scoop

Just some thoughts that popped into my head while I was on my run this morning. With the addition of the VHLE, the VHLM can now be more of the developmental league that it is supposed to be. What does that mean, exactly? Actually playing in games doesn't improve players in any way. Yes, being on a team where the management is focused on helping you become accustomed to the league and figure out how to earn TPE, for newer members specifically, is nice, but that alone doesn't strictly make me think of the 'M' as being developmental. GMs every step of the way are going to be like that. This being said, here's what I'm thinking. Get rid of the VHLM playoffs. Boom, not competitive. Fully developmental. Why? What do the playoffs hurt? Well, not everyone gets to play at this time of the season. Let's say a new member joins the league later in the season. They could sign with a playoff team who obviously is going to have relatively good players who are ahead of them in the lineup. Or they could sign with a non-playoff team and only get to play a few games before playoffs start and they have to sit and wait for the following season. Give them something to do. If they sign with a playoff team, you could say "hey, why don't those teams just give the newer guys more minutes too. Not like they should care about winning, right?" Well, then why even call it playoffs if the players who won the regular season games are losing time because there are newer players the teams need to get in there. Just continue playing exhibition games. Kind of sucks for the guys who are getting up to 200+ TPE, right? Well, here's my thoughts on that: players should be entered into their VHLE draft the same season as their VHLM draft, not their VHL draft. No, they likely won't be in the VHLE right away when they are drafted. Not necessarily even the same season, but that's how it is in the VHL too. Once they reach 200 TPE, they should be eligible to be called up to the VHLE, even if it is mid-season. This would be the only eligible movement mid-season between any of the three leagues: up to the VHLE from VHLM. You can't go back down to the VHLM, and no movement to or from the VHL. Also, depending on what kind of free agency or waiver system the VHLE is going to have, I would say no players can play in the VHLE before being drafted, even if they reach 200 TPE before the end of the season. So someone Jerome Reinhart wouldn't be able to be called up even though he will be there next week. We could have a deadline for calling them up as well, set maybe around the trade deadline. So only players who reach 200+ by the deadline, or maybe the end of deadline week, can be called up. So a quick summary: -no VHLM playoffs -players are drafted into the VHLE the same off-season as their VHLM draft -players can be called up mid-season from the VHLM to VHLE if they have been drafted and reach 200 TPE (this is the only mid-season movement allowed)

2. Following the theme week last week, is there any place in particular that you would like to play in the VHLE of all the possibilities? (The correct answer is Istanbul) Definitely Copenhagen. In my opinion, Denmark deserves a team more than any other nation aside from Germany, in my opinion, based on player representation in the VHL, past and present. 3. Is your player's build turning out the way you wanted? I would say yes. I'm looking to build Mourning into a two-way forward. Score goals and hit people, that's what I want to do. Early on I wasn't doing much of any of that, but my hits started picking up once my strength and checking were up to 70, and I've been picking up more goals ever since my playing time has gone up. 4. What is your personal highlight of the season so far? I would say that it was our 28th game of the season. The Wild went up 3-1 early in the third period, after which I scored a goal, had an assist, then scored a second goal to put us ahead. I ended up with a hat trick thanks to an empty net goal, but even without that, it was a huge third period for me to get us the win over a team that we are currently tied with in the standings. Plus I only had two goals and eight assists up to that point, so it was a bit of a turning point in the season for me. In the 37 games since that slow start, I've scored 21 goals and had 15 assists, so I've definitely picked it up. 5. Several members of the team are having remarkable individual seasons, how do you feel about your season so far? Somewhat disappointed, even though I'm playing the way I would like to. I would have liked to have finished the season much closer to 100 points and 200 hits, honestly. The season I'm having right now is more like what I would've hoped to have as a rookie in the VHL next season, but if this is how I'm playing in the VHLM right now, it doesn't look great for next season. 7. What's your prediction for the conference finals in the NHL playoffs? Vegas and Tampa, that's my prediction. Though I also predicted Minnesota to beat Vegas (albeit that was a homer pick) and then Colorado to beat Vegas. I've been wrong about them every round so they're probably going to lose. 8. What's your favourite childhood movie? Hard to narrow it down to just one. I guess probably The Sandlot, but the first two Mighty Ducks movies and Space Jam are also up there.

