VHLM GM Round Up... The Lost Interview...

[Pifferfish 597]

Hello again readers of the Ripple Effect. I'm Todd Ripley and welcome back to your favorite blog. Last week, I got into the nitty gritty of being a VHLM GM and after reviewing my records, realized I made a mistake. I left out the interview of the General Manager for the top team in the whole league. To my loyal readers, I'm sorry for this graves error. I hope to improve in the future. With that said, the following is the transcript of that conversation with Shindigs. 

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Ripley: With the deadline approaching and your team solidly atop the conference, many view Las Vegas as a likely destination for players on the trade block. Does your front office currently have any plans to make moves in preparation for a cup run?

Shindigs: Not really, I believe in building my team at the draft. Any trades I make this season will be to setup the next GM (as I'm stepping down at the end of the season) to do their thing next season. Just like the trades I made last season were to set myself up for success this season. I believe in the roster we have and the growth throughout our lineup. So, unless a golden opportunity presents itself, we'll likely not make any moves.

Ripley: The Aces are one of just two teams to have multiple top 10 defensemen in points. I've asked many General Managers about the uptick in more offensively minded defenders, and I'd like to see where you stand. How much does it matter to your team's offense to have great puck movers behind your forwards? What composition of defensemen archetypes do you prefer to have on your units?

Shindigs: We've got more or less a full set of DFD making up our primary core. They all have some offense, but in an ideal world I normally run DFD/TWD Since even OFD in our engine are essentially TWD by normal hockey standards, due to the power of the DF rating in our engine. We play a very possession centric style in Vegas though, so I absolutely 100% want at least one Checking DFD on every pairing if I can help it. Beyond that it's whatever my defensemen want to build. The DFD will funnel so many pucks through them, they will get points even without a large investment in offensive attributes.

Ripley: Your team has lost 3 of their last 4 games. That rough stretch was directly preceded by a dicey game against the Mississauga Hounds in which it took a goal in the final 2 minutes of play to win the game. Do you find it necessary to make adjustments after these types of streaks, or do you generally err on the side of a "it worked before, it can work again" type of approach?

Shindigs: We've just had a run of unlucky goaltending. The shot totals have still been massively in our favor for this rocky stretch, apart from I think one game against HFX where we got outshot? Most games have been pure domination as far as the skaters have been concerned, with the goalies swinging the games on their own. Nothing I do has any impact on the game-to-game performance of goalies, so no changes are needed. We had that 14-game winning streak leading into this rough patch, so we were due some tough luck. Since a lot of the wins in that 14-game stretch we didn't really deserve and were down to, again, goalie performances. I see this as our luck just evening out a bit. I'm not worried long term though. It also helps a lot of the losses have been in OT/SO so we're still picking up points.
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Thank you for reading. See you next week.