LucyXpher

I agree, he's kind of a big deal

Tainted cake would be cruel, but the punch bowl on the other hand...

Nooooooooooo! I had your gift ready and everything

This is actually really cool! It'd make a great shoulder patch on a jersey!

Halifax, Nova Scotia With a record of 24-4-0 in their last 26 games, the Halifax 21st are cruising. Last week, the 21st clinched a playoff berth for the first time since Season 90 and are chasing the Ottawa Lynx for 1st overall, trailing by only 3 points. While Halifax has more wins than Ottawa with 42 in 56 games, the Lynx have managed to pick up points in 6 overtime or shootout losses and and have only lost 9 times in regulation. The margin between the league's top two teams has been quite slim this season. Halifax leads the league with 188 goals for, while Ottawa has been the top defensive team, only allowing 107 goals against. In terms of goal differential, the Lynx are top in the league with a +57 while the 21st have a +56. Down the stretch, these two teams will meet 3 more times, with their last matchup coming in the final game of the regular season, potentially setting up a big game to clinch 1st in the league. ༻❁༺ The Halifax 21st find themselves in their favorable position due to the outstanding play of their whole team. Top to bottom, they've received big contributions from every player and the statistical leaderboards reflect that. As the team's leading scorer, Maple Dogwood @dogwoodmaple is currently tied for 3rd overall in league scoring with 72 points in 56 games. He's been a threat every time he touches the ice for the 21st and has consistently produced since the first games of the season. Of players who have taken more than 30 faceoffs this season, Pierre Marc Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito leads the league with a dominant 58.76% in the circle over 1484 faceoffs. Bouchard has also picked up his scoring pace recently and is 3rd on the team with 22 goals and 55 points. The team currently has 9 players with over 40 points on the season, including all 4 of their defensemen, 3 of whom are top 10 in scoring by defensemen this season. Alexandr Novotny @Patrik Tallinder leads the way at 3rd overall with 58 points, Dustin Moore @Maxx sits in 7th among defenders with 49 points, and team captain, Andrew Skilton @ace_five_, is 9th with 46 points. The team's 4th defender, John Season @dylanjj37, is only 3 points behind with 43 and ranks 15th in scoring among the league's defenders. The 21st have benefitted all season from a dominant blueline that has found ways to contribute offensively in addition to shutting down the opposition. In terms of forward depth, Tommy Shelby @Will has been an excellent 2nd line centerman for Halifax this season, pitching in 16 goals and 27 assists for 43 points to go along with a 51.47% rate in the faceoff circle. He's picked up his pace as well since the season began and seems to be on track to push closer to a point per game by the season's conclusion. Connor Simard @Alex99 has also been a versatile and effective player for the 21st, at times playing on the 1st or 2nd line. Recently, he's shown good chemistry on the top line with Pierre Marc Bouchard and is up to 17 goals and 23 assists for 40 points so far this season. 2nd line sniper and Halifax veteran, Aanarsi Reingaard @Laine, is 2nd on the team with 24 goals and ranks 4th on the team with 53 points. He hasn't replicated his 46 goal, 91 point pace from last season, but he's also hasn't needed to be the centerpiece of the team's offense and his point shares likely take a hit because of the talent around him. With that said, his point per game pace puts him on track to have his second highest total in 4 VHLM seasons and he remains a constant goal threat with his elite scoring ability. Dorji Khan @Oddpurplefly and Tyler Duke @TheDuke are players who have broken out recently for Halifax, with Khan earning his way into a top line LW spot and is up to 16 points on the season. Ty Duke has locked down the 3rd line center position and has 14 points and a 51.39% in the faceoff circle. Robin Sierra @ethanjaeda and Captain Nugget Jr. @Captain nugget have continued to make strides in their own right. Sierra continues to flash his offensive upside, but has been a bit snakebitten with a 4.94% shooting. Nugget Jr. has 19 points on the season and has played on all of the team's 4 lines at some point in the season, meshing well with a variety of linemates. The leaguewide plus/minus leaderboard is a who's-who of Halifax players with Dogwood, Season, and Reingaard ranking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall. Skilton comes in at 8th, Shelby at 12th, and Bouchard in 20th, demonstrating the efficiency of the team in even strength situations. While it's not a be-all-end-all stat, it is indicative of a team that succeeds in scoring more than they allow, which is kind of the point of hockey. In goal, with Samuel Wazinski @samthemancub out for the season on the IA reserve list, Jon Webber III @Webberj has taken control of the Halifax net and ranks 3rd among all goalies with 32 wins in only 44 games. While his save percentage may not be where he'd like it to be at .898%, his GAA is a solid 2.30, good for 4th overall with 2 shutouts rounding out his portfolio. Webber came into the season with something to prove and has quickly become a quality netminder on a team with championship aspirations. Down the stretch, he could be a big contributor to this team's chances of claiming 1st overall and he will inevitably be an important part of Halifax's playoff run. We're down to the last week of the regular season and playoff games could begin as early as Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Players will certainly be working overtime to prepare for the postseason and taking advantage of the limited runway left to improve. In just over a week's time, the regular season will be history, for the Halifax 21st it's full steam ahead! ༻❁༺ 1,015 words 1st claim for 04/21/24 2nd claim for 04/28/24

Welcome!