I meant to say Sweden and/or Finland. And while Norway did have a team, Denmark never has, despite Denmark having a larger presence in the VHL.

1. With new additions Kid Frost @TownBizness and Angel Wachiure @inflastud the forward group is looking great! Where do you think it ranks among the VHLM teams? Well, now we have the upgrade from Deke Rike to Kaprizov as well. It's hard to say, though. On the one hand, I think individually it looks like we have one of the top groups along with San Diego and Minnesota. On the other hand, Yukon and Halifax have by far been scoring the most. Something is just clicking for them that isn't for the others. I do think the additions put us squarely ahead of Saskatoon, who have been outperforming my expectations, and into the same tier as the Marlins and Storm. 2. With the season officially being halfway over, there is a clear gap between the playoff teams and everyone else. Who do you think is the biggest threat come playoffs? I'm finally starting to buy into Halifax being a top team. I knew they were good, but at the beginning of the season I had them at third in the conference. They currently have the best record in the league. Just looking at their roster, it doesn't look like they have the forward depth; it doesn't look like their defensemen quite stack up with other top teams. But they have gotten it done all season long, and individually they are only improving. They are playing really well as a team, and they are going to be tough for anyone to beat. 3. Who do you think is our team's MVP at the halfway point of the season? I'd go with JaredN Jr. He has been good all-around; he has certainly been our best defensive player, and one of our top offensive players as well. 4. What do you think the trade deadline will look like for us? After having already added Kid Frost and Angel Wachiure, I wasn't anticipating any additional moves. Adding Kaprizov should help, though. Our centers were definitely the weaker spot on our forward group; not that Deke Rike was terrible, but the move allows Kman to now play on the second line, which I think is more ideal. 5. With the theme week being this week, what are you thinking of doing for it? I just went with a simple opinion piece on who I thought should get teams. Not very creative, I know, but I think it's really a great use of theme week to gather public opinion on potential teams and get people talking about it. 8. Pineapple on pizza? Not for me, but I don't care what others do. Not big on pineapple in general.

Definitely Ukraine over Belarus in my opinion. Belarus may be more hockey relevant in the real world, but in the VHL, Belarus has been laregly irrelevant while Ukraine has produced a good bit of talent. That's why I prefer one of those Ukrainian cities for the eastern European representation. In my mind, the first Nordic city to get a VHLE team would be Copenhagen. I don't necessarily think Sweden and/or Norway can't have a VHLE team simply because they have a VHL team, but Denmark has been represented enough among VHL players past and present that Copenhagen is my top choice among new locations. Denmark over Norway as well. Oslo has already had a team, and Denmark has had more of a presence in the VHL.

I will likely do that, thanks.

Last week when I was looking at how my award picks were doing, things were looking grim. I also noticed that several players who I had high hopes for on my fantasy team didn't seem to be doing well, so now I'll be taking a closer look to see just how bad I am doing. Okay, yeah, it's bad. My first two picks, 6th and 7th overall, are two of the five worst scoring players in my group. But hey, at least I wasn't the only one who messed up early. Beketov picked Jim Bob at 4 and Prout picked Andrew Su at 5. Still, I am in last place in my group. In fact, five of the six players on my team are among the worst 12 players drafted in my group. Jolly Green Giant and Roque Davis are not living up to my expectations, and Sirkants Klamasteris is one of the weaker goalies. Actually, though, the top six fantasy goalies all went undrafted in my group, so none of us are doing all that well in that regard. The saving grace on my team is Onde Sandstrom, who is the highest scoring fantasy forward. When the season is over, I'm definitely going to do a comparison to see which group did best. I know my group did not do well as far as defensemen and goaltenders go, as only two of our drafted defensemen are in the top 12 and none of the goalies are in the top six. We did better with the forwards, picking 13 of the 18 that would be in a perfect league. In terms of fantasy points, we are currently scoring, as a group, at 5278.48 total points out of a possible 5887.13. That gives us an 89.7% which doesn't seem so bad. Not sure how it'll compare to other groups, though. Group 10 Standings (as of 6/12 sim) 1. @Sixersfan594 914.03 2. @Telkster 911.94 3. @Prout 910.87 4. @Wolverine 864.68 5. @Beketov 853.6 6. @scoop 823.3 Very tight race there at the top, damn.

