Sadie Babbles: VHL Rookie Edition

[sadie 949]

This is not the kind of writing I normally do but I currently find myself with 1 hour and 1 minute to get my TPE in for the week; I've weirdly been cutting it close lately despite it being the holiday break, which you'd think would give me a lot more time on my hands but no. I was pretty busy with family during the holidays and basically all the rest of the time has been taken up by work. Theoretically I get back in rhythm next week going back to school and getting on more of a consistent schedule. But anyways, on to what has been happening for me VHL-wise lately.

Brandon Petan Jr

I'm really happy to have been made captain of the D.C. Dragons immediately, something I didn't expect so quickly, and certainly not before stepping foot on VHL ice for the first time. I hope I can retain that position for seasons and seasons to come and become the face of the Dragons franchise. I also think it's pretty fun that I'm playing on the Dragons, given that we're the one team that my last player Sadie St-Louis was absolutely on fire against for the entire duration of her career. For reference (and this doesn't even include her last season in S94), St-Louis scored 63 points against D.C. She didn't even score more than 40 against any other team, and did this while playing in the EU Conference for more than half her career. As far as Petan's play this season, I'm certainly not unhappy with the production but I feel it could be more, especially taking into consideration BPJ's TPE compared to many other rookies. I'd like to earn some individual accolades at some point in the career, but am not surprised that I likely won't grab the Stolzschweiger. I have believed (and still do) that River Harrington will take it home, especially given the production that comes from a team that scores as frequently as Moscow, not to mention all the star power present there. Petan sits 8th in rookie points, and I'd expect that position to rise a little, but I'm thrilled to see YNFR and Hitstick up there as fellow Dragons. We have a bright future!

GMing Frustrations
Although I have to say I've really enjoyed GMing so far, I also have to acknowledge there have been points of great frustration. Vegas lost both our games today, and yet again it can be chalked up to the inability to finish and have sustained offense. We sit dead last in the league in goals for, despite having the 2nd best goals against (and we're 1 away from 1st). It really does make sense considering 5 of our forwards are young and developing; they're still building up their TPE and I'm really pleased with the growth I'm seeing from them! But losing two top tier players just really stung; first it was Ozzy Batty, then Anthony Simmons II, the two players that our plans were built around that now currently sit IA. The ever-present possibility of users going inactive is such a large wrinkle in the management of a team, I've realized. It's not even having to deal with the gap left in the team that's the worst; you really just end up worrying about the well-being of the users especially when they just completely disappear without a trace and haven't even been online on discord in forever.

Vegas

I know I just listed a bunch of things that stressed me out, but Vegas is great overall. It's been lovely to draft players and watch them grow, namely Ethan Ashcroft, Albin Aldgard and James Pearson from the S96 Dispersal Draft who I've gotten to watch improve greatly this year. The same goes for Jagger Bomb Jr who we got as a waiver last year and brought back in the draft. Our defensive play as a whole has been staggeringly good, and not something to overlook despite the lackluster offense I seem to have a knack for bringing to the team considering both this year and last year. Captain Manuel Ceson has been leading valiantly and Danny Ross is leading the league in hits and striking fear into the hearts of our opponents and even his teammate, the formidable Kazuma Satou. Our goalies have been INCREDIBLE; of course it has been mainly OCO who has played so far but be sure that Brian S will be seeing more starts as we progress. I'm honestly pretty happy with everyone on the team- I think our frustrations stem mainly from the absences of who was supposed to be here but isn't. I'll be changing things up offensively until we see improvement, and maybe there are even some moves on the horizon to force us into that contending stage.

 

There's a solid 800 words! I'm hoping to change it up and finally get a solid graphic out in the next couple weeks because I really enjoy doing them and don't get around to it enough. Also, watch out for a massive article coming soon to a forum near you later this month!