Thoughts on two weeks

[Hacob 26]

The start to Feka Ohi Kau's third VHLM season has been interesting. Although it was looking like he would hit the cap for the VHLM this year and be a dominant defender, that ended up not being the case as the VHLE was dissolved and lead to many elite defenders reentering the ranks along side him.
 

Not being a hockey person myself, it is tough to really understand how well he is doing this season. He does not appear to be near the lead for either hits or shots blocked which I would assume would be the two primary thats that defenders would be aiming for, and he also is getting basically zero assists or goals. However, he was not designed to be a goal scorer, but rather a pure defender that is as valuable to his team as possible. Whether that vision is coming to life seems unlikely given the poor counting stats for defense, but also I wonder if blocking shots or getting hits really is that important to being a great defender or if his impact may be being felt outside of the box score. After all, good passing decisions, forcing the puck away from your man, intercepting passes, and not turning the puck over are all very valuable assets that would not make an appearance in the statistics page. 
 

A potentially positive indication that the plan is working is that Ohi Kau's plus minus is higher than the teams total differential, although it might be a bit biased as he is playing with the front line so that may just be because of the teammates he has around him. It also is important to keep in mind that he is playing against players who may have over two hundred more TPE than he does, so success may not be something that should be expected until next season possibly. 
 

Maybe as I start to flesh out my build, and work towards a build created by my GM, I will start to see my plus minus rise or the blocked shots and hits start to tally up more, but it is a bit tough to just have to trust you are helping your team succeed without much to back it up. Being 14th in the league in penalty minutes but not really being up their in the hits is also a bit frustrating, but the entirety of Houston has seemed to be getting hit especially hard by the early sims with penalty minutes, so maybe the refs have started to drop their Houston bias a bit, or maybe the Bulls are learning to behave themselves a bit better. Either way, hopefully his high ranking in the penalty category starts to fall of as the season goes on. At the end of the day, all I can do is earn TPE and hope that hunting good defense instead of hits or goals starts to show up in the wins column for Houston instead of boosting my personal stats in the index.

502 words claiming 10/27

Edited October 28 by Hacob