The UK is one of the greatest hockey nations in the VHL, probably number five because Sweden and Finland have more quantity, but the UK has more players in the Hall of Fame than any nation other than Canada and the US.

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I agree with you on these two for sure. I picked Odessa over Kyiv for ease of pronunciation and I just prefer the way it sounds in general, but either of them or Kharkiv would be fine. Copenhagen for sure though.

Personally, I view the VHLE as VHLM 2; that is to say, playing well and winning is nice, but it won't make me feel any better about a player's career. Those achievements will not matter much in my mind whatsoever. That being said, I am probably not the type of person for whom the VHLE was created, and that is fine. While I am not exactly excited about the VHLE (and not just because my player will be a first- or second-year player in the VHL when the 'E' debuts), I do enjoy discussing the potential teams and locations. Well, I enjoy looking at the history of the VHL and using that to make a case for certain cities. Before I get started, I should say that I don't know exactly what the plans are regarding the teams. The announcement seemed to suggest the VHLE would be made up entirely of former VHL and VHLM teams, and while I haven't seen any subsequent statements to the contrary, given that a poll put out Victor included other European cities, I would have to assume there is at least a thought to bring in entirely new teams. Personally, I would like to see a mix. Give us at least two new teams and at least two returning teams. Novelty is fun, but history is cool too. I will start by looking at the former teams that I think are the best candidates, because that will help dictate where I think we should put the new teams. Which Teams Could Return I think the number one team I want to see return is the Bratislava Watchmen. They were a part of the S31 VHLM expansion and played their final game in S53, after which they suffered the fate of contraction for some reason. During their 23 seasons of existence, they won 7 Founder's Cups, and although I said earlier that winning in the VHLM doesn't matter, I do think it is a bit different looking at it from a team perspective. Regardless, I recall the Watchmen being a fairly popular team during their time. The biggest knock on putting a team in Bratislava is that the VHL has not actually had a lot of Slovakian players, but as this is a case of an established team with a history in the league, that does not come into play as much. The other former VHLM team that I think is most worth considering is the Bern Royals. After moving from Toledo to Bern in S17, the Royals were a staple in the VHLM for 37 seasons. In the same season that we lost Bratislava, the Royals moved to Las Vegas and became the Aces. While they did not have a history of winning, they had a history in the league. The 37 seasons they spent as the Royals puts them only behind the Wild, Lynx, Storm, and Rush. Switzerland is also one of the nations that I think could be deserving of a team even though Davos already exists in the VHL. While the Swiss player base is not like it used to be, the city of Bern alone has produced four Hall of Famers. Looking now at former VHL teams that could make a comeback, I will first point to the Cologne Express. Their timeline is exactly the same as the Watchmen but without the history of success, winning just a single Continental Cup. What this really comes down to is the need for a team in Germany, which I will touch on a bit later. While I do think contracting them was the correct choice at the time, bringing the Express back is something to think about. The thought of bringing Vasteras back is undoubtedly on the minds of many people. Although I am not entirely opposed to it, and I have defended keeping the team in Vasteras in the past, I think a return of the Stockholm Vikings would be more ideal. Even though a lot of members nowadays might not know the history of Vasteras in the league and the associated stigma, they likely also don't know of the existence of the city of Vasteras. I think Stockholm would be a more popular choice among the masses, and if we're going to put a team in Stockholm, I think the return of the Vikings would be more than appropriate. Where We Could Add New Teams As I mentioned above, I think Germany needs a team. If not Cologne, then somewhere else. I don't think we strictly have to look at places known for hockey, but it certainly helps, in part because the members of the league are creating players from those places. I don't think we have seen as strong of German players in recent seasons as we have in the past, but there are certainly noteworthy names. Putting a team in Germany makes sense for many reasons, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen, whether it is the Express coming back or somewhere like Berlin or Munich getting a new team. Now let's talk Nordic nations. Sweden or Finland could get a team somewhere despite each already having a VHL team. They have both produced a long list of players in the VHL. They have both had multiple teams that are no longer in use that could be brought back or cities that could be given a new team. Then there are Norway, Denmark, and Iceland (sorry Reinharts, I'm not looking at Greenland beyond this acknowledgement). Norway has not historically been a popular nation among VHL players, despite Oslo having a team in the VHLM for several seasons. Both Denmark and Iceland have been more relevant in the VHL, and for that reason, I look toward Copenhagen and Reykjavik as possible locations as opposed to Oslo or another Norwegian city. Glasgow, anyone? Honestly, it took London too long to get a team in the league. Maybe the UK doesn't stack up with the top dogs in real life, but when it comes to the VHL, it is up there with the likes of Finland and Sweden. I could legitimately see putting a VHLE team somewhere on the British Isles, and I have seen a couple others bring up Glasgow as a potential destination as well. I lump Paris and Rome together as well-known cities in nations not totally irrelevant in the hockey world. Neither France nor Italy have been particularly popular among VHL players, but these cities do seem to be places that people would like to see teams anyway. Plus, if we just went based on proportionate player base, the VHLE would end up being two teams in each of the UK, Sweden, and Finland. We don't want that. We want Paris and Rome. I would like to see something further east than Bratislava. The first, probably most obvious city that comes to mind is St. Petersburg, Russia. That is definitely one to consider. I'm more partial to exploring Ukraine a bit, however. While obviously not a top producer of talent, the VHL has had a number of good Ukrainian players, including four Hall of Famers. If we were specifically trying to branch out into nations that don't already have a team, I would definitely put Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Odessa in the mix. My Final Picks Bratislava Watchmen Copenhagen German city French city Ukrainian City Glasgow/Rome/Stockholm Vikings/Vasteras Iron Eagles/Bern Royals As you can see, my sixth slot is a little up in the air. If you want me to make absolute picks, I would say the Watchmen and Express return, with teams in Copenhagen, Paris, Odessa, and Glasgow joining them. Again, though, I'm not really all that passionate about what cities get teams, though I will say that the Watchmen are my only absolute lock and Copenhagen is my number one choice for a new team. 1313 words; claiming for weeks ending 6/20 and 6/27

