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*mystick* · 01-12-2024, 05:40 PM

1. Verification word: Stick

2. c. 1 TPE New England really showed up in conference finals. Playing a 2 seed good Philly team, they seemed to score at will and rode the score up all series. Winnipeg did win one game quicker, but mainly through tough defense and scraping out those one goal victories against a 7 seed on a hot streak. 54 words

2 d. 1 TPE I have a pretty foolproof way of deciding finals winner, the eeny meeny miny moe strategy, and it picked Winnipeg to be the winner. I also asked my two year old, and he liked the green one better. So now the house is divided, great. I guess we will see which of us has the better way to pick winners. 60 words

3. 3 TPEMy guess is both these teams sandbagged a bit during the regular season in order to save some energy for the playoffs. It is tough to learn from that as most teams are still clawing their way into the playoffs and need the experience, so there is no regular season slacking off for them. They may have finished 8th and 10th, but realistically they were only about 3 games back from 3rd and 4th. There is a pretty big log jam of teams in that 3-12 area that it really comes down to experience for those teams, which New England and Winnipeg have in spades. These teams both built these dynasties through the draft. Having a few strong drafts in a row really improves your chances of contending for years instead of a cinderella run. After you find your core, you are able to trade early round picks for tanking teams top players to give you a real boost for a great. I would never count out Winnipeg to make it back again, they refuse to give up. 178 words

5. 3 TPE The biggest and most surprising upset has to be San Francisco eliminating Edmonton. I mean any time a top seed is taken out before the conference finals, I would call that a pretty big upset. But having it done by a 7 seed, when Edmonton had only lost 14 games all season, then go on to lose 4 in 6 to . With SF being a barely .500 team, taking out the president trophy winner who had 11 wins over the next in conference is massive. What makes it more impressive to me is winning two games in overtime. This showed us how serious that SF team was to take it to the defending champs in sudden death. But the best part to me is that Edmonton beat them 7 times in the regular season. Imagine not losing to a team all year, then getting beat 4/6 to get eliminated. Brutal. Also even though they lost against Winnipeg, all those games were very close. Was kind of sad to see their run end. 173 words

8 TPE Total

***Sburbine*** · 01-12-2024, 06:12 PM

J GM CW pass

*Caleb* · 01-12-2024, 06:52 PM

Simmer CW Pass

***NYR73*** · 01-12-2024, 09:27 PM

Gm pass

Rotti · 01-12-2024, 09:39 PM

gm cw

***aleks*** · 01-12-2024, 10:58 PM

cw pass

***MikeLiut*** · 01-13-2024, 01:04 AM

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

Peppermint

Code:
2. Written, up to 4 TPE - Grab Bag: Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.

b. Upsets were a theme this year - which of our finalists had the more difficult road to the promised land and why?

d. If it ain't broke don't fix it: Who you got? Who wins? Why?

2b. It’s New England, not even close. New England had to win against Buffalo - and their .727 winning percentage, second in standings, third in GF and GA- then win against Philly - winner of the fierce Atlantic division, .705 winning percentage, second in GF, second in GA. And they also won against Hamilton, which had a very interesting season, and is known to cause surprises against big teams. (67 words)

2d. I am not sure about that one, but I’ll go with my brain and pick New England. I love a good comeback story and Winnipeg fits well the narrative with the season they had (and the curse they used to have), but I have been a fan of how New England is built for many years. My pick is NEW in 6. Go Hammer, win that one. (67 words too).

Code:
5. Written, 3 TPE, Upset City (150 words min)

An impressive string of upsets took place this season, especially in the West with San Francisco’s Cinderella run. Which upset series impressed you most, why, and what in that series sticks out most in your memory? For the purposes of this task, any series won by the lower seed is an upset.

First of all, congrats to the San Francisco Pride. What a run. Two beautiful series against two of my favorite teams in the West. The Panthers had a great season, finishing 8th, and they were clearly my favorite for the series. Sobchak played well, and the Scholz Murray Hargreeves line were too powerful. Then, Edmonton (finished 2nd). I did not have a 7-2 and a 5-2 win on my bingo card. After all, the Pride finished 14th this season.

I would not consider Baltimore’s (#5) win vs Atlanta (#4) an upset series, but it was nice to finally win against Atlanta for once. Atlanta has been the Platoon’s nemesis for the last 4 playoffs. Devoir played very well, because Atlanta did shoot a lot.

