Rin

Following up on my initial release of this VHL card generator tool, I continued playing around with it and introduced a few new changes that should be appealing. You can play around with it yourself at https://vhl-card-template.sqnnet.dev/ The big one: the card will now flip to reveal a generic backing. This can obviously be extended to reveal something more custom to the player-- maybe their stats, height/weight, a small description about them, etc. The full list of changes isn't crazy, but it fixes the one thing that was driving me wild about the initial release: Added functionality for flipping the card on mouse hover. Updated logic/package for exporting card to PNG This fixes an issue where exported cards would have a 1-2px wide artifact on their right side Next time I pick this up, it'll likely be to either swap out the template or add some kind of functionality for customizing the back. Purely exporting something animated like this is more difficult than exporting a still image, so if we ever wanted to show a card flipping in a forum signature or something like that, I'd either need to look a bit deeper into a formal export or provide a good, clear space for taking a screen recording.

One of the things I latched onto when watching hockey for the first time was just how flashy a set of pads could be. In a sport where individual expression is fairly hard to come by, goalies serve as the lone exception on the ice. While every other player can maybe get some colored stick tape or a tinted visor (until skates can be customized like cleats in the NFL), the goalie stands out with the freedom to customize their pad graphics and helmets as they see fit. While some would argue that masks are more interesting and worth looking into, I would argue the opposite; I can't see a goalie's mask unless I'm able to get a close enough view to marvel at the details. Pads, on the other hand, are so much easier to see from so many angles, and can end up becoming an iconic part of a goalie's look. In some cases, you can tell exactly when a picture was taken just by looking at the pads of the goaltender. This media spot is kind of an excuse to just gush over some of my favorite setups over the years. Nothing in this list is particularly ordered or ranked, and you will see some bias toward teams I'm a fan of. I watched them more often than others, after all. The Reebok Revoke era: This was the graphic that initially drew me into the idea of pad design. Debuting right when I started to get REALLY into hockey, these pads probably most defined what I like most about a good set of goalie pads. Controversial as it may be, I really love pads that: Aren't too minimal Stay entirely within the team's color scheme Use white as a base/primary/contrast color Creatively color or style a more generic geometric pattern, instead of custom-printing something VERY team-specific. While looking initially complex, the Revoke set was actually fairly simple in how it could be styled. You had the graphic essentially cutting a line down the middle of the pad, a color on the outside of it, and a color on the inside of it. Those options seem fairly limited when you first think about it, but take a look at all three of the different sets above. One opts to place the primary color on the inside, one opts to keep the pads full white except for a secondary color up the middle, and one utilizes the primary color up the middle with the secondary on the bottom. Many sets flipped this concept and put a primary color on the outside, like this particularly pretty set of blue and silver pads that I used as a young bantam-level goalie: It's this concept and division of color that really formed a basis for what I love in a set of pads. I would go so far to create my own little "company" as a kid playing hockey on ROBLOX that provided goalie pads for other ro-hockey players, and multiple designs would be quite obviously influenced from not only this set, but ensuing Reebok sets that were built from a similar foundation. Speaking of those later Reebok models, there's one example of these pads that I've omitted which happens to be my favorite, because I wanted to save an entire section for him... Corey Crawford's Championship Era: All of my immediate family hails from the Chicagoland area, and my dad has been a Hawks fan since he was a kid. My brother and I started to get really into the sport after the Hawks went on their 2010 on the back of surprise playoff performer Antti Niemi, who would fail to reach an agreement with Chicago in the ensuing offseason. While he headed off for San Jose, Chicago brought in ex-Stars veteran Marty Turco, who was fairly quickly phased out as a new call-up developed a hot hand in goal for the powerhouse Blackhawks. Growing up, Corey Crawford was my favorite goalie. Obviously; he was the full-time backstop for my favorite hockey team. How could you not grow to love your own goalie? (Actually, a Pepper vs Crawford comparison is fairly intriguing. Two "Hall of Very Good" players that mean more to their individual franchise than the league as a whole. I suppose that's fitting.) Over the years, I thought some of his pad setups were some of the absolute best in the league. Maybe it's my bias for bright colors contrasted by black and white shining through, but all of these sets over the years felt firmly like an extension of the Blackhawks uniform, which is still the best in hockey. I particularly love how the later models (P4 and XLT, listed 2nd and 3rd in the images above) keep up the theme of having primary red on the inside, contrasting