Continental Cup: Chicago Phoenix Victory Cup: Riga Reign Devon Marlow-Marta Trophy: Chicago Phoenix Terence Fong Trophy: Prague Phantoms Scotty Campbell Trophy: SS Hornet Brett Slobodzian Trophy: SS Hornet Daisuke Kanou Trophy: Jean Pierre Camus Mike Szatkowski Trophy: SS Hornet Kevin Brooks Trophy: Christian Mingle Alexander Beketov Trophy: Matty Socks Sterling Labatte Trophy: Erik Killinger Jake Wylde Trophy: Roque Davis Aidan Shaw Trophy: Jean Pierre Camus Greg Clegane Trophy: Jean Pierre Camus Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy: Hard Markinson Scott Boulet Trophy: SS Hornet David Knight Trophy: Chicago Phoenix Dustin Funk Trophy: Ryan Schwarz Alexander Valiq Trophy: Matty Socks Playoffs are playoffs and Chicago is going to be in them, so I could be right about that. They are looking good, with the third best record right now. Don't ask me how I came to the conclusion that Riga would win the Victory Cup because I don't know and I'd like that one to be ignored. Prague probably won't win the EU, though Chicago again could win the NA, though Seattle looks good. SS Hornet sucks apparently and Toronto is bad I guess, so I'm an idiot for all of that. Playoff MVP is who knows, but I guess I'll be rooting for Chicago in the playoffs. Christian Mingle is just four goals off the lead right now, behind four players though. Matty Socks? More like Matty Sucks at leading the league in assists, am I right? He's 12 behind and not even in the top ten, pick it up, guy. Erik Killinger probably isn't winning anything and oh my Roque Davis for a second I thought you were retired with how far down I had to look for your name. Jean Pierre Camus, I know you're doing pretty good, but I'm really going to need you to pick it up. HARD MARKINSON. YES. THAT IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Predicting this shit is too easy. Aaaand there's SS Hornet's name again. Fuck. Let's go Chicago, again, apparently. I have no idea how the David Knight voting will go even if Chicago were to win the Victory Cup, so I'll dedicate more words to discussing this one than I have any of the others. Just to make sure that was a valid statement, I'll give it one more quick sentence that doesn't actually relate to the award, but I'm counting it anyway. Ryan Schwarz is actually on pace for fewer points than he had last season. Matty Socks again. Overall looks like I've nailed it for the most part.

