S59 Start

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

S59's Start

 

The beginning of Season 59 in the VHL has been an exciting one to say the least. Heading into the season, the favourites were the Toronto Legion, Riga Reign, and Seattle Bears. But, one team has come surging out of the gates to start the year, and that is the New York Americans. New York is 7-0-2 right now, and the only team to not lose in regulation yet. Both the favourited Reign and Legion are 5-4-0, which is unexpected to many. Although, these top teams have faced each other a lot already, so maybe putting much not into all of this is a mistake?

 

Riga has the most goals scored out of all of the teams, with 32, and they sit in 4th place. New York has allowed the least amount of goals, which is not surprising when you look at the stats of goaltender Rhett DeGrath. He has started the season with a 94.4% save percentage, as well as a 1.63 goals against average. Last season's top goaltender Torstein Ironside has begun the season pretty rocky, and is holding down a 90.8% in saves with a 2.72 goals against average. Those numbers are obviously less than stellar, and he will definitely have to pick his game up if he wants to retain that top goaltender title. The big question is if Rhett DeGrath's statistics are sustainable? There has been a lot of offense for the past few seasons, so it will be interesting if DeGrath can keep up all of those saves, especially against the offense of the Bears, Legion, and Reign this season.

 

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Leading the league in points are both Helsinki Titans players, Rudolph Schmeckeldorf and Franchise Cornerstone. Both have 20 points in 9 games, which is fucking ridiculous if you ask me. Fred Krigars is behind them with 18, but also leads the league in goals with 11. They are producing at a pace much like what Krigars and John Locke have done the past couple of seasons, which is nice to see to be honest. It is way too early to tell, however, if those kind of numbers will keep up for anybody in the Top 10. Some of them are obviously expected to as star players, but I do not think we can judge anything until we are at least 20 games in. Although, even at that time you never know what will happen.

 

Regarding my team, the Legion, there is a new forward who is showing that he means business. Roman Sokolov's switch to winger from defense has seemed to pay off so far, with 12 points in 9 games. He has become a welcome linemate to Bo Boeser, and I very much expect that to keep up. Fook Yu, the other addition to the forward group, has put up 9 points, and is one of the VHL's top hitters. Then there is Fabio Jokinen, who is performing at Jokinen levels with his 11 points in 9 games. Point leaders for Toronto are Sokolov, Boeser, and Jokinen. Who would have guessed?

 

That does it for my little breakdown. We will all be keeping an eye on the closeness of the VHL standings this season.