with black down the middle, and adding a little additional splash of red in a line or section beyond the black. The P4s, especially, are probably my favorite pad design of all time, and nobody wore them better than Corey Crawford. God, this was such a sexy era for pads. Just look at how many different ways you cold customize the P4s, and this isn't even all of them... Maybe I'll boot up NHL 14 and show off what my old club team's set looked like. The Golden Knights Expansion Era With the benefit of a 20/20 hindsight, it's kind of hilarious to look back and see exactly when my favorite team changed over. Without knowing me, it's easy to think that I bandwagoned over to the Golden Knights as soon as the Hawks finally started their downfall, but I can 100% promise you, that was not the case. The Blackhawks are a Chicago team, and Chicago is where my family is from. I, however, was born in Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas proper. We were forced to move away from the city for Houston when I was entering the 2nd grade, due to some restructuring within my Dad's company, but I was old enough to have made friends and formed lasting memories of being a Las Vegas child. Growing up, I always always made a Vegas-based team in whatever sports game I was playing, trying over and over to come up with catchy names and fitting themes for a team within a city that, so I thought, would never host a professional sports team. They'd always hosted minor league clubs, mind you-- the 51's were a fucking goated minor league team name and I'll be forever sad they rebranded-- but questions surrounding sports gambling and the viability of the hometown market inescapably loomed over the city. That was, of course, until the Knights arrived with a bang. I knew, from the moment Bettman announced that he wanted expansion teams in four cities (Toronto, Quebec City, Seattle, and Vegas), i was going to be as on-board as I possibly could with the idea of getting a hometown team. I was 100% ready to jump off of the Chicago success train, and jump right into the trials and tribulations of a shitty expansion team. I even bought tickets to their first ever appearance in the NHL, a road game just a few hours north of me in Dallas, more than happy to watch this brand new team get killed. The novelty of having a team from my hometown was beyond special. And then, well... (I'm in this clip at around 0:37, right behind the bench) Getting back on topic though, this CCM set for Fleury is enshrined in VGK lore. I know he's the guy for pulling out the flashier (and uglier IMO) all yellows, all golds, and whatever his lovable, crazy head desires. This original CCM set though, with a gorgeous balance of that misfit-coded steel grey and black and a tasteful touch of gold, is the DEFINING set of pads for the young franchise. He would go on to host different setups while donning our uniform, of course, but any Vegas fan will tell you that this was the incarnation of Fleury that will withstand the test of time. The Knights, actually, have had a historically disappointing run of pad setups in its young lifetime. It seems like so many goalies stop trying to incorporate black into the scheme somewhere, leaving the pads with a distinct lack of contrast that really makes them stand out. I know we've moved black further into the background of our overall color palette (we now wear the sparkly golds at home, and our road uniforms come with grey pants instead of black), but removing it from your pads is the make-or-break difference that turns you from a Maxime Legace... ...into a Logan Thompson Aesthetically, Thompson probably has the second best pads in Knights history. This setup is beyond fucking clean, and makes the correct choice of leaning more into the black and a tiny, tiny touch of red instead of over-relying on the grey. For the BEST pads in Knights history, I have to ask you a question-- who recorded the first shutout in Golden Knights history? No, it's not Fleury, I know you want to guess him. The correct answer will eventually be lost to time, doomed to a legacy that goes no further than being the answer to this trivia question. His name is Oscar Dansk. This, in my opinion, is the best aesthetic setup a Knight has ever put on the ice. Done entirely within the graphic template of this CCM model, every single color is incorporated tastefully in a way that perfectly extends the uniform. It's a shame that Dansk didn't stick around, as he was injured shortly after recording the first Vegas shutout, because this setup is one that should never be lost to time. With Thompson leaving for the Caps, we have no real successor to this inaugural season juggernaut of a pad lineup, as Hill and Samsonov both insist on being delightfully boring and minimal with their setups. I really hope 33 finds a little more room in his budget this offseason for a flashier set, what with that new extension kicking in. At any rate! Thank you for reading through this Hill mountain of a text post, which was originally intended as a generic look into the world of pad setups and slowly turned into a much more personal adventure. I really lament that we don't get to see our players customized very much, since STHS is a text-based sim and all. Maybe I'll make it a goal throughout Yor Bjorven's career to design some pad setups, maybe someone with better PHotoshop knowledge than I can teach me how to overlay custom designs over existing images of pads. Honestly, you'd be a life changer for that. Anyway, good night VHL, and happy goaltending~ 1,800-ish words, claiming for 3 weeks

