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A Hater's Guide to the SHL Season 49
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(Word count is around 3300 with effort and research and stuff? So yeah, this is again meant as tongue-in-cheek parody of the UrinatingTree sports videos and not to be taken _entirely_ seriously, although no doubt it'll rustle some jimmies regardless. I'm adding a semi-real perspective to this as well, pretending that stuff like the Jets fanbase being pretentious is a thing that would happen if it were real. If you disagree with the contents of this article, tell me why I'm wrong as meanly as possible in the replies below! Or use it as motivation to prove me wrong. Either one works.)

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The skates are being sharpened. The Zambonis are being pulled out of service. The screams of terror from front offices ring throughout the skies. Another season of SHL hockey is soon to be upon us. After an intriguing offseason with some big-time moves being made in advance of next year's generational draft, it seems we'll have a big-time shift in league hierarchy. Or will we? Lets break down the 16 teams involved in this fight to the death for the greatest prize in all of sports.

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Calgary Dragons - Dragons 

Calgary's cybernetic management optics completed a rebuild in record time and look poised to resurrect the dynasty days of the franchise sooner rather than later. The forward depth has only been improving since the loss to West Kendall in the surprise Cup finals run, and in fact its so good that future star Esa Parmborg has been exiled to Halifax for a 4th season because theres no spot for him. The defense lacks the true first-pairing guy to really complement Driftwood, but Keneration-X should fulfill that role soon enough. Kata Vilde is still a god, and the team is a well-coached, well-oiled machine that could make some noise in the postseason........ as long as the Black Plague doesn't consume them whole again.

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Edmonton Blizzard - Blizzard 

Edmonton finds themselves at a crossroads after becoming property of Calgary yet again in the postseason. The core is aging a bit, the defense looked short on depth, and the backup goaltender is still a hot mess. Edmonton's solution? Duplicate New Orleans strategy of forming bullshit trades that enable you to contend and rebuild somehow while contending. Edmonton proceeded to make roughly 47 picks in the Entry Draft, snagged a boatload of talent that has real star potential, and then picked up some short-term rental pieces in TJ Bayley and Supernova to create an excellent forward core. The blueline's getting better with the addition of JVM, and is still anchored by a true star pairing in Brady McIntyre and Tor Tuck. The key for this team is to run Malwarebytes on TommyTuck.exe and purge him of all errors and defects. Tommy boy had a rough year last year, and it probably contributed to Edmonton falling behind the divisional race and being subjected to the bullshit of Wild Card games. If Tuck can stand on his head, the Blizzard might be able to win a suddenly tough Northwest and contend for the Conference title. Just try to get that deed to your franchise back from the Big Parm offices.

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Minnesota Chiefs - Chiefs 

Wow. Fucking wow. Normally people would continue to be unnecessarily mean to your team with pages long rants, but luckily the dog-and-pony shows of several other organizations are taking a little of the heat off of you. You lost Supernova as expected (although at least you got a return for him via sign-and-trade), and the other veteran pieces are aging badly and not suiting the degenerate gamble that is the organization's push for contendership strategy. McZehrl was given all the fucking money with a nice extension, but he will NOT be worth the 3 1sts that you paid for him unless you win something. Sebastien Primeau is going to be overworked to the max to try and get something out of this team, as his former heir apparent Casimir Stevens is likely hitting the waiver wire instead. Some players on other teams are rumoured to be wanting NTCs in their contract specifically excluding Minny, and several Chiefs are likely fucking off via free agency if Minny finishes in the lotto positions again. Sure you got Artemi Berezin, but who are he and Watson gonna play with? Are we supposed to assume this team makes the playoffs based on Tampa Bay meme magic technology? It could be possible if Primeau stands on his head, but I'm doubtful that you have what it takes to make that happen in this division. I actually do hope Minny makes it out of the darkness, but barring puck luck....... yeah you'll be stuck in it for a few years. At least you have a better Cup legacy than San Francisco to look back on.........

