13. Sweden is going to sweep gold in both the IIHF and WJC. The team is becoming stacked. Rumor is they have TOO MUCH defense. If a team has that problem then you know they are going to win it all. Young core is starting to come up and is split between a veteran IIHF squad and a stacked, maxed WJC squad. The duo of Jason Bourne and Kiwi SS is really promising as both played in Newfoundland this year and will be going up to Chicago after the tournament. Both are being touted as the future for Sweden and Chicago and look fabulous in yellow. It really is an exciting time for the country.
2. Which team has had the easier road to the cup finals? Do you think they could have made it to the finals if they were in a different division?
I don't know if you can easily tell this, but let's take a quick look. Based on the regular season standings you would've probably expected SFP to be a lot better, after all they finished first and TBB 'only' finished 11th (SFP also won both games played against TBB during the regular season). However, when thinking SFP would just walk through other teams to get to the finals, you're wrong. I didn't expect either that my team (WPG) would get two wins against SFP in the first round, but there you go. Seattle and NOLA both did the same in the next two rounds. TBB however, struggled a little more and took their series against PHI and NEW both to game 7 and lost two games against Atlanta. So based on games played, yes TBB had to play more games to get to the finals, but really not that many more (two, if you're counting). I'm also not sure if either played in a different division would've been so different, because then other teams would've played differently too. Too difficult to say. The east is relatively strong too, but given that TBB made it to the finals going through all those teams, any of the others could've done the same had SFP been in the east.
216 words
+4 TPE
Code:
8. Who you got? Who wins the Challenge Cup or Four Star Cup? Why?
I don't follow the J so this will be about the Challenge Cup. To be honest, I want TBB to win simply because I wanted them to win last time as well. At the time of writing this the series is tied, so none of them have the advantage. Both storylines are great anyway. SFP could get their threepeat (and then hopefully stop with all of this and give other teams in the west a chance again) or TBB could come all the way from 11th place to the finals and win against the team who won the cup twice before. I do like the TBB storyline more and it would mean more to them. Of course winning the Challenge Cup always means something - wouldn't know, never won one - but winning one for the first time is different. If you've won it twice before it probably means less? Honestly, I don't know, but it would be really nice for TBB to finally get there. We all know last time WPG won it took them forever as well and I know it meant a lot to the players. If SFP managed to win for a third time that could be a difficult record to break for another team as well, but I've always supported the weaker teams so we'll see what happens.
03-29-2025, 05:10 AM(This post was last modified: 03-29-2025, 05:25 AM by Chris-McZehrl. Edited 1 time in total.)
1. verification word: Kopitar
2. Which team has had the easier road to the cup finals? Do you think they could have made it to the finals if they were in a different division?
I would say for the Tampa Bay Barracuda it was harder. Tampa was not top seed and with that they had to fight against very strong teams until making the Cup Finals. The San Francisco Pride was Top Seed in the west and did not have the strongest teams against them from the regular season perspective. 56 Words = 1 TPE
3. The duo of Dominik Winters and Logan Webb currently lead SFP in scoring this postseason and have been top 10 in SHL scoring for the past three seasons. What makes them so special, and what does it mean for them to stay on top as a duo rather than a single successful player?
Both have a very nice and strong chemistry in the Line Up. That always helps with the performance. You need the player roles in the Line Up to balance the performance too. In my opinion the Lines of the San Francisco Pride are very well balanced and with that these performances are possible. They also have one of the best Rosters actually in the SHL. I also can see next season the dominance of both players. From S83 and upwards I am unsure, sometime in the future the San Francisco Pride will try to bring in young talent and with that the performance can be hurt afterwards. 107 Words = 2 TPE
8. Who you got? Who wins the Challenge Cup or Four Star Cup? Why?
In my opinion the Challenge Cup will win once again San Francisco Pride if you look at the rosters. But on the other side the strength of the roster is never the only case that matters. Also important will be the line up and tactics. With that case Tampa Bay Barracuda will also have a chance. Beating the Philadelphia Forge in Round one was special. Philadelphia was 2nd in the regular season of the Eastern Conference and third in the league. In the second round they beat the top seed in the east with the Atlanta Inferno and in the finals they met the New England Wolfpack with one of the best coaches and line creator or tactics creator on the bench. So it was a very hard way for them and why not the win over the San Francisco Pride? Actually the series is tied 2-2 at this timestamp and with that I would say it is a series best of three. So I would say from the Roster San Francisco should win but the tactical performance of Tampa Bay this Playoffs are very strong and I would go with Tampa. That is not easy to say in the end. But fact would be that both would deserve the Cup win for sure. 214 words = 4 TPE
12. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Jenga
Expansion is once again a season closer and will potentially lead to each team losing three or four players. How do you think missing these players will impact different teams? Will it knock down the current competitors or maybe mess up the raising challengers? Do you expect those teams be able to recover with the assets available for them or do we finally see free agent movement like never before? What teams you would predict to be in cup contention for S83 and why?
