Task 1 - PMed.

Task 2: Player Comparison (3 uncapped)
In a series of Edmonton vs West Kendall, the obvious comparison is between two franchise defensemen who also happen to have deep ties to team management: Jackson Rogers-Tanaka for the Blizzard, and Bojo Biscuit for the Platoon. Because I'm doing this after the playoffs have concluded, we're going to analyse stats including the last series, because I'm too lazy to subtract final round games--but whatever, this is a ~retrospective~.

Rogers-Tanaka had a great playoffs, netting 15 points (4G/11A) in 17 games. PPG, or nearly, is an accomplishment any time, but especially in the playoffs, and double especially while also playing 27.46 minutes a night. It's a wonder that he didn't disintegrate right there on the ice. He didn't have much of a physical game, with just 3 hits, and no penalty minutes at all--but I doubt Edmonton was complaining. They'd rather have him on the ice than in the box.

Meanwhile, in Florida (and on the road), Biscuit had 12 points (2G/10A) in 20 games. Not so close to PPG, but he has other priorities, because he was busy racking up 40 hits and 24 PIM. He also played slightly less, coming in at an average of 25.69 minutes. In the end, that distinction helps to tell a tale as old as hockey: a crushing, physical style, as played by power forwards and physical defensemen, works much better in the regular season than over a 7 game series.


Task 3: Biggest Game or Championship Banner (3 uncapped)
Homer bias, yadda yadda--for me, the biggest game of the SHL playoffs this year was round 1, game 7, NEW vs WKP. Why? Because team "play for fun", who barely scraped into the playoffs, took the East champions to 7 games. Most people thought we'd get swept--but not only did we get our first playoff victory since S23, but we almost won.

Well. I mean. WKP scored two goals in the second period and we didn't manage to net one until the third, by which point it was pretty much too late. But it was still a one goal game, which is close by definition, and it was a close, even series. Imagine if New England had picked up another goal in the third and then won it in overtime? What if their depth scoring had managed to battle through Hamilton's sketchy defence--then maybe team "play for fun" would have ended up in the finals. Imagine that.

Task 4: Head-to-head battle (3 uncapped)