Under 250: The VHLM Review (S71 Regular Season Review)

[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

 

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Under 250: The VHLM Report. In these series, we will be taking a look at the trends and topics from the past week in the VHLM. What twists and turns will our minor league hold? Stay tuned to find out!

 

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The Review

 

Hello all, and welcome to the regular season recap for the VHLM Season 71! Playoffs have already started and are in full swing, but for now, we will look mostly at the regular season review (with some small playoff mentions). For now, let’s take a look at how the final 100 games went, from Games 298 to 398. First things first, as always, the final standings. 

 

Finishing the season off in style, the Ottawa Lynx maintained their first position, ensuring favourable playoff matchups and home ice. Following them is the Yukon Rush in second place, who almost fell to the third-place Minnesota Storm, ending up just barely taking the lead by a single point. The Storm went on a strong 16 game winning streak, only to fall short in their final game of the season, in which the Rush took them out by a score of 5-3 (Game 393). Rounding out the top four we have the Philadelphia Reapers, whose 105 points keeps them in the upper echelon of teams. 

The next batch of playoff teams is kicked off with the Las Vegas Aces, who are to match up against the Reapers in the first round. Tied with the Aces, but losing out on tie-breakers is the San Diego Marlins who will go against the Storm. Next up, the Saskatoon Wild, whose 73 points earn them a ticket against Yukon. Finally, barely sneaking into the playoffs, just two points ahead of 9th place, we have Halifax 21st, who are rewarded for their tenacity by a trip to the number one seeded Ottawa. 

 

Just missing out of the playoffs is the Houston Bulls, who are followed by the Mississauga Hounds and the Mexico City Kings in 10th and 11th places, respectively. All in all, there was a surprising amount of movement around the league since our last look. With their strong performance, the Storm jumped the Reapers for 3rd position. Additionally, the Marlins and the Aces flipped with the Aces getting the final nod on tiebreakers as previously mentioned. Finally, the Bulls were able to wrangle together enough good performances to make it up to 9th position, flipping with the Hounds, but it was not enough to displace Halifax from that final playoff spot. 

 

Let’s look now at the ELO charts and see how our first round matchups might play out. 
 

Unsurprisingly the Lynx maintain a strong ELO gap on their first-round matchup of Halifax by almost 600 points (which was matched by a 4-0 sweep at the time of writing). Yukon has dropped off somewhat but still hold roughly a 260 point lead on Saskatoon. That series is currently tied up 2-2 and is looking to be a real treat. 

 

Next up we have the Storm versus the Marlins. This one is really interesting considering how the series is currently going. Despite the Marlins drop off in form at the end of the season and the Storm’s huge ELO advances (almost equaling the Rush), the Marlins currently lead the Storm 3-1 and are on the verge of breaking through to the second round. Our final first-round matchup is the closest one of them all in with only 60 or so ELO points separating the two teams. The Reapers stagnated towards the end of the season, but the Aces steadily rose, almost closing the gap in quality despite sitting 19 points off in the standings. The series is tied right now 2-2 and is a good one to watch for the neutral fans. 

 

The Statistics

 

For this final regular-season review of Under 250, we will list out a few of the statistical leaders from the regular season. Make sure to stay tuned once playoff coverage is complete, as some of these names will be in contention for the prestigious VHLM Awards, which will be covered by yours truly and the rest of the VSN crew. Without further ado, here are some of the statistical leaders, taken straight from the individual leaders tab of the portal, as of the end of the season by category and by position. 

 

Leading in a whole bunch of categories is Richard Penisson of the Ottawa Lynx, whose strong performances consistently throughout the season have him with the most goals (77), assists (122), and points (199) out of any player in the league. He may be just shy of the 200 point mark but is good enough to be the number one scorer of all players, not just centres. He also has the most shots (547), power-play goals (22), tied for most hat tricks (6), point-scoring streak (49!!!!), and has participated in four total fights; he really is the complete player. 

 

Hank McKill of the Halifax 21st might be a somewhat surprising name to some, but his shooting percentage of 20% on 75 shots places him as the league’s best; which is impressive considering his 2259 minutes played puts him at the top of all VHLM players this season. He also leads the league in penalty minutes with 198, making him the ultimate goon. 

 

On the left-wing, our best performer was Ottawa’s Adam Syreck, whose 62 goals and 119 assists ranked him first in his position by points. In fact, Ottawa’s gifted winger core held the top three left-wing scorers with Big Chungus and Iangenere Risteneen following their teammate. Syreck also led the lead in points per 20 minutes, scoring at a hyper-efficient 1.99 clip. 

 

Coming on the right-wing, Minnesota’s Aleelee Kiak took the title of best scorer in his position, with 120 points on a 59-61 goal to assist split. Kiak also led the league in hat tricks along with Saskatoon’s Gary Neal and the aforementioned Penisson. 

 

Out of defensemen, Yukon’s Alex Armstrong scored the most, leading Nikita Kulikovich by just a single point. Joined on the list by fellow Yukon defenseman Zyrok12, the Rush had the best scoring defensive core in the league. 

 

Joe Proto of the Las Vegas Aces leads the league in game-winning goals with 13, proving vital to his team’s success, having netted them a lot of extra points there. 

 

From the faceoff circle, Jack Feriancek of the Minnesota Storm won an impressive 63.38% of his 1715 faceoffs taken, roughly 2.5% higher than Philadelphia's Jack Russell. 

 

Rounding out our look at skater statistics, Riley Knight Gee of Houston showcased some defensive know-how with 193 shots blocked, while Bo Burrows of Yukon taught us all to fear the blindside hit, along with San Diego’s Jungkok, and Saskatoon’s Bobby Wyman, each ending the season with 278 hits. 

 

Out of all goalies,  Yukon’s Nicolas Fomba was the only starter to hold a .900 SV% or higher, which he toed the line at .900. From the Ottawa Lynx, Joakim Bruden was able to take the best GAA, however, with his 2.61 beating out Fomba’s 2.72. Considering Bruden was just .001 % back off of Fomba’s save percentage, it will be interesting to see which goalie takes the award at the end of the season. 

 

Aleksander Aleksandrov of Mississauga was the iceman this season, and saved .778% of all penalty shots taken, but equally impressive was the real iceman’s .750%, Zamboni Driver. Despite saving less by percent, he faced over double, at 20 rather than 9. Impressive!

 

Finally, an honourable mention to John Poremba of Houston whose 2535 shots against was the most against any goalie in the VHLM this season. Our hats off to you good sir. 
 

That’s all for this edition of Under 250: The VHLM Review. Thank you all for reading, and stay tuned next week for the inside scoop on all that’s going on in the league. Until next time!

 

GMs:  @Proto, @Berocka, @DoktorFunk, @Dil, @Rayzor_7, @Motzaburger,

@MexicanCow123, @McWolf, @DMaximus, @iRockstar, @Sonnet

 

Players Mentioned: @bluesfan55, @Alex88Shaw, @Spade18, @Ferda, @Maasa, @Grant, @LittleRiDog, @dylanjj37, @Lockdown Defense, @Zyrok, @Proto, @Jackie4967, @quanack, @KnightRiley, @Walter Fizz, @tfong, @Lefty_S, @efiug, @PadStack, @aleks, @Tape-to-Tape, @CrlineDijohn14

 

VSN Writer Mr_Hatter
 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Mr_Hatter

[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

Note: At the time of writing, only the first four games of the first round had been simmed

[bluesfan55 103]

still almost hit 200

did some digging and i think it's the fifth best vhlm season ever