Not Everything is Rosy in the 'M

[der meister 3,197]

The VHLM. The launchpad of every virtual hockey career, from the lowliest journeyman minor leaguer to VHL MVPs. The league where every player steps in and first feels the butterflies in the stomach, the jitters and nerves from stepping onto the ice and knowing that you are one step closer to your dream, and that every player in an opposing sweater wants to keep you from ever achieving that dream.

 

It's also a league of disparity, inequality, and utter lack of balance.

 

This season has the Halifax 21st as the cream of the VHLM crop with an absurd 39-4-2 record for an 0.889 points percentage, a league's best 179 goals for, and a league best 74 goals against. No one can touch the 21st, and no one knows why the hell they're called that. [editor's note: I've always assumed it has something to do with World War II paratroopers or something, but I haven't looked it up. I'm sure I'll be told at some point.]

 

Behind Halifax is a small cluster of teams in the 60 point range, with the Mexico City Kings, the Miami Marauders, and Saskatoon Wild all among the league's best that isn't in Nova Scotia. Two teams sit in the low 50 point range - the Houston Bulls and San Diego Marlins - but already we have a 27 point gap. In a league with only 10 teams, having a nearly 30 point gap between first and sixth is pretty stark. It looks even worse when there's an 11 point gap between first and second, especially after only 45 games.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, the Las Vegas Aces have yet to reach the 10 point milestone and have only won 2 games this year. They've scored 49 goals. To put it another way, Halifax has scored 3.6 TIMES as many goals as Vegas, the difference of 3.98 goals per game versus Vegas's paltry 1.01 goals per game. To make matters worse, Vegas has allowed a staggering 217 goals, for a brutal "I didn't know numbers could go so low" -168 goal differential. 

 

Now obviously the league will never be one where every team is within a 15 point cluster from first to last, nor should it be. And credit has to go to the management of the franchises at the top of the table, of course. But if we step back from the VHLM as a league and look at the VHL as a community, a website, and a league, that kind of disparity is bad for recruiting and retention. No new player is going to want to play for a team that has won twice in 45 tilts.

 

These situations change from year to year, of course. Vegas was in the playoffs last season, and this season they can barely be trusted with Velcro sneakers - insert wildly inappropriate quip from Patches from the movie Dodgeball about ineptitude. In fact, the bottom three teams from last season  have all already been mentioned in this article as teams in the middle of the pack or higher: Mexico City, Miami, and San Diego. The Marlins finished last in Season 93, but they had a respectable 45 points, just 1 point behind Miami. If we go back two seasons, Halifax was the second-worst team in the league with 59 points, while Philadelphia stomped the competition with a 112 point season, beating out second place Vegas by 18 points.

 

Even the legendary Patches O'Houlihan couldn't coach Vegas to victory

 

I don't have a solution. I don't know how to bring more equality and competitiveness to the VHLM. Maybe it can't be done. Maybe the VHLM needs to downsize by two squads to have more evenly balanced teams. Those types of decisions are above my nonexistent pay grade. But one thing's for sure: Vegas really, really sucks this year.

[AJW 2,157]

Vegas and Halifax have played 6 times if you are wondering, because I was, and here are the results

 

7-1 HFX

9-0 HFX

7-0 HFX

5-2 HFX

8-2 HFX

5-0 HFX

 

Halifax is 6-0 against Las Vegas, with a 38-5 Goals to Goals Against…

 

[der meister 3,197]

1 hour ago, AJW said:

Vegas and Halifax have played 6 times if you are wondering, because I was, and here are the results

 

7-1 HFX

9-0 HFX

7-0 HFX

5-2 HFX

8-2 HFX

5-0 HFX

 

Halifax is 6-0 against Las Vegas, with a 38-5 Goals to Goals Against…

 

 

I was going to include that but the article was long enough already. It's pretty embarrassing.

[LucyXpher 1,433]

1 hour ago, AJW said:

Vegas and Halifax have played 6 times if you are wondering, because I was, and here are the results

 

7-1 HFX

9-0 HFX

7-0 HFX

5-2 HFX

8-2 HFX

5-0 HFX

 

Halifax is 6-0 against Las Vegas, with a 38-5 Goals to Goals Against…