I would say older teams will hurt it more than younger teams. On the other side we have teams that have a ton of Season 79 and 80 Prospect and they will need to be protected. That could also hurt their rebuild. The masterplan is always hard to reach and any team will need to focus on details they are looking for. Rebuild Teams need to look at which prospects they will protect and also ready players they are not too old. The actual contenders and playoff teams on the other side need to look at which players can still help the team to be in the win mode and also not losing top young players with their aged roster. I can't wait to see the Expansion Draft. Because also at the Expansion Draft it will be interesting to see what direction the new Expansion GMs will go. Do they look to build a young team for the playoffs? Or do they look at competing as good as possible with an Expansion Team? Or will they try to land as many young good prospects as possible? So many questions for any GM and also decisions. There also will be rip apart some nice Locker Rooms because of membership and players they won't be protected but having many close friends in the actual Locker Room. 224 words = 4 TPE
like always I made more work than just for this max 8 TPE because I would like to have some backup TPE if something wasn't accurate
I also will probably add the Trivia just for fun. But yeah I know I do more work than I need but I got some passion back for the SHL so its fun to do that work
Chris McZehrl III - Texas Renegades Chris McZehrl III - Anchorage Armada
1. vagabond [up to +3]
2. I don’t think there’s ever an “easy” road to the finals per se. San Francisco faced Winnipeg (27 wins), Seattle (40 wins), and New Orleans (38 wins) whom are all respectable opponents – and the latter of whom would have had enough points to place third in the Eastern Conference. However, LA’s upset of Texas in the first round allowed them to evade a pretty critically important opponent. On the other side of the bracket, Tampa Bay fought off Philly (41 wins), had another huge upset over Atlanta (45 wins), then fought off New England (36 wins) in a tightly contested 7-game series. In terms of strength of opponent, there was only one seed they could have faced that was tougher (otherwise the entire side of the bracket was chalk). You could argue that their conference opponent being the lowest-seeded of their opponents made their path “easier,” but I think it’s pretty unambiguous that Tampa Bay overcame more. I mean, they’re a 36-win fifth seed in the finals, while San Francisco was already the consensus Goliath in their conference with easily the best record in the league, and managed to avoid their two seed in their conference. I don’t think I’m complaining about my path to the finals if I’m San Fran. [211, +4]
12. Even with four additional teams, I don’t think most current SHL teams will have their teams totally flipped by an expansion draft. I think Free Agency will be marginally more interesting but not by a large margin, because most teams and players are looking for a little stability. We might have a few more free agents, but you’re probably not going to leave if your team already has something good going – unless the team’s in a big turnover period with lots of players aging out of their prime, in which case you might see some exodus especially if the younger part of the team isn’t already ready to go. [109, up to +2]
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.
verification word: swords (3 TPE)
Code:
8. Who you got? Who wins the Challenge Cup or Four Star Cup? Why?
At the beginning of the playoffs I would've said San Francisco Pride. As of now they're in the finals and the series is tied 2-2, and I still say San Francisco Pride. Their team is just so solid from top to bottom and they've been so consistently good (and, well, the best) in the recent seasons, that I would be surprised if anyone is able to beat them. TBB is putting up a good fight, but I'm guessing it won't be enough. (81 words, 1 TPE)
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14. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Volatile Results
The IIHF has always been known to be hard to predict. Last season saw the 8th seeded Norway win the entire tournament after taking down 2nd seed Ireland, 3rd seed USA and 4th seed France. In season 77, we saw a similar situation with 8th seeded Ireland taking on 6th seeded Japan in the finals. How do you feel about the volatility of the IIHF, do you wish the series were longer so the stronger teams didn’t get upset as much? Or do you prefer the chaos that is single elimination?
No, the current format is just fine. It is how basically all cup format international tournaments work, regardless of the continent or even regardless of the sport. I think it plays to the uniqueness of being able to wear the jersey of your own country, that every single game has high stakes. Sure, it increases volatility, but that's the name of the game. It also adds more drama and surprises, which after all are what make sports in general interesting for a lot of people. Also, if the tournament had long series to make stronger teams perform better, why would anyone then even want to reincarnate to some smaller country or region? Having many countries with a legit chance of success just creates diversity and more interest in international competitions. With that being said, I'm no expert in the sim engine and its randomness, so I'm ready to change my mind if it can be determined that the current format results in a plain RNG. The effort the team management makes and the player material available should still have value. If that's not the case, then that will also deteriorate the value and importance of the international competitions, if people just silently accept that it's basically just a lottery to determine the IIHF winner. (214 words, 4 TPE)
03-29-2025, 12:40 PM(This post was last modified: 04-01-2025, 06:23 AM by NUCK. Edited 1 time in total.)