When I recreated and made Yor Bjorven, I was really happy to get back into the role of goaltender. I've always been really fascinated by goalies, especially in hockey, and it's been ages since my first player retired and I left to go skate out for a few careers. I knew coming into this that goalie would be a tougher position to fill, given the current ratio of supply vs demand with goaltending. I figured, however, that someone attempting to high/max earn would be useful to someone, no matter what. As time as gone on, I've seen comments made from some people about how higher/better TPE goalies have been forced to play on teams closer to the bottom of the standings because better teams simply can't afford them. It gets into a very meta conversation about value and such, but the message I've received over time seems to be "after a certain point, it's no longer worth the salary cap investment to staff a max earning goalie." These thoughts are coming to mind again, naturally, as I'm watching the wave of s100 recreates hit the shelves, with a few goaltenders among them that I know I'll be competing with somewhere down the line. Right now, I'm happy to be in a spot where I'm, at the very least, starting. I can only hope that Mississauga continues to be a force next season (we'll see how that goes), because if they're not, I don't think there's a chance of me joining a more competitive roster down the stretch. This is fine for the VHLM, since it's only the minors, but I can't help but wonder if I'll meet a similar fate somewhere in the VHL. I'm really excited about the upcoming draft, but part of me wonders if it was an awful idea, in hindsight, to try and get back in net?

1) I wanna be the best kind of chip, a Jalapeno Cheeto. Not a Flamin Hot one, a Jalapeno flavored one. Nobody gives them the respect they deserve. 2) Kessel had a HELL of a career as not only a 3 time champion, but a beloved teammate and a noted iron man. I'm taking his career over pure individual success any day of the week. 3) This question gets asked every week, I swear. Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad, doesn't require knowledge of the latter in order to enjoy at all. That's always my go-to. --- 1) What's the story behind your favorite jersey number? 2) What's your favorite uniform design, and why? 3) Is it better to own the jersey of a current roster player, or an all-time legend?

That's sick as hell, what card did you reference?

I've been tempted for a while now to throw up a Thunderdome post entitled "yeah, I'm a max earner, how could you tell?" that basically speedruns a 12 TPE cap with the shittiest submissions ever. I'm talking: A graphic of an unedited player with a VHL logo slapped on the front and the player's name off to the side in Arial typeface 6 press conference answers that are no more than 4 words each A screenshot of a Discord message that says "wtf where the fuck am i supposed to find fights won on the portal" posted to a #trivia-help channel A rambly .com article that goes nowhere and starts with the phrase "Hey guys so it's that time of the week again where I wamble for some TPE. Uhhh my player has 3 goals in the last few games so that's really good I guess but I hope they score more..." etc etc ...Needless to say, I would have no qualms letting a long, effort-driven post just cap you for the week.

I'm arguing that locking a reward behind a required theme is not the only way we can accomplish the goal of having an event and driving engagement.

The former-- if you feel strongly about having different topics to branch out and try, there's now a thread of theme week suggestions provided by a number of different members to pick up and try. Sure, nobody is forcing you to do so, but theme week as a resource or idea pool is now easier to access than ever. Removing theme week does not equate to removing your ability to try new things. The latter point/quote I addressed above. I don't think it's a particularly strong argument to say "you don't have to, so don't." While we don't literally need to participate, there's strong incentive to do so, and it's that feeling I'm particularly not fond of and suggesting alternatives for.

Well, it kind of is. they're not holding a metaphorical gun to our head, but the phrase "create something about tough guys, or else (you lose out on 6 TPE)" is quite literally the condition we're being given. "Unless one is working on a new all-time TPE record" is a false dilemma. There are plenty of reasons someone would want the extra TPE. In my case, specifically, 6 TPE is going to go a long way for a VHLM player that has yet to cap; 6 TPE correlates to 6 points outright for stats that can be improved and have a considerable impact on my player right now. If I were later on in my career, where passing on some extra points were more viable, I'd be more than happy to just move on. It'd still hurt to give up some additional earning, which is always going to be the case if one just opts not to participate.

It would definitely cause a shitstorm, but I can honestly say I'd be happier that theme week is gone than sad I'm losing 6 TPE in a season.

Honestly, @Banackock, you can even spin this to have a more positive recruitment angle. "Now's a great time to create a player in the VHL-- create this week to get an extra 6 points on attributes when you cap out for the week!" ...vs something like "Create this week to get an extra 6 attribute points when you write an article about a tough guy" This should be a week where we can easily push for activity on all fronts.

The lack of engaging themes isn't the problem. The problem is moreso that limiting PTs to a theme to begin with impedes creative cadence. This week, I was thinking about updating my card generating website to have a customizable back for my PT. Instead, I wrote some bullshit about a player with a decent number of hits or something and called it a day. Unless the theme very luckily aligned with my plans, it was going to suck and grind other VHL projects to a halt.