New England finishing 9th and beating Philly (#3) and Buffalo (#2) was also nice to see. The Wolfpack had lost some good players, like Svoboda, but managed to win the Cup. We all thought they had no chance to win another one before a few seasons, with regression hitting hard on the team’s veterans, but congrats, it was impressive. (183 words)

***sve7en*** · 01-13-2024, 07:23 AM

Gm pass

Tylar · 01-13-2024, 11:00 AM

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

Sad

+3 TPE

Code:
2. Written, up to 4 TPE - Grab Bag: Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.

b. I would say the New England Wolfpack had the tougher road to the finals and they had to go through the number two ranked team in the league the Buffalo Stampede and the number three ranked team in the Philadelphia Forge. They won both series rather handily which is quite impressive actually and shows they really picked it up for these playoffs. 62 Words]

d. I am going to say the Winnipeg Aurora are going to win, although I would be surprised if the New England Wolfpack win. While the Wolfpack have gone through a bit of a gauntlet, the Winnipeg Aurora have kind of been rolling winning 4-1. 4-2, and 4-1. They have done really well and have been strong. They should be able to keep going. (Spoiler Wolfpack are winning the series didn't even look RIP I'm a dimbi) 60 words

+2 TPE

Code:
3. Written, 3 TPE, Haven’t I Seen This Before? (150 words min.)

Despite being the 8th and 10th ranked regular season teams in the league, our finalists from Winnipeg and New England represent two of the most dominant teams over the past several seasons. What do you think is the secret to their success? What can other teams learn from them? Which one is more likely to be back again next year?

The Simulation Hockey League is not really that hard to figure out sometimes, a lot of the time the way to the top is finding yourselves at the bottom for awhile. It can be tough to keep a group together with the cap restrictions and how little player movement there actually is. I believe both the Winnipeg Aurora and New England Wolfpack found themselves in rebuild or tear down situations many seasons ago and built themselves back up. It is hard in this league to tread water and expect your team to win, unless you believe in luck. A lot of teams should look at the complete rebuild to stockpile young talent, grow them together, then trade for big pieces to add like these teams have over the seasons. It has been an effective strategy a lot of the time, but it has to be done correctly as well. It may not work for all but I believe it worked well for these two teams.
[165 words]

+3 TPE

Total TPE Earned: 8

***Aleris*** · 01-13-2024, 12:06 PM

J GM CW Pass

*Mutedfaith* · 01-13-2024, 12:58 PM

Cw pass

***Benpachi*** · 01-13-2024, 01:02 PM

GM Pass

***Mysterious_Fish*** · 01-13-2024, 02:11 PM

Code:
6. Graphic, 3 TPE, The Climax

 Draw the final battle! You can show me the players going head-to-head, you can draw the mascots duking it out, or you can make any kind of hype poster of your choosing.

[Image: aroruavswolfpack1.png?ex=65b545f6&is=65a...144f91319&]

Code:
8. Graphic, 3 TPE, Upon Further Review

Draw how your team's season went! As long as I can tell which team you 

play for and it conveys some kind of sentiment about your team's season,

 you'll get credit.

[Image: raptorsfianl2.png?ex=65bd7056&is=65aafb5...8d96a2541&]

*Otrebor13* · 01-13-2024, 05:05 PM

Task 2 – 2 TPE

a. Both teams are super impressive, but what has impressed me the most by Winnipeg is how they have been at or near the top of the SHL for almost 10 seasons now. Their regular season performance took a slight dip this season but they are always a threat. I think they could have been a little better closing out finals in the past, but regardless, what they’ve done over this span is incredible.
b. I think it’s definitely New England. They had to face both Buffalo and Philadelphia who were the #2 and #3 seeds in the league this season, respectively. Winnipeg has some tough matchups but I don’t think it can stack up to that type of competition from the East that New England had to go through.

Task 4 – 3 TPE

Team building in the SHL is quite complicated, so it is difficult to really say who made the better decision. While Montreal did dominate the league for a little bit, they did so for a shorter period of time. They were towards the top for 4 seasons, took advantage of their window and then tore the team down when they thought was the best time. The other 3 teams have been at the top for longer, and keeping the teams competitive was probably a little easier with the amount of depth they had. I respect Montreal’s decision, because I think the decision to go for it is just as hard as the decision to tear it down. For Montreal maybe they felt they needed to get ahead of the curb on the rebuild instead of waiting and having no assets to move and it would be too late after. They’re currently really bad, but they have assets that will help them get back to the top.

Task 5 – 3 TPE

I think the most impressive upset this post season has to go to San Francisco beating Edmonton. I think Edmonton was the clear favorite to win it all, and this upset probably cost a lot of people TPE in their playoff predictions. San Francisco had to upset the Los Angeles Panthers in round 1 and then move on to the juggernaut that was the Edmonton Blizzard. Edmonton was so dominant this season and so much better than everyone else that seeing the series shift in the Pride’s favor was crazy. The series did have 2 OT games that went in the Pride’s favor, however they still beat Edmonton 7-2 in Game 2 and 5-2 in Game 4. That really stuck out when I saw those scorelines. San Francisco got incredible goaltending and they ran with it in the series. Sometimes it happens when you’re outplaying your opponents but if the goalie doesn’t let you get anything past him, you get frustrated and things don’t go your way.

I’ll also give an honorable mention to New England beating BOTH Buffalo and Philadelphia and only losing 3 games combined.

***Toast*** · 01-13-2024, 06:41 PM

HO CW Pass

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