This Week in Lynx Hockey (august 6th-13th)

[Brrbisbrr 207]

   
                  Hello ladies and gentlemen, what a week it has been!  Your Ottawa Lynx are number one in the VHL.  There is lots of news to cover not only with the Lynx but the VHL as a whole.  As far as Ottawa goes, it has been a very successful week!  Ottawa has overtaken Philadelphia for first place, leading the VHLM by 4 points with only 8 games to go.  If Ottawa wins 5 out of those 8 they lock up the number one seed in the playoffs.  Can they do it?  What does this mean for their championship hopes?  Will they get revenge for last season?

 

                 As far as players go, Zeno Miniti still has the lead in points with 127.  Thorny Underyew is second with 110 while Anthony Hawk has 99.  Ottawa also has the league’s top 3 goal scorers, Underyew has potted 55, Miniti has scored 50 and Hawk has netted 46.  What a season these guys are having.  Finnegan MacBurn has snuck into the top 10 in points for defenseman, putting up a 5 point game this week.  The biggest storyline is what has been going on with Raymond Bernard?  He has been getting less and less starts as the year goes on.  While backup Samuel Ross has been playing great, he is certainly not the superstar in making that Bernard has been this season.  I have heard from sources though that it’s just rewarding Ross for working hard as a backup.  I have it on good record that the reason Ross started against Philadelphia (which Ottawa won in a shootout 3-2) was to show that Ottawa had the tools to win no matter who was in net.  There doesn’t seem to be any grumbling from the locker room, so I doubt this will be much of an issue heading into the playoffs.  We will see.

 

                As for the big VHL news, word from the league is that it is expanding to 12 teams.  The board of directors, overjoyed at the amount of VHLM players trying to make the jump, voted last week on the expansion.  My sources say it will be one North American team and one team from Europe or Asia.  Expansion teams usually start out slowly in the VHL but this year does have a strong crop of rookies.

 

               So where exactly will they expand to?  Right now there are a lot of major US cities without a franchise.  Do the directors try to tackle some of the bigger leagues for fans?  Should they try a small town with no competition?  How about a non traditional hockey market? San Diego and Mexico City have VHLM teams and while both are not super successful in the standings, they seem pretty strong financially.  I highly doubt it is enough to move a major franchise in.  Personally I would like to see a Kansas City franchise.  The KC area has had successful franchises in other sports and seem to have great fan presence every year.  If the team is successful, the fans will show up.  People in Kansas City don’t need a championship to come out, as long as the team plays well, they will support well.

             

              On the European side, that is kind of a tough one.  A lot of the major European cities have a franchise.   Do you really want to put a team in soccer crazy Rome, Spain, or London?  Cologne has already had their shot.  Would Berlin be any better?  Paris is soccer crazy as well.  Most of the major hockey crazed cities have franchises.  I propose Prague.  Prague has a rich history with hockey and has produced great players before.  I think it would be close enough to Germany to get some fans from that area.  Another bonus is that it is close to Riga and could be a great rivalry to the Reign.

That’s it for this week in Lynx hockey.  

 

           Next week will be the playoff preview as the Lynx try to bring home another cup.  It’s still too early to call who they will be playing as there are lots of leap frogging that could take place!

Edited August 13, 2019 by Brrbisbrr