VSN Weekly Report - S70 Week 4

[Erik Summers 451]

 Welcome to the fourth edition of VSN’s S70 Weekly recap (Games 206-288).  We’ll cover a host of things in this recap each week including highlights of important VSN happenings, three stars of the week, power rankings, rookie profiles, and anything else of importance.
 
Recap

We have entered the back half of the season and the playoff picture is beginning to take shape. The Moscow Menace had run out into a commanding lead of the league early in the week, but by the end, they had once again been caught by Vancouver. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the league, HC Davos has begun free-failing to lock up their position in the basement as fast as possible.

In the European Conference, the teams are beginning to space out a bit, with the smallest point-gap between teams currently in playoff positions is four points, between Helsinki and Prague. While in the North American Conference, only six points separate the second place Wranglers from the fourth place Bears, who regressed back to the mean a bit this week overall. The bubble teams, D.C. and Malmo, both had strong weeks and remain within striking distance of a playoff spot.

We saw a slight bump back up in scoring as teams respond to the defensive dominance that prevailed last week and this might have something to do with a decline in fights as well. A lot of exciting hockey was played this week with close matches between top teams and some huge upsets by teams that were starting to seam down and out. Altogether, it appears that our final standings may be shaping into their final form, but there is still plenty of time for a big move or a hot streak to shake things up.

3-Stars

First Star
Raymond Bernard (MOS) - .915 SV%, 1.95 GAA, 3 SOs
Second Star
John Frostbeard (DCD) - 11 P, 30 H, 5 SB
Third Star
Ben Hafkey (HSK) - 8 G, 8 A, 3 FGT
 
Power Rankings

European Conference

• Moscow Menace - Moscow spent the week pulling ahead and has nearly secured the top seed.
• Riga Reign - Despite falling further behind Moscow, Riga is continuing to prove their relevance as a contender.
• Prague Phantoms - Their record suggests they are good, but I’m still unconvinced for some reason.
• Helsinki Titans - The team has a chip on their shoulder, but will that be enough?
• Malmo Nighthawks - One really excellent win and a lot of close losses. Maybe they are better than they look?
• HC Davos Dynamo - Back to the basement with you!

 
North American Conference

• Vancouver Wolves -  This week was a blown opportunity to pull away,  but they held onto their lead.
• Calgary Wranglers - (+1) The only power ranking change of the week. Calgary had a really good week.
• Seattle Bears - (+1) I may have overreacted to their success last week. Third seems like a better place for them right now.
• New York Americans - Only team below .500 in a playoff spot. New York needs to be careful if they want to hold on to it.
• D.C. Dragons - This week had its ups and downs, but a good run could have them back in the hunt.
• Toronto Legion - It might be time to write this team off for the season. Expect to see some pieces sold before the deadline.

 
Notable Games

Game 232 - Riga vs Seattle
Battles between top teams in opposing conferences are always exciting because you feel like you may be getting a preview of the cup series. However, if this was a glimpse into this season’s cup final, things are looking a little lopsided. This game was fairly even for the first two periods, going into the third with a score of 3-2. However, Riga turned on the heat for five and a half minutes late in the game as Jagger Philliefan racked up points on three straight goals. As an entertaining side note, Finn Davison got an assist on Jagger’s first goal of the third, putting him one point behind Pepper for the lead in goalie points.

Game 248 - Helsinki vs Moscow
I picked this game, but I want to talk about the entire home and away between these two teams. We saw the extreme volatility that both of these teams have exhibited throughout the season on full display here. The Menace dominated the first game, 8-2 chasing Alexander Pepper while Mat Tocco became the first player this season to score six points in a game. In the second match, Helsinki made the first game look like a fluke. Ben Hafkey had an amazing game with three assists, a goal, and a fight where he clobbered Gritty. I think we will all be well-served if we get to see these teams face each other on the big stage in the playoffs.

Game 263 - Vancouver vs Calgary
Calgary has been nipping at the heels of the Wolves all week, but with this game, Vancouver finally bought themselves some breathing room. The Wranglers gave Vancouver way too many opportunities in this match, spending almost an entire period worth of time trying to kill off penalties. They made JB Rift stand on his head to keep them in it with forty-three saves, but in the end, it was Greg Eagles and Julius Freeman in the shootout to keep the Wolves on top.

