Task One

Off-Season Blues

The off-season got off to a rough start for Karsten Kadinger, as he saw his available practice time in the rink cut in a major way. Usually a workaholic, Kadinger has been virtually forced by training staff and coaches to, in their word, “get a life.” Kadinger’s response to this has been to visit fellow SMJHL’er Liam O’Callaghan to discuss their thoughts on the SHL at large. This went poorly as O’Callaghan was in the midst of his feud with Seattle, but eventually he calmed down and the two had a relatively even discussion.

Having fulfilled his friend quota, Kadinger then returned home to Colorado where he began to search for information with regards to his SHL future in the only place that one can really trust for such things: Twitter. For the past several days, Kadinger has been searching high and low on the profiles of purported experts attempting to glean whether he’ll be living in Colorado or Florida next year. He complained over the phone to the aforementioned O’Callaghan about not knowing which it would be, to which he replied, “At least neither of those is Seattle.”

Task Two

Unsung Hero

The SHL is a league populated from top to bottom with players that could be considered unsung heroes, given the sheer volume of players who perform excellently but are given no real accolades for it. Our pick for Unsung Hero is a man who has experienced that same feeling some seasons, while actually having ascended to the ranks of notoriety in others. Pedro Sarantez is at the very end of his career, and he returned to Minnesota to do it, participating in their run to the Challenge Cup Finals. For the Chiefs fan-base, Sarantez is far from an unknown: but his contributions have not been recognized quite as much as they should be.

Sure, Sarantez isn’t breaking any records this season, but for a player as old as he is, notching 9 points in the playoffs is actually a very respectable contribution. More notable, while he’s only scored three goals, one of those was a game winner and one of those was a game tying goal. He’s also managed to be a plus throughout the post-season, with a plus two, and has been a source of offense from deep in the line-up that every team needs to push themselves over the edge. His physical presence is non-existent with only 7 hits, and he doesn’t block shots much, but as a necessary depth player and clutch performer, Sarantez has to be our pick.

Task Four

Sent.

Task Six

MVP

This series has had a lot of potential MVPs, a testament to just how exciting it’s been for fans. However, in narrowing them down to two, we’ve come up with one name from each team. These are:

Lord Pretty Flacko - Minnesota Chiefs

This one is a bit of an unlikely choice for some, as although he tied in points with Terrance Nova, he scored far less goals -- a statistic that is generally weighted higher than assists. However, while Nova’s performance was one for the ages, Scorers like Lundberg and Strange came close to matching his goal totals, and it was largely because of Flacko. Flacko managed 19 points in 15 games, and of those 19 points, 16 were assists and only 3 were goals. Flacko may not have been scoring very much, but he effectively created his team’s offense. As far as an MVP award goes? That’s pretty obvious.

Jean-Luc Reflieux - Los Angeles Panthers

Reflieux was really an all-around force for the Panthers. He scored 18 points, 7 goals and 11 assists for a fairly even spread, and led his team in the +/- category with plus nine. He actually played a surprisingly physical game and undoubtedly logged big minutes for the Panthers, forming the key component of their offense. While the Panthers, like the Chiefs, benefitted from a team-wide effort, Reflieux stood out as the clear star on the team in a way that Flacko did not from the Chiefs. Between the two, Flacko edges Reflieux out slightly, speaking to the depth that the Chiefs brought forward this season.