I'm not the most informed person but I pretty easily beat all the word counts so I hope that's okay....



FOR

I'm saying for, but not because I did a bunch of league research looking into past great lines in the SHL or anything.  I'm focusing on the word "were" in there because when I'm finally called up to the SHL whatever line I am on will take over as the greatest line in SHL history.  So we will say that Nova, Watson, and Skillstedt are the greatest right now, but it will be short lived.




AGAINST

The spooky New Orleans Specters are going to unfortunately poop all over Buffalo's storybook season by taking the Challenge Cup in their inaugural year.  I mean just look at these completely non-cherry picked stats from the Specters: Smyth leads the SHL in faceoff percentage, Physt is tied for second in plus/minus, Roman Augustus is tied for second in game winning goals and hat tricks, and Aleister Cain has the best SHL goals against average.  It is going to be quite a party in New Orleans when they bring home the trophy.

AGAINST

I really wanted to say for here so that I wasn't hurting COA's feelings, but I went back to look at my play off bracket I submitted and I have Toronto beating them in Round 2 so I guess I really don't see them as favorites.  Both Toronto and Manhattan had 61 points in the regular season (more than any Western teams) so that would be a pretty good series.  So on paper you could say they are one of the favorites, but I can't really call myself a liar just a day after posting my bracket so I am going to stick to my guns and say they have an early exit.

AGAINST

I almost went with FOR based on their lack of first round pick from last draft, but their second round pick in Gaspard Boone gives the team hope that their future is not completely bleak even with missing the playoffs this season.  Also Ethan Ross offers some hope for their future as well even though the Platoon stole him from Halifax at the start of the year and I'm not bitter about it at all.  Now that I think about it can I change this to For for that?  Please trade Boone to New Orleans.

FOR

Honestly anything in this list is going to be pretty shocking to me as I really didn't follow the SHL much outside of checking in on the Specters.  But I thought Texas had a pretty good team, especially in net (I am contractually obligated to say this), so I'm surprised that they didn't make the playoffs.  Also the Flames in my mind are a pretty solid franchise that always makes the playoffs, so the fact they had to squeak in is surprising to my tiny brain.  That's pretty cool it came down to the last day, both teams must have been waiting for that sim.

FOR

What a no brainer, New Orleans Specters are the team to beat in the entire SHL.  They have the most talented forwards, the toughest defense to play against, the best goalie in the league, the most handsome general managers in the league, and are fueled by bourbon and jazz music.  Plus I'm going to go to all the playoff games and cheer my ass off, so how could they not win with that kind of inspiration?  SHL is gonna be renamed the Spooky Hockey League with all the winning New Orleans is about to do.

AGAINST

You really had to make me open my playoff bracket post again didn't you?  This is going to be a no for me dog, I have Hamilton winning the series in six games.  Don't get me wrong, the San Jose Sharks definitely have a chance to make this a very interesting series, I just am not sure the Sharks are going to have enough firepower to overcome the Steelhawks to make history as a fifth seed.  Nothing personally against the San Jose Sharks, that's just how my bracket fell I guess.

AGAINST

This one is too easy.  First off, the Eastern "Conferance" can't even spell correctly.  Second, the New Orleans Specters are in the West so that automatically puts the West on top.  Then you have the Minnesota team, I hear they've got a lot of jokers on their teams because everybody always mentions one-liners with them.  Los Angeles boasts some of the top SHL players and have an outstanding management team.  The Blizzard used to have some Specters players.  Texas has a good goalie (seriously don't bench me).  The Pride have some of my SHL favorite people in their organization and the Jets can fly which is pretty damn cool.  Plus no Toronto.

AGAINST

The best line is Borromini Cannellini and whoever the hell else is on his wings.  Why is that?  Because Borromini was legit the only player in the SMJHL to score over a point a game this season.  I felt that this was a good way to highlight how low scoring the junior league is, and that does feel quite silly to me.  Klaus, Sawchuk, and Sharp had great seasons - Sharp and Klaus were both top 10 for centers and Sawchuk top 10 for right wings in total points on the year.  But Cannellini defied the odds in the dead puck era to put up over a point a game (54 in 50 games, catch the fever!).

Well well well I guess I should have scrolled down more.
AGAINST

As far as I'm concerned all the top talent is down in juniors not up in the SHL so this is just a silly premise.  Maybe we have TOO much talent down in the J with our goalies?  After no goalies posted a .900 save percentage last season we had two goalies accomplish that this season, and the next best goalies this season would have been better than the third place goalie last season.  Maybe we also have to keep an eye on Vancouver to make sure they are not poisoning the players?  I know it is tough for me to score when I am sick from tainted pizza.

FOR

So I actually didn't realize that it had been this long since Halifax wasn't in the bottom two in the league, holy shit.  All the Halifax are shit memes annoy me, but I definitely understand them.  Even with all of that, I feel like as a franchise we have turned the corner.  We have a very active locker room and I think we have a pretty good presence on the forums here too.  We were able to grab some exciting rookies last draft too.  Unfortunately I was a pretty shite co-gm and didn't help much, but I have a ton of confidence in our gm's moving forward.  We had really strong stretches this season, so if we can overcome Simon and losing some people to the SHL I think we could settle in as a solid franchise.  At least it can't get any worse?