The World Cup has been a staple of the Victory Hockey League since its inception over a decade ago. Occurring following every even-numbered season, aside from a brief period of time in which it was every third season, there has been a total of 36 tournaments. Throughout that time, some members have dedicated player after player to the same nation, while others choose to mix it up a bit more. In this series of articles, I am going to be looking at the members who have had the most success with each of the World Cup teams throughout their entire time in the VHL. With the exception of Team Canada and Team USA, World Cup teams are comprised of a group of several nations. These team boundaries have changed over time with the changing trends in player nationalities, so it does muddy things up a bit. While not a perfect solution, I have decided to group some of the teams together to try to closely resemble the modern divisions. I will also make note of players who have had the most success with each individual team. I'm going to start with the team that has had the most messed up history: Team Europe. When the league first started, three of the six World Cup teams were comprised of the nations that make up today's Team Europe, though some of these teams would have included players that would now be assigned to Team World. Throughout the years, we have had Western Europe, Central Europe, Switzerland, Germany, and United Kingdom, often with multiple of them in the league at the same time. @Phil I'm going to get straight to the member who has brought the most medals to Europe: Phil Knight. It should not come as a huge surprise that Phil has had a great deal of success with the various European teams. His first player, Phil Gerrard, was part of the United Kingdom explosion of the late teens and early twenties. Over the course of two players, Phil helped them win four silver medals. While the United Kingdom no longer had their own team, Phil continued making English players. He was as steadfast with his players' nationalities as he was their first names. He had his most international success with Phil Hamilton, who two golds and two silvers with Team Western Europe. Since Phil joined the league, he has won 15 medals with seven different players for European international teams. In fact, the only medal-winning team that he wasn't part of was Team Europe's bronze medal in S24, but even that was only because Phil was representing the UK at the time. @Knight While Phil's success in the league has eclipsed his brother's, David has still certainly been a huge part in Europe's World Cup history. It started at the very first World Cup, where David Night was a part of the gold medal-winning Team Western Europe. He later won a couple medals with Team Switzerland when that was a thing. While he certainly wasn't in Phil's shadow during the careers of Walcott, Smalling, and Hamilton, he has not won a medal without his brother since Season 14, nor has he won a gold medal since that first World Cup. Still, nine medals with five players is nothing to sneeze at, and anyone who was in the league during David's tenure would likely see "the Knights" as England's finest as opposed to just Phil. @Victor Victor is someone who has just had a lot of success in general, and while he hasn't had the same dedication to one nationality as the Knights throughout his careers, he has won medals with the handful of players from the British Isles. Victor was late to the UK party, though Bentley did pick up a silver in Season 34 before a restructure which saw it become part of Team Europe, with whom Bentley won a couple more medals. The impressive thing about Victor, and this is a bit of a spoiler here, but this is not the only time he will appear in this series. @der meister Finally we get to some representation of continental Europe, courtesy of der meister's German-born players. Till Lindemann was not a star by any means, but he was part of Team Europe's silver medal squad in Season 37. With Christoph Klose, der meister won a pair of gold medals, which is more than either David or Victor had with the central and western European teams. It is for that reason that he gets a bump up from being an honorable mention, even if some of the members down there have just as many medals as he does. Honorable Mentions: Perhaps @solas could be more than an honorable mention, but none of his six qualifying medals were golds, and also I don't know exactly where Turd Ferguson is from. I do know he was on Team Europe when Team UK was in existence, so that does give a bit of a hint about where he was from. Later on, solas did have much more successful players in the Dutch Willem Janssen and the German Lukas Muller, who combined for four silvers and a bronze. Swiss players were all the rage in the early days of the VHL, and while @scotty could get a bigger shoutout due to the legendary status of Scotty Campbell and Tomas Jenskovic, I'd like to talk more about @Quik. It's possible that Scotty's players had a bigger impact on the teams, but Quik's players do have more medals (Branden Snelheid, 3; and Matt Bailey, 2). Both Hall of Famers, Quik also had Hall of Famer Matthew Pogge from Switzerland, but he never won a World Cup medal. There are other players from the Swiss generation of the VHL that have won five medals, but I think Scotty and Quik are the standouts for sure. @RawEnergy has six medals between his time with Leander Kaelin (Team Switzerland), Shane Lynch (Team United Kingdom), and Miroslav Ladic (Team Europe). For clarification, this is not the Miroslav Ladic who was RawEnergy's first player, but rather the one who played zero games in the VHL and was carried to a bronze medal while having under 60 TPE. The Ladic that did win a medal was definitely unimpressive, but RawEnergy was one of my favorite teammates when I first joined Davos so I was definitely going to include him here; plus, he was more than just a part of the Switzerland fad, and Lynch was not an entirely insignificant player. 1092 words; claiming for weeks ending 6/6 and 6/13

