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MrPrime · 08-11-2018, 12:03 PM

Ahead of Season 42 we knew in Minnesota that it would be a difficult season and that the possibility of missing the playoffs was real.

As it turns out we were right, we ended up second last in our Conference with Manhattan having an abysmal season and over 10 points behind us. One of the major differences was the change of guard infront of the net with myself replacing veteran Olli O'Koivu. I believe with 20 wins that I have done decently on my first go but it was not enough to allow us in the playoff dance. Despite a few roster changes via transactions in hopes to improve the team it was not enough to tally up enough points to allow us to make it to post-season however I do believe we have the potential to bounce back as soon as Season 43.

It was a formative season for me for sure, the future looks bright.

Word Count: 157

***Nike*** · 08-11-2018, 01:27 PM

After a long and arduous road to the SHL playoffs, the Calgary Dragons have again made the dance. In S42, the first round matchup for the Dragons will be the Texas Renegades. Despite an incredibly strong regular season, Calgary slipped down the stretch a bit and lost the President’s Trophy to the Hamilton Steelhawks and first place in the Western Conference to the Edmonton Blizzard. Some have speculated that the team simply coasted to the finish in fear that the Winnipeg Jets would be the four seed in the Western Conference. Had Winnipeg finished fourth, it was likely one of the most difficult matchups that Calgary could have faced in the first round. Despite Calgary’s success nearly all season, Winnipeg, it’s Canadian rival, is well known to have the Dragon’s number and has what it takes to wallop the Dragons and put out the flame right out of the gate. Calgary’s strength all season came off the back of phenomenal goaltending and an insanely strong team defense approach. With one of the deepest and most experienced veteran cores in the league, Calgary is most certainly going to be a tough matchup for the Renegades in round 1.

Boomcheck · 08-11-2018, 03:09 PM

I believe on ice that I had the most positive impact on the team, especially given the hot hand I had near the end of the season. However, I really enjoyed the fact that we had a lot of young talent and rookies itching in to improve and get better each week by training hard. We struggled in the later part of the first half but pulled it all together to make the post-season. Niemi showed a lot of progress and got to play with me on the wing every now and then. Blue was not as good last last year, but he did not have to be. with how the team played as a collective unit. Kirby, Mason and Bust have impressed me a lot with their work ethic. They stuck to the league and worked hard to earn a spot. Truth be told, every single player on our team did amazing for the first ever season in Anchorage.

160 words

gaby · 08-11-2018, 03:20 PM

Toronto finished in 6th place but up until the last 10 games of the season the team was in a playoffs spot. Sure that last stretch was very disapointing but before that the team was playing better than most people expected. When Chris York became cold it's when the team completely fell off. York is one of the best forward in the league but he can't do it all alone. Besides Watson and Lokitonov, pretty much all the other forwards had an average-below average season. Same thing could be said about the defensive squad as both Clayton and Rhys had great seasons but the rest didn’t do so well. It's only a matter of time until the young core becomes better and reach the 1000 TPE and can help York and Rhys because as of right now it's a two men show and you clearly can't win like that. Also, I don't like doing this but the management team also has some blame to take. They handled really badly the backup goalie games and some questionable trades is just slowing down the process.

c00kies · 08-11-2018, 04:02 PM

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karey · 08-11-2018, 05:31 PM

kckolbe · 08-11-2018, 07:56 PM

Well, Buffalo is making the playoffs for the second straight year in a row, and I suppose the biggest reason why is Minnesota, who very generously fell apart to make room. However, I think I am supposed to list teammates, so I will nominate the combination of Kevin Hamilton and Luke Atmey. Hamilton has now played 85 games on the first line, and has consistently looked like he didn’t belong. This year, however, there was just a complete lack of chemistry. Hamilton, who was supposed to be the assist guy, scored 17 goals. Atmey, who was supposed to be the scorer, scored 9. However, he had 30 assists. Considering he averaged under 5% scoring success rate on his shots, one can definitely understand his hesitance to take more. Selich and Lavelle split time on top line, neither willing to spend a complete season hindered by their incompetence. Fortunately, the second line of forwards destroyed, so Buffalo has a real chance in the playoffs.

***Ohtaay*** · 08-11-2018, 08:14 PM

174 words.

We finished second in the west, one point behind Edmonton after having a horrible final ten games to the season. a 29-15-6 record is nothing to be a grouch about, and there is a lot of reasons behind this great season for the Dragons.

1. The Coach: Calgarys coach has done a great job season after season. Many people do not understand how the dragons continue to stay competitive, without ever having to enter a rebuild. Its safe to say entering the playoffs that the dragons coach will be hard at work finding some lines that work.

2. Goaltending: Dragons starting goalie Richard C. Hocolate posted a 24-15-5 record with a .905 svp and a 2.88. What might be more impressive then this is the play from backup goaltender Thaddeus Prince who posted a 5-0-1 record with a .942 svp and a 1.80 gaa. The dragons strong play this season was no fluke, and a large part of it was from the play of their goaltenders.

Blastmeaway · 08-11-2018, 10:25 PM

In a post regular season interview with DMS, here's what he had to say about his and the Seattle Riot's season.

Firstly, about myself. I managed to improve upon my number from last season potting 7 more goals at 19. I also managed to get into my first career fight and beat the heckin juice out of Roman Augustus (@"ThaDangaZone"). I was able to be a bit more quick on my feet and avoid getting hit as much as I did in my rookie year. I improved my accuracy as I didn't miss nearly as many shots wide of the net. I was able to play almost a minute and a half more per game than i did last season, which boosted me to over 1000 minutes played. As far as the Riot go, we finished a spot lower than we did last season, however we were better than last season. We scored more and allowed fewer to the twine. We improved 6 wins at home, so we know that the crowd went home happy at least half the time, while we also left opposing teams barns happy half the time.

