ABSN-Alex Bridges Sports Network (Week 1)

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Hello everyone - thanks for joining me today. Today we will be discussing a little bit about what’s happening around the league, and a player interview.

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Around the VHL:  As it is the offseason there is not much to do - there’s Town of Salem thread, Awards, and a Draft. That’s about the best you’ll see from this offseason. With that being said, there’s still a lot to be discussed about the awards, and draft. For the VHLM awards - Ottawa Lynx take home all team awards, as well as having Richard Penisson leading in points, goals, AND assists. All those awards there is nothing to debate about, because they are the facts. As we head into the individual awards, my perspective on the Awards may change. First off, we have the Ryan Sullivan trophy, which was won by Alex Armstrong - The runner up being Nikita Kulikovich. I think that Alex totally deserves this award, coming in at 127 points. Now I know what you’re thinking - this guy gets fed assists. No, he doesn’t, Alex did get 83 assists, but ALSO came out of the season with 44 goals! This is truly an outstanding defender. Nikita got 126 points, 1 behind Alex - but his wasn’t as nice looking. He was still an outstanding defender, but he only put up 31 goals. Compare his 31 goals to 44 of Alex’s and you see why. On the more physical side of play, Nikita did have almost 70 more hits which is a big factor. In the end, it is what it is, congrats to Alex. We now move on the the Benoit Devereux Trophy, awarded to the best goaltender. It’s not surprising who won this won, and who came in as runner up. It was the Ottawa Lynx goalie, Joakim Bruden, taking home the trophy. Bruden had an astounding 59-12-1 record, as well as putting up a .899 save percentage. He only gave up an average of just over 2 goals a game. This was truly a crazy season for Mr. Bruden, and he now heads up to Davos. If we look at the Fombinator on the other hand - Fomba had a record of 53-16-3 which is also amazing, but just not as mind blowing as Bruden. If we look at save percentage, Fomba beat Bruden by a sliver, coming in at .900 - he also just allowed 2.72 goals a game. This is slightly higher than Bruden. This was a well deserved award from both goaltenders. I think it was a tough decision for everyone, but Bruden came out on top. Next up we have the Matt Bentz Trophy. The winner of this award is Penisson, and the runner up is Bridges. These two were neck in neck on points for a lot of the season and then Penisson went from #3 to #1 in points. Penisson Finished with 199 points and 230 hits - While bridges put up a fight with 135 points and 234 hits. Now, I can see why they chose Penisson here, as it was almost obvious, he was way better at putting up points, but Alex took hits just by a few, so if we look who did better we can see Penisson. Next up we have the Skylar Rift Trophy, awarded to the playoffs MVP. The winner was Penisson, with Calia not far behind. If we look at their numbers in the playoffs, Penisson put up 29 points, while Calia put up 34. Calia had 25 hits which is still very good, but Penisson had 49. I think right here they would’ve given it to Calia, but when you look at their +/- Calia has a 5, and Penisson has a 17. That is why i’m giving the edge to Penisson here. I do think Calia contributed more to his team, while Penisson helped out his line. Next up - the Mitch Higgins Trophy, awarded to the MVP. Goes to Penisson, there is no runner up here, but if I had to give one, it would be Armstrong, who had an astounding season. By all the awards Penisson has got so far, we know why he got MVP and Indont need to explain. Finally, we discuss the best GM trophy - aka the Jack Reilly Trophy. The winners were DoktorFunk/Acydburn who were the GMs of the Ottawa Lynx who killed it this season. With runner up we have MexicanCow, which was well deserved, as him team went from last place, to second place in a season. There was one more runner up, iRockstar. This was an interesting call seeing his team was 5th place. These guys didn’t look like a playoff team at the start of the season, but with the acquisition of Alex Bridges, that reconnected the Bridges-Bennett-Newman line, they looked very good. At his was a great move by Rockstar to turn his team from a bust to a playoff contender that quickly. That will conclude our VHLM awards. Tune in to my next article for the VHL awards.

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We now go onto a player interview. The special guest today will be.... Alex Armstrong! When we asked him how it felt to be the top defender in the league he confidently said, with a smirk on his face, “It feels great because I already knew I was the best, and now everyone else knows!”. The last question we asked Mr. Armstrong was why he retired so early on in his career, only playing a few seasons. His response to the was “I’m retiring to become a TV quiz show host.” You could hear the giggles in the locker room after that statement. Next Up we have yours truly, MexicanCow - Yukon GM. We asked him what it was like to have a team go from last place to to championships, he responded with, “It was honestly amazing. That’s every GM’s dream. We all want to turn a team around like that, I am so proud of everyone who helped me accomplish that. Honestly, a dream come true and I can’t thank the team enough for working their asses off for me.” This shows how proud he is just for making it to the Finals. We then asked him what he will do to bounce back stronger and finally capture that sweet sweet victory next season. He answered this one, saying, “We are just going to strengthen our team and come back into next season with a different mental state.” The more I talk to the Yukon GM the more I see how dedicated he is and thankful for his team, and he is truly amazing. Last but not least we asked him- who was the MVP of his team. He answered with a bit of a grin on his face, “Every player on this team could deserve to be the MVP. Everyone played their hearts out. But one guy who kept us in it every night was Nicolas Fomba. He was the reason we made it so far.“ That’s all for the interviews. Thanks to both of these truly great guys for coming on, and I hope you all tune in next time for another article!

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ABSN News Articles

 

(1204 words. Claiming for weeks ending 5/24/20 and 5/31/20)

 

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by Alex Bridges