For old times' sake, I'm back to answer a few questions! 4. I'm always itching for summer as it is my favourite season of the year and I don't have school to worry about. What are you most excited for this summer? I'm heading home to work on the water again and I am very excited for that. I'm planning to do some travelling this summer so I can't wait for that, and obviously to be done with school for a while. I may be going up to Canada, back to Calgary for a bit, which is exciting because I haven't been back in a number of years and I've got some friends there that I'm looking forward to hanging out with. Also, just having more time and brain capacity this summer for creative pursuits is something I can't wait for. 5. Houston is a southern state known for Space Exploration apparently (google searched it, might need @LucyXpher to confirm). If you could travel through space where would you go? I'm heading out of the milky way to find aliens in other galaxies. Can confirm, Houston, A.K.A, Space City. If the Rockets and Astros didn't give it away, maybe Space Cowboys will hammer that one home lol. It's probably bad that I've lived here most of my life and never been to NASA though If I could space travel, I'd like to go to Mars. There's something familiiar and foreign about it, like it's close, but so far away. It would be cool to visit Mars just to imagine what life will be like if humans colonize there one day. There's actually a great series of books which the flag of Mars is based on by Kim Stanley Robinson called Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. Worth the read if you like plausible-ish sci-fi. Martian Flag 6. How has your week been? Anything exciting or fun happening lately? What do you have planned for this week? Busy week for me with papers due next Monday, so that's what I've got going, unfortunately. Will be nice when that's all done though and I can breathe a little. In terms of fun, just Neflix this week. I probably won't go out until most of my school work is done lol.

It's not my fault you've got noodle arms, besides, in the long run you'll be stronger because of the extra resistence... you're welcome!

Work smarter, not harder!

Another great article! I love these weekly recaps!

Welcome!

Thank you so much! It was fun to work on!

I grew up watching Star Trek with my dad, and this is gold

You did amazing this week so congrats!

If you go to the VHL Portal home page, you will see that the player currently leading the entire VHL community in TPE earned this week is Dorji Khan @Oddpurplefly. Seeing an off-ice opportunity to take a step forward in his development, the menacing Mongolian took a giant leap this week claiming 31 TPE! At 6'8" and 240 pounds, you will be hard pressed to find a more intimidating player in the VHLM than the hard working 19 year old who credits his farm work as a boy for his incredible strength on the puck and tenacious play. Drafted 52nd overall by Halifax in the S93 Dispersal Draft, he came into this season still a very raw talent. As the season has progressed, he has really come into his own and is becoming a force to be reckoned with on the Halifax wing. As a versatile player, Khan is able to slot in up and down the Halifax lineup and is comfortable playing on both wings, though he is a natural left winger. His effort off the ice and results on the ice have impressed Halifax management so much that he's getting some run on the top line right now and is up to 11 points in 47 games played. That's a number that is sure to increase, if not double, by season's end. Interestingly enough, while Khan is admittedly still an up and coming talent, he has the most VHLM playoff and championship experience on the Halifax roster. As a late season call-up, Dorji Khan was a part of the Founder's Cup winning Philadelphia Reapers and played all 16 games for them en route to a finals victory. Though Khan only had 1 point in those 16 games, the experience gained from being so deep in the playoffs on a championship winning team will no doubt be invaluable to him and the 21st as he figures to be a much more important player to his team this time around. For all his hard work and leadership around the team this past week, Dorji Khan has been named the Halifax 21st SuperSailor for S93 - Week 3. ༻❁༺

This guy gets it!

For no other reason than because foxes are my favorite animal and Halifax is the VHLM team I'm most involved with, I introduce to you the Halifax Foxes! For anyone who might think this is serious, let me be clear, it's not. I think that the reference to Pier 21 in the Halifax 21st name is an amazing moniker for a VHLM team and I have no serious reason to suggest it change... but we can have fun here, and that was the goal when I put together this rebrand-- and it's not like Foxes aren't native to Nova Scotia, right? *Google confirms they are!* In any case, here are the jerseys! Home Away Alternate I'm not the biggest fan of the diagonal wordmark (unless it's the New York Rangers), but I didn't have an alternate logo to use and it looked decent enough with the gradient so I decided to stick with it. Let me know what you think and why the Halifax Foxes should never exist. And what other names would suit Halifax as a VHLM team? Foxes as a Vancover Wolves minor league affiliate anyone? ༻❁༺ Claimed for 04/14/24 theme week (rebrand)

Welcome!

Great article, I loved the research and effort you clearly put into this!! It'll be a fun race to the playoffs across the league!