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Winnipeg Jets - Jets 

Last season unleashed the hellspawn that is the insufferable Jets fanbase back upon the hockey world after a brief hibernation period. Winnipeg resurrected the glory days through a regular season that saw them contending for the President's Trophy for most of the year. Jason Visser turned back the clock 8 years and formed the dynamic duo of the league with the breakout second generation star Lil' Manius, and Cedric Moreau played like an absolute God between the pipes on some nights. Unfortunately a few key elements to last year's memorable run are missing this year. Crossfit Jesus rode off into the sunset as expected, and the team lost out on signing Supernova as his replacement. The domino effect on the team's forward core as a result means that Nick Brain's up to Line 2 and old-ass Corey Bearss has to come in and play 3rd line minutes for the club, breaking up one of the better 3rd lines in all of hockey. Cedric Moreau got lowballed by the team in contract negotiations and decided to head to Europe, leaving Vivian Leblanc a 3rd chance to actually win the goddamn starter job this time. The defense was supposed to get some reinforcement for the aging veteran pieces in Max Poulin and Max Weber, but Jax Duggan decided to take a front-loaded offer sheet instead and walked as an RFA. While the 1st round pick is great, its not the extra oomph that Winnipeg needs on the ice right now to reach previous levels, barring a trade mid-season. The key to the team this year will be if Michael Scarn, Nick Brain, and Ola Wagstrom can become stars today instead of tomorrow. Honestly though, the Jets are well setup and don't NEED to succeed this year or else like some other teams in the league. Just don't tell that to the angry mob of Jets fans if the team struggles early.......

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Los Angeles Panthers - Panthers 

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THE GLORIOUS TANK ROLLS ON IN LOS ANGELES!!!!!!! ENJOY DEADLINE SELLING, A GOALIE CAROUSEL, AND A WASTED SEASON OF JON TONER!!!!!

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New Orleans Specters - Specters 

Beware peasants. The Black Plague is coming back for us all. The deadly top 6 forward core of the New Orleans Specters has few equals across the league, and few people know the innoculation using traditional methods, such as using talent instead of forbidden magic that turns mortals into gods temporarily. Piotr Czerawski and Nicholas Williams continue to blossom into star players to help ease the transition from aging veterans, and the depth is improving too with the stud youngsters in Jimmy Slothface and Michael Fox. The big story for New Orleans this season is the blueline though. The team went out and made the big spend of draft capital in the offseason with a blockbuster trade for Bob Bergen. Now the Specters have a league-standard blueline corps! We are deep in the shit aren't we. If everyone performs as expected and Aleister Cain decides not to be an inconsistent enigma, New Orleans is still going to be THE team to beat in the West. The pressure is on to make it happen this year though, as time is running out on some members of the current core......

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San Francisco Pride - pride 

The Pride's push back to relevance is showing some encouraging progress. The Season 43 draftees that form the bulk of their forward core are slowly blossoming together into an elite unit, they have veteranosity backing it up in Joseph Lombardi, and some youthful enthusiasm from the likes of Knute Knurtsson and Nathan Explosion. The defense is as solid as ever, and Chris Partridge is surely due for a bounce-back year, even though San Fran still made the playoffs without him playing particularly well last season. Pushing hard this year might not be in the cards though, as this roster is too awkward to move star forwards into without trading something that could be significantly valuable later on. The Pride probably want to hit their Cup window before Odegard and SHOWSTOPPER JACK retire, but a degree of patience is also needed to develop their relatively young core. There might be another fall at the first hurdle in the postseason this year but keep pushing fellas, you may break this long-ass Cup jinx yet.

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Texas Renegades - Renegades 

Eh, not much to say here. Unfortunately Texas's tendency to grossly underachieve relative to their actual ability in recent years is still a thing, and the team may now be selling off more pieces after last years Louie Garrett trade. The team could still hypothetically contend, but if things go south and Walter Hobbs forgets how to stop pucks yet again, I wouldn't be surprised to see players like The Dude, Liam O'Callaghan, or Iam Essellemm shipped out to make way for younger talent. At least you had a pretty good draft haul this season?

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Buffalo Stampede - Stampede 

So the kings of the hockey world are Buffalol. Now theres a sentence older SHL fans thought they'd never hear. While the regular season was a bit of a struggle thanks to the chaotic structure of the Eastern Conference, the team stepped up big-time in the playoffs and made it back to the Finals, managing to beat out Winnipeg thanks to a good performance from Cedric Robinson and his best friends, the goalposts. Buffalo's management knew that this offseason was not the time to rest on their laurels though, and went to work HARD trying to maintain the dynasty this year. First job: sell off a couple useful veteran pieces to make way for their next generational talent in Monkey D. Luffy to get the callup. Next up, sign a slightly more stable backup goaltender in Lee Marshall. Finally, while they did miss out on the Supernova sweepstakes, they got a prize that was probably even better: Poopity Scoop, the ridiculously monikered Manhattan defenseman, made the big step and signed with Buffalo.......... for 10 million in the first year holy shit. The Stampede also averted a heart attack by retaining their other young generational talent in Cassius Darrow to a............ very good team-friendly contract. So yeah, we are all fucked. Buffalo has a Top 6 forward core almost as good as New Orleans, and a defense that might be better than San Fran's. Literally the only thing that will hold this team back is Cedric Robinson inconsistency. 15 teams are praying fervently to the Gods that Robinson flames out this year, but I think we have all been forsaken. Prepare for the end times.

