Under 250: The VHLM Review (S72 #2)

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Hello, and welcome to season 72, edition 2 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!

 

Speaking of other VSN content, make sure to check out the other great work from the greater VSN family! Here are a few handy links to check out, from our weekly podcasts to in-depth history articles, scouting reports, and more! 

 

Ringless | VSN Weekly Review | Future Watch | Talents Behind The Trophies

 

The Review

 

This week’s biggest story is arguably the most newsworthy thing to happen to the VHLM in quite some time. One of the league commissioners, @Banackock, a man I worked personally alongside for several seasons, is no longer in the role. The issues and reasoning that have resulted in this outcome are beyond the scope of this article at this time, but it is surely a watershed moment for the league as the torch is passed from one of the standard-bearers of the league and a beacon of stability. He was, as we know, a bit of a firebrand, but none can question the amount of work he put into the league to make it what it is now. 

 

As a result of this departure, a quick hire was made to fill the vacancy, and while there are certainly many qualified candidates, the position has been filled by @Sonnet, current GM of the Houston Bulls. This was his second stint with the team, and it has proven to be a brief one, as he will be stepping down from the role at the end of the season. For the time being, he will occupy both positions, and the replacement GM will be found when the current Bulls season is complete. Sonnet will surely bring a fresh perspective to the leadership of the VHLM, and surely a voice coming directly from the GM ranks can only be a good thing. The VHLM gladly welcomes Sonnet and looks forward to what is hopefully a long and fruitful tenure. 

 

Of course, while the commissioner change is the biggest event of the week, it certainly hasn’t stopped games from being played. The standings as we last presented them didn’t leave much room for the discrepancy - there was a lot of tight clumping toward the middle, and one would have been hard-pressed to pick from among a handful of teams. As the league has progressed, some things have started to spread out, whereas others have remained nearly as tight as before.

 

 

At nearly the halfway point of the season, the Minnesota Storm have pulled out of what was previously level pegging with the Las Vegas Aces, to take sole ownership of first. The Aces, on the other hand, have fallen behind the Saskatoon Wild as well. Conference-wise, the Storm lead the East by 13 points. Second is currently being held by the Mississauga Hounds but only by a single point; they and the Philadelphia Reapers were level at this point last week so given the gap is now only one, these two will likely be battling it out to the end. 

 

The Ottawa Lynx, who were also level with the Hounds and Reapers, have now fallen behind (8 to the Reapers and 9 to the Hounds) and seem to be a relatively stable fourth. The Halifax 21st have to feel a bit like the VHL’s New York Americans, as they’re out of the playoff picture by 7 points despite being ahead of a team in the other conference that would currently be in. 

 

Bringing up the rear are the expansion Miami Marauders. This isn’t terribly surprising as the Marauders are in their first season and are working with just what was available to them out of the expansion, and they’ll likely see a bit more competitive hockey down in South Beach next time out. 

 

In the West, as stated before, the Wild have overtaken the Aces. Still, the gap is a meagre 2 points, so there’s not likely to be a clear and definitive conference winner anytime soon. This race will keep the interest of fans in both Saskatoon and Las Vegas until the very end of the season. An interesting thing to note regarding the race between the Wild and Aces would be their goal differences. Saskatoon have a +90, while Las Vegas only have a +51 - this difference is almost entirely in goals for, as they’ve conceded nearly identically across the season. 

 

In third with 44 points are the Mexico City Kings, a team that doesn’t have much to play for in their own conference as there is a sizable gap on both sides in the standings, but they’ll want to fight for seeding in the playoffs, where they’re in direct competition with the Hounds and Reapers. The Yukon Rush, who sit in fourth in the West on 28 points, are the classic example of a team who will make the playoffs due less to their own ability and more to the lack of rostered players on the teams below them. They should be quite the attractive destination to waiver players, as they’re good enough to provide a playoff opportunity, yet should be able to offer larger roles to new players than those above them. 

 

Rounding out the conference are the San Diego Marlins and the Houston Bulls, two teams that will be composed almost exclusively of waiver players and looking to make a run next season, at 9 and 4 points respectively. 