Great article! And I look forward to next week's too! Now I'm gonna go rebrand Halifax just for fun, hopefully it doesn't mess with our mojo

No promises lol!

Since the start of the season, Maple Dogwood @dogwoodmaple has led the Halifax 21st offensively and has racked up 19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points in 35 games. He leads the team in the goal scoring category and ranks second on the team in assists. With a +/- rating of 24, he also leads the team in this respect, asserting himself as a two-way force for the 21st who currently sit 2nd overall in the VHLE with 49 points and a 24-10-1 record. Dogwood's 44 points ranks him 4th in the VHLE and he is firmly in the fight to be the league's top goal and point scorer as we enter into the second half of Season 93. All this success on the ice comes amid his off-ice cryptocurrency scandal involving JellyCoin. In a recent article Dogwood admitted that so much of his energy and focus was put into his on-ice play that he had a lapse in concentration that led to the mistaken purchase of $10,000 worth of JellyCoin instead of $100 worth of fruit jam. Despite the support of the Halifax organization and his teammates, there is still an ongoing investigation and federal prosecutors continue to breathe down his neck, making his MVP level of play all the more impressive. In light of his dedication to the organization both on and off the ice, the Halifax 21st are recognizing Maple Dogwood with this week's SuperSailor award as the team's most outstanding player. In a statement to the press today, Halifax GM Lexie Leitner said, "We stand with Dogwood. After conducting our internal investigation, we've concluded that there was no malintent on his part and we are proud of his dedication to our team's success. He's continued to be an incredible contributor for us on the ice and an outstanding teammate throughout this whole process and we will continue to stand with him until the issue finds a resolution." ༻❁༺

1. So how did you celebrate the Easter holiday yesterday? We had a party with all of the extended family on Saturday night which was... fun, I guess. 2. Today is indeed April's Fools Day. What is the greatest prank you fell for or pulled off? I think I'm pretty gullible because I take people at their word, which means I fall for a lot of pranks One of the worst was when I was fooled into thinking that I lost my job on April Fools Day one year. That was not cool lol. 3. What is your response to the recent embezzlement scandal? Speaking of pranks, I guess it turns out this was all an April Fools prank. Unfortunately, I don't think it's a great one... The people who are familiar with the VHL community will realize this, probably, but I don't know that it's obvious to some of the newer people or those who just read the post and take it at face value because it comes from a reputable source. I like a good joke, but I don't really think it's in good taste if it makes people who don't realize it reconsider their donations or question the league's integrity. I didn't realize it at first, and I might not have if I hadn't seen @AJW's post. I believe it was done in good humor, but I would hope it doesn't turn anyone off of trusting that their donations are being handled honestly if they don't realize the prank. I think a good prank makes sure everyone who fell for it is let off the hook at some point. 4. Which Western Conference is more of a threat to us, Vegas Aces or Houston Bulls? I actually think that in the long term, Houston may be the team that gives us the most trouble. They've got a great goalie and I know that they're building up a solid roster in front of Benson. Vegas isn't going to be an easy out though, so hopefully Simon is a Halifax fan 5. Is Pombo already a lock for S93 VHLM MVP or will someone else(most likely Maple Dogwood) win this award? Pombo is definitely a strong early candidate. I wouldn't be surprised to see @Benson be a candidate if he keeps playing well for Houston, and there are definitely a bunch of other players who could climb that list very quickly. So far, though, Dogwood has been our MVP! 6. Alexandr Novotny @Patrik Tallinder has been racking up the assist. How important has his passing ability been to the team? It's been huge that he's contributed so much from the defensive side. We've got some great finishers on our team, but we also need people to get them the puck so his passing ability is huge for us!

Through 16 games of the regular season so far, Alexandr Novotny leads all Halifax defenders with 14 points, tied for 2nd overall on the Halifax 21st. Drafted 12th overall in this past off-season's redispersal draft, the 6'0", 190 pound rear guard from Czechia has been a stabilizing presence both on the ice for the 21st and in the locker room. Playing in all situations, Novotny has demonstrated a balance of strong offensive instincts and defensive sensibility. He is a strong skater and distributor of the puck who has found teammates to score on 13 occasions so far this season. Off the ice, Novotny has been one of team's most disciplined and hard working players. As an assistant captain on the team, he has led by example, training as much as possible off the ice and improving rapidly every week. In the locker room, Novotny is known to be engaged in the life of the team, driving conversation, sharing music, and being a source of positivity for teammates and coaches alike. Starting this season, the Halifax 21st have begun a new tradition of honoring a player each week who has exhibited excellence both on and off the ice. This player will have shown an ability to compete and help the team with on-ice contributions, but also leading teammates off the ice through hard work and positivity in the locker room. The first recipient of this new award, the Halifax 21st SuperSailor, is Alexandr Novotny @Patrik Tallinder for his exceptional leadership and contribution to the team throughout the first week of the season. A new recipient of this award will be named every Wednesday while the team is actively playing regular season or playoff games. ༻❁༺