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Chicago Syndicate - syndicate 

Chicago continues to be a team that exists in the flotsam of the Eastern Conference. After seeing a few of their draft picks underdevelop and Luke Atmey announce his pending retirement, management has decided to make a bit of a push for a second playoff appearance, with Buffalo doing a sign and trade to give them Kevin Hamilton as part of a decent-looking Line 1. The forward depth is actually not bad now, with the Smebs and Jack Kennedy starting to come into their own, but the blueline is shoddy and they have a two rookie goalie tandem in Tibuk Soonika and Billy Sorokin that might struggle at first. The East is so top-heavy that Chicago's actually a candidate to make it into the playoffs, but they'll need some serious puck luck to get past the big dogs. Hopefully Atmey signs off on his career on a....... not-terrible note? Also, Chicago better move into a bigger arena soon, otherwise they won't have a barn large enough to contain Cameron Carter's ego.

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Hamilton Steelhawks - Steelhawks

So Hamilton's last attempt at a playoff run fizzled out, and now some key pieces of the roster ride off into the retirement home. Hamilton now finds themselves at a crossroads. On one hand, the team should really start taking apart the random veteran depth they have and start rebuilding. On the other hand, the East is so inconsistent-looking that Hamilton could still make the playoffs even in this state. Robert Phelps, Tig Murphy, and Geezus Kryst still offer enough star power to carry Hamilton over the line and into the bullshit that is the Wild Card games. What probably isn't going to happen though is Hamilton pushing via trades to replace what they lost, as they made a rare RFA offer sheet to Jets prospect Jax Duggan. The offer sheet was too front-loaded for Winnipeg to match, and Duggan accepted it. 15 million for the first year sounds ludicrous, but then Hamilton probably wouldn't have anything better to do with that money anyways, so the bigger concern is if Duggan becomes better than the pick given away for him. Hamilton should sell at the deadline, but are probably too loyal to Robert Phelps to trade him off so..... yeah, welcome to a place even worse than the basement: Limbo.

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Toronto North Stars - Stars 

The Harry Carpet era begins in Toronto under new management! Unfortunately, the start of this era does not look good. Most of the team is being gutted due to the realization that making the playoffs and being a borderline team is rendering the franchise stagnant, and now the team has tons of dead cap and dead weight on the roster as the total rebuild commences. Poor Mikhail Lokitonov. Poor Harry Carpet. Also, the media saga that is Troy Reynolds seems to have ended with his unceremonious release from the club. Shame, really, I liked following along that storyline. At any rate, props to management for embracing the tank, but the crazy part of my brain is telling me that Toronto is so moribund as a franchise that they'll figure out a way to screw up the tank and make the playoffs somehow. Because fuck logic.

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Manhattan Rage - Rage 

So yeah, last year was kinda rough wasn't it. The team had their life force absorbed into Tampa Bay to power them up instead for a President's Trophy run, Crawfling had a horrendous year, and you lost a plum first round pick to San Fran as they chose to take it instead of a generational pick next year. Well, clearly it was an aberration, and the Rage have got some younger pieces developing nicely into elite talent. Like that Poopity Scoop guy, right? He's on the last year of his contract deal, but this is the SHL, I'm sure Scoop will resign to ensure the future of the Manhattan blueli-

*glass breaks*

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Oh......... oh dear......... Yeah, might be time to start panicking. You still have decent pieces to move with, but you've got some beasts in your conference too. I don't know what the hell you guys can do at this point, other than hold course and hope for the best? Also have fun trying to get a return for Crawfling once Peter Larson develops.