1. Kaleeb and I have been talking about introducing a team MVP award to be given out each sim by the winner from the previous sim. What do you think of this idea? I think it's a cool idea, and not just as something to build camaraderie and get teammates acknowledging each other more. In the past, I've done weekly statistics to write articles or do podcasts highlighting top players. I like the idea of periodic accolades because it gives guys who are definitely not the best but still have a good day or week or whatever something to be a bit more excited about. 3. With us closing in on the halfway point of the season, what are your thoughts on how we've done and in what area do you think we need to improve the most? We've done well on special teams, particularly on the power play where we are second in the league with 30.22%. Our penalty kill is solid as well, fourth in the league, and we are the leaders in combined PP+PK%. On the contrary, I think our even-strength play is a weakness, particularly on offense. We are only 6th in total goals despite 42 power play goals, and while we only drop down to 7th when looking at just even strength goals, I think it's worse than you see at first glance. While I don't have exact numbers regarding how much time we spend even strength relative to other teams, we do have the second-fewest power play attempts and the fourth-fewest penalty minutes. Given that we are successful on power plays as well, those attempts are on average going to be shorter than most, giving us even more even strength time. Plus when you compare even strength goals, we are a lot closer to the teams at the bottom. We are the team that is the most reliant on power plays, and it shows. I think expectations were higher for us, and our even strength play needs to get better if we want to contend with the top teams. 5. If there was a VHLM All-Star skills challenge, what event would you most want to participate in? Is there a challenge that let's me hit people? That one. 6. With the VHLE being introduced in S80, where would you like to see a team? What potential team would you like to play for? @Juice has been pushing for a team in Budapest. Location really doesn't matter much to me. Any preference I would have would be toward former VHL/VHLM teams. And truthfully, I care so little about it, that my number one choice would be to bring back the Toledo Scorpions. Obviously this is something that would never happen, but they were the VHLM affiliate for the Dynamo back in the early days, and I was GM for a season or two and played for them. 7. With me being a Buffalo Sabres fan, the playoffs are something that I've barely seen my favourite team in. If your favourite team is still in the playoffs, what are your thoughts on how they are doing and their chances going forward? I'm a Wild fan, so my team is out. Even if they had pulled off a game seven win against Vegas, I gave them a very low chance of beating Colorado. I'm used to seeing them lose in the playoffs, but it could be worse, I guess. At least I get to see them in the playoffs. 8. In a non-pandemic world, do you prefer to order-in or go to a restaurant? 100% order-in. I really don't care much for going to restaurants. I'm a slow eater, so I end up either holding everyone up at the end or having to stay out of all conversation to finish on pace with everyone else.