 

That’s how the standings appear at the moment, but what effect has that had on the ELO ratings for the teams at this stage?

 

 

The first thing that jumps out to me about the ELO graph this time around is the gap between the Marlins and Bulls. It has only manifested itself in a 5 point differential in the standings, but the ELO chart shows the Marlins as being a pretty significantly better team than the Bulls at the bottom. Additionally, Yukon is performing worse in ELO than not only Halifax (which makes a bit more sense) but also Miami. Miami’s line took a big jump when they went on a 3 game winning streak - two of the wins were over Houston and San Diego, but the other was over an Ottawa team that’s well above them. A similar dip can be seen in Ottawa’s line at around the same point.

 

Minnesota looks to be the class of the league by a wider margin here than in the standings, and that jump in their line is likely the result of two margin of victory wins over Halifax, 10-2 and 8-0. The line for Ottawa is also seemingly closer to the teams just behind them than the teams just ahead of them, even though the standings don’t reflect that.

 

Something that wasn’t as immediately recognizable, but seems to tell a larger story, is the placement of that green line in the middle. That’s our third-place team, the Las Vegas Aces. The ELO chart only has them in a comparatively paltry 6th at the moment, while Saskatoon, who are only 2 points higher in the standings, are in 2nd in the chart which matches their place in the standings. Mexico City, the team chasing the Aces, are ahead of them in ELO, as are the Hounds and Reapers from the East. Could the ELO chart be a predictor of some unexpected movement up and down the standings from some of the unexpectedly placed teams? 

 

The Highlights

 

The top of the goals and assists leaderboards are surprisingly both players from a relatively middling Ottawa Lynx team - Big Chungus with 38 goals as more of a scoring specialist (his assists are low enough that he falls a bit back on the total points leaderboard) and Adam Syreck with 55 assists as well as the overall points lead with 78. There are only a handful of players who have broken that 70 point barrier thus far: Syreck, Kazimir Komarov, Ike Bennett, Michael Mac, and Bob Helminen, all representing different teams (Ottawa, Saskatoon, Minnesota, Mississauga, and Philadelphia, respectively). 

 

The recurring theme here, and it’s something that matches up with the ELO charts as well, is a conspicuous lack of Las Vegas representation. For a team that’s third in the standings, and with a decent lead over the 3-team chasing pack behind them, they don’t really show up as often as might be expected at the top of the scoring charts. Their top scorer is Alex Letang with 53 points - this is certainly a fine performance from Letang, especially as he’s a defender, but at the same time it’s a full 25 points behind the leader overall. It’s also saying something that their top scorer is a defender at all - where are the forwards? The first place to look is at goaltending, maybe they’re being carried from the back, but while Nils Friedriksen is doing very well in goal with a 2.24 GAA and 0.898 SV%, he’s largely in line with the other top goalies. Are these Aces paper tigers?

 

While on the topic of goaltending, there is a player that deserves to be noted for something that is rather unusual. The top of the save percentage charts one might expect to see someone like Woody McPine, Grekkark Gyrfalcon, or Zamboni Driver. Those three, along with Friedriksen, are among the top 5 in both GAA and SV%, but they also have good teams in front of them as well, to varying degrees, and that is not to take away from any of their performances either. However, the current SV% leader is none other than Jean Pierre Camus of Yukon. He’s not nearly as high on the GAA board, at a 3.49 and a full goal lower than any of the goalies listed above, but GAA is more heavily affected by the team. There is no true stat measuring just a goalie alone, but SV% is the closest thing to it, and Camus is carrying Yukon to a better performance than they otherwise might have had. It’s an interesting thing to point out, and Camus deserves credit, regardless of where his team is. 

 

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 @Ricer13 @Rayzor_7 @Motzaburger @MexicanCow123 @InstantRockstar @DMaximus @Dil @McWolf @ColeMrtz @DoktorFunk

Players Mentioned
@Spartan @HearnNation67 @Sharkstrong @Tape-to-Tape @Spade18 @solas @Biggreen10 @LastOneUp @Gooningitup @Caboose30 @Big Bob @Ferda

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2nd week claim