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New England Wolfpack - Wolfpack 

New England tried hard, but the self-imposed confines of their tank proved too strong to break free from last year and they missed the playoffs. The team made a big trade near the deadline for Anders Christiansen, and he'll be a vital part of New England's plans going forward. The East is fairly open right now, and if New England gets the right breaks, they may be able to head back into the post-season. Christiansen and Manuel Gotze give the team actual stars up front, and Tigole Bitties with Ensio Kalju form a great top pairing. The big worry though is the slightly lacking and inexperienced depth, combined with the occasional gas can tendencies of Johannes Leitner. If Leitner gets lit up, so do your playoff chances. Good luck.

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Tampa Bay Barracuda - Barracuda 

Tampa Bay: The meme team, or the dream team? Lets be real, last year it was the meme team. Half the roster overachieved and Benjamin Blue put in an MVP caliber season by using necromancy to absorb the souls of a thousand legendary goaltenders. Flacko Lagerfield is still a star and Kristaps Ball is still a pretty intriguing piece for any team, but can the rest of this roster do it again? Well.......... probably not? I mean, stranger things have happened, like Tampa Bay last season, but there are two factors in play here. The first is that Benjamin Blue has had down years before, and if he does so again, the team will collapse alongside him like a house of cards. The second factor is that adding in the talented youths from the Season 47 draft class haul may upset the balance required to maintain the team's dark magic powers. Replacing the pylons of Michael Owens and Joseph Gagnier with superior talent on defense for example? That may have unintended fatal side effects to team chemistry, who the hell knows. No doubt management are thinking everythings going according to plan and that another playoff berth is in the cards and yadda yadda yadda. Lets be real though, nothing that happens over the next few years matters nearly as much as the continued development of guys like Olivier Cloutier, Gunnar Soderberg, Kaspars Claude, and the half dozen other promising prospects they have in the pipeline. We'll revisit this case later.

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West Kendall Platoon - Platoon

West Kendall gave it another run, but the attempts at adding the cherry on top of their extended period of greatness fell short as the Stampede ran them over in the Conference Finals last season. Now West Kendall is left with some core pieces that are aging badly and very little left in the pipeline left to replace them..... except for the blueline corps which is still pretty deep. West Kendall is probably still good enough to win their division, but I question whether or not the Platoon has the horsepower to get past both Buffalo and the Western representative. If the team gets off to a slow start I could see players like Sophia Bennett getting shipped out to start the teardown as well, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. By the way, any word on if the rescue mission to find Schroder and Kirkby's talent was successful? I still don't know where they even disappeared to last season.........

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So for the season's standings, how do I think things will go this year?

EPIC JINXING PREDICTION TIME!!!!!!!!

I see the West going down with Edmonton and New Orleans as division champions, Calgary finishing 3rd, and Winnipeg and San Francisco rematching in the bullshit that is the Wild Card games. The East is more complicated though. Division crowns should be going to Buffalo and........ West Kendall I guess, but 2 thru 8 could go a lot of different ways. I'll go out on a limb and say Manhattan 3rd, with New England facing.......... fuck it, Hamilton in the Wild Card. Chicago, Tampa Bay, and even Toronto could somehow steal that spot though. Regardless, it'll end the same, with Buffalo winning the East and then winning the Challenge Cup Finals over New Orleans from the West. Buffalo will continue their dynasty by destroying every team, salting the earth they stand on, and grinding our bones to make flour for their bread. God help us all.

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Former Agent of Nick Brain: Center/Right Winger -  Aurora  Stars
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#2

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[███E█M█B█R█A█C█E███].
..◥⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙◤..

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#3

Someone redo the music video for Muse - Knights of Cydonia but where the bad guy is literally just a Buffalo.

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#4

my guy
someone is finally returning the glorious hater's guides to the shl
thank you so much

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#5

I'm not inconsistent you're inconsistent Cry

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#6

Hey we’ve got a new head coach this year! Ignore the fact that he’s got a losing record in the J, he’s going to be the best coach ever!




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#7

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#8

08-06-2019, 02:24 AMAvakael Wrote: Someone redo the music video for Muse - Knights of Cydonia but where the bad guy is literally just a Buffalo.

Thanks for putting that song out there btw, listened to it last night and it was pretty good. Music video was trippy too, but nice.

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Former Agent of Nick Brain: Center/Right Winger -  Aurora  Stars
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#9

UrinitatingTree is always a win.

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#10

"Buffalo will continue their dynasty by destroying every team, salting the earth they stand on, and grinding our bones to make flour for their bread. God help us all"
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#11

-underdeveloped shoddy D right here.

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#12

May want to input that HAM-TB trade if you can.

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