Mexico City Jumping Beans

[PenKnight 23]

(676 Word Count)

 

 

MEXICO CITY JUMPING BEANS!

 

Recently, we have noticed that Derek England, is starting to make a difference, with his new found home in Mexico City as a King. The first quarter of the season he and the Kings were in a struggle to get anything going. It could of been worse as two teams at the bottom of the standings are in far worse trouble. However, as the Kings Goaltender kept them in games it gave Derek and the team to start conditioning and bulking up some TPE. England went on a rampage for the last two weeks earning 64 Total TPE which is an increase of 43.5% which isn't easy to do at the VHLM level. Derek told us that he was getting acclimated to the new coaching staff and players. He was also having a culture shock, moving to Mexico City from Russia. A bit homesick from his hometown, Oryol, England got a bit lazy one week and cost himself ten to fourteen units of the precious TPE. Redemption came in the way of a twenty dollar donation which jump started his TPE bank an extra 23 TPE over 3 weeks of training. He will get the last six TPE added in a few days and every little bit helps since players max out at 200 in this league. England is only 51 points away from that mark.

 

We asked England how he has been feeling about the team and how they have seemed to come together in the last 20 games or so. He let us know that he is very happy with the progress and predicts that his team will finish 5th or higher. At this current time the Kings have made some room in sixth place and are only four points away from fifth! Four points translates to two games back depending on shootouts or overtimes. He and the team feel that they can overcome that obstacle but moving into fourth or higher would be a difficult challenge at this point in the season. The season is just over half finished as the Kings have completed 43 games. They have a record of 24-15-4. They have 29 more games to gain ground before seasons end. The Team and England have been saying the same mantra over and over for the last few weeks. Just get us in tournament! They feel if they just make the playoffs that all bets are off and anyone has the chance at the cup. They feel that they have a slight edge as teams are not taking them as serious as they should. This leaves the cracked open and when that happens you never know who is going to come barging in. 

 

It appears that eight teams will make the playoffs and it looks like Houston, Yukon and Vegas will have a difficult time getting past seven position. Las Vegas leads the way with a lowly nine wins our of 42 games. They are nineteen points away from eighth place and baring some miracle they are now positioning themselves for a rebuild and better ranking in the draft. The Mexico City Kings have gone their last six games without a loss. A few games were via Overtime and one was a Shootout Victory but it appears they have some confidence right now and the lines are starting to click. Management keeps jumbling the lines a bit and are laser focused on getting the players to keep training for stamina. Time will tell as it always does.

 

On a special note after England had back to back games with six PIMs each game he has been in the box less and putting up mostly assists and a couple goals from the blue line. When asked about his production he doesn't want to talk about it all that much. He noted that those numbers do not matter. The thing that he needs right now is to put more focus into strength. This will make the other categories go up as he won't be able to be knocked off the puck as easy.

Edited June 3, 2019 by PenKnight