Events of the Week

Fights

• Game 208 - Bailey draws with Scott
  • I saw some response to last week’s recap about how the VHL was becoming a thug-league, and honestly, meh. There are several players on pace to rack up more penalty minutes this season than the PIM leaders of the last two seasons. However, they won’t even come close to the likes of Evgeni Komarov’s S66 season. I talk about that here because this fight was just MGS being a thug in a game the wolves had already lost and that isn’t too exciting.
• Game 211 - Stark beats up Matthews
  • Maybe this will be a turning point. Fights got a little out of control last week, and maybe some heavier enforcement from the refs can help control the trend. Anthony Matthews got a double punishment for starting this fight. First, Ambrose Stark beat the pant off him. Second, he got ejected from the game, followed by five more goals from Seattle.
• Game 213 - Kastelic beats up Stava
  • Maybe Edu Stava was just doing his part to slow down the sustained offensive pressure being created by Riga, but he paid the price heavily. The rookie squared up against the Veteran Ryan Kastelic, but Kastelic’s age hasn’t slowed him down yet. With a lot more fights under his belt, the more experienced play won the fight decisively.
• Game 230 - Greene draws with Hafkey
  • The Titans had a rough week last week and their frustration is coming out on the ice. After going up 2-0 and killing an important power-play, Ben Hafkey got tangled up with Scott Greene and neither player was happy about it. They dropped gloves and went to town. The fight was eventually broken up, but this was one of the more exciting bouts that resulted in a fairly even outcome this season.
• Game 234 - Nolan beats up Jaguar
  • Ejections are back! Fights are slightly down this week from last, and maybe that is due to the stiffer consequences and to the growing importance of every game as we enter the second half of the season. These two teams enter the second period tied, but when the American’s coach told his players at intermission to go out and hit someone in the mouth, Owen Nolan may have taken that remark too literally. He jumped Jet Jaguar almost as soon as he set foot on the ice and Jaguar didn’t shy away from the fight. However, Nolan got a in couple solid hits in early and knocked Jet to the ice. Owen Nolan was ejected for his actions, and rightfully so.
• Game 248 - Hafkey beats up Gritty
  • I told you the Titans are playing with a chip on their shoulder and Ben Hafkey found himself a second sparring partner for the week. Hafkey went beyond the Gordie Howe Hat-Trick with a fight, a goal, and three assists. Despite getting decked in this fight, Gritty got a point of his own just a few minutes later and second in the third.
• Game 249 - Dissanayake draws with Okada
  • I’m not quite sure what Hiroshi Okada was thinking here. The game was tied, Nethila Dissanayake has been making people regret fighting him all season, and Okada clearly instigated this altercation. Hiroshi held his own against the more experienced combatant, but once the refs pulled them about the Wrangler was done for the night. His team probably could have used him past the beginning of the second as they went on to lose 5-4 in OT.
• Game 264 - Clements draws with Nygren
  • Look, I know that games filled with great goaltending can be exciting, but this wasn’t one of them. Watching A Red Guy and Michael Johnson face off in the shootout was cool, but neither one had to bend over backwards to achieve the 1-1 tie at the end of regulation. Thankfully, Walter Clements and Markus Nygren gave us something to watch in the midst of this otherwise uneventful game.
• Game 265 - Washington beats up Perry
  • Perry might not feel this way after getting his nose smashed in, but this fight worked well in the short-term for Prague. After failing to produce high-quality scoring chances all game, the Phantoms seemed to respond to George Washington’s pummeling of Jacob Perry, scoring their first, and only, goal of the game.
• Game 269 - Helmsley draws with Dissanayake
  • Second-period fights have become a staple of the VHL this week, and this one was the only excitement we got in the period. It looked like Vancouver was going to dominate Toronto all game for the first two thirds. However, Teemu Lehtinen Jr gave the Legion a fighting chance with two quick goals early in the third. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Nethila Dissanayake looked similar in their fight, with HHH connecting on a couple hard rights early before Dissanayake could even things up a bit as it went on.
• Game 270 - Wright beats up Greene
  • Scott Greene and the Seattle Bears nearly threw this game away. Despite being on the power play with less than two minutes left in a tied game, Greene dropped gloves with Nate Wright over almost nothing. Some pushing and shoving in front of the net from Wright managed to get under Greene’s skin enough to risk the best shot Seattle had at putting the game away. Scott is lucky the Bears managed to still sneak away with a win in the shootout.
• Game 275 - Zoiderberg beats up Hafkey
  • Ben Hafkey had an amazing week, but this wasn’t one of his brightest moments. Helsinki really could have used their leading scorer of the week in a game that ended in a 4-3 loss to the reigning champions. It’s bad enough to get trounced in a fight like this, but it is even worse when it is a fight that you clearly started. This is Hafkey’s third fight of the week, so he is going to need to learn some restraint if he wants to continue putting up top-tier numbers. Henrik Zoiderberg was mostly invisible on the ice for the rest of the night, but he did his job and Seattle got to walk away with the win.
• Game 276 - Perry beats up Dissanayake
  • This fight might have been a draw, but Nethila Dissanayake is the winner in my book as he went on to put the dagger in the heart of the Prague Phantoms with his goal late in the third. Jacob Perry on the other hand left the night with a -2 after being on the ice for every Toronto goal. Maybe Perry thought he could accomplish something in this fight, since he couldn’t on the ice, but that idea also failed.
• Game 279 - Paddywagon draws with Nygren
  • It is always interesting to wonder about how early fights affect the outcome of games. This fight didn’t last long and wasn’t very decisive, but could it have played a role in the upset Malmo handed to the Wrangler? Charlie Paddywagon and Markus Nygren both had fairly lack-lustre nights, but the Nighthawks managed to draw enough inspiration from somewhere to win a tough game in which they were the heavy underdog. Maybe, just maybe, this fight was a factor in that.