It was Toledo, Spain. They were Avangard/Davos' minor league team.

I really like looking at the history of the VHL, previously holding the self-assigned title of VHL Junior Historian, so I've decided to write a series of articles that will allow me to take a look back at the past. Luckily, there are a lot of resources out there (some of which I have helped put together) for people who want to dig into historical topics, so the research end won't be too time consuming. The articles I'm going to write will be about which users are most representative of various World Cup teams, based mostly on the medals that they have earned throughout all of their players careers. I'd be surprised if this topic has not been touched before, but it's nothing that I've ever really looked into. I can say right now that there are several members who have won 7+ medals with the same team and none elsewhere. Certain members have definitely been more committed to a single nation or region than others, and honestly, I think people who have been around a while won't be too surprised by those names. I won't strictly be looking at players who have only won medals with a single World Cup team.

1. We've started the season 9-4-0. What do you think about our record? We started out slow, losing three of our first four games, with the Lynx being the one team of those three we should have definitely beaten. We've both won and lost against good teams, but I do think I would have expected our record to be a bit better at this point. I think we'll be higher than third in the standings by the time the season ends, so we've got some work to do. 2. Would you consider us a serious cup contender? Absolutely, though it's not going to be easy. I mean, we've shown that we can beat Halifax and Minnesota, the other top teams in the conference, and we're doing all of this with me playing just over 10 minutes per game. I really do think we are underperforming right now, and it's just a matter of figuring out the best lines before we really start to click. 3. The Yukon rush and @Juice have declared war on us? What do you think of this potential rivalry? I don't want to hate the Rush, because I was the team founder way back in S31, but they knew how badly I wanted to play for them, and sure they needed a center when they picked Numminen, but it still stings a bit. Now not only do I want to see them lose, I want it to be by our hands. 4. Other than the Yukon Rush, who would you consider our biggest rival? I think I'd say Halifax, even though I think Minnesota is the better team. We just handed Halifax their first loss of the season after starting 11-0, so they surely will want to get us back for that. 5. We have a handful of players who are above a point per game including Genghis Khan @caltroit_red_flames who's tied for the league lead in points and Alex Johnston @Alex_J32 who's leading the league in goals. Are you happy with your players performance so far this season? Not one bit, and I think part of the fault lies on the GM who has me playing on literally just one line. It's the VHLM so I don't really care enough to say anything, but I think I definitely deserve more minutes. 8. Peanut butter or Nutella and why? Peanut butter of course. I've loved peanut butter ever since I was a kid, and I don't really care much for Nutella. Peanut butter is also healthier I'm pretty sure, so it's really no contest for me.

Toledo Scorpions anyone?

me good

This is very likely true.

You can say it'll be competitive all you want, but the nature of the E will likely be be exactly the same as the M. Teams lose their best players every season, so there's no sense in keeping good players if your team isn't going to make the playoffs. So the bottom teams will sell, accumulate picks, and we'll just have that same cycle.

I propose that the VHLE teams are re-drafted every season. It's fresh, it's exciting. Teams won't be managed in the same exact way as VHLM teams where the GM's have to be thinking about who is going to graduate and drafting based on that. The number of teams could be adjusted each season based on how many players are at that stage of their career. I would also propose that teams can't trade draft picks, so there's no tanking one year to stockpile picks. Honestly, maybe no transactions at all.

It's finished you can read it now!!

whoops I didn't mean to post this yet