Under 250: The VHLM Review (S73 #1)

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Hello, and welcome to the first edition of a new season 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! 

 

Top 25: Players 5 to 1 | Season Preview | VHLM Awards | S73 Mock

 

The Review

 

This season, unlike last, there are no massive sweeping structural changes underway for the VHLM. There are some rule changes and some clarifications, but these are more things that affect the retention side of the league than its competitiveness. Important and necessary changes, but not part of a review for the most part, except for one important aspect - the playoff rules have been clarified. The eight best teams will get in, regardless of conference, and the seeds will be protected only for the conference winners. This has a sort of ripple effect on retention as well, as the better teams are often filled with more active players. 

 

Coincidentally, as it stands we actually have the best teams divided evenly across the conferences, and would not necessarily have needed the rule clarification as the standings sit right now. There are some teams in the running for the final spot that could change that, however, so it is still better to have the clarification in place whether it is needed or not. 

 

So far, this season looks like a tale of two leagues, the top 7 teams proving to be particularly competitive among each other, and the bottom 5 fighting for a single playoff spot (or fighting against a single playoff spot, depending on your perspective). At the top of the standings right now, it appears as though last season’s expansion Miami Marauders did well to try to draft players they expected to be around for two seasons. Some of the picks looked like reaches at the time, but it seems to have worked out for them, especially on the back end where they’ve only conceded 30 goals in 23 games. The Houston Bulls, who spent the entirety of last season stuck in the basement, are now tied for 2nd and are very much the counter to Miami, with the most goals for, by a pretty wide margin - 122 goals to the next highest, which is 98. The Ottawa Lynx, Minnesota Storm, San Diego Marlins, Las Vegas Aces, and Saskatoon Wild all also look strong so far, and it remains to be seen which ones will pull away from the rest. Miami, Ottawa, Minnesota, and Houston seem to be just a slight tier above the other three, both in points and in goal difference. Still, it’s early, and the point difference is marginal at best, so none of the other three are out of it. 

 

At the other end, there seems to be one clear cut bottom-feeder: the Halifax 21st with a paltry 3 points so far. Compounding their misery is that the team, on the whole, is only just marginally ahead of a goal per game, which is a rate more often used to describe the performances of individual players. The Yukon Rush find themselves toward the bottom of the table for another season, whereas the Mexico City Kings, Mississauga Hounds, and Philadelphia Reapers were a bit more fortunate last season and have only now dropped to this level. As it stands, the Reapers would get in, but outside of Halifax, any of these lower teams could find themselves sneaking in at 8th. 

 

Maybe the ELO chart will sort things out a little:

 

 

The short answer is no, it really doesn’t. The one thing that’s most easily spotted on this chart, however, is that the top four really are in a different class than the 5-7 teams. The gap between 4 and 5 is almost the gap between 7 and 8, which isn’t really borne out in the points. Perhaps it goes to show that at this stage in the season, points don’t really tell the story. Another thing of note is that Houston, at least as of right now, is actually above Miami in ELO. The margins within the three groups are particularly tight, but Houston has been the top ELO team for a bit, and it will be interesting to see if the standings change to reflect the ELO, or if the ELO changes to reflect the standings. The middle group, even this early on, likely doesn’t have a ton to fight for except seeding - they’ll definitely be in the playoffs, but if the on-ice talent is reflected in the ELO, they’re also not likely to be threats once there. A few good signings could help, though. 

 

As for the bottom teams, it seems that Mexico City is actually the one that should be in the final playoff spot, rather than Philadelphia. Additionally, Mississauga somehow falls below Halifax in ELO at this stage, despite the fact that Halifax looks like pretty clearly the worst team. It’s still early though, so there’s a lot to play out, and things could change in a few different ways yet. 

 

The Highlights

 

As it’s still very early in the season, we can’t really determine too much about how the final stats will end up, but at this stage, it appears as though our single most impressive performer is actually on defence. Riley Knight Gee has put up 54 points so far, leading the league in both points and assists. Plus 18 isn’t too far from the leaderboard either, and a P/20 (points per 20 minutes, so point production adjusted for time on the ice) of 1.60 is also top of the league.

 

Goalies are in a bit of a strange situation at the moment, with Bacon the standout. His GAA is a fantastic 1.31, which is somewhat a function of his team, but he’s also second in SV% with .918%. John Poremba is pulling a Jean Pierre Camus from last season, a great SV% (.922%) on a team where it’ll go largely unrecognized. The next two would probably be Ajay Krishna and Calvin Harvey, with decent performances in both major goalie stats. 

 

Let’s take a little deeper look into a particular game that was interesting - a 10-5 win for Houston over Mexico City. A hat trick for Christian Mingle, two goals each for Jonas Stormsson and Aloe Dear, Houston put their foot on the gas and never let up. Shawty Nananana and Riley Knight Gee also each had a hat trick of assists, beaten out by Markus Schauer’s four, and Julian Nousiainen put up a goal and three assists. Unlike most games with a double-digit winning team, however, this game actually had some fight from the team that would eventually go on to lose. It’s hard to outscore 10 goals, but Jeremy Lin and Wolf Weiss each put up two of their own, and Mexico City showed some resilience in this game. Lin actually ended up with the first star in a loss, with two each of goals and assists. Ultimately, it hasn’t done much for them in the standings as they’re among the bottom tier of teams, but if this is the final playoff team, maybe a tighter than expected series will be on the cards. It’s still very early for playoff implications, though.

 

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: @Dil @ColeMrtz @DMaximus @Rayzor_7 @Spartan @Doomsday @Ricer13 @MexicanCow123 @Motzaburger @InstantRockstar @rjfryman @DoktorFunk

 

Players mentioned: @KnightRiley @CrlineDijohn14 @Bacon @Hooperorama @Mrpenguin30 @Quik @Renomitsu @Grape @Kyle @Plate @okochastar @jman9theman9 @Matmenzinger

 

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second week