 

Hat-Tricks

• Game 224 - Guillaume Fontenette
  • The Helsinki Titans spread the scoring around this game, but even then Guillaume Fontenette was able to score thrice and chase the Nighthawks goalie. Maybe he just really likes playing with players named Erik, receiving three combined assists from Summers and Draven. With that, Fontenette becomes the first defenceman to score a hat-trick in S70.
• Game 247 - John Frostbeard
  • Apparently someone told John Frostbeard that defensive players were scoring this week, so he figured he’d get a hatty of his own. It took just thirteen minutes for Prague to chase Kallis Kriketers, but Frostbeard tried valiantly to bring the Dragons back into it. His third goal brought them within one with just over eight minutes left in the game, but D.C. came up just short of the miracle comeback.
• Game 262 - Randoms
  • Randoms based himself in this game with a goal in each period. His most exciting came at the end of the second period. Davos was only down 2-0 with twenty-one minutes to go and there was still at least a spark of life left for the Dynamo. However, with less than thirty seconds to go, Randoms snuffed out all hope on a tap-in off a beautiful feed from Jet Jaguar.

Shutouts

• Game 207 D.C vs Calgary
  • The three stars of this game couldn’t tell a more complete story. 1. Kallis Kriketers gets an impressive shutout, stopping all thirty-two shots faced. 2. JB Rift stopped all twenty-five shots up until the game-winner in OT. 3. John Frostbeard is one of the top defensive forwards in the league and it showed in this game. It is a little sad that DC is having such a rough season, but it is nice to see the glimmers of possibility from what this team could be.
• Game 214 - Calgary vs Moscow
  • Getting shut out is rough. Getting shut out in back to back games is demoralizing. That is where Calgary is right now. In the standings, they are going great, but when they lose, boy do they lose big. I’m going to give a lot of credit to Moscow’s defence in this one, allowing just eighteen shots, but spoiler alert, Raymond Bernard is about to get really hot and we are going to see him more than once in these recaps.
• Game 222 - New York vs D.C.
  • There was a little bit of shutout karma this week, D.C. got the shutout against Calgary first, and now A Red Guy shows up with a massive performance in this game, stopping twenty-three straight. Surely, nothing bad will happen to New York in their next game.
• Game 227 - Vancouver vs New York
  • Yeah, I foreshadowed it, in New York’s very next game they got obliterated by the Vancouver Wolves and the spectacular net-minding of Greg Eagles. It is honestly hard to predict the goalie awards this season because we have seen so many great games from goalies around the league. However, I don’t think anyone can argue against Eagles being a favourite for multiple awards.
• Game 237 - Davos vs Malmo
  • Michael Johnson has had an interesting season. He has faced more shots than any other goalie and there is really only one other player who might catch him in that regard. He has also given up more goals than any other goalie, but he is still in and around the top five in SV% consistently. Johnson is likely still in the first half of his career, so if he ever gets more defensive talent in from of him, he is going to be a major threat.
• Game 253 - Helsinki vs Malmo
  • Two shutouts in three games for Michael Johnson. This was a defence-heavy game to begin with, with only forty shots combined. Neither team scored until the first minute of the third and that was the only goal of the game. Alexander Pepper is looking for his three-hundredth win this season, and he performed like it as well tonight. Unfortunately for him, the Titan’s offence just couldn’t figure Johnson out in this game.
• Game 262 - Davos vs Moscow
  • HC Davos is in a rough place right now, after a beginning to the season that gave a glimpse of hope, they have once again fallen to the basement of the league. What happens when a red hot goalie meets a struggling franchise? It isn’t pretty. Raymond Bernard faced just twenty-one shots and stopped them all while Randoms went to town on Samuel Ross.
