VHL Season 64: Parity at All Time High?

[Devise 4,475]

Many cats are out of many bags regarding futures and changes regarding the current VHL and VHLM. But one thing I wanted to take note of while we are in the midst of Season 64, league parity seems to me at an all time high. Somtimes it feels like we are in the NHL or something. Not that far probably, but it is trending in that direction. 

 

One look at the standings shows you that the top 4 teams in the league are only separated by 5 points. Helsinki sits in 4th with 56, Toronto in 3rd with 58, Seattle in second with 59, and Riga in first with their meager 2 point lead over Seattle at 61 points. Even Quebec, who's offensive struggles have found ways to continue this season sits in the 5th wildcard spot with 48 points. Conversely the three clubs rebuilding or trying to slowly push their way out are likely well out of the playoff race at this point. New York, who has had a few steals this season are 14 points back of 5th place Quebec. 

 

The fact that the only thing solidified about these standings at this point in time is the 5 teams that will be competing is not only interesting, but kind of exciting. Despite being over halfway into the season, we are almost sitting exactly where we started at the beginning. More questions than answer, and really only knowing that one of Riga, Seattle, Toronto, Helsinki or Quebec are likely to win a Championship. Certainly you could still make your predictions, call out stats. But with the way some teams have fared against others this season, it's been an intriguing battle of different team builds and styles. 

 

In seasons past STHS and the VHL would sometimes favor specific team builds or strategies over others. You would rarely see so many teams trying to compete, but also so many teams doing it different ways. We have teams with more star power than depth, teams will more depth than starpower, teams with some sprinkled in, teams trying to rely on defense, teams trying to overload their roster and run with more players. The fact that so many of the 5 competing teams right now have strengths over the other teams and weaknesses as well is going to make it one of the more interesting closes to a regular season, and for my money a very interesting playoff. 

 

Series themselves are going to be less likely to take on tones and define a specific team as winner and probably will not only go further, but you'll see asterisk games. Games where a team shuts you out, games where the offense finally breaks through. It just seems to me as the season has gone on that any time one team takes a moment to bask in what they are doing right one of the other competing teams is right again on their heels, and hands them a tough loss, bringing things back down. It'll be a tooth and claw finish with races not only for team standings but also races on for awards. 

 

Ultimately, while I do recall the VHL having some parity filled seasons, I honestly can't recall things being this close this far into the season.The big question mark for me is if this parity is going to lead to more deals than we usually see at the deadline. Conventional wisdom would say otherwise, after all so many teams are close to the cap and we may be a bit overloaded on players, making trades harder to come by. Then again, with teams so close in standings GM's may see one big move or a shake up type move dealing players for players to avoid cap problems as the type of thing to push their team ahead. Team make up and composition seems to be playing a far bigger factor this season than just "how many players do you have with TPE?" Especially when so many teams have strengths in so many areas.

 

We'll have to wait and see how Season 64 unfolds. What has everyone else thought about the recent upswing in parity?

 

*Using for Rift for PT week ending on 1/20*