1. Trivia: Nuck
12. With expansion on us and the outlook of the Steelhawks losing a few players to it, I cant say I am very happy. Its hard to loose good players from an already struggling team. We had arguably one of our worst season in a long time just now and we are in the upturn ( I hope ) of our rebuild. So that would mean that we are about to lose key players to us, either youngsters who we have just added and expect to break into the league soon, or young players that have just done so. If we lose roster players, that means we lose hard working people who have stuck with the team through the hardest and darkest of days. Who do we make available? Nobody likes to lose and we have done our fair share of it over the last few seasons but now its our time to start to shine and its only fair that all those who have suffered can now reap the benefits of the hard work they suffered through. I truly dont want to see anyone leave and I hope nobody wants to leave either but so is expansion and for the league to grow every other team bust suffer a bit.
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13. I love IIHF and this year like every year I think Germany will win but I am biased of course as thats where my player plays for. I expect Will to be a solid defender with an offensive upside, hopefully someone that the team can turn to when they need someone dependable on the ice.
14. 159 words, +3 TPE
I think the chaos works very well for the IIHF where we can see a lot of different teams doing well from season to season rather than having juggernauts that would undoubtedly emerge over the course of a series. I personally love the IIHF for being so crazy and unpredictable. I am sure the managers or federation heads are not so happy with it if they have a really skilled team, but I think it is exciting for the smaller federations as you can always say that there is a chance. After all, Winnipeg beat San Francisco in the first game of their series in the most recent playoffs. Imagine if that was a single game elimination. The uproar and memes alone would be worth it. Of course, I think single elimination works better in the IIHF format for this reason. We want those Cinderella stories. In the SHL, we want the crème de la crème to emerge victorious.
15. 163 words, +3 TPE
So the San Francisco Pride have done it again and find themselves lifting that Challenge Cup that has become oh so familiar to them. Really you cannot be too upset at them. They have dominated both the main season and the playoffs and their players like Logan Webb and Dominik Winters were just the tips of the iceberg that sank the hopes of every other team. My favorite part of the series might be game 2 as the saying goes that it is not a series until someone loses at home. The previous game was a close one with only a one goal difference, so Tampa coming out and winning the next one fairly decisively made me think that this could be a brawl of a series. Of course after going down 1-2 in the series, the San Francisco Pride locked in so that was a little moot. Better luck next year to the Barracuda as two in a row has to sting.
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.
For all written prompts you will gain 1 TPE for every 50 words written up to a 200 words / 4 TPE from single prompt. Include at least prompt number, wordcount and TPE gained to each of your answers
Code:
4. Despite being very heavily in regression, Tampa Bay’s Jølngüštrâädüvich DuBølk, Rikkert Biemans and Johnny Wagner-Svenson are still producing at very respectable rates. Is having depth players who can perform really well despite being low on TPE responsible for TBB’s recent success this and last postseason?
Depth is always key, but I think those players’ success is more aligned with experience than depth. Anyone who downplays the importance of continuity and chemistry in FHM is lying to you. The sim engine, for whatever reason, picks it’s favorites, and when you’re successful, you’ll keep being successful long after your peak. It’s why a badly regressing Hamilton squad was able to continue to slap the league in FHM6, and it’s why other teams that, despite aging rapidly, are still able to keep fighting with players that may be past their “best by” date. TBB has kept their core intact for awhile, and once you hit the playoffs almost anything is possible.
2 TPE
Code:
12. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Jenga
Expansion is once again a season closer and will potentially lead to each team losing three or four players. How do you think missing these players will impact different teams? Will it knock down the current competitors or maybe mess up the raising challengers? Do you expect those teams be able to recover with the assets available for them or do we finally see free agent movement like never before? What teams you would predict to be in cup contention for S83 and why?
I certainly hope so! Without knowing the expansion rules, it's really hard to put ideas out there for how things will go. Will it be more like the Columbus-Minnesota NHL expansion, when they were given literally nothing to work with, or will it be a SUPER expansion friendly rules, like with Vegas, setting teams up to compete immediately? The expansion rules will make or break it. Ultimately, I think a team like Baltimore is longterm well-equipped to weather this storm, even if in the short term S83 is likely to be a bad time for the Platoon. In general, I think expansion will likely weaken the depth of teams like Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Francisco, and may lead to more parity in the regular season. This assumes people acting in good faith toward expansion, which those who've seen sim league expansions know isn't always the case
2 TPE
Thank you karey, OrbitingDeath Ragnar, and sköldpaddor for sigs!
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