun would be in all of this. In addition to the three traditional all star games, we need to fill four novelty game slots each season. These could vary from season to season, based on what rosters could be filled out. I like the idea of a game between two VHL draft classes. I think there is a bit of pride in being a part of a strong draft class, but you are also rivals with each other in a way. Another idea would be to put a team of VHL rookies against the players that are in their final season. Or maybe the rookies take on the VHLE all stars. I would also love to see just how badly a team of the VHL's best could dominate a team of VHLM players. Having a game for the retired players, getting to see those names back in action is usually fun. These are just some ideas, and I'm sure there are many more possibilities. Anyway, that's just an idea, and probably not a great one. It definitely seems like more effort than it would be worth.

ahh dang

The Moscow Menace have put together a 12-game win streak, matching the Los Angeles Stars earlier run for the longest of the season. With the Bears next on their schedule, it is likely that that Menace will be able to keep it going for at least one more game. The result of the run has been a climb back up in the standings, though they still have a bit further to go if they are going to retake first place. The streak began after a tough stretch for Moscow in which they went 4-8-1, falling from first to fifth in the European Conference. Even still, they were not in a terrible position. Only four points separated them from second place, and they were only ten points behind the first-place Nighthawks. Courtesy of 12 straight victories, the Menace are now in second place, with a nine-point lead over third place. For the first time in the season, Moscow is really starting to put some distance between themselves and the other competitors. Unfortunately for them, Malmo isn't letting up. The Nighthawks are on quite a streak of their own. While they haven't had a double-digit win streak in the season, they are currently on a 15-game point streak, going 14-0-1 in that span, meaning Moscow has only gained one point on the Nighthawks during their undefeated run.

wtf is this shit

Important note regarding any time that I refer to the standings at a certain point in the season, I am referring to after each team has played the same number of games. Obviously that's not exactly how the schedule works, but that is how my research was done. I just wanted to make that clear. As we pass the halfway point in the season, the Malmo Nighthawks find themselves with a ten-point lead in the European Conference. They are in the midst of a seven-game winning streak, part of a 17-2-1 stretch from games 19 to 38. This came after starting the season with a respectable 10-6-2 record, which did have them in third place. They spent some time a bit lower in the standings earlier in the season, but they've found themselves in that top three for a while now and have a solid grasp of first place for the time being. This trajectory is somewhat similar to last season. In S91, the Nighthawks were 5-6-1 in their first 12 games, which had them out of the playoff picture in sixth place. While it was early in the season, the conference had six legitimate contenders. Some seasons, it will be pretty clear who will end up making the playoffs, and even if one of those locks is in the bottom three early on, there are no worries. This was not the case last season. But Malmo found their groove pretty quickly after the less-than-ideal start. In games 13 through 40 of their season, they went 24-3-1. Compare that to the 17-2-1 run that they are currently on this season. The Nighthawks fans have to hope this is where the trajectory stops mimicking, last year, however, as they finished Season 91 going 16-13-3 in the final 32 games. There is one key distinction between last season and this season: the Season 92 Nighthawks have had sole possession of first place in Europe since 23 games into the season; the Season 91 Nighthawks never held sole possession of first place in the conference. After 43 games in the season, they were tied with Riga at 65 points. There were three other teams within nine points. This was the last time Malmo was atop the European Conference, and they ended up sliding down all the way to fourth. When we compare the standings at the exact same point (38 games into the season for each team), the conference leader a season ago was Riga with 57 points. This season, first place Malmo has that same 57. Riga, however, was closely followed by teams with 56, 55, 54, and 48 points. There were four teams closer than this year's second place. Malmo is actually a point behind where they were a season ago, but given the look of the standings as a whole, they are in a relatively better position. I wouldn't say that I am particularly confident that Malmo will finish this season on top of the conference, but I certainly do not expect a similar downfall to the one we had a season ago. Also, as we found out in last year's playoffs, regular season success does not necessarily equate to post-season success. Europe is once again going to produce five playoff teams which will have very similar odds of making it to the finals.

Before the season began, the VSN S92 preview predicted Prague to win the European Conference, with Malmo and Moscow at fourth and fifth, respectively. After one week of play, Malmo was first in points with Moscow in third. Prague, meanwhile, was down at fifth. Despite the early records, VSN doubled down in their Week 2 predictions, picking Prague to be in jump all the way up to first. It was also predicted that London would move up to second, ahead of Malmo, and Helsinki (who had been in second) would drop to fourth, but stay ahead of Moscow. They really couldn't have gotten things much more wrong. At the conclusion of the second week, we have Malmo still in first and Moscow has moved up to second. Prague, rather than moving up at all, barely even managed to stay in a playoff position. There is still a lot of season left to be played, and the teams are all still relatively close. Prague is just seven points behind first place. If they have a good streak, they could easily jump up in the standings. Malmo and Moscow could definitely still fall. For now, though, it's clear that the analysts at VSN are getting it wrong; Malmo and Moscow are being undersold, while Prague is being overhyped.