TASK ONE: Pick either of the teams currently in the finals. Which player had to overcome the most adversity to get where they are at now? What did they have to endure before finally getting their crack at the Cup? Must be 150 words and include two specific situations that player experienced en-route to the Cup finals, whether this season or at some point during their career.

This is a hard one to comment on, as both teams have made it to the Finals and won before and in semi recent seasons, so neither team or specific player has had to overcome much. That being said i would say Richard C. Hocolate, the Calgary Dragons goalie faced the most challenges, being the newly implemented Dragons starter (overcoming the backup stigma of his career) and having to prove himself to be able to withstand the pressure of regular and post season play. In the regular season he played good, overcoming any initial doubts he could handle the crease, posting a .908 save percentage and 4 shutouts and quieting some disbelievers. In the playoff he performed well in pressure game situations leading up to the finals, but the question remains, can he hold the fort when it matters the most?

TASK TWO: Who is your choice for the unsung hero of the S38 playoffs up to this point? Must be at least 150 words and include at least two statistics in support.

My unsung hero this post season is Winston Windsor, because i don't feel he was expected, as a defenseman, to lead the Manhattan Rage in points at 20, including 8 goals. That being said, he was also the Manhattan Rage's best defensive player with 44 blocked shots. It is surprising to have a defenseman to be "everything" for a team and for that he has my pick as this seasons unsung hero of the playoffs, In the end, even though Winston received high end minutes, and is a premier player, he is not as much of a name brand player on the Rage, like Wolker, Redding, Atmey and others, who you expected to produce at these levels.

When you have a player like this come up and produce as extremely high levels in the playoffs, when they weren't expected to, it makes your change to the win the ultimate prize even higher.

TASK FOUR: What rookies or young players are looking to make a name for themselves during the Finals? How have they contributed to the team on the way to the Finals? Must be at least 150 words, and include two statistics.

Roman Augustus, for the Calgary Dragons, though a -4, which is not impressive, was surprisingly good in a lot of other ways. For example, his 9 assists throughout the playoffs was impressive to go with 24 hits and 21 blocked shots are all decent in my books. To me when you have a rookie play almost 22 minutes in the playoffs it tells you about the trust the organization has in the player and how his teammates rely on his to produce against other teams best players. I am trying to think back through my career and seldom can i recall such pressure be put on someone with so little SHL experience.

I can't think of another rookie that has poised themselves to take a larger role on a team, having elevated their play so the organization can hand over more responsibility and ultimately take over for other aging defensemen on the team like Michael Boychuk.

TASK SIX: You’re the coach of a team in the finals. What changes would you make to the roster, lines or strategies of the team to give the team a better chance at winning the series? Must be at least 150 words.

For Calgary i would change a couple things that i felt could have contributed to their loss in the finals.

The first thing that surprises me is their even strength offensive strategy against Manhattan, which took me off guard, as that would undoubtedly leave them open for Manhattan's offense and with a relatively unproven goalie in their net and a mediocre defensive core, this could lead to disaster. My suggestion would be to dial this back, support their goalie and defense and grind it out against the Rage.

My second suggestion is to put Gagner and Randleman on the same power play line, since they are already stacking it with Kurczewski on the defense. As mentioned above i felt they needed to grind it out against Manhattan and that means beating them on the power play and PK, special teams. As a result they need to stack the units to create one over powering unit, rather then a couple ok units which the Rage can neutralize easier.

My final suggestion is change the four on four strategy to be more in line with the even strength strategy and more balanced defensively, like 0-2-3 (Phy - Def- Off). As mentioned above a extremely offensive strat. leaves them exposed.

In the end it appears Calgary felt they could overpower Manhattan, which to me at least, doesn't make sense. Balance and grind the strategy and the Dragons could have walked home with a cup.