TASK ONE: There are two options for this task.
If not: How has your player kicked off their off season? Are they traveling? Meeting up with friends and partying? Following the games? Write at least 150 words about the beginning of your player’s off season. Must include at least one other player.
So this is the first time in Carter Manning's career where he's not competing in the Four Star Cup Championship. So it's an extra long off season, even if it is only another week or so longer. But so far, Carter Manning has gotten away from hockey, going back home to the farm. The short time off has allowed him to clear his mind and to begin his off season training. This off season he's focusing on his strength and skating speed. There may not be any gains that are shown next season, but this is long term training. Eventually, when he hits the big leagues, Manning will have the legs to keep up with the big boys. There's also a lot of turmoil and overturn in the PGF team right now, so Manning wanted to escape and train on his own. While his time in PGF has been nothing but great, who knows what the future holds and it's important to continue to improve despite the turnover.

171 Words

TASK TWO: Who is your choice for the unsung hero of the S39 playoffs up to this point? Must be at least 150 words and include at least two statistics in support.

I was going to write about Joakim Lindqvist as the unsung hero, but he had such a dominant playoffs that he will likely get a ton of MVP vote for the Scarecrows. His teammate on the other hand, won't likely get much attention. Paddy O'Sullivan was third among forwards in minutes per game so he was logging a ton of minutes. He also managed to stay out of the box for the entire playoffs, but he managed to only put up 8 points in 13 games so he likely flew under the radar. 8 points is nothing to laugh at, but he was overshadowed in terms of point production. But anytime a forward can log over 20 minutes per game and stay out of the box for over 260 minutes of ice time, that's pretty impressive. He also finished a +4 for the playoffs so it seems like he was a plus player every time he was on the ice.

160 Words

TASK FOUR: Unscramble the names of these four players who will be competing in the Challenge Cup Finals. Send the answers to me by forum PM. Please make the subject of the message “CW Word Scramble” or something along those lines. [Grading: 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer]

Sent in PMs

TASK SIX: Finals series always show surprises. Who will have to stand out the most from each team in order to win it? Make a prediction for potential series MVPs. Must be at least 150 words and mention at least one player from each team.

For the Whalers, I think it's an easy choice to choose Gabriel Wong. He's a stud offensively and to win games, you have to score goals. It's actually a pretty easy game if you just score more. And so far Wong has carried the Whalers and he has to continue to do so if they hope to win because the Scarecrows are a great shut down team. Which brings me to my second player. The Scarecrows probably won't light up the Whalers. They will play sound hockey all the way through. They'll win 3-1, 4-2 and so on. They won't have a guy like Wong that puts up over 1.2 points per game in the playoffs. My MVP for the Scarecrows is going to be Joakim Lindqvist. He's the scoring center for the top line, but he's also the most responsible two-way player in the game right now. He's winning more than 58% of his face-off in the playoffs, logging more than 20 minutes per game, and he's leading the Scarecrows in scoring. This is what the Scarecrows win with and I think they'll be able to silence Wong.