• Game 267 - Moscow vs Davos
  • Part II of the beat-down, Raymond Bernard was lights-out with back-to-back shutouts. This time, it was Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen who got the three-point game as Moscow’s power-play units wreaked havoc on the Dynamo all night. Bernard is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, goalies in the game, but we can’t forget about the Menace’s defence. It is hard to pick out a singular star from this league-best blue line but the Pavlov, Werbenjagermanjensen pairing has been outstanding.
• Game 268 - D.C. vs Riga
  • Riga is currently fourth in goals-for, so to shut them out is an accomplishment. Kallis Kriketers has had the strangest season so far because he is the only goalie on pace to both get five shutouts and get pulled for his back-up five times. D.C. can’t blame any of their defensive shortcomings this season on lack of talent, and that talent showed up big-time in this game to secure the shutout against one of the hottest teams in the league.
• Game 284 - Davos vs Helsinki
  • After going up 4-0 in the first period, the Titans played extremely conservative hockey. In the end, they actually gave up more shots than they took, but many of those were weak chances that Alexander Pepper had no issues stopping. Pepper is just seven wins from his three-hundredth, and with another twenty starts likely this season, he should have no trouble reaching that milestone with a play like this.

 

Rookie Spotlight
Erik Summers

 
After playing two full seasons in the VHLM, including a Founder's Cup championship win with the Houston Bulls, the German defenseman has quickly established himself as the front-runner in the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy race. The eighth overall pick in Season 69 (nice) has really been a pleasant surprise for the Helsinki Titans, as not only has Summers been a big boost on the blue line, but he also leads all rookies with 29 points in 47 games played. 
 
Although Summers was highly touted as a power-play quarterback, due to scoring ten power-play goals in Season 69 (nice) with the Mexico City Kings, he has instead done his damage offensively by cycling the puck. His responsible play on both sides of the ice show advanced maturity and awareness for a rookie, boasting among the league's best +/- ratings with 14.
 
Don't expect the strong play of Erik Summers to stop anytime soon either, as his position as a top-line defenseman and special teamer is locked in. Playing with the likes of Julian Borwinn, Guillaume Fontenette and Kronos Bailey will continue to boost his production as well, and his seven-point lead over Kris Rice could even grow bigger as the season winds down. In our opinion, Erik Summers will take the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy home this season.

 

~ Feature Writer for Rookie Spotlight - @Doomsday

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Mentioned Players: @Philliefan, @Poptart, @Jubo07, @Matmenzinger, @McLovin, @Devise, @Greg_Di, @rjfryman, @Motzaburger, @Quik, @Anthony Matthews, @Banackock, @Edustava, @Enorama, @DoktorFunk, @studentized, @gorlab, @eaglesfan036, @enigmatic, @nethi99, @.sniffuM, @fonziGG, @cpetrella, @Sixersfan549, @Beaviss, @HenrikZoiderberg, @73MPL4R, @DMaximus, @Erik Summers, @okochastar, @Jbeezy76, @FrostBeard, @hedgehog337, @flyersfan1453, @Victor, @Ricer13

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Erik Summers

[Enorama 2,039]

6 minutes ago, Erik Summers said:

John Frostbeard is one of the top defencemen in the league and it showed in this game.

 

hmm

[Erik Summers 451]

Just now, Enorama said:

 

hmm

 

Positions are hard... I was trying to comment on him being a defense-minded forward. Lol

[zepheter 590]

very cool. congrats on the great season you're having summers. you deserve it after a low scoring vhlm season.

[Banackock 8,138]

Good stuff

[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

@Erik Summers missed me with the mention thanks for the kind words!

[enigmatic 504]

I always get excited when I'm mentionned in those but it's always for fighting.