Shout out to ml002, schultzy, slashacm, tedward!
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09-05-2018, 10:04 PMBeaver Wrote: Wow look what the PT affiliation has done to our pristine league.

12-19-2018, 12:31 AMBeaver Wrote: I personally blame the PT affiliation for handing out massive amounts of free TPE to all these players, inflating the TPE they're at when they get called up.

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iOBESE · 08-11-2018, 11:55 PM

This season Edmonton Blizzard is going all in and with such a great roster there should not by any other way. I would call this roster a shotgun roster as it is powerful as hell and each individually can do so much damage on the ice that no team can escape it. The whole season this team has been quite dominant and I predict that we will take the conference and go into playoffs as winners. There is no doubt that this season Edmonton is finally ready to take the cup and the regular season shows is. For example you could take a look at some of the stats, like face-off % wins. Out of top5 face-off % centres in the league, 3 of them are from Edmonton, so that just shows that the team has been really controlling and having puck possession a lot which also shows on the player leader-boards and the standings. This years Edmonton Blizzards are like an well oiled train and wont stop at anything.

dizzyDC · 08-12-2018, 12:41 AM

Written Task: Where do you think you’ll end up? If your team’s place is already determined, what or who made the difference for your team? Was it positive or negative? Must be at least 150 words.

Well, as predicted, Seattle did not manage to make the playoffs again this season. That being said, I think that we were more competitive this season at least and the young guys on the roster will be looking to make a real impact next season. The same names were the leaders for the Riot in terms of scoring throughout the season and I don't honestly think that a whole lot more could have been asked of them. What the Riot really needed was better play from the defense and goalie as a whole unit. We can't expect to make the playoffs when we're leaking like a sieve. Anyway, hopefully all of that will get tightened up for next season and we can maybe finally make another push for the first time since the end of the c era. I think that we have a lot of the pieces we need already, just got to make some slight adjustments and get a little bit more experience all around.

ml002 · 08-12-2018, 12:49 AM

Toronto ended up not making the playoffs, again. The big difference was losing 9 of the last 10 games. We had been streaking before that and really had our destiny in our own hands for the most part considering we won the season series against Buffalo, but we just went on the worst losing streak possible right at the worst time. On top of that, I think waiting until so late in the regular season to get backup games in wasn't great, since it put us behind the 8-ball considering Tuck had really start to win us games late in the season and the switch to an IFA sub 200 TPE goalie basically doomed us. To be completely fair, most of the loses in that stretch were only by 1 goal, but having the starting goalie in some of those games may have been the difference. Overall, really damn disappointing, but also somewhat encouraging that we were in the thick of the race right up until the very end. Fuck SimonT

Credit to Copenhagen, Wasty, FlappyGiraffe, InciteHysteria, and caltroit_red_flames
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Waters · 08-12-2018, 01:35 AM

Where do you think you’ll end up? If your team’s place is already determined, what or who made the difference for your team? Was it positive or negative?

The Hamilton Steelhawks looked like a team that wouldn't live up to expectations out of the gate. However, they managed to turn it around very quickly and found themselves as president's trophy favorites by mid-season, and despite a slight struggle, managed to hold on to the points lead and go into the playoffs as favorites to win the cup. While you could make the argument that the team had most of its foundation established through a massive amount of moves across a decade's worth of seasons, bringing in the Ben Dovers, the Ronnie Westbrooks, but also the Lyndis Vakarians and the rest of the S36 core. However, I believe that bringing Jason Aittokallio for his last season was the biggest factor in the massive improvement that saw the Steelhawks go from a team that barely made it into playoffs into a team that completely dominated the Eastern Conference. While he seemed to struggle at surface value, only managing a .901 SV% and a 2.95 GAA, having a reliable rock that could still put up performances is a massive part of the roster. The Steelhawks will have a tough time replacing him for next season, and their window is closing. It's time to make it happen this season.

Avakael · 08-12-2018, 01:52 AM

Buffalo qualified as the 4th team in the eastern conference. There were some important difference makers as part of this process. Firstly, I'd like to thank Toronto for losing 8 games in a row to finish up the season. That helped a bunch. Secondly, I'd like to thank not the stars of the team, but the depth. It always sucks to be on the 2nd or 3rd line and only scoring 25, 30, 35 points, but it's clear as day that the guys down there held their own; the 3rd liners (Conor McGregor, Nico Gross, TJ Bayley) still had a negative +/-, but it's clear that they didn't get blown out of the water. Dermott Lavelle and Kevin Hamilton also scored a lot of key goals at important notes. One key factor that could have helped us get in a bit easier would have been Luke Atmey; he seemed to have bugger all luck in front of the net. His 30 assists were still extremely helpful, though, and we could have easily missed without him.

Dangles13 · 08-12-2018, 08:30 AM

Seattle finished outside of the playoffs, again. Why did Seattle finish outside of the playoffs? Where do I start? The porous defence or the anemic forwards? Don't get me wrong, Seattle has some good players in Louie Garrett and Clint Eastwood but they just aren't good enough beyond those two. It's not all doom and gloom, Seattle is a young team and many of their players are finding their way in the league. That, my friends, is the difference for Seattle; youth and inexperience are the downfalls of this franchise and until their core players get more seasoning it will be much of the same.

The next wave of stars are already playing prominent roles for the Riot, Zajac and Smyth are two of the bright offensive players who will become household names before you know it. O'Callaghan and Kalju are future studs on the back end who will anchor the top 4 for a long time to come. Seattle will be good but they need more time!

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