I hate doing theme week, man. A thread went up earlier this week, asking members of the VHL to submit their ideas for potential theme week topics. The impression (and admission) is that higher ups don't really care to think about it and end up scrambling to put together an arbitrary topic for us to all base our PTs around. But honestly, is that fun for anyone? It feels like all this does is force us to come up with something on-topic to shit out so we can make a reasonable claim for a bonus 6 TPE. A decent number of posts even call out the fact that they're not having fun with the idea, but need to participate in order to keep the max earning streak/dream alive. Is theme week just an antiquated "we do it for the tradition" kind of event that rolls around once a season to grind everything to a halt and make the VHL feel more like homework than a hobby? It's anecdotal and easily assumed at this point, but I put off my PT this week as much as I could because I really didn't care about the theme, or trying to draft something up around it. Finally I mustered the strength to shit something out, and I can confidently say that it's not remotely close to my best, most engaged work. But complaining without providing a solution isn't discussion, it's complaining. Thus, I'd like to propose an alternative: replace theme week with activity week. Keep the doubles week that we look forward to, but change the condition for redeeming it. Instead of creating a PT that fits within an arbitrary theme, a bonus 6 uncapped TPE should be awarded to members that hit the full capped 12 TPE mark for the week. Ideally, this should accomplish a few key things: Invite less active members to jump back in and interface with the league a little bit more Encourage members who are on welfare or welfare+ to give PTs a go, even if you just have one queued up for the ONE week it matters. Refrain from punishing active members by restricting what they can submit for a bonus reward Refrain from making PT submissions even less accessible to those who already do not submit PTs The most annoying guy you know is already typing up a storm about how the new condition encourages the "rich to get richer," but I disagree. No new TPE is awarded to those who already cap out, and completing the capped TPE trifecta of Trivia/.com Article/Press Conference takes minutes to complete. Simply awarding 6 TPE for submitting anything doesn't encourage anyone to go the extra mile for a themed week (like theme week currently does), so I don't think it's an unreasonable ask to invite members to cap out in order to receive a greater reward. This should be a once-a-season opportunity to nudge anyone who's on-the-fence activity wise and invite them to come interface just a little bit more with us. At any rate, discuss I guess.

It's theme week, yipee. Because my brain refuses to entirely turn off my creativity during theme week, I figured I'd throw back a little bit to my initial stint with the Helsinki Titans and talk about an entirely forgotten player-- Viktor Kozlov, created by my brother @Kuch9. Conceived as the fictional son of former WWE wrestler Vladimir Kozlov, Viktor (of no relation to the actual former NHL player) was born and bred to be a bruiser in the VHL. Early build decisions heavily favored stats that allowed for greater body checking, as he wanted to build the best enforcer he possibly could. Early on, Kozlov was drafted to the Halifax 21st (when their logo was still the really bad one that would eventually be replaced by what it is today), and immediately made his mark known on the VHL by going after the league's best and brightest. In one season with the 21st, Kozlov laid the body 263 times, good for 4th in the league at large. Not complacent with just being a big body on the ice, his rookie season also saw him put up 48 points in 72 games, including 15 goals to put him near the 20 goal mark. This was particularly interesting, because Kozlov would actually continue down the path of a lesser seen build for forwards at the time by being a bit more aggressively pass-first as opposed to shoot-first. This, of course, was well before the hyper scoring meta that saw a number of people just send scoring to 99 and watch the points fall in. Kozlov, instead, wished to dish the puck off to teammates who were better at handling, shooting and overall setting up plays, likely because it left him open to throw another check should the need arise. When I got the inaugural GMing job in Houston, I knew I wanted to bring Kozlov to the Bulls right away. He was my brother, of course, but I also knew he would be an incredibly useful piece of the inaugural puzzle as someone who had higher TPE compared to the rest of the field. While putting up 61 points in 72 games (not exactly lighting the league on fire in that regard), he would go on to league the league in both hits and PIM with 258 hits and 157 minutes spent in the box. While it should have been a recipe for success, Kozlov would spend his only meaningful VHL season on the Helsinki Titans in s66. Drafting my brother to the team I was playing for in the bigs should have been a slam dunk, but unfortunately, he and I don't have a very large intersection on the Venn diagram of interests and hobbies. Writing articles and making graphics, to many, is more like doing homework, and Kozlov ended up being the victim of such a mindset. Still, for the Titans, Kozlov put up 30 points in the regular season on a lower line, and threw the body 125 times-- good for top 20 in the league. He served as the ultimate roleplayer for a Helsinki team that would go on to win it all after sweeping the Vancouver Wolves in the finals. That means, poetically, Viktor Kozlov is a one season wonder in the VHL and has his name on the Continental Cup. Dude is kind of a legend in that regard. He'd bounce around between a few more teams in the VHL as an inactive line-filler, but nothing exciting would follow the Russian-born forward for the rest of his career. Still, he accomplished his goal of being a physical force on the ice, and even got his name on the Continental Cup (as many times as Pepper did, I might add).

I'm with you 100%. It's the one week of the season where I have to put aside creative liberty, making my PT feel more like homework instead.