Quote:Task 01: (Written, 3 TPE)
You are at the airport awaiting a flight to meet back up with your team after spending the day being honoured as a 'Hometown Hero' in the place where you grew up! Tell us about your day... what did they have planned for you? Who did you see there? What were you given? How did it turn out? ... In 150 words or more, tell us all about this big moment as hometown hero.

First of all I'm glad I got to book this flight out of Helsinki instead of Turku, that local airport is just so small and shitty. Taking a train to Helsinki is so much easier. Going back home was - let's say 'exhausting'. I was extremely tired when I arrived and hoped that perhaps my parents would pick me up and go straight home so I could sleep. Instead a whole group of people, some I knew, some I had never seen before, greeted me and dragged me into some kind of bus. Everyone was happy, screaming and asked for autographs. I couldn't say no, my parents were also there and they looked proud. I was driven straight to the main market square of the city where they had several food stands, music, drinks, even more people and a stage where they expected me to be interviewed. Live on TV. I had to pretend to be excited and happy, but I really just wanted to get out of there and sleep. They gave me a golden goalie mask with my name on it. I have to admit that one was pretty cool. Eventually I survived the day somehow. I don't really remember how it ended, because I was too drunk, so it probably wasn't that bad.

Quote:Task 03: (Written, 3 TPE)
If you are in the SMJHL then you have been there for at least a few seasons and its likely that a promotion to the SHL is coming soon. The question is.. are you ready?..  what areas of your game do you believe are SHL ready and what areas are you concerned about?  what things are you sad to leave behind and what things are you excited about when moving to your parent club. (Must be 150 words or more)

I'm currently still in the SMJHL and I'm going to be there for my third year as well. The next season will be my first year as a starter for Lethbridge, so that's going to be the first challenge after being a backup before. One area I haven't been very good in are shootouts and I hope to improve my save percentage as well. It's going to be hard breaking any of the records from Patrice Nadeau, but I'll try. I simply think that another year in the J will prepare me for my next job which is likely going to be a starter in the SHL for Toronto. I just don't want to go there right away without having played a full season. I'm sad to leave my team (Go Lions!), because I really like the guys in the LR, but I'm excited to have the opportunity of playing a big role in the SHL right away - that's rare.

Quote:TASK 08: (Graphic, 3 TPE)
The WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) and the SHL are working together as the cover of their June magazine will boast an SHL player in the finals alongside an animal. And your job is to create the cover!  On a Magazine cover, should include the WWF logo, a title of front page, an SHL players render, his name and team logo, plus an animal of your choice next to him.

Quote:Task 09: (Written, 3 TPE)
Which organization that didn't make it to the finals would you consider to be the biggest disappointment? What do you think are the main reasons why they fell short this season? (Must be 150 words or more)

This has to be Buffalo. In general you could always pick the team that won the year before, because anything less than at least making it to the final should be considered a failure for this team. This year Buffalo actually had a pretty good run and made it to round 3, so you can consider them one of the top 4 teams. The only situation worse than this would be losing in the final, but taking WKP all the way to game 7 shows how good Buffalo is. It's difficult to pick the reason why they lost, because all the way to game 6 there weren't any major weaknesses. Probably not scoring any goals in game 7 was the reason they fell short, as simple as that. The other reason was Beaujeaux Biscuit (WKP G) who was really strong in this series (Stampede goalie Cedric Robinson was great too, but it didn't help). I can't think of anything else than a disappointment when looking at Buffalo.

Quote:Task 11: (Written, 3 TPE)
Writers on the internet have jokingly tossed around the following playoff roster idea: "when a team eliminates another team, they get to claim a player from that eliminated team to join their roster" Pretend the SHL has adopted this rule this postseason. Pick one of the teams in the Challenge Cup final and pick any player from a team that they've eliminated to add to their roster for the finals. Why did they choose that player? How will this player help out? Where will they play in the lineup? (must be 150 words or more, *tag all players)

In this example the Calgary Dragons would claim a player from the Edmonton Blizzard, the team they defeated in round 2. Who? Edmonton's second line center Tony Pepperoni (@"TommySalami").  Not only did Pepperoni lead his team in points during the playoffs (together with Teddy Cuddles, both had 5 points in 6 games and were +2), but he's also useful in the FO category, having an insane 60% FO wins (not quite as good during the regular season, but he was still over 50% then and that's relatively good). No player on Calgary had better numbers in this category. While Mike Izzy would clearly stay Calgary's no. 1 center, Tony Pepperoni could certainly be a nice addition on the third line here or possibly even take Nicky Pedersen Jr.'s place on the second line. While Pepperoni wasn't successful during Edmonton's power play (only talking about playoffs here), he could certainly be used on Calgary's special teams as well.

Quote:TASK 13: (*CASUAL MEMBER SPECIAL* Send answer in PM, up to 3 TPE)
Its trivia time with 4 questions related